It was the best time of my life

Chapter 18

Charlie and I have been an unofficial item for a few months now. I realise I'm falling in love with her but I'm not sure how she feels. She's so open in some ways but when it comes to her emotions she keeps a lot bottled up. We have been sharing a bed almost every night for weeks and I love cuddling up to her. Waking up with her in my arms.
It's December now and I wanted to get her something special for Christmas. I know it's a week off but I've got her a necklace I think she will like. It's two hearts entwined and I'm hoping she might get the hint as to how I feel about her. She's going home to Wales for Christmas anyway so we are having an early celebration here before she flies out. She's decorated the room with a little Christmas tree and it looks really cute. She flies out tomorrow so I'm taking her out for dinner tonight. In a sense it's our first "date" being as we don't really go anywhere and I want to pull out all the stops. I've even dressed up in a smart suit rather than my usual skinny jeans. I'm waiting for her to come out of her room where she's been getting ready. The table is booked for 7 and it's 6:30 now so she shouldn't be much longer.
I hear the door of her room open and I glance up from my place on the sofa and my jaw drops in surprise. She's wearing a floor length purple dress which goes from dark at the bottom to lighter in the middle then dark again. Her hair is swept up and makes her look taller and she looks - well, stunning. I stand up and walk over to her.
"You look beautiful" I say, although that doesn't really come close to how perfect she looks. She gives me that mischievous grin of hers and kisses me lightly.
"Thank you my handsome man" she whispers in my ear, making me shudder with desire. I put my arm around her waist and we walk down to where there should be a cab waiting for us. A few people on campus see her, including Mike and Jaime who both wolf whistle at her. She turns and shouts "you wish" before laughing. They both look stunned because like me, they're used to seeing her in casual clothes. Or in my case, in no clothes quite often.
I open the cab door and we both get in the back seat. I tell the driver where we are going and we get there a few minutes later.
I tell the maitre'd that we have a table booked for 7 and he leads us to a quiet corner where the table is set for us, a reserved sign on it. I pull the chair out for her to take her seat and sit opposite, a smile on my face. We choose drinks and our starters and talk about our childhood Christmas' until they come.

Our meal over, we head outside to wait for a cab to take us back to campus. It's gone much colder and Charlie is shivering, so I take off my jacket and put it around her shoulders. She leans into me as I wrap my arms around her from behind and hold her close to me. She starts humming a song that was played in the restaurant earlier and we start swaying to the music, on the sidewalk, in the cold. Yet it's still so perfect. Being with her is perfect.