Serena

"I have missed you," Will said, as he held my hand and we walked home together.

He'd come back from his parents' house this afternoon and he made it very clear that he'd missed me the whole time. It was quite sweet.

We had decided that since he'd been gone for a while and we were both feeling a little lazy, it was a perfect excuse for a date night and to eat out together.

"Do you know why I took you to that restaurant?" Will asked me, snapping me from my miserable thoughts.

He had taken me out to eat at this new place he'd recently discovered, thanks to Sara, and now we were walking back to our apartment.

When he looked down at me, from his giant-like height, with a smile on his face, I smiled too.

"Because it had an interactive game on the table and you're a child trapped in a man's body?" I teased him.

I could see Will playfully narrow his eyes at me. "Well, what's not to love about playing a game, whilst you eat?" He asked, but it was clearly a rhetorical question. He then nudged my shoulder. "And you love my childishness," Will added, which caused me to smile.

One of the reasons that I had fallen for Will, was definitely because of his playful personality.

Over the years, without even realising it, I had become more and more serious. It wasn't something that I hadn't noticed initially, but it had been pointed out to me.

When I first started going out with Will, his energy, jokes and childishness would annoy me. However, it wasn't him, it was me. I was so closed off and clearly determined to be unapproachable, that I hadn't realised he was just being his charming-self.

Slowly, but surely, the traits that I thought were annoying about Will, eventually became things I loved about him. His easy-going personality was something that I needed in my life, to balance me out. We had a partnership.

"But no, that's not the reason," Will continued.

I let out a groan. "Please don't make me guess."

He just chuckled at my words, bringing up our joined hands to place a kiss upon them. "At least it's clear that I'm the fun one in this relationship," he joked.

A scowl then formed on my face, which only made him smile more. "Only because you're secretly ten years old and screw you, I'm fun," I replied.

Will then snorted. "Yeah, okay then."

I took my hand out of his hold, only to shove him for teasing me, which caused him to start laughing.

"Did you actually have a point?" I asked him, putting my hands into my coat pocket and carried on walking.

The cold breeze of the evening started to make me feel chilly. I needed the warmth from Will's hand wrapped around mine, to keep my fingers from freezing, since I didn't bring gloves and my coat pocket wasn't doing the job. But I wasn't going to admit that to him now.

Will then put his own hand into my coat pocket, intertwining our fingers once again.

I was stubborn and I didn't take my hand out my pocket.

"Oh right," Will then said, clearly remembering where he intended to go with this conversation. "I took you here to cheer you up, but I feel like my mission failed," he pouted.

I stopped walking and looked up at him. "Cheer me up?" I asked.

Will gave me a soft smile, with a look that told me he knew that there was something up. "You seem to be down in the dumps, Serena. What's wrong?" He asked.

"It's-" I began to say.

"Do not say it's nothing, but it clearly is something," he told me. If it's about me eating that last piece of the red velvet cake, then I'm sorry. I thought you left it for me," Will said with a look of guilt across his face.

My mouth opened shock. "You know all too well, I'd never share my red velvet cake."

Will put his hands in a surrendering motion. "Okay, I'm sorry. I apologise," he said and then put his hand down, looking at me cautiously. "What were you thinking about?" He asked.

"You know how I mention Liam and I had a bit of a quarrel at the engagement party?" I looked at Will.

He nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm just thinking about that. I can't help it," I said, as we carried on to walk.

Will and I knew about each other's pasts. We were honest with each other and didn't keep secrets between us. He knew all about Liam.

"You feel bad?" Will asked.

I shook my head, since that wasn't quite it. "Not bad. I just don't really like where we're at. I feel like I'm still processing it," I told him.

He nodded, letting out what seemed to be like an amused breath. "It was quite a lot to take in," he replied.

I chuckled at looked up at him. "I saw Emma, Mr Hunter, Liam and Bea, in the space of a few minutes."

Seeing all of them, one after another, it was quite a lot. I half-expected some people from high school to show up at the party, with some sort of connection to Tiff.

"He probably didn't expect to see you either," Will said, smiling at me.

"Oh, yeah. His face seemed as shocked as mine," I replied.

It was clear that he didn't know that I would be there or I could guarantee, he wouldn't be there. I could still remember Liam's shocked face when he saw me and stood there with Bea.

"Were you hurt by what he said?" Will asked, frowning slightly and then wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

I shook my head. "It was more the way he said it. I thought he might be over it or he'd want to forget about what happened. I thought we were going to have a real conversation, but it quickly turned ugly," I explained.

I knew that how people could often say things within the heat of an argument. They could say things loudly and also say things they didn't mean.

With Liam, at the time I didn't that he meant whatever he said, even if it was a horrible thing for him to say. But then today, I felt like he not only meant but believed what he said.

Will nodded, before he lead me towards a nearby bench.

"Let's sit here for a second," he said and steered us towards the bench, before sitting today.

He then looked at me. "Do you want my honest opinion?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"I understand where he's coming from," Will said.

That was definitely what I expected. I looked at him with a frown on my face, confusion etched across my face.

"You do?" I asked.

Will smiled softly. "I kind of get it," he said.

I was still lost.

"The man lost his wife. I can understand that he'd be hurt and angry. It makes sense. Plus, you, someone else he cares about, if you mentioned leaving too, he's bound to feel some kind of pain," Will explained.

"I understand that, I truly do. But he can't just transfer all that pain and anger onto me," I replied.

Will nodded and pulled me closer towards his side and I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I know, babe. And you're right, it's not fair," Will said, resting his head atop of mine and I nodded.

"You know, I saw everyone, Emma, Mr Hunter, Liam and Bea, and it still just felt like something, or rather someone, was missing," I told him. "It just seemed incomplete and it was awful. It was like it was re-enforcing the fact that she was gone. That was really gone."

Of course, I knew that she was gone and that she wasn't coming back, but then not seeing her at the time, it was horrible.

I could feel Will place a kiss on top of my head and squeeze my shoulders. As I looked up at him, I could see the little frown that had formed on his face.

"I'm sorry, babe. I know it's shit," he replied. "But you made the right decision to leave when you did and I'm not just saying that because I wanted to be around you more. You had to. You'd drive yourself to insanity if you continued to stay. I'm sure he knows that too, but refuses to accept it in anger. When he finally accepts it, he'll apologise."

I let out a snort at that. "I might punch him in throat before that."

"Okay, but take off your rings before that, make it a fair fight," Will replied and this finally caused me to laugh.

I snuggled into his chest. "I might just have to keep you around."

He laughed and I could feel his chest vibrating against my head as he did. "Of course. If you didn't that would be a real tragedy..." he paused and I smiled, until he continued, "...for you".

I looked up and narrowed my eyes at him, pulling away slightly. "Oh, really? For me?"

He nodded affirmatively. "Of course," he said and pulled back a bit. "You'd miss out on all of this," he added, gesturing towards his whole body.

I smacked his chest, laughing. "Such a muppet."

Will pulled me close once more, as I rested my head on his chest again. "You're a person, Serena. Just always remember that."

He really knew his way around words, knowing exactly what to say and when.

"Thank you," I smiled up at Will.

He chuckled at my words, lowering his head slightly and nudging my nose with his own, causing our lips to brush against each other.

I smiled against his lips when Will kissed me, making me forget about anything other than him.

When he leaned away and rested his forehead against mine, our breathing was shallowing, but we were grinning.

"Can we go home now?" Will asked and I nodded.

Just as we both got up and held hands, ready to head back home, I heard my name being called.

I pulled away from Will, to see a tiny person calling out my name.

"Serena!" Bea yelled out my name, causing a few people on the street to look in our direction, but she obviously didn't care.

She was tugging on a hand and I moved my gaze, to see Liam being pulled by Bea in my direction.

Whilst she was beaming, showing off a toothy grin, he was scowling at me, as if he'd sucked on a lemon before he saw my face.

When she was close enough, Bea pulled out of Liam's hold and ran the very short distance towards me, and I instantly bent down, awaiting her with open arms as she crashed into me.

Holding her, I gave Bea a tight hug. "Hello, my little bumblebee."

Something about her just warmed my heart.

She pulled away from me and giggled. "Buzz, Buzz," she responded, just like a Bee and I chuckled at her.

This girl could make the Sun smile.

"Who's this little munchkin?" Will asked, looking down at the both of us with an amused expression.

I opened my mouth to reply, but was beaten to it.

"My daughter," Liam replied curtly, who then held out his hand towards Bea.

I stood up, as she went back towards Liam, holding his hand once again.

"Will, this is Liam and his daughter Beatrice," I introduced them.

Whilst I wasn't so enthusiastic about this meeting, Will seemed to finding this a little too amusing.

"Hi!" Bea then waved at Will.

"Hello there, princess," he greeted at her, and then bowed formally, which caused Bea to giggle.

Liam stood there staring at me with his cold expression. I wouldn't be surprised if was trying to make me explode with his mind.

I then cleared my throat.

"Liam, Bea, this is Will," I gestured towards him.

"...My fiancé."