It's been a few days since I slept over at Charlotte's house after my little surprise visit. Yesterday after a check-up with the team trainers, I was finally cleared to play two weeks after the injury. I can't contain my excitement to get back on the ice and skating as Luke and I head to practice for tonight's home game against the Rangers. Luke knows how much I despise the Rangers so the fact that I've been cleared to play for tonight is the best news I've gotten in a while.
"So, Jack, how'd it go with Charlotte keeping you company while I was gone?" Taking my eyes off the road for a quick second, I look over at Luke before bringing my eyes back to the road. Since the night I slept over at Charlotte's, I've been avoiding telling Quinn and Luke about the sleepover since they will most likely become two of the most obnoxious people on the planet if I tell them anything. They'd just assume that something happened and then I'd never hear the end of it.
"It was great honestly. We talked about hanging out again before the injury so this was the perfect time to do that. Most of the time we spent together we watched movies and and a few shows. I took the time to surprise her one day and I watched her film a video." I could feel Luke's eyes on me the entire time I spoke.
"So all you guys did was talk and watch TV together and that's it. There has to be something that you're not telling me Rowdy, what is it?" There's no way in hell he knows about me sleeping over at Charlotte's, on a little couch, just a few feet away from her. I tried to run through everything I just said to him to make sure I hadn't tripped up on my words and said something I wasn't supposed to. Attempting to put on my best poker face, I silently hope Luke will let this go and we can go on with our day.
"You're gonna need to practice that poker face buddy. There's something you're not saying so you might as well just tell me. Or if you don't maybe I'll just call Quinn and he'll get you to say whatever it is you're hiding." Luke sends me a mischievous smirk, knowing that I'll probably cave just so he doesn't call Quinn.
"Whatever, I'll tell you, but just don't tell Quinn. The day I surprised Charlotte at her place, I spent the night after she told me to stay when she was falling asleep. When she finished filming, we watched movies and talked for a bit and she fell asleep. When I put a blanket on her, she asked me to sleep over since I was just as tired as she was." Stopping at a red light, I look at Luke and I can practically feel him ready to jump out of the car.
"Wait what?! Jack, were you ever even planning on telling me this, or were you just gonna keep it to yourself?" The feeling of disbelief was written all over his face. His phone is in his hand less than a second later. "Oh, you better bet your ass I'm gonna tell Quinn." Reaching out toward his phone, I try to snatch it before he can text Quinn, but in between him stretching his arm out farther from me and the light turning green, I have to give up.
"Luke come on man. This is why I didn't wanna tell you guys. This is probably gonna make it to Mom before lunch later. Luke please I'll tell Quinn myself later I promise." Sending Luke a pleading look I hope that he'll listen to me and let me tell Quinn later.
"Yeah, too late I just texted Quinn. Good luck with all the spam texts you'll get from Quinn and Mom for the next few hours." He shoots me a content smirk, not at all feeling bad for the endless messages and calls coming my way soon enough.
"I hope you're ready to walk your ass back home later." Luke laughs, knowing that I most likely won't leave him to walk home after practice. If I left him then I'd never hear the end of it from Mom.
After practice
Making it home after practice, I scramble to put together my thank-you gift for Charlotte. The day right after I visited Lotte, I worked hard to look for the perfect present to thank her for keeping me company when she didn't have to. My never-ending research on Pinterest led me to book bouquets. I had no clue book bouquets were even a thing, but it's something that's beyond perfect for Lotte. Thankfully, Charlotte's best friend, Emilie, helped me put together a list of books that Lotte has either been on the hunt for or ones that she absolutely loves.
*Flashback*
Walking into a small local bookstore, a sweet old lady stands behind the counter, a book in hand. A little bell over the door causes the older lady to lift her head. "Oh, hello how may I help you?" She sweetly smiles at me, walking towards me from behind the counter. "Um yeah, actually that would be great. I have a few books that I'm looking for to gift to my friend. She's a big book lover." I smile at her, pulling up my notes app to the assembled list of books I got from Emilie.
"Oh lovely let me see." Pulling down the glasses from her head, she places them over her eyes and I hand my phone to her. She looks over the list, nodding her head with each book title she reads. "You're in luck, I have all of these right over here." I follow her to a bookshelf on the left side of the shop.
The older lady starts picking out all of the books from the shelves, and placing them in my hands. "May I ask what the gift is for? What's the lucky friend's name?" Her eyes are glued to the shelf, searching for the next book from the list. "Her name is Charlotte and it's a little thank-you gift for spending time with me while I had a shoulder injury." Placing the next book into my arms, she moves over to another shelf by the corner.
"Oh, that's so sweet of her. I'm sure she'll love it! How do you plan on giving them to her?" She finds the last two books from the list, keeping them in her hands as we make our way to the front of the shop. "I'm gonna make a book bouquet. I honestly had no clue what that was before I found it online." She lets out a light and delicate laugh, causing me to laugh.
"That's such an interesting idea. Oh, if my husband ever would've given me something like that when we met, I would've fallen head over heels for him in seconds." Ringing up the books and placing them in the back, she smiles to herself seemingly at the thought of her husband.
"She's one lucky girl. Usually, young men your age don't come in here with such sweet ideas like this." Taking out my wallet, I get out the money to pay for the books and I hand it over to the lady. "What's your name if you don't mind me asking ma'am?" She messes around with the register, putting together my change.
"Oh, don't call me ma'am. I know I'm old, but I'm still young at heart. My name is Marjorie. What's your name young man?" She hands me over my change, "Hi Marjorie, my name is Jack." I take the change, and rather than put it in my pocket, I place it into the little jar by the register.
"You can keep the change Marjorie. Thank you for your help!" Picking up the paper bag off the counter, I smile at the older lady. "Oh, Jack you're too kind. Please come back soon and let me know what your girlfriend thought of the gift." Freezing, I stopped to think if I heard Marjorie right. Before I could correct her, my body physically reacted as I felt my face head up, and cheeks red.
"I'll be back Marjorie and I'll tell you all about it." Waving bye, I walk out of the little shop. The slight chill in the air helps the redness in my cheeks cool. I start walking to my car with eight books in hand. Letting out a breath, I just hope Charlotte loves this gift.
*Present Time*
I've spent the last half hour trying to put this thing together and every attempt results in me failing miserably. Although these bouquets look nice, they're seemingly harder to put together. Tired of failing at least five times already, I decided to pull up a tutorial to get this done and make it look perfect for Lotte. Moving all my supplies to one side of my bed, I attempt to follow the video step-by-step hoping for a perfect end product.
My tongue slightly sticks out of my mouth as I become hyper-focused on getting the paper wrapped nicely at the sides of the books and flowers. I'm so lost in my concentration, that I fail to hear Luke walking into my room. He seems to not notice what I'm doing and I hope it stays that way. I've already caught enough slack from him this morning not to mention the slack I caught from my Mom and Quinn.
"Hey, I'm gonna Doordash some Chipotle, do you want anything?" Turning around with wide eyes, I see Luke looking up from his phone catching sight of what I'm in the process of doing. I feel like a kid who was just caught by their parents drawing on the wall. "Wait what are you doing? Is that for Charlotte? Oh my god of course it is." My hands fly to my forehead.
I'm speechless and I know that there's no point in me denying it's for Lotte. "Ha, you are such a sap Rowdy. The guys are gonna love to hear this." Great, not only has Luke told Quinn and our Mom, but now he's gonna tell the rest of the guys. Now I'm never gonna hear the end of this. No matter how much I beg him to not tell he's still gonna do it.
Seconds later my phone starts blowing up with messages from a group chat we have with all the guys
iMessage
Jack the Sap
moose๐ซ guys, I just caught jack being the biggest sap ever
huggy๐ป please tell me it has to do with charlotte
jack's bf๐ง๐ผโโค๏ธโ๐โ๐ง๐ป wait a minute? jack you're cheating on me? he's been talking to a girl?
short king๐ how come I never knew about jack talking to a girl?
moose๐ซ yes, quinn it's about charlotte. yes trevor, it's the girl jack has been talking to. cole you're just too short to hear what we talk about
huggy๐ป what exactly is he doing to be a sap?
rowdy๐น all of you are idiots. before luke says anything, it's just a nice gesture as a way to thank charlotte
moose๐ซ you can call us idiots all you want rowdy. jack's is putting together a "book bouquet" for charlotte. he saw the idea on Pinterest
short king๐ shut up! you're telling me our jacky went on Pinterest and is putting this all together on his own??
jack's bf๐ง๐ผโโค๏ธโ๐โ๐ง๐ป oh my god so you are cheating on me
huggy๐ป he's for sure head over heels for her
moose๐ซ that's what I keep trying to tell him, but he's in denial
rowdy๐น I'm not in denial you assholes. it's simply a 'thank you' present and nothing more
moose๐ซ oh it is more, you just don't want to admit it
rowdy๐น whatever. think whatever you guys want to think, but there's nothing to admit. now I'm gonna finish this.
short king๐ boooo we want more drama on this chat
jack's bf๐ง๐ผโโค๏ธโ๐โ๐ง๐ป I can't believe I've been replaced, he ignored me
Throwing my phone back onto my bed, I look over to Luke and tell him to order my usual bowl for me. Laughing on his way out of my room, I refuse to acknowledge the group chat any further. They can think that I'm being a sap all they want, but I know I'm not. This is simply a present from a friend to another friend and that's it.
Ten minutes later, as I'm finishing wrapping the bow to the bouquet, Luke calls me to eat. Picking up the bouquet one last time and look at it with a smile, proud of my work. Placing it down on the bed, I pick up my phone and head downstairs to find Luke already stuffing his face "You started without me?" I picked up my bowl and a fork and walked towards the couch.
"You were taking too long dude. I'm hungry and we gotta get ready to head out soon." Shaking my head, I take a seat next to Luke as he watches some crime show. We sat in silence for a while before Luke spoke again, "So when do you plan on giving Charlotte her present?" Once I was cleared to play again, I asked Charlotte if she wanted to come to this game, telling her to bring Emilie along. She was more than happy to be at my first game back and accepted the invite.
"She's coming to the game later and I thought of giving it to her after the game. I'll leave it in the car and hand it to her then." Nodding his head, Luke and I continue to eat before getting ready for the game. Before leaving the house, I made sure to grab the bouquet and placed it nicely in the back seat as Luke took a seat on the passenger side. Earlier, I had worked out a favor with Nico to have his girlfriend, Gabrielle, meet Lotte and Emilie and the game and to have her sit with them to keep them company.
After the game
What a damn frustrating game. I was more than fired up to kick ass, but the universe had different plans. We lost by two points and it was disappointing. After completing a few post-game interviews, I finished getting ready to go out to meet Charlotte. I talked to Emilie beforehand to tell her to meet me with Charlotte. Every step I took to where we were going to meet only caused more nerves to bubble in my stomach. The results of the game were already upsetting enough, but if Lotte didn't like this gift I'd probably crawl into a hole for the rest of the night.
Seeing Charlotte in my line of sight the closer I got to her my heart rate picked up. She was talking to Emilie and Gabrielle and once the girls saw me they waved goodbye to Charlotte. Looking up with a sympathetic look, I could tell she felt bad about the loss knowing how much I wanted to win this game tonight. "Hey, I'm sorry you guys didn't win this one. I know how bad you wanted the win." Instead of replying to her, I just go in for a hug. I feel her arms wrap around my neck as mine go to her waist. "Hey Lotte, thanks for coming." When I say this it's barely audible as my face lies in the crook of her neck.
"I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Win or lose." We pull away from each other and she gives me a reassuring smile. "I have something I wanted to give you, but it's back in my car. Follow me?" She nods her head and I grab her hand to lead her to my car. Our fingers interlock and tingles shoot up my arm at the close contact of our hands. I wonder if she's felt what I just did?
Making it to my car, I click the key fob to unlock it. "Just stand right here and close your eyes until I tell you." Putting my two hands on either side of her I move her to stand right next to the passenger side door as she closes her eyes. Opening the back door, I carefully take out the bouquet giving it one last look to make sure it's just as perfect as it was when it left my house. Closing the door, I place myself to stand right in front of her and draw in a deep breath, letting it out right before I tell her to open her eyes.
When the words leave my mouth, Lotte is quick to open her eyes and I watch as they go wider by the second. She doesn't say anything for what feels like an eternity and rather than speaking actual words she walks up to me and hugs me. I move the bouquet over to one arm and return the hug with the other. "Jack, what is this even for? Not that I don't love it because trust me, I do." Shaking her head she looks up at me trying to figure out why I'm giving her this.
"Well, I'm more than grateful for the fact that when my idiot brothers asked you to keep me company while I stayed home from my injury you agreed. You always came over and kept me sane. This is just a little 'thank you' present." I smile at her and wait to see what she says. I hope that she doesn't refuse to accept the gift. I won't leave this parking lot until I see her take this in her arms and go home with it.
"You didn't have to give me anything Jack. I did it because I wanted to, but seriously thank you for this. Did you put this together yourself?" I pass the bouquet over to her and watch as she looks at every single detail. Her eyes are filled with amazement at the possibility that I could've put this together.
"Yeah, I got some help to pick out the books, but I put it all together. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, but it's nothing some YouTube tutorials can't help." I let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of my neck before placing my hands in my pockets. The lights from the parking lot shine in her eyes and I see what looks like tears building up in her eyes.
"No one has ever done something like this, let alone in the form of a present, for me." Almost like an automatic response, I take a step closer to her, put a finger under her chin, and move my hand to her cheek, wiping a stray tear that fell. "Don't cry Charlotte. You deserve a present just as special as you." I gently whisper this in her ear and watch her eyes move back up to meet my own.
It's almost like time completely freezes. My mind starts swirling and my heart feels like it's running a hundred laps at a mile a minute. I'm so lost in my world that I don't notice myself leaning in towards Charlotte. She starts doing the same and at that moment I realize that we're going so close to kissing. A tingling feeling in my stomach has me wanting to let this happen. Charlotte is a beautiful person inside and out and I love seeing her happy. Every conversation with her feels like a breath of fresh air and there's never a moment where I don't end up with a smile that hurts and an endless fits of laughter.
Our noses are brushing against each other lightly when my phone starts going off. I try to ignore it to finally make our lips connect, but my phone is practically jumping out of my pocket. Moving away from Charlotte, I let out a sigh of frustration and annoyance at whoever interrupted this moment. Looking up at Lotte, her expression mirrors my own. "I'm so sorry, I don't know who is blowing up my phone right now." Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I glance at it and see messages from the group chat with the guys and a few from my mom.
"It's fine I have to meet Emilie before she leaves me stranded. But thank you again for the gift. I love it!" Giving me one last quick hug, she holds onto me for a few seconds before letting go and lightly smiling at me, speed walking away towards Emilie's car. Once she's gone, I feel someone walk up to me and pat me hard on the back.
"Ready to head home?" My gaze is torn away from the direction Charlotte walked off to, seeing Luke now standing next to me. "Y-yeah, I guess." I walk over to the driver's side now with my head down, upset at the fact that Charlotte and I were so close to sharing a kiss, but before we could my asshole friends stopped it from happening. Driving off, I can only hope that this doesn't make things weird between us.
Edited: 11/17/24
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melissa speaks
Thank you so much for 1.43k reads on this story! It's absolutely mind blowing and I couldn't be more grateful! Another chapter solely in jack's pov, hope you enjoyed it.
Love y'all thank you again โค๏ธ
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