Let Love Win

Chapter 18 - Zeek

I sat down at a table in the food court of the mall and sighed deeply. Brad plopped down in the seat beside me and Mel sat across from us. We'd been walking around the mall for almost 3 hours looking for something to get Hadley for her birthday. The dinner that Monty and the boys had planned was scheduled for tomorrow night. Mel was giving her a mall card to come shopping for whatever she wanted and Brad had bought her a bottle of tequila. But according to Mel. I couldn't get her anything along the lines of that stuff because I was her boyfriend.

Of course, both of them had been telling me all week not to leave my shopping for the last minute but I was also a guy and never listened. And being a guy, we had our needs and even though my shopping is being done last minute, Hadley had taken care of my needs very well the past couple days. All that being said, here we were sitting at the mall, coming up empty for presents.

I'd tried looking for clothes to get her, but Mel said it was an insult if I got her the wrong size. Then I tried looking at jewelry, but Mel said she didn't wear jewelry enough for me to get her something in that department. I wanted to get her a coffee mug because I knew for sure that she drank coffee, but Brad said not to do that because it would make me look lame. And now, thinking back on it, it was lame considering she worked at a damn café.

"Ok, I know I'm a girl and everything, but this is too much shopping for me," Mel complained.

"It's not my fault that every idea I've come up with has been shot down," I retorted.

"But it is your fault that you refused to listen to us when we were telling you that you should go looking for a gift. All. Fucking. Week," Brad added.

"Shut up, I had previous engagements."

"Banging your girlfriend is no excuse."

"That's not all we did so calm down. I was hanging out with the boys too."

"Yeah, for how long before you took Hadley into her room and had your dirty little way with her?" Mel asked suggestively.

"Ok, we're not here to discuss my sexual escapades. I'm looking for a present for my girlfriends' birthday. And unless you want me to f=give her sex for her birthday, we better come up with something."

"What about perfume?" Brad said looking at Mel for confirmation.

"Unless you're trying to indirectly tell her she smells bad, perfume isn't the best thing to get a girl for her birthday. That's more of a Christmas present," she said.

It was quiet at our table for a while as we all brainstormed different things to look for. I was enjoying how unscripted our relationship was and how she wasn't your typical teenage girl. But at the same time, it caused problems for occasions like this, when I couldn't get her something that I would get any other girl. I was at the point of pulling over a bunch of girls and asking them what they would want to get for their birthday from their boyfriend. But then that would be the typical, cliché presents and Hadley would kill me.

"Spa day?" I suggested.

"That would work for a fake present," Mel pondered out loud.

"Fake?"

"Yeah, you know the present that she opens in front of Monty and the boys. But there has to be something that she opens when it's just the two of you. Something to get her libido going: her real present."

"What if we wrapped him up and put him under her bed and she can open him after dinner?" Brad asked.

I couldn't help myself, I started laughing. Mel of course was less than impressed with our joking around, but it was funny. I could just imagine her face when she walked in on me on her bed covered in wrapping paper.