The two of us spent the whole week in each other's company, I had convinced Harvey to let us work from home for the week and I went to pick it up from the GCPD. Ed waited in the car as I went into the precinct, meeting Harvey at the desk.
"Hey, Harvey." I greeted him, a pleasant smile on my face.
"Oh hey, kid. Here's some of the work, you guys are lucky its one of the quieter weeks." He exclaims.
"Is there such thing as a quiet week in Gotham?" I joked and he cracks a small smile. "Hey, hubby!" I called out to Jim jokingly and he shot me a playful look.
"Are you allowed to say that now? I mean wouldn't your boyfriend be jealous?" He shot back. Harvey stiffened and my eyes widened in confusion.
"What do you mean?" I feigned innocence and pretended like I had no clue what he was talking about.
"I'm a detective Alice, I pick up on things." He hummed, multi-tasking between talking to us and looking over his own paperwork. "Friends don't kiss each other and then stay at each other's place, I'm gonna take a bet and say he got you that necklace." He points to the piece of jewelry and my fingers graze over it instinctively.
"You got together with the riddle freak?!" Harvey looked at me incredulously.
"He's not a freak, he's lovely." I defended him, my cheeks tinting red.
"Ding ding ding, they are definitely together," Jim replied, a smug look on his face.
"I'm divorcing you." I spat at him, picking up the folders I was there to collect. "My relationship isn't your concern." I began to walk away but I turned around. "You're just jealous that Ed's getting more action than you Harvey." I winked with a laugh, turning the situation back on him and leaving.
Walking past the small cafe I couldn't help but go in, seeing the same woman that had been there the last time I was. She greeted me with a warm smile and a certain sense of enthusiasm, the weather had cooled down significantly in the past week so I thought I would surprise Ed with a coffee since I didn't have any at my house.
"Hello, welcome to Cup at Joe's what can I get for you today?" Her voice was chipper and it gave me a nostalgic feeling of when I had been the same with Edward when he came in.
"Can I get a medium cappuccino with no sugar and a medium black tea please?" I order with a polite smile.
"Absolutely, that'll be eight dollars." I handed over the money and she gave me back the change. "Won't be a moment." I nodded, taking a seat, I took the time to place the folders into the over shoulder bag I'd brought with me so I could carry the beverages with two hands.
She made the coffees in no time and I was on my way out of the store in no more than ten minutes, impressive to say the least. I bid her goodbye, carrying the cups one in each hand and focusing on not slipping on the ground that had seemed to develop a thin coat of ice. I got to the car unscathed, resting one cup on the roof of the car to open the door. I handed one cup to Edward before getting into the car, closing the door beside me.
"Medium Cappuccino, no sugar." He nodded gratefully, we did a lame 'cheers' before taking a sip only for my senses to be overwhelmed with the taste of coffee rather than tea. "Okay maybe not." We swapped our cups and I took a sip of my tea before putting it in the cup holder.
"You remembered my coffee order." He hummed with a chuffed smile.
"I was a barista, that was basically my entire job description." I retorted and he smirked playfully. "This weather really makes me want to go ice skating," I state, glancing out the window to see tiny snowflakes drifting from the sky, Ed looks slightly nervous.
"Ice skating? I've never been, are you sure you don't want to just stay at home?" He offered.
"You've never been ice skating? What do you mean? Now we have to go! I'm pretty sure there's one just on the outskirts of Gotham." I begin to drive in the direction I remember seeing on the internet a while ago.
"Are you sure?" I held his hand with the one I wasn't steering with and gave it a squeeze.
"You are going to love it I promise," I assured him and he looked slightly less terrified.
We got to the ice skating rink in less than an hour, which wasn't too bad considering how far you had to travel to find anything decent in Gotham. It was a fairly large rink, the rails going around in a massive circle and people skating in the center of it. I parked the car and got out as fast as I could, eager to get on the ice. Ed was more hesitant than I was, not sure whether he really wanted to do it.
"C'mon Eddie! it'll be fun." I took his hand in mine and playfully dragged him to where we had to pay for skate hire, I paid for the both of us much to his dismay and we collected our ice skates. I laced mine up and stood on them, taking a second to gain my balance while I waited for Edward to finish getting his skates on.
"I'm not sure if I want to do this." He states hesitantly but I pull him up onto wobbly legs and I grip his arms to help keep him stable.
"Yes you do! I've been ice skating for as long as I can remember, you're in safe hands." He nodded slightly and I guided him to the rail of the ice, skating onto it gracefully.
Edward almost fell, his shoulder not still completely healed but I was quick to stop him. Steadying him and making sure we kept eye contact, he was terrified but too embarrassed to say anything so I took it slow.
"Alice, I don't think- Alice Oh my goodness Alice no!" He yelled and I held back a laugh. He had a death grip on my arms and his legs were shaking uncontrollably.
"Edward, hey look at me." His eyes met with mine. "Stop over calculating, I know you are thinking about every possible outcome but I need you to just look at me, I'm not going to let you stack it." He relaxed slightly, his grip never loosening but his posture starting to straighten. I kept eye contact with him and slowly began to skate backwards toward the middle of the rink.
"You have beautiful eyes." He comments, trying to take his mind off the situation I'd forced him into. We got to the middle of the rink and I let go of one of his hands but kept hold of the other to keep him stable he looked around with a sense of pride, not completely terrified.
"So do you." I replied, blushing lightly. "See look it isn't too hard right? You got to slide your feet one after the other." I showed him how to do it and with wobbly legs and his other arm waving wildly in an attempt to steady himself.
"Alice!" He calls out frantically and I giggled lightly before helping steady him again. I guided the both of us around until his posture changed completely, more confident and relaxed. He wasn't nearly as clumsy and he took my other hand, the two of us had made our way back to the center of the rink, the snowflakes drifting to rest on our noses. "You are truly an exquisite creature." He mumbles, bringing us closer together.
"I'm a creature?" I reply jokingly but he silences my laughs with his own lips pressing against mine. We pulled away from each other, the trails of our breath intertwining and fogging up Edward's glasses.
"I'm going to have to take these off." He pulls off his glasses and puts them in his pocket, looking back to me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. His freezing fingers graze my warm tinted cheeks as he holds my face in his hand, he leans a little too far forward and the two of us come crashing down onto the ice. He lands on top of me, propping himself up on his forearms as our clothes begin to soak.
I began to laugh at the both of us before looking back to his face, biting my lip lightly to stop laughing. My cheeks burned crimson now but I finally mustered up the courage to lean up and kiss him, wrapping my arms around the back of his neck to deepen the interaction. We noticed that our clothes had gotten progressively colder and we helped each other stumble back to our feet, sharing childish laughter and stolen glances while we skated to the edge of the rink.
"How much fun was that?" I gush, happy to have gotten him onto the ice, among the other events.
"Surprisingly entertaining." He replied simply but the egotistical smile told me that he'd had more fun than he was letting on. As we were tying the laces of our regular shoes I noticed a girl that looked no older than fifteen approach us with hesitance.
"Um excuse me uh-" She stumbled over her words, her eyes on the floor and her foot tapping nervously. "But I have a school assignment coming up and I'm a photography student you see and I was just wondering well." She fiddled with her fingers and I looked at her in confusion. "Well I took a couple of photos of the two of you on the ice and I know it might be like a total invasion of privacy but I was just going to ask if you know um well if I could use them for my gallery showing? The topic is love and this would really fit the criteria but It's ok if you don't want to." She rushed out all in one breath and finally took her eyes from the floor to meet mine. I gave Edward a look and he nodded to me, I turned back to her with a warm smile.
"Of course you can. Would you mind if we saw them?" I asked her and she nodded her head, a smile growing on her lips at our permission. She took the camera that hung around her neck and clicked a couple of buttons before handing the device to Ed and I. I took the camera and let Edward look over my shoulder at them.
The pictures were stunning, she was talented, that much was clear. The pictures made us look as if we were straight from a movie screen, the perfect couple in everyone's favourite romance movie. She had perfectly captured the most romantic moment Edward and I had shared so far and I was so glad that it was now something physical we could look back on. She awaited our praise in front of us, anxiously waiting for what our verdict of the picture was.
"These are beautiful." I gasped out with a pleased smile. "You have so much talent..." I trailed waiting for her to tell us her name.
"Eliza, thank you." She looked chuffed at the compliment. Edward took the camera from me, further inspecting the images.
"Is there anyway we could get a copy of these pictures? They are quite spectacular." Edward scrolled through the small array of them.
"Of course! Uh um I'm going to be getting them printed now if you'd like to join me, only if you want to that is." Edward looked at me for my decision and I nodded with a shrug, not having anything else to do this afternoon anyway.
"Sure, may as well." The two of us following the obviously introverted girl to a small shop that seemed to specialize in photo printing, something I didn't even know existed until now.
We'd all introduced ourselves and had carried on small talk throughout the small journey. Ed intertwined our fingers silently and I felt my smile grow into that of a giddy school girl unintentionally. Eliza continued to gush over what an 'adorable couple' Edward and I made, the both of us basking in the fact that we could call each other such things without getting embarrassed.
Printing the photos was no hassle and Eliza had graciously offered to pay for a lovely frame but I insisted that I would pay for it anyway. Ed and I both wished her luck on her showcase and she wished us luck on our relationship and we parted ways. We had decided to get two of each photo to have in our own separate apartments, both in lovely frames that would go nicely with our decor.
On the way back to the car we passed a pet shop and I couldn't help myself, immediately going in and leaving Edward to follow me. The first section was puppies, there were multiple people there, mostly children begging their parents to take one home. I bypassed the section, little children scaring me and I was slightly more of a cat person truly, the cat section was almost empty bar the staff member and I gave her a polite smile, kneeling down to see the kittens. They were all adorable but the one that really caught my attention. It's body was pure black with enticing blue eyes.
"You can hold her if you'd like." The woman offered.
"Can I? Thank you." She handed me the small ball of fur and I pet it lightly, it started to put in my hand as I held her close to my body. "She's beautiful." I stated rubbing her behind the ears.
"She seems to like you." The lady says before I feel a hand on my waist, I glanced up to see Edward, he looked at the cat with a bit of hesitance.
"Look Ed, isn't she adorable?" I ask him, handing the kitten to him to which he simply shakes his head with a hesitant chuckle. "I've always wanted a cat but my building doesn't allow pets." I sigh looking down at the adorable animal.
"It is quite cute." He admits, slowly putting his hand out to stroke her head. I give it back to the lady and it meows at me but I had to leave before I bought it.
"We should head back anyway." I turn back to the staff member. "Thank you." She smiles in return, leaving Ed and I to return home.
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I wrote this chapter in front of a fire place at an antique desk in the loveliest hotel and I'm not going to lie when I say I'm really proud of it, writing happy scenes isn't my forte (Gotham Gazette readers would know ahaha) but I've found a new love for light hearted writing so yeah I hope you guys liked it!
LOOK AT THIS PIC OF ALICEEEE!!!! MY SISTER MADE IT AND I HATE HER MOST OF THE TIME BUT YOU CAN DEFINITELY SEE SHES THE ONE THAT GOT THE ARTISTIC GENESSSS.
But yeah have a nice night and pls appreciate this art cause I'm obsessed.
~Mikayla