now or never - charlie gillespie

chapter thirteen

The next three days we spent every minute together. If I was at work, he would wait for me in the lobby. I'd always try to sneak away to sit with him for a couple of minutes. It was perfect that Ava could always cover if I wanted to go check on him.

Whenever I was off shift we spent our time with everyone at Sawyers.

Today we were going to an amusement park. It was a little far away but the car ride there with Charlie was really fun. He always knew how to make every dull moment special. The radio in his rental car malfunctioned 5 minutes into our car ride. We had to listen to "I want it that way" by the Backstreet Bots the whole way there.

I tried my best to try and make his time here fun for him, but he always wanted to stay in. Sawyer was kind enough to let him stay at hers the entire time he was here. I however, unfortunately, couldn't have anymore sleepovers. My dad would start to get suspicious. He loves Ava and Sawyers, he just doesn't trust me.

"I'm actually really excited for this," he said to me strumming his hands on the wheel to the tune of the song.

"Me too. I've always wanted to go ever since I saw the Notebook," I said looking out of the window.

"Huh?" Charlie asked confused. I realized he couldn't hear the voice in my head so I had to explain.

"Oh well, there's a scene in the movie where they go to a carnival or something. It was really cute," I said smiling at me.

His eyes shifted from the road to me several times. "Wait. Have you never been to an amusement park?" He asked me.

"Nope," I said shaking my head. "I've always wanted to go on a date there."

I instantly regretted saying that. What if he thought I assumed this was a date?

"Don't tell me you've never been on a date before," he said laughing. I stayed quiet. "No way. I don't believe it," he said once he put two and two together.

"Well, not technically. I've dated before, but all of my dates were supervised by my father. It always had to be in my back yard," I said a little embarrassed of how sad I sounded. I looked out of the window again to distract myself from saying anything else that might embarrass me.

"We're here!" He said. "And if it's an amusement park date you want, then I'll make sure it's the best amusement park date you'll ever have." Charlie said getting out of the car and opening the door for me. "Ma'am," he offered me his hand.

"Thank you," I said blushing.

We walked around for a while, overwhelmed with everything there was to do. We didn't know where to start. "Ooo! We need some snacks first, you know, so we can throw them up later on. First rule of fight club," he said giving me a thumbs up. I watched as he ran over to a vender and grabbed some popcorn an cotton candy for us. He came over to me and handed me one of each.

We probably rode every single ride there was. There was a ride in the shape of a giant dragon. I stopped to take a picture of Charlie in front of it. I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I turned around and an old lady said "let me take one of both of you together," taking the phone from me. I turned to Charlie and he just opened his arms and grabbed me, pulling me close to him. We took a couple pictures where we were just hugging. I looked up at him and smiled really wide. I don't think I could ever be happier than I am in this moment.

"Do a roar," Charlie said showing me his face so I could copy him. We stuck out our hands and pretended to be dragons.

"You two are such an adorable couple," the old lady said handing me back my phone.