“You know sometimes I dream ‘bout fifty-five years from now, gonna still be you and me watchin’ that sun goin’ down. I’ll still be stealin’ your kisses, I’ll still be holdin’ your hand, I still look at you and I pinch myself, good Lord I’m a lucky man…”


Charlotte giggled as Darcy groaned and lowered himself down into the bobsled. At six foot five and sitting as far back as he could, his legs were still uncomfortably bent in the shallow seat. Once he buckled himself in, Charlotte stepped carefully in between his legs and sat down in front of him. With her back against his chest, she buckled herself in and tilted her head to the side to look back at him.

Their day had mostly just begun, but since he’d come by to pick her up that morning, he had a smile plastered to his face. One of his birthday gifts to her were tickets to Disneyland, but if Charlotte was being honest, she thought he was getting the same, if not more, amount of fun out of the day. As an LA native, Disneyland was no new thing to Charlotte. She’d grown up having an annual pass, spending many summer days here, but never quite grew tired of it. So for the Saskatoon boy behind her, this was a once in a couple decades kind of day.

Compared to the last few birthdays she’d celebrated, Charlotte couldn't think of a better way to ring in twenty-five. The park was not absurdly crowded yet; schools were still in session before the holidays, and tourists hadn’t really begun to flock there yet. As the bobsled started to move, she faced forward, and held onto Darcy’s arms as he wrapped them around her stomach. This ride was similar to the other few they’d been on so far, in that they weren’t necessarily designed for someone Darcy’s height. Charlotte giggled around each turn and dip around the Matterhorn partially because it was fun, but mostly because the poorly padded seat did little to protect Darcy’s body against the bumps and hits it took along the way. When they finally slowed and came around the base of the mountain, Darcy leaned forward (nudging Charlotte forward as well) and cracked his back.

“Okay, old man,” Charlotte giggled, hearing Darcy let out a relieved breath.

“Grandpa’s not meant for Disneyland,” he patted her hip when she unbuckled and stood up.

She waited for him before pushing open the half gate and continuing on to the next ride, “but Grandpa’s always good when I’m riding him.” Charlotte winked and linked her arm with his.

Before they could get very far, Charlotte led Darcy over to a churro stand. It was bound to be the first of many churros she’d eat today. Once he paid, they were off and hopped in line for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. With all the children around them, they both tried to keep their PDA to a minimum. Maybe some hand holding or leaning against each other in line, but on the drive over, Charlotte mentioned that she didn’t want to be one of “those couples”. They didn’t need to kiss at Disneyland for her to know that he loved her, and so they agreed not to do so until the end of the night.

Charlotte sat on one of the railings as she waited for the line to move, and held the churro up to Darcy’s mouth. He smiled and took a bite and raised his eyebrows in pure delight. The no PDA rule was tested for the first time, when the cinnamon sugar on Darcy’s lips looked too good. He seemed to be reading her mind because he shook his head playfully and licked his lips clean.

“Having a good time?” He smiled and leaned against the railing too.

She nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder as she took another bite of the churro. “Can’t think of a better way to spend my quarter of a century birthday,” Charlotte licked the sugar off her fingertip. “Are you going home for Christmas?”

Darcy shook his head, “because it’s only three days. I’m gonna wait until the second week of January because we have a week off. Will you come with me to meet my family?”

They both moved forward a couple steps to take their new spot in line. Charlotte took his hand when they stopped, “do you think they’ll like me?”

“They’ll love you,”

She looked up at him, hoping his expression would convince her. She’d never met a boy’s family before. Most of her boyfriends didn’t last that long. “What about Sundance? I’ll be there the last week of January,”

He shrugged, “I’ll have to see what the schedule looks like.” When he glanced down at her and saw her expression, he hooked his arms over her shoulders and held her tight, “you know I want nothing more than to be able to go to Sundance with you.” He watched her nod as she leaned into him, “both our jobs are pretty demanding. You’re becoming a big deal in your industry and the NHL is strict.”

“I’m not becoming a big deal,” she looked up at him when she felt his hand find a spot on her lower back, gently guiding her forward in line.

Darcy giggled as though he didn’t believe that at all. No one got this much attention from the biggest film festivals in the world and wasn’t a big deal. On some level, they both knew that. As they meandered through the line, it dawned on Charlotte that this no PDA thing was going to be harder for her than she thought it would be. Never in her life had she been someone who felt like she needed to be in physical contact with someone. She hadn’t been that way with her past boyfriends.

But nonetheless, she was that way with Darcy. So they kissed in Hell. Or at least the Disney version of Hell. A room heated to a toasty ninety degrees with a bunch of weird animatronics popping up with horns and a pointy tail. Darcy smiled at Charlotte’s fervor and cupped her face as he kissed her back. Just as much as she was relishing this kiss, he was too, as he knew it would probably be the only one he got until they were back in the car and heading home. When the doors opened up and their tiny car entered the daylight once more and became visible to the rest of the public, Darcy and Charlotte looked like the perfect platonic couple.

---

“What do you mean you’re not getting a Christmas tree? What are we supposed to do for Christmas?!” Charlotte asked, genuinely concerned. She reached down an unclipped Chief’s leash, watching as he ran into the kitchen and began lapping up water.

Darcy flicked on the TV and switched to a football game. Because he was focused on catching up with the game, he hesitated with his answer. But when Charlotte came into the living room and pulled him to the couch, all of his attention switched to her.

“What are we gonna do, Darc? We can’t be the only people on the block without decorations,”

“I thought we’d just celebrate Hanukkah,” he grinned and pulled her legs into his lap. At the same time, Chief came barreling in and jumped on the couch between them.

“But there’s no decorations for that. Just a menorah,”

They both looked over at the silver menorah on the window sill. The candles were already set up for the night, waiting to be lit. Darcy leaned in and kissed Charlotte’s forehead, “I like it, it’s nice. Plus you get to sing a little prayer when you light it,”

Charlotte rolled her eyes and got up from the couch. She ran into her bedroom, coming back out seconds later, now toting a snowman covered gift. “Don’t pay attention to the snowmen… I wrapped this back when I thought we were going to be celebrating Christmas,”

Darcy got up and went for the tiny closet by the front door. Charlotte was confused as to why, until he pulled out a wrapped gift of his own. He came back to the couch and handed it to her. “You first,”

She smiled at him and tucked her fingertips beneath one edge of the wrapping paper, “can’t believe it’s already been a year since we met.”

He placed one arm on the back of the couch behind her shoulders and watched her hands. “Almost one year since we first had sex,”

Charlotte’s jaw dropped and she stopped unwrapping her gift in order to slap his arm, “that’s all you remember from that night?!”

Darcy continued to stare at her hands as she continued unwrapping. By now the paper was gone, and she was getting ready to tear into the box. “I remember how gorgeous you looked in your dress, and how you tried to act so cool in front of me. I remember how you left afterwards and wouldn’t let me walk you out to the car, and how I felt like an ass for the rest of the night because I should’ve followed you anyway,”

Sometime within that, Charlotte stopped focusing on her gift. And when Darcy stopped talking, she grabbed his face and kissed him slowly. He smiled against her lips and returned her kiss with the same amount of passion. But when they pulled away from each other, and Charlotte popped open the box in front of her, it took everything in her to not stop immediately and kiss him all over again.

The necklace was dainty, but it was extraordinary. The circular sapphire was surrounded by small diamonds around its entire circumference. Charlotte clutched at her chest as she stared at the piece of jewelry. When it dawned on her to look up at Darcy, she noticed his eyes were locked on her. The goofy grin on his face was all she needed.

“This is amazing! Here,” she handed the necklace to him and turned away, lifting her hair up into a ponytail. Darcy looped his hands around her and secured the necklace on her neck. Once she set her hair down, Charlotte wrapped her arms round Darcy’s neck and kissed him. She held him close and set her forehead against his, “it’s stunning… too much,”

Darcy smiled and cupped his hands over her cheeks, “not nearly enough.” He kissed her once more, “okay, my turn.” He pulled away and tore apart the wrapping paper. Before long, he was pulling open the rather large cardboard box cover. When he noticed the tissue paper laying flat against the bottom of the box, he flicked his eyes over at her. She nodded and urged him to keep at it, and pulling back the tissue paper, Darcy found a picture printed out of a model in a suit. “You got me this man?”

Charlotte rolled her eyes and leaned back into the couch, “yeah he’s in my closet between the sequin dress and the velvet one.” He didn’t move at first and so Charlotte nodded her head to the side, “go on.”

He looked confused, but nonetheless, got up from the couch and disappeared into the bedroom. Charlotte could hear him sliding hangers across the metal bar in the closet, and when all went silent, she knew he had found his gift.

He came out moments later, holding the hanger in his hand, “an Emporio Armani suit.”

Charlotte smiled at the dark navy fabric. Darcy was bound to look good in it. “This is where you say, thank you babe. I love you, babe. Now I can say I own an Armani suit, babe.”

“This is too much,”

She waved her hand dismissively, “no it wasn’t.”

“You don’t have a job and this suit is nearly two thousand dollars,”

“It’s already paid for, so…” She smirked and leaned back, “plus the film is winning monetary prizes at some of these festivals,”

“Char,” he tried to protest again.

“Darcy Kuemper, I love you, happy Hanukkah, now model this suit for me.” She pointed towards the bathroom and refused to hear anything more until he walked away. Charlotte smiled victoriously after the bathroom door shut and could only faintly hear Darcy’s insistent complaints about the gift being too much. Even though he undoubtedly had spent over a grand on the necklace, he still had a lot to say.

Then he came back out and Charlotte understood how great of an investment she had made with the suit. It was perfect. He was perfect. He filled it out perfectly. She couldn't take her eyes off of him, and so she didn’t. Instead, she stood, walked up to him, placed her hands on his hips and examined him. Darcy chuckled and stared lovingly at her when her hands moved from his hips and smoothed out a wrinkle on his shoulder.

“You shouldn’t have gotten this for me,” he whispered. This complaint was much gentler than the others, as though putting on the suit had eased his feelings of protest.

“Same could be said for the necklace,” Charlotte whispered back, standing up on her tiptoes. “Let’s just make a deal to wear our gifts to Sundance, alright?” Her face lit up when he giggled, and she kissed his jaw, moving towards the center of his lips, “but for tonight, give me another gift?”

Darcy wrapped his arms around her waist and held her against him tightly, “what’s that?”

Charlotte raised her eyebrows playfully, “your cock.” She kissed his lips once more before walking past him and into her bedroom.

Notes

"Good Girl" by Dustin Lynch

Yes, I'm aware Matterhorn no longer has you sit like this. RIP.