"Auggie, what's the matter?"

"Hmm?" he asked, looking up from the fish sandwich she'd brought from the bar for their supper. Two freshly made sandwiches and a six-pack of beer were reminders of their first unofficial date, and Auggie had promptly kissed her before accepting the packages at his door when she arrived.

"You've been more quiet than usual," Annie said, placing her own sandwich back down on the plate. "Bad day at work?"

He shrugged, "Busy, as usual, nothing out of the ordinary. Your texts made the time go by faster, though."

Remembering some of them, including the ones attached with pictures where she puckered for the camera, giving him a virtual kiss, Annie smiled. "I thought they might. You never answered the last one, though."

Auggie sighed. He knew she'd bring it up again, but he'd yet to find a way to tell her that he didn't have a passport, and before he met her, had no plans to leave the city, nor the state, let alone the country. "No, I don't have a passport."

"Oh," Annie said, her previous good mood a bit more subdued now. "I guess you wouldn't, huh? You just need them for leaving the country, and –"

"Why did you ask?"

"Remember Iceland?"

Auggie nodded, "It's where you planned on going when we first met, the trip you postponed because of all the work you'd gotten."

"Yeah, well, my travel agent called today, and she reminded me that I'd have to take the trip soon or lose what I paid in deposits for the plane and hotel."

His sandwich forgotten, Auggie pushed his plate away from him. He didn't want to ask the question, and didn't really want to know the answer, but he refused to let the little boy inside him who wanted to grasp onto her and never let go win. "When do you leave?"

"Tuesday. I'll be gone for a week," Annie said quietly. She knew he was hiding his disappointment, and it broke Annie's heart a little. "I don't have to go. Maybe my travel agent can transfer what I'd paid onto something else, or –"

"Go, Annie."

"But –"

"No," Auggie said, choking on the words as he forced them out of his throat. "Go, take your trip, enjoy yourself. Take lots of pictures for me."

"Auggie –"

"I'll apply for a passport tomorrow."

A bright spot of hope filtered through the gloom that had fallen between them. "Really?"

Auggie returned her smile. "Really. Go on your trip, but know it'll be the last one you'll go on alone."

Annie reached over the table to stroke his cheek and place a soft kiss on his lips. "Have I told you how much I loved you?"

Auggie grinned, "Yeah, this afternoon. I'm pretty sure some of what you sent could be classified as illegal, you know."

Two days. It'd been two days since Annie landed in the capital of Iceland, and for the first time in her life, the thrill she usually experienced in a new place was gone. And it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. In the short amount of time that she'd known August Anderson, he seemed to have infiltrated her life so fully, she couldn't imagine living without him.

The thought both thrilled and scared her. She'd never felt this much for anyone, and she wondered at the meaning of it all. Did she embrace it or not? If she did listen to the scared little girl in her who didn't want to risk her heart broken, she'd have to break up with him now before things got too serious.

The thought came and went in the same amount of time in her mind, as just the thought of life without Auggie caused more pain than she was experiencing now, just being away from him for a week. A lifetime without him seemed improbable, impossible, downright ludicrous.

Suddenly, the five days left in her trip seemed like five months, and Annie seriously contemplated chucking her entire trip and going home. But no, she thought. She was here. Auggie was only a phone call away if she needed him, and she decided to take his advice and take as many pictures as her digital camera would hold.

When she returned, she'd share them with him and relive her trip through his eyes.

Auggie had, indeed, went online the next morning after their dinner date and applied for his passport. He made sure to have it expedited, and with his fingers crossed, sent in all the necessary paperwork. The least amount of time it would take was a few weeks. At the most, a couple of months.

He'd wanted to, also, choose a destination and make plans for him and Annie to go away together. But he decided to play it safe and wait until he had the thin book in his hands. Besides, he wanted to take her somewhere she'd never been before, and since she said she went to what, 50 countries, it'd be a guessing game to pick one at this point.

And he'd want to leave the choosing up to her. He was more than happy staying in his little corner of the world for the rest of his life. But if he wanted to have Annie in his life, and he did in the worst way, he'd have to learn to break out of his carefully constructed shell. As long as she was there to help him, to guide him, to just do what she had been doing over the past month, he knew they'd make it.

For the week she was gone, he did his best to concentrate on work to make the time go faster. And for a while, it did, until, of course, she called the first night. They kept their calls short to cut down on the charges, but she more than made up for it with the e-mails, attaching pictures every time of where she was, where she'd been.

He thanked her every time for them, and signed off with his reminder to enjoy her time alone, as he planned on never leaving her side once she returned. As soon as he hit send, the weight of what he was promising her settled fully on him. He was promising her forever, and she was accepting.

Never in his life had he felt this way. And never in his life had he felt so happy. Annie made him happier than he'd ever been, and he'd be damned if he let her go.