Moment in the Sun

25. First

Charlie POV

When Nick and I returned to Leeds back in January after spending the holidays at home with our families, we'd gotten serious about starting plans for our wedding. We decided on a date in October and were lucky enough that our dream venue had an opening on the date that we wanted. After that, things seemed to fall into place naturally. I asked Tao to be my best man and Elle to be my maid of honour. Nick had asked Tara and Darcy to stand by him but that was before we knew everything that happened to Darcy. She'd originally said yes but after everything came out into the open, she decided that she would be too pregnant on the day for her to be any help, so Nick decided to only have Tara.

Darcy's baby was due in late November so she and Tara were busy making plans for the arrival. The rest of the Paris squad had been told about the pregnancy in May and to say they'd been excited would be an understatement. Tara and Darcy didn't share much about the events that caused the pregnancy but I think most of the others had their suspicions, choosing to let Darcy tell the truth in her own time. The group chat got spammed with baby updates, discussions of baby showers, presents and all things baby-related.

In June, Nick and I decided that we would stay in Leeds for the summer for the most part. Since we weren't staying in student housing we could be there as much as we wanted. Elle and Tao planned to come and stay with us for a while and we did go home for a couple of weeks in August, getting back to Leeds just in time to start classes again.

I can't believe I'm in my second year of uni, and Nick is in his third. It means that Nick is nearly finished, his teaching degree only being three years. I'll take a bit longer to get mine in child psychology but we plan to stay in Leeds together until I graduate and then decide where we want to settle down.

It's a sunny afternoon in September and we're lying in bed together, an old episode of Criminal Minds playing quietly when Nick suddenly pulls away from kissing me and sits up.

"Charlie!"

"Ugh, what? I was enjoying that." I complain, pouting a little as I sit up too.

"We haven't ordered a cake."

"Really? That's what you're thinking about?" I frown and flop back down against the pillow. I don't understand how Nick's brain works sometimes.

"Sorry, I just heard someone on the TV say cake and it made me think that we haven't ordered one for our wedding."

"So?"

"So, it's in six weeks, Char. I don't know how long a baker needs for a wedding cake." He's got this slightly panicked look in his eyes, the same one he gets whenever he gets stressed. I sit up again and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Okay. In the morning we'll call around and see what we can do. But for now, can we please get back to the kissing?" He relaxes a bit and smiles at me.

"Just kissing?" His hand gently slides up my leg, inching higher as he lays back down on top of me, "Or do you want something more?"

"Hm, I'll have to think about it..." I tease him, letting my fingers dance over the exposed skin of his lower back.

He captures my lips with his own again, hands dipping under the waistband of my pants as he rolls us over so I'm hovering over him.

"I wanna try something different." He mumbles after a while and I look at him, intrigued.

"Yeah? What's that?" A red flush covers his face and he pauses. "Nick? What do you want to do? You know I'm up to try anything."

"..." He turns his face away and mutters something so quiet I can't make it out.

"Nicky? Baby?" I scatter a few kisses over his cheek before turning his face to look at me.