Chapter 60

As we arrived Logan gave my hand a gentle squeeze, breaking me out of my own head. We were standing in front of a huge building. My eyes followed up the front to the sign above the enormous front double doors.

“Blue lagoon!” I struggled to contain my excitement.

We were standing in front of the new aquarium that had opened as I arrived home. I had wanted to visit this place since being back, but I had not found time or the person to go with. Logan watched me beaming with excitement.

“I chose well?” He asked cautiously.

“It’s perfect.”

He led the way as we walked in. He had preordered tickets, so he gave his name to the desk. The girl handed over two tickets along with some lanyards. I looked at them for a moment, taking in the words on them.

VIP access, meet and greet, feeding time.

My heart skipped a beat as I looked at Logan. He smiled softly at me, and I squeezed his hand with a thank you. We walked through the entrance into the lobby where we had several options for where to go first.

“You didn’t have to do all of this, you know.” I said softly.

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. With a kiss on top of my head he replied, “Of course I did. It’s one of the things on your bucket list.”

My mind flashed back to one of our evening talks. We had discussed things we wanted to do over the next few years, and I had expressed a dream of having a complete tour at an aquarium and getting up close and personal with some of the exhibits.

“I can’t believe you remembered that.” I was shocked.

“How could I forget anything I have learnt about you.” He smiled.

We walked hand in hand through the first few exhibits. We laughed and talked the whole way through. I snapped a lot of photos on my phone and caught Logan unawares on one of them. He laughed it off but used it as an opportunity to take some pictures of me in return. As we came to the penguins, I was bubbling with excitement. Logan smiled at me suspiciously.

“Are you ready to meet them up close?” He asked.

My jaw dropped open. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely not, it’s part of the VIP experience.”

He grabbed my hand and knocked on a staff door at the side. A staff member answered and checked our passes. They welcomed us in and showed us around. I got to experience the full behind the scenes with the penguins.

“Would you like to feed them?” We were asked.

I beamed at Logan, and he nodded. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I could not believe what we were experiencing. We were shown how to give the penguins some fish and then given the bucket with the rest of their fish in for them. The penguins came running all at once and we were surrounded by a sea of black and white. It was an incredible experience.

Logan took photo after photo of me with the penguins. Once we were done, we watched them swim from the back of the exhibit. They were one of my favourite animals. We took our leave and rejoined the public out the front of the exhibits. The next few hours were spent in and out of behind-the-scenes tours and the general front-of-house exhibits.

We came to the end of the aquarium where we filtered out into the gift shop. Logan picked up a few things before settling onto a penguin keychain. He paid at the counter and surprised me with it as we were leaving.

“A little keepsake from today.”

“I love it.” I jumped up, wrapping my arms around his neck.

He leant into the hug. I could sense he wanted more. Neither of us wanted to let go.