Deception || Jack Wilder [1]

| 12. new orleans

"This is perfect." Maeve turned and smiled at him, her eyes twinkling in excitement. Jack grinned and grabbed Maeve's hand, pulling her along into the crowd.

Jack took her everywhere there was to see in New Orleans from the French Quarter to the restaurant with the best gumbo in Louisiana. After they ate and went sightseeing, Jack took Maeve to watch the parade.

Different colored beads covered the streets as thousands of people placed them around the couple's necks. Maeve's neck became sore from all of the plastic necklaces weighing her down, but she didn't care one bit.

They watched as people went crazy. A few drunk people climbed on top of carts and buildings to rally up the people crowding the streets. Maeve ended up seeing someone flash her, which made Jack die of laughter. For her, it wasn't funny.

At all.

Maeve pulled Jack into the boutiques along the parading avenues since she wanted to be inside after what happened. After a couple more giggle fits and asking the person his name, Jack finally agreed to show Maeve around.

Jack decided to show her the beautiful masks that the locals wore for Mardi Gras. He knew the best places to buy them, whether they were cheesy Walmart brands or handcrafted one-of-a-kind masks.

As they were looking through the masks, Maeve couldn't take her eyes off of the one that caught her attention. It was a back mask adorned with sequins and bordered with pearls. The side had blue feathers, giving it a sense of elegance.

Much to her protests, Jack bought it for her as well as a small voodoo doll keychain from the black voodoo magic store in the French Quarter.

"C'mon." Jack pressed on, holding up the small keychain. It had a black hat stitched onto its head and a small magician suit around its body.

Maeve hated cheesiness and sappy romantic crap, but deep down she secretly loved how someone would put that much effort into it. Jack knew that about her.

"That's so cheesy."

"But it's cute."

Maeve rolled her eyes and walked towards a potion section in the small boutique. "I can't believe you're buying me a cheesy magician voodoo magic doll on our first date."

"But you love it." Jack grabbed her hand, pulling her back and wrapping his arm around her waist. "I know you do." Kissing Maeve's lips, he let go and walked to the lady on the opposite side with cash in his hand.

Maeve watched as he kindly talked to the lady while paying for the things. She noticed him look back at her for a brief moment before nodding to what the lady was saying.

Maeve felt something different whenever she was around Jack. He was everything to her. He was something special that Maeve never dreamed of because dreaming wasn't even close to how she felt. Thinking these things over, she realized something.

Maeve realized that she was in love.

When the couple got back, Jack walked Maeve to her dressing room. "This was probably one of the best nights of my life." She admitted, looking up at him.

"Good."

The way Jack was looking at her gave her butterflies in her stomach. "Jack." Maeve murmured as he slowly leaned his head towards hers.