Work Text:
Clink.
Jay muttered a curse as the brooch she’d been fumbling with clattered to the ground for what must have been the third or fourth time. It wasn’t like her to drop things, but she’d been struggling with the clasps on all her jewellery that day. Which, considering the amount of it she usually wore, was becoming very time-consuming.
She tried to tell herself it wasn’t because she was nervous. She was pretty sure it wasn’t because she was nervous. Shaky hands would spell doom for a sharpshooter like her, so an unsteady grip was unthinkable. And yet…
Jay knelt down to scoop up the brooch again, this time staying on the floor until it was firmly clasped to the blue fabric of her dress. Then she stood up, tugging her boots on and lacing them up, before straightening fully in front of her tiny, cobbled-together vanity and appraising her reflection.
Her hair was let down, which she had barely done in years. She was in a dress, which was even more unusual. Necklaces and bracelets clinked against each other on her neck and wrists, which was… more or less normal.
Maybe Jay was a little nervous, she supposed, staring at herself in the lightly cracked mirror. She wasn’t used to looking this way. She hadn’t dressed up for anything in ages. She hadn’t gone on a date…
Ever. Jay hadn’t gone on a date ever. And something about the specifics, something about a date with Lizzie, seemed especially daunting. It shouldn’t have been. Jay and Lizzie were close. They’d known each other for months, fought side by side, and already overcome challenges in their relationship that Jay had been sure would break them apart. And yet, here she was, worried about going out to dinner with Lizzie.
Jay huffed a laugh, rolling her eyes at her reflection before turning away, up the hallway and onto the upper deck. Whatever. It was just dinner. Nothing worth overthinking. No, they’d both sent their respective crews away from the boats they’d docked side by side on this small island town, made sure they were out of the way for privacy’s sake, and booked an isolated balcony table at the cliffside restaurant in town just to be casual. Damn it, Jay. It’s really not that serious-
Oh, my gods.
As she neared the gangplank to step down onto the dock, Jay froze in her tracks, breath catching for a moment as she and Lizzie, who was already waiting on the dock, met eyes. Screw nervousness, screw overthinking, screw everything. Lizzie looked beautiful.
Her dress, long, red, and velvety, flowed down nearly to the wooden planks she stood on, and her usual bandanna was gone, replaced by a rose hairpin tucked amongst her braids. Her tattoos were in full view, the blossom-pink waves on her arm almost glowing against the dark palette of her outfit, and golden bangles shimmered on her wrists. As she met Jay’s eyes, she smiled, a little gentler than Lizzie’s usual bright and raucous smiles usually were, a little more expectant.
Jay sort of felt like she was going to have a heart attack. But not in a bad way.
Suddenly conscious of her every step, Jay walked down the gangplank to meet Lizzie, unsure of how to greet her. Did you hug someone on a first date? Should Jay kiss her? No, that would be insane. She stopped in front of Lizzie, paused for a second, and said the first thing that came into her mind, which was, “You look amazing.”
“So do you,” Lizzie echoed, still smiling in that new way of hers, eyes flickering up and down Jay’s outfit for the barest moment. “That blue is nice on you.”
“Thank you.” Jay felt almost flustered - just a little nervous - under Lizzie’s gaze, but shook it off. “How was, um- how was your trip here? I know we saw each other last night, but-”
“It was busy, I know.” Lizzie grinned, familiar smile returning again, assumedly recalling whatever memories she had of their previous night - a rowdy, very prolonged greeting between the crews of the Albatross and Crescent Moon once they’d both docked at the island by that evening. A greeting involving a lot of alcohol, to be specific. As was the way of pirates. “Yeah, our trip was alright. Slow sailing, but at least nothing like what Chip told me about your route. Ran into another sea monster, huh?”
“Yeah.” Jay shuddered at the memory, at how none of the crew had seen the shadow trailing them in the water until it was too late to outrun, at the echo of the sound of the serpentine creature slamming into the cliffs of the island and nearly taking the Albatross with it. “I mean, we’ve seen worse, but it had me worried. Guess a sea monster surprise attack isn’t something you get used to, huh?” She offered Lizzie a wry smile. “Or am I just not far enough into my pirate career yet?”
Lizzie snorted. “No, you never get used to it. Or it can still catch you off guard, I guess.” She paused, squinting her visible eye in thought. “Don’t tell Chip I said that.”
“Noted.” Jay glanced out at the ocean waves past the dock, then over at the town, then back at Lizzie. “You ready to go?”
“Whenever you are.”
“Alright then.” Jay paused for a second, now wondering if the right thing to do was to take Lizzie’s hand - or should they go arm in arm? Or just walk side by side like they usually did?
But Jay must have been obviously overthinking it, she realized belatedly, as Lizzie simply offered her hand out to Jay, slipping their fingers together when Jay reached back. And they walked, down to the end of the dock, in silence, with the sound of wind and waves rushing around them the only ambience.
It occurred to Jay that she had never held hands with anyone before, not in this context. Lizzie’s hand was warm - did that mean Jay’s was too cold? Why was her hand getting so sweaty?
“You know,” Lizzie said, startling Jay out of her thoughts, “I wasn’t exactly trying to guess whether you’d be in a dress or not, but I am a little surprised. I didn’t know you liked them.”
“It’s more of a… rare occasion type of thing, I guess?” Jay responded. “And I guess you’ve never seen me wear a dress before.” Jay could easily recall several instances where Lizzie had worn dresses, or skirts, most often when they went out on islands, but sometimes when they were sailing, Lizzie not at all seeming to mind the way the ocean wind blew the loose fabric around constantly. Contrary to her, the only time Jay had worn something other than pants or shorts in the last couple of years was… “The last time I put on a dress was in Noctis, I think. And you definitely weren’t there.”
Lizzie’s eyebrows rose. “Noctis?”
“Yeah, with the- with the vampire murder mystery thing, did we ever tell you about that?”
“Was that when Chip-”
“Danced with a girl who immediately got murdered, yes.”
“That’s the only part I know.”
“Okay, well, the whole idea was that in order to get into the party, we had to dress up to fit the part, especially because of the stolen invitation thing, so that was how I ended up in this kinda vampire looking dress. Which I think I still have somewhere, actually? But it didn’t actually fool anyone into thinking I was a vampire, because I ended up getting enthralled and bitten and dragged into this blood pool-”
“I’m sorry?”
Jay grinned. She didn’t have a lot of stories that could surprise someone like Lizzie, she’d learned, so it was always fun to find one that did. “I mean, it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t turn into a vampire, obviously.”
“Uh huh.” Lizzie eyed Jay’s neck for a second with a teasing grin, as though checking for bite marks to prove Jay wrong, but then her face turned a little more serious. “You did kill it though, right? The one who bit you?”
“Does killing her dad count?”
Lizzie paused, then nodded, an almost approving smile on her face. “Close enough.”
As the pair continued to walk and talk, they made their way through the winding cobblestone streets, the town shaping itself around them. It really was beautiful, Jay noted absently, bright and lively in the mid-afternoon, covered in greenery that seemed to reach out from the lush nature of the island and wrap itself around the town as though it was trying to pull it back from the shore. The morning’s sea monster chaos, though perhaps it had simply gone unnoticed (Jay hoped so), seemed to have had no effect on the livelihood of the shops and people they passed, and in the distance, Jay could hear faint music.
She wouldn’t have said it to Lizzie, who was happily regaling Jay with a vampire story of her own as they made their way up a winding path towards the restaurant, but she was relieved that they’d settled on a place a little smaller and less pirate-y than usual. It wasn’t as though Jay didn’t have the proper pirate’s appreciation for thieves’ hideouts or outlaw islands, but it was nice to be in a place where she could feel a little less hunted for once. To dock on land and feel like nothing was going to try and kill them anymore. To rest somewhere a little more whimsical and-
“...Huh.”
Jay startled, partially at the sudden halt of Lizzie’s story, partially because she’d been watching Lizzie talk instead of where she was going and almost tripped over herself when they stopped walking. Slowly, she followed Lizzie’s gaze up the path ahead.
“Holy fuck,” Jay muttered, as she found herself staring at what should’ve been the restaurant they were supposed to eat at. Instead, it was almost hard to tell there was even supposed to be a building there. What was left of it was slowly crumbling, stone and bricks tumbling down the ruined cliffs into the ocean below. Jay’s eyes widened in realization. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Lizzie shrugged. “So the restaurant is gone. Not the end of the world.”
Jay shook her head. “Not that part.”
“What do you mean?”
Jay pointed wordlessly at the cliffs, which were really almost comically smashed in and still vaguely sea monster shaped, then down at the water.
“Oh. Oh.” Lizzie’s face positively lit up, from vague disappointment to the unbridled, raucous joy Jay was used to seeing on her, and she started laughing. “No fucking way.”
“In my defense,” Jay muttered, face heating up, “I didn’t think that thing was willingly going to swim full speed into an island just to try and crush us.”
“Don’t- it’s- it’s not your fault,” Lizzie managed through her laughter. She took a couple breaths, then stood straighter, composing herself, though she was still grinning wildly. “Jay. It’s not your fault. It’s fine, we can just go somewhere else.”
“I mean- I-” Jay sighed, avoiding looking Lizzie directly in the face. “I don’t feel great about destroying a restaurant and walking away from it.” She also didn’t feel great about accidentally ruining their date, but she didn’t feel like bringing that part up.
Lizzie shrugged. “We can come back and apologize tomorrow, if you want.” Before Jay could even get an answer out, Lizzie took Jay’s hand again, leading her back down the cliffside path towards the town.
“I don’t actually know any other places to eat in town,” Jay confessed quietly as they walked. “That restaurant was the only place I heard of.”
“We’ll find something,” Lizzie responded, sounding unbothered. Jay peered over at her, and she was still smiling. At least the sea monster incident was amusing to one of them.
But Lizzie must have somehow noticed the disappointment Jay was trying to hide, because her gaze softened a bit. “It’s alright, Jay. We’ve had worse setbacks.”
“Trust me, I know.” Jay fiddled with her necklaces absentmindedly, twisting one around her finger. “Annoying day to have a setback, though.”
Lizzie’s lips twisted a little. “I guess it is.”
They found their way back into the heart of the town, soft conversation flowing between them, and this time Jay scanned the town not just with fascination, but with intent. She was going to find a good place for them to sit and eat and talk like they’d been planning for days. She was not going to mess their date up again.
Eventually, they did find a place, a small and more tavern-esque eatery close to the docks. They found a table in the corner, and Jay ended up in the seat that faced the back wall, so while Lizzie had a view of the entire crowd, Jay was facing Lizzie and Lizzie alone. Which was sort of nice - it gave the illusion of privacy, anyway.
The only issue was that Lizzie didn’t seem to be as happy with the arrangement. Not unhappy, exactly - she was still smiling, still making easy conversation - but every so often she’d glance over Jay’s shoulder, just for a second, looking for something Jay couldn’t see. After the fifth time she did it, before they’d even gotten the chance to order their food, Jay gave up and asked.
“Lizzie? What’s wrong?”
Lizzie paused, then sighed heavily, shoulders sinking. “I was hoping I wasn’t right, but there’s definitely a bounty hunter in here.”
“A bounty hunter?”
“Well, don’t look,” Lizzie hissed, grabbing Jay’s shoulder to stop her as Jay tried to turn around to scan the room. “Don’t call attention to us. Let’s just sneak out of here and find somewhere else.”
Jay grinned, despite the situation. “What, you don’t want to start a fight with a bounty hunter in the middle of a crowded tavern?”
Lizzie rolled her eyes, but smiled back. “Maybe not today. You were right, it’s- an annoying day to have a setback.”
Jay’s cheeks flushed a little. Maybe it was Lizzie’s hand, still on her shoulder. “Right. Yeah. It is.”
“Okay, let’s just go,” Lizzie said, letting go of Jay and standing up, brushing off her skirt. “At least we look a little less like pirates right now.”
Jay looked Lizzie up and down pointedly, landing on her eyepatch. “Well.”
“Fine, you look a little less like a pirate right now,” Lizzie amended, holding out her hand to Jay. “Shall we go?”
Jay took Lizzie’s hand in hers, and stood up, and they went. Well, they went about halfway towards the door before they were stopped in their tracks by the screech of a chair across the wooden floor and the distinct sound of someone unsheathing a sword.
Jay resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands. Great.
The man pointing his sword at them, unbothered by the chorus of surprised gasps from the other tavern patrons, looked vaguely familiar to Jay, though she couldn’t have recited his name for the life of her. He had long, coppery brown hair, messy stubble, and a belt full of tools and tiny weapons that practically screamed yeah, this guy’s a bounty hunter. Jay could’ve kicked herself for not noticing it before.
Instinctively, Jay reached for her gun, which she obviously hadn’t intended to use on the date but had holstered on a leg strap beneath her dress out of principle. She stopped herself at the last moment, though, because the tavern was still full of people, and she really, really didn’t want to make date night into a fight. Maybe they could reason with the bounty hunter. Or just run and hope they were faster.
Lizzie, however, Jay noticed as she glanced over, had no such qualms. As the bounty hunter was starting his dramatic speech or whatever - something about how he knew they were pirates and they should stand down and he had them cornered, Jay wasn’t really listening - Lizzie’s whip was already in her hand, pulled from somewhere Jay couldn’t have guessed, and she looked ready for confrontation. Jay was pretty sure that hadn’t been the plan thirty seconds ago.
“Lizzie,” Jay whispered under the noise of the hunter and the crowd. “Lizzie.”
“Yeah?”
“I thought we weren’t going to start a fight?”
“Jay, he’s threatening us with a weapon right now. You’re not even armed. I can’t just stand here and let a sword be pointed at us.”
“But if you threaten him, he’ll probably swing.”
“It’s not threatening him to pull out a weapon in response to him pulling out a weapon.”
“Bounty hunters don’t usually think that way. Come on, we should just-”
The bounty hunter cleared his throat pointedly. Jay blinked, realizing that the tavern had quieted fully, and everyone was looking at them.
Before Jay could say anything, Lizzie raised her whip, just a little. “Never start a fight in a crowd of innocent people, hunter,” She said, and her voice was low, dangerous. It made Jay shiver a little. “Especially one you know you won’t win.”
“Lizzie,” Jay hissed under her breath, even though a very, very tiny part of her wanted to stand back and see where this was headed.
The bounty hunter scoffed. “You pirates are all talk. You won’t-”
“I’m giving you one chance,” Lizzie interrupted, raising her voice, her tone as authoritative and steady as the best of pirate captains, “To leave us the hell alone. You won’t be doing any fighting in this tavern.”
“And what makes you so sure?” The hunter asked.
Lizzie tightened her hold on Jay’s hand. “Because you’re a shit hunter. You left an exit open.”
And they ran.
Out of the tavern, up the street, hand in hand, taking every winding road and pathway they could find, leaving the confused patrons and angry hunter behind them. When they were far enough away that their steps couldn’t easily be traced, they found a bench, and Jay collapsed onto it, panting, laughing a little from the ridiculousness of the sprint itself.
When she looked up, Lizzie was sitting down beside her, whip already gone again, put away somewhere Jay couldn’t figure out for the life of her. She had half a mind to ask, but before she could get a word out, Lizzie turned to Jay with a look of gentle sincerity on her face. “Sorry, Jay.”
Jay blinked. “What?”
Lizzie sighed, sinking a little further onto the bench. “You were right. We should’ve just ran. I said I wasn’t gonna start a confrontation, but it can be hard to resist when-”
“When there’s an asshole pointing a sword at you, I know.”
Lizzie tilted her head. “Well, at you, really.”
Jay would have blushed if her cheeks weren’t already red from running. “Oh.”
Lizzie didn’t seem to notice. “And I said you were right about the whole setback thing, but I just created a bigger one.”
Jay shrugged. “Well, he was the one who didn’t have the decency to take things outside, so.”
“True.”
They sat in silence for a while, and Jay let herself just relax. She was half expecting something else to happen, another sea monster or bounty hunter to come springing at them, but time ticked by and nothing happened. It occurred to her after a minute that they still didn’t have anywhere to eat, and were now two date ideas down with a nonzero chance of running into a fight if they didn’t keep a low profile. But Jay’s idea of a first date wasn’t exactly just sitting on a bench in a quiet corner of an unfamiliar town, and she doubted it was Lizzie’s either.
So she sucked up her courage and asked. “Hey, Lizzie-”
The sound of several pairs of thundering footsteps cut her off, and Jay looked to her right just in time to see several familiar figures stampeding down the street towards them, yelling back and forth in a clamour of voices as loud as the sound of them running. The group was led by none other than Gillion Tidestrider himself, with Gryffon and Caspian clustered behind him. Caspian was the only one who noticed Jay and Lizzie as he passed them by, and he offered them a wave and a small, knowing smile.
Lizzie sat up straighter next to Jay. “What the f-”
She wasn’t given the chance to finish either, because Alphonze and Queen were close behind them, neither of whom paid any mind to the duo on the bench. Jay was too busy staring incredulously at the retreating backs of most of her own crew to notice the one who hadn’t yet run by. At least, she didn’t notice until he slowed, and stopped in front of them, winded, a wild, teasing grin on his face.
“Hey, you two,” Chip said, wiggling his eyebrows. “How’s the date-”
Lizzie reacted faster than Jay could. In the blink of an eye, there was a dagger flying past Chip’s head - not close enough to risk hitting him, but close enough that he yelped and jumped back.
“Alright, alright, I’m going!” Chip muttered some distinctly unsavoury things about Lizzie as he walked off, then sped up to a run as he realized he’d been left behind. “Hey guys, wait up! Gill! Hey!”
“I don’t even wanna know,” Jay murmured as she watched their crews disappear into the distance.
“Me neither.”
The renewed silence washed over them for a moment. And then-
“Lizzie?”
“Jay?”
“Do you think this date is cursed?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.” Jay made a halfhearted gesture at their surroundings. “Our first restaurant? Destroyed. The second? We get threatened, and now we don’t even know if we’re going to be able to avoid a fight in this town. And I don’t even know what the hell our crews are doing, but with their track record, I doubt we’re gonna be allowed back in the town after this, either. Obviously, I still want to make this date work, but… I’m not sure how.”
For a second, Lizzie was silent, just nodding at Jay’s words. And then, “You know, it’s funny.”
Jay raised an eyebrow. “What is?”
“Well, we spend the whole day trying not to be pirates and look where it gets us. Into the same kind of pirate trouble as always.”
Jay squinted at her for a second, then it sank in. She had been trying not to be so pirate-y, and she’d known it, but every turn she and Lizzie had taken had just reminded them further of the fact they were still pirates, wherever they went. Never just two normal people on a date. “Yeah. Ironic.” And then she sat up. “Wait.”
“What?”
“Wait here. I have an idea. Give me, like, twenty minutes. Don’t get in any more fights with bounty hunters!” Jay shouted the last sentence as she ran off, a new determination running through her veins. She was going to fix their date. And it wasn’t going to be normal, or perfect, or like they were pretending not to be pirates. But it was going to be better.
* * *
“So what’s this about, Jay Ferin?”
A little over twenty minutes later, Jay was leading Lizzie up a different path away from town, a steeper one that led further into the island instead of circling the cliffs. A newly acquired picnic basket swung from Jay’s left hand, and her right was holding Lizzie’s. The question came from a mildly amused-looking Lizzie, who had long since stopped referring to Jay by solely her last name but often brought out the full name when she really wanted to be teasing. Jay offered her a grin.
“It’s a surprise,” Jay said. “But I think you’ll like it. This is me trying to plan a date while still being a pirate.”
“How so?”
“Well, first of all, we’re being stealthy. Going somewhere no one else is going.”
Lizzie nodded. “Mhm. And second of all, all the stuff in that basket is stolen?”
“No, only some of the stuff in this basket is stolen. I’m a pirate, Lizzie, not a heathen.”
“Of course.”
“And third,” Jay continued, pushing back the foliage as they approached their destination, “We’re being strategic. We can see the whole island from a vantage point like this.”
And they could. As they stepped out onto the grass, into a tiny clearing at nearly the highest point of the island, the town and ocean stretched out below them, almost glowing in the light of the approaching sunset. As Lizzie stepped closer to the edge, peering down at the town, Jay spread out the picnic blanket, sitting down and unpacking the food she’d amassed. It wasn’t overwhelmingly impressive or special, but it was food. And privacy, and a view.
Not the perfect first date. But maybe-
Jay’s thoughts were cut off by the sudden development of Lizzie’s head resting in her lap. She blinked, slowly, suddenly frozen.
Lizzie smiled up at Jay, maybe closer to smirking. “What? We’ve been running around all afternoon. I’m tired.”
“Lizzie-” There was no reasonable way for her to excuse her blush anymore, and they both knew it. But Jay couldn’t help but deflect anyway. “You can’t eat like this.”
Lizzie waved a hand absentmindedly. “I’ll eat later. We don’t have to rush anything now.”
“I know, it’s just-” Jay sighed, biting her lip. “No, never mind.”
“What is it?”
“Lizzie, I know I said that maybe doing things like a pirate was the way to actually have a date that didn’t go to shit, but I still feel like- I don’t know. I don’t know how to phrase this. I don’t wanna be a downer on our date anymore.”
Lizzie’s flirtatious grin shifted to confusion, and curiosity. “You’re not being a downer, Jay. You’ve done everything you could to make this date work. You’re allowed to talk.”
Jay found herself smiling a little. “I just- the reason I tried to be less pirate-y is because I feel like, you know, everything between us has been rushed. Since we met. And kind of disastrous.” She chuckled.
Lizzie’s smile returned a little. “What do you mean?”
“Well, our first meeting was you pointing a gun at my head. Technically also in a public place full of civilians, so I don’t know what you were saying to that bounty hunter-”
“Okay, a private room at an inn is not the same as a crowded tavern floor.”
They were both laughing now, and Jay could feel Lizzie’s shoulders shaking with it. It was nice, she decided. Really nice. “And the first battle we were ever in together was against each other, and the only positive to that battle was that we kicked your asses. And you pantsing Chip, I guess.”
“It was deserved,” Lizzie said matter-of-factly. “Continue.”
“My point is, I feel like every first we’ve had together has gone to shit or to chaos somehow. Our first meeting, our first battle, our other first battle that was actually against a common enemy that time, our first time going out drinking together-”
“In which I also kicked Chip’s ass. So not a total loss.”
“My point is,” Jay continued through giggles, “I know we’re pirates and all, and chaos is our thing, but I sometimes wish all of the special moments in my life weren’t always completely fucked up by it. Not completely, but you know what I mean.”
“I do.” Lizzie paused. “But not every first thing of ours was really that bad.” Her smirk returned. “Our first kiss, for example.”
Jay blushed harder, but did her best to return the teasing smile. “Uh huh.”
“And…” Lizzie’s voice got a little quieter. “I don’t think this date was bad at all. You did everything you could to make this a good first date for us, and… I had a good time. And it’s nice up here.”
“Yeah. It is.”
They sat in silence. Jay’s fingers ran absentmindedly through Lizzie’s braids, tracing the flower in her hair. The sun dipped down into the ocean.
“Lizzie?”
“Jay?”
“I would ask to kiss you right now, but I don’t know how to do it in the position we’re in.”
Lizzie barked out a laugh, loud and long, then shifted out of Jay’s lap to sit up in front of her, eyes sparkling. Expectant. “This good?”
Jay cleared her throat. She had not thought this through at all. “Can I-”
Lizzie kissed her before she could finish asking, hand on Jay’s cheek, and Jay decided to forget the entire messy rollercoaster their date had been, because the end result was worth it. Who even cared about chaos anyway?
The kiss broke because neither of them could stop smiling, and Jay ended up with her forehead on Lizzie’s shoulder, giggling helplessly. She didn’t even have the words for it anymore - the whole afternoon had just been so funny. But maybe, just maybe, it had led to the best outcome anyway.
Lizzie in her arms, laughing with her at everything and nothing in particular, now and hopefully far into the future, and oh gods.
“Lizzie?”
Lizzie was positively beaming as Jay pulled back, just far enough to be eye to eye. “Yes, Jay?”
“Would you like to go on a second date with me? Sometime in the future? Sometime after this one is over?”
“I’d love to.”
“And no destroyed restaurants next time.”
Lizzie nodded solemnly, though she was still grinning. “No destroyed restaurants.”
“No bounty hunters.”
“Or tavern fights. Or almost-tavern fights.”
“And maybe no piracy? Still not sure on that one.”
Lizzie shrugged. “Can’t promise a no on the piracy.”
“Fine. Elizabeth Lafayette, I swear to you now that our second date will definitely include piracy.”
“That’s the spirit, Jay Ferin.”
Jay kissed her first this time. And maybe Jay still wasn’t sure, maybe she had no idea how their second date would go, or their third, or fourth, or whatever might follow after. Maybe she was still shy, still nervous despite everything, still simultaneously flirtatious and easily flustered. But it didn’t matter.
Jay and Lizzie had a million firsts left. And Jay was looking forward to every single one of them.
