Chapter 18★

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Jacques

Surprise, surprise I've managed to survive another year.

You've heard it head first folks, Jacques Michael has managed to survive another year, luckily this one hasn't involved too much conflict on his behalf.

Jacques twitched his eye sockets open, although they fought to close as hard as he urged them to stay put.

He lay in bed grinning from ear to ear, at the thought of the day that's itinerary lay mapped out in his head.

Charlotte had this thing for birthdays; like it was her legitimate right to make it the most enjoyable day of the year. Hers had just past last week and as soon as it was over she was already planning the antics of his.

She is so thoughtful.

He knew he shouldn't be thinking of her this early in the morning, but he was absolutely smitten with her, even if she failed to see

Which was remarkably hard, considering the looks he cascaded her way every couple of glances.

It then stunned his nocturnal mind, that the reason why he had been disturbed from his slumber, was due to a buzzing noise coming from his front door.

His forbidden thoughts were drained from his mind, as the doorbell to his flat alarmed his senses to wake up.

It was 6AM, Jacques was hardly what he would consider a morning person, despite his optimistic outlook on most things.

He turned the latch and chain off, as he beckoned his early acquaintance to enter.

He stood wearing barely any clothes in a fairly dazed state. "It's open," he blurted out, as he turned to make some coffee for himself.

Charlotte kicked open the door, dressed in her oversized sweatshirt and pyjama bottoms, she had an adorable party hat placed on top of her head and a birthday balloon firmly held in her hand.

"Happy birthday Monsieur Michael."

She whizzed over to Jacques's practically naked body and energetically found her way into his arms.

Her scent made him somewhat speechless for countless fragments of a second.

"Charlotte, you know I love you, but it's too early for me to really appreciate your company."

Charlotte mocked his grumpy attitude,by tickling the sides of his stomach until she achieved a bundle of laughter, which escaped his protruding mouth.

She beat him at his own game. She knew him too well by this point. He loved her attention really.

"Okay sleepy head, I know you'd rather sleep your whole day away than celebrate it with me." She teased him.

Jacques set out two cups of coffee and after gulping down his, he finally felt a little more awake.

"It's not that Charlotte, but some of us still need to work on our beauty sleep." He yawned.

Charlotte couldn't help but admire how sweet he looked when he still needed a couple more hours of sleep.

He was like a little fractious puppy, she just wanted to stroke him all day and watch his tail wag in amusement of her company.

They were the perfect match when it came to enjoying themselves with one other.

"Okay sailor, I've gotta do a couple of jobs in the office before I see you later for our real celebration." She tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, she seemed a little stressed.

"Anyways, thought I'd just drop in and see you before I jetted off. Don't have too much fun without me." She pecked his cheek and left in a hurry.

I won't, he thought to himself.

Jacques stumbled back to bed. When he woke up a couple of hours later for the second time; he wasn't quite sure whether he had just imagined the whole morning's events.

But the vacant coffee cups and balloon confirmed that he wasn't completely delusional, when it came to his best friend being overly affectionate towards him on occasions.

Although Jacques despised the idea of interacting with a group of people on his birthday, Charlotte had convinced him that he couldn't be selfish for his whole life.

He guessed she was right, although he refused to ever admit it to that woman. She would gloat in amusement and he would never live it down. She was like that.

In all fairness, he had to admit that she was magnificent at organising gatherings.

She had invited all of his closest friends, a number that astonished Jacques when he usually considered himself to be quite antisocial at times.

The entourage were dressed in elegant dresses and dapper suits. He couldn't draw his eyes of her.

She looked ravishing.

She'd organised a low key dinner party. His favourite part of the evening was that they glided down the River Thames at the same time as doing so.

Scenically it was beautiful, but Jacques stomach had other ideas of where his alcohol-fuelled adventures on this boat would lead him in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

As did his diabolical thoughts, that procrastinated and took advantage of his relaxed state.

The day had passed him in an instant so he decided to take a moment to collect himself,in a calamity of serenity.

A mischievous grin was exposed across his youthful looking face.

"Happy birthday mate." Otto patted him on the back out of respect, " Scrub up well for a skinny bloke don't you."

"Mate, you know I've always had that old trick up my sleeve."

Otto was suited and booted in his finest tux, which illuminated the hard work he'd been putting in at the gym. Scrub up well for a fat boy slim.

"Seen any birds you like the look of?" Otto was always on the prowl for his next victim, he was a good looking lad so it didn't take long for him to spot one.

Or for them to spot him, Jacques still couldn't distinguish where they flocked from.

"I've just enjoying the view at the moment mate."

"Me too." Otto licked his lips as a woman with rather large assets b-lined across the deck.

The night ran smoothly and Jacques was so grateful that Charlotte had gone to the efforts of planning such a wonderful evening dedicated to him.

As the evening progressed, Jacques could feel himself become less and less in control of his actions.

In fact he would have preferred if he could have been this relaxed more often, without the hypnotic effect that alcohol had on his brain.

As he was submerged in attention from faces he hadn't been able to seen for a while, he felt the urge to speak to her, as she'd been avoiding him since their encounter earlier that morning.

He spotted her by the bar, but it caught his attention that Federico wasn't by her side, which of corse was unusual as he barely refused to leave it.

Jacques decided to take his chances and approach the gorgeous woman lounging by the bartender.

Her silhouette did things to his imagination he knew it shouldn't have.

Gently he placed his hands in front of her eyes and whispered behind the crook of her neck, "Guess who I've managed to track down after interrogating all the party goers."

"Well if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were referring to me." She was comfortable with his touch brushing against her skin and twirled her body around to face him. She looked impressed to his surprise.

"Did I ever mention, how handsome you look when you make an effort." She examined his attire by turning her head to his direction, allowing her hair to cascade across here bare shoulders.

"I would say that was he first compliment I've ever received from you, that I would call sincere." He returned her stare and simply beamed at her.

"Charlotte I just wanted to say thank you so so so much for putting all of this together, I dunno where I'd be without such a beautiful and wonderful best friend like you."

She twinkled in the rings of his irises and stunned his vision for a couple of seconds.

She was everything he wanted in a woman and yet she was completely unobtainable.

In that brief second, Jacques completely forgot about the fact that Charlotte was taken. The prize possession of another man.

He just knew that he wanted to show her how much he appreciated her existence in his life.

Jacques pressed his lips against her mouth and caught Charlotte by surprise whilst her guard was down.

For that brief second he felt her return his gesture, passionately almost as if she felt their unspoken connection as much as he did.

But as quickly as the moment had passed, it finished.

Charlotte looked slightly bewildered and a frown framed her face.

"I'm sorry, Charlotte I'm not sure what came over me. I'm drunk and that was just meant to be a thank you note." He stuttered, trying to gather the wits about him.

Her expression softened as she realised, what he was saying was true. "I know sweets." A pained expression dressed her face and he could feel his own mirroring hers.

I glanced at her hand and then I notice the Jewel that lay on her fourth finger; the symbol that she would never be mine.

"Charlotte, I'm so sorry I didn't notice your ring." I gulped before I wrapped my arms around her; safe and secure.

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