“I’m so excited! I don’t even know what to do with myself!” I squeal, bouncing my legs, my Leviathan-esque sensible sneakers of choice for the plane ride over from Toronto taken off, socked feet touching the carpeted flooring of the rental car.

The jet lag sucks, for sure, but I’ve rocketed past being tired and gone straight to wired, and maybe I should have insisted that I drive the both of us to Ayden’s childhood home in Croydon instead of the other way around. I should put some of this weird energy to good use, right?

“Maybe I should have been the one driving, huh?”

I glance over at him, his profile perfect and the half-grin is pretty glorious, too. It’s just weird glancing over to my right, since on top of driving in the wrong direction, the steering wheel is also on the wrong side of the car, and yeah, that would take some getting used to.

Which is probably a whole lot better for the entire population of London, England that I don’t learn to drive over here while supremely jet lagged.

Ayden shakes his head, looking model-gorgeous even after breathing in recycled air for close to seven hours for the trek across the Atlantic Ocean. He gives me a quick glance, watching me fidget and squirm in my seat from all of my excitement.

I’m in London, with my boyfriend, and I’m going to see my best friends. I can’t handle my shit right now, I cannot.

Ayden’s been on hiatus for a full couple of months now and looks well-rested despite the whole hopping in time thing.

“I’m fine, I promise.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say, fighting back a sudden yawn, looking out the window, getting disoriented with how wrong driving feels in this part of the world using the wrong side of the road.

“It’s probably a good thing you’re driving, anyway. I probably would’ve been screaming my head off the entire drive over.” I sigh, rubbing at my face, the skin-tight and itchy. “I hate plane rides.”

“Yeah, darling, I figured as much,” Ayden snickers, eyes still on the road.

“So…while I was concentrating on surviving the trip across the ocean, I didn’t really talk about how nervous I am about today,” I say, putting it out there once and for all.

Which is, honestly, a big fat lie since I’ve been worrying about meeting Ayden’s family forever. Maybe I didn’t voice my concerns (or my feelings) properly, because I was waiting for the Leviathan season finale, and shit got crazy busy at work, and then I scheduled this trip practically last minute and Ayden agreed to come with me, and then he tacked on meeting his family since we’re all literally gonna be in the same country and England is a lot smaller than Canada so it’s not like you can beg off this kind of opportunity.

Besides, I want to see where Ayden grew up, and I’m also itching to explore everything that London has to offer, and I’m going to need every waking moment to take it all in. Like seriously, there probably isn’t going to be enough time to eat and have any bathroom breaks if I want to cram everything into a measly six days and cap it all off by the end of the week with Trickshot’s concert at Wembley Stadium.

I shake my head, knowing I have an itinerary planned, but that’s not fair to Ayden, or to Raleigh and Maddie, but would it be so hard for them to listen to me and forget about all their plans so we can spend time together in freaking London, England?

Would it kill them?

“What’s got you thinking so hard over there?” Ayden asks, and I jolt out of my thoughts, grinning sheepishly at him. I run a hand through my hair and wish I were standing under a hot spray of water right now, washing off all the travel and plane-smell from my body and hair, and God, a change of clothes would be great, too.

“I’m just excited about this week. I’m excited to see my friends, for them to meet you. For us to all meet each other. And honestly, I’ve never been to a K-pop concert before, and it’s going to be at Wembley, so there’s excitement all around.” I wave my hand around to encompass it all.

“I haven’t seen them in almost an entire year. And we all have time off—well, as much as we’re all able to have time off, and this all just felt like a really good idea at the time. But I’m nervous about meeting your parents. Like so nervous, there’s no more saliva in my mouth.”

“My parents are going to love you,” Ayden says, totally convinced. His accent keeps going in and out while I’m talking to him, and I wonder if it’s going to get sharper once we’re in his childhood home, where Ayden’s going to be staying for a few nights.

While Ayden hangs back, I’m going spend a couple of nights at Maddie’s apartment with Raleigh, and then for a final night of splurging, and in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Ayden and I are spending the night at The Grand, after renting a car and driving to Wembley on the day of the concert.

I don’t expect to sleep all that much this week, but that doesn’t even matter.

“I sure hope so,” I sigh, twisting the ends of my hair around my fingers, giving myself something to do. “But maybe, just to be on the safe side, maybe we shouldn’t tell them how we met. Or that I’m a giant Leviathan fangirl, okay?” Ayden’s silent for a few seconds too long, and I know I’m in trouble. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Really?”

“They don’t care how we met, Aria, only that we did.”

I snort. “Easy for you to say, fangirls have a bad rap, you know? Oh, sweet Jesus, I’m having heart palpitations over here.” I place my hand over my chest, freaking out over how very fast my heart is beating in my ribcage.

“You sure it’s not because of the cold brew you’ve been drinking like water, darling?”

“Ayden, stop being the voice of reason. I mean it.”

Ayden laughs like I’ve gone and made him happy and that does disconcerting things to my heart, too. I let him reach for my hand, placing it in his until he locks our fingers together and stretches my arm out to a point where our clasped hands are placed over his chest, right where his heart would be.

“We’re going to be more than all right, you’ll see. I promise.”

I hiss out a breath, glancing at the clock on the dashboard. We’re in a fancy car, because I guess why not, but I’m a little too comfortable, and the last thing I want to do is a give a sleep-deprived first impression to his parents that would make me seem less than grateful when meeting them for the first time, especially when they’re opening their home to me.

It’s another twenty or so minutes before Ayden’s navigating side streets that look like they could belong anywhere in the world, and finally he’s pulling up to a curb, and I get out of the car on shaky legs.

I almost fall flat on my face while I’m rounding the car all the way to the trunk, getting it open and hauling my Leviathan orange suitcase out, pulling in deep breaths all the while.

Ayden’s suddenly next to me, and I know that I’ve spaced out, looking into the trunk of the car as if it has all the answers in the universe for me, his hand going to my back and rubbing up and down.

“I wasn’t this nervous when I met your parents.”

“That’s because you’re charming and wonderful, and I’m a nervous wreck right now. Honestly, how bad does my hair look?”

Ayden frowns at me, petting my hair like he’s trying to soothe me, which is nice, because I like it when he plays with my hair, but not right at this very minute. What if his parents are watching?

“You look beautiful, as always.”

I snort, huffing out an annoyed breath, and slap weakly at his shoulder, getting nothing but a grin in return. “Says the gorgeous actor. I know when you’re laying it on thick, Ayden, I know.” I stab him (very gently) in the chest with my pointer finger. “All right, I’m not ready, but I don’t think I’ll ever be ready, but let’s go before I make a run for it down the street and get hopelessly lost.”

“I’d come find you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

I tug on my wrinkled clothing, wishing I had the forethought to have Ayden stop at a rest stop or something for me to change, put on some perfume, look less like a person who’s been hurtled through time and space in a metal tube, but we’re here, and I didn’t think of any of that.

Plus, as an added bonus, the jet lag is really starting to hit hard now, as if staying awake in the gentle lull of the car moving us across the country wasn’t enough of a soother, and now it’s hitting me all at once.

I even have to look down at my feet and wonder how they’re holding me up.

“You’re going to want to stay awake as long as possible.”

“I know that, it’s early afternoon here, I know that. And I slept on the plane, but plane sleep isn’t real sleep, you know that.”

Ayden smiles, bends down to kiss my nose, choosing this very moment to be incredibly adorable while I’m melting with nerves from the inside out.

“No, no it’s not. Come on then.”