cold beginning [ONGOING]

twenty-five

Cynthia:

"Holy crap! Jacobs, can you sign my shirt?"
"Me too!"

I quickly dropped Ashton's hand not wanting people to be aware of whatever we were yet. Only my girls and I'm sure Ash's friends know. But I trust them. He looks at me with a glimpse of sadness across his face.

"Of course guys." He walks closer to the girl at the ordering counter and asks for a marker. The two boys are now looking at me. The one waves so I give him a little wave back even though we are a foot apart.

"What's your name, little dude?" He pulls his shirt to give some type of tension to be able to write on it. "Trevor!" He signs a little note to 'Trevor' along with his signature and his jersey number. 'Ashton Jacobs, 98'

"How about you?"
"Hunter! Just like Hunter Olsson, your backup captain!" The other boy exclaims in Ashton's face as he is bent down to their level.
"Oh that pain in the butt." A smile slips onto my face as well as both of the boys laughing. He finishes signing his shirt and they say their goodbyes to each other.

He tilts his head at me to follow him to the counter where the girl, the same age as me I assume, is standing.

"I didn't know you were famous." Her voice sings to Ashton with her bent over on the counter on her elbows squeezing her boobs together.

"I play in the NHL." He says looking up at the menu hung above her head.

"I love sports! Maybe I can come to your next game." She smiles at him.

"Sure. Baby, can you tell her the website to buy tickets on?" He looks down at me and smiles.

"Just search up 'The Elysians' and you'll be able to get them." I stated.

"Well I was hoping maybe to get invited rather than buy the tickets silly."

"I'll have a medium vanilla and my girl will have a large strawberry to go please." Ashton says to her as he is still looking at me.

She sighs, "Okay, $8.36 please." Before I can get out my wallet he lays his card on the counter. After it ran through the machine he put it back into his pocket. A moment later she comes back with our ice cream and we walk out. As always, he opens the car door for me and waits until I'm situated to shut the door. Once he gets in, turns the car on, and hands me my ice cream I stare at him until he stares back at me.

"You're not my boyfriend." A slight smug smile comes on his face.

"And?"

"You don't have to go turning down girls just because we are hanging out."

"That was a girl?"

I push his shoulder, "Shut up."

Still laughing, he raises his hand to bring my chin up at him so we are looking at each other.

"I didn't turn her down because we are hanging out Thia, I turned her down because I have no interest in anyone that isn't the girl staring back at me right now."

I hum in response and a laugh escapes from him.

"I'm serious." Ashton says to me.

"Okay." I drag out the 'y'. "You also know I'm fully capable of opening my own door, right?"

"I never doubted you to open your own doors Cynthia, just wanted to help you out."

"Okay."

"Yea?"

"Yea fine." He leans over and kisses me.

"Where are we headed now?"

"Let's stop by at a park for a little."

I nod and he goes back to driving with one hand and the other on my leg. I eat my ice cream careful not to get any on his seats. He moves his hand slowly up and down my thigh, and oddly enough I felt secure with him. The park was only a few minutes away and once we got there he lent down to hit the button which opened his trunk. He got out with both of our ice creams, and by the time I grabbed my phone and wallet in my hand from the middle compartment he was already opening my door for me.

"My lady." With his one arm reaching out to usher me out of his car. He grabs my hand once the door is closed and leads me to his trunk.

"So this is where I die." I mutter under my breath and before I can figure out if he heard it,  he pulls out a blanket and throws it over his forearm while still holding our ice creams.

"Come on." He gently pulls me to a shady spot under a tree. He drops my hand from his and lays out the blanket.

"You had this planned?" We both sit and he hands me my ice cream.

"In my defense, I thought we were going to be eating real lunch. But yes."

I place my things as well as my ice cream down on the blanket and jump into him with a hug. No one has ever thought something out like this before for me.

He places down his ice cream as well and wraps both his arms around me pulling me into his lap. With one hand he rubs my back while the other is still wrapped around my waist.

"I'll plan something bigger nex-"

I cut him off by kissing him and he immediately responds by kissing me back. After a few moments he pulls back and I look at him confused.

"Stay with me tonight."

"What?"

"After my practice tonight, I'll drive you back to your apartment and you can pack for the trip. Bring them back to my place and we can leave for the airport together."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." He leans back in and kisses me once more.

"Can I take a picture of us?" He asks, almost shyly which causes me to laugh.

"Of course." He pulls out his phone from his pocket and takes a selfie of us both smiling at each other. Straight after, he replaced his what used to be a simple black wallpaper with the photo of us and I watched him smile down at it.