Checkmate

Extra Hot

Elliot's POV

Because me and my friends have terrible time management skills I only had just over a week to find the perfect Secret Santa present for Ro. I was scrolling through Amazon on my laptop on Sunday night. I was sitting on the settee when Sim came into the room. "What are you doing?" He asked me.

"Looking for Secret Santa presents," I muttered.

"If you told me who you had I could help," Sim sat on the edge of the seat trying to look at my laptop. I closed it.

"No that's not the point of Secret Santa," I sighed.

"Well I know it's not me, you wouldn't struggle with what to get me," he shrugged. "If it helps I'm making something for mine."

"It doesn't really help because I have no talents."

"You have talents-" I cut him off.

"Not that I can use in this context. I can't draw I'm not crafty, I can't bake or cook."

"If you're going to bake you might as well give them coal," he joked to lighten the mood.

"Oh fuck off I am not that bad," I sighed. "I just want to get him something he'll like."

"Well, what do you know about him? What does he like?" I cast my mind to everything that I knew about Ro, I stalked all of his social media to see if there was anything that I could use. I know of lots of little things that he likes but nothing like big that I can get him. Then it hit me! What if I made like a gift basket for him with lots of little things? I used to do this all the time when I was younger. That could definitely work!

I had until December 23rd to get all the things I needed and then to also wrap it up, I quickly dived onto Amazon to find the main piece. One thing about Ro that I find really funny is that he unironically adores the Twilight film franchise. I think I know the perfect joke but also not a joke present. I'm so sorry Oli.

On Friday night, as I was getting ready for Checkmate, I got a private message from Charlie. "Hey El, I hope you're doing okay. I need your help. I got Sim for Secret Santa and I want to bake something for him but I don't know what he likes. Do you know his favourite?" Oh my god, Sim is so lucky, Charlie always brings homemade snacks with him whenever he comes to movie night or to a munch.

"Hey, Charlie! Sim really likes chocolate," in more ways than one I thought to myself "he's been eating a lot of blondies lately. He also really liked those strawberry cheesecake truffle things you made the other week. He's going to be so excited when he realises!"

"Thank you so much! I really hope he likes it."

When we arrived at the club a couple of hours later we made our way to the back table where we always sit. Masters Nathaniel, Janus, Warwick and Francis were all sitting together. We greeted them happily and sat down. I looked around but couldn't see Master Thomas anywhere I wondered if he was even here today. "If you're looking for Thomas, he's training the new boy tonight," Master Warwick told me. My heart felt heavy all of a sudden.

"Oh," I said more sadly than I would have liked to. Luckily my friends didn't even seem to notice.
"Lucky!" Sim sighed. "You know I haven't really met him yet," he added.

"No, me neither we should invite him to join us. It must be pretty boring to be here alone," Robin suggested.

"I've spoken to him a couple of times at the bar, he seems nice but yeah he doesn't really seem to have joined a group yet," Ro said. I put my straw into my mouth and sat back and listened. I can't judge someone from just meeting them once, that's not fair. I'm sure he is really lovely.