Morning Looks Good on You - [Shawn Mendes]

Chapter 17

I wake up to the sound of Shawn scrambling around the apartment, I get up to see what's happening.

"Oh sorry did I wake you?" He asks shoving some papers into a bag before swinging it over his shoulder.

"Ugh Yea but it's cool" I say yawning.

"I completely forgot I have a meeting in" He looks at his watch. "20 minutes" he grabs his notebook and a jacket. "It should only be an hour, two hours tops, you can meet me after in the city, I'll text you the address it's close to the main shopping area so you can go shopping" He scribbles his number onto a page of his notebook before tearing it out and handing it to me. "Use the path to stay dry" I look at him confused "the underground walkways, it's not that far" he then smiles at me and rushes out the door.

I look down at the paper in my hand, thinking about how many girls would love to have this. I enter the number into my phone and text him to say it's me so he'll also have my number to give me the address.

I change into jeans and a long sleeved tee, I eat some cereal before putting on my raincoat and heading out. The underground walkways are the coolest method of city travel, there's shops, cafes and people busking. Once I'm pretty close to the address Shawn gave me I exit the path and head into the shops, I buy a couple of tops and a skirt but I have to stop myself or I won't be able to fit everything into my rucksack. I notice some really nice photo frames in the home section of shop as I'm wasting time, I think of the photos on Shawns bedside. I buy a few frames in the same colour as the wooden floor of the apartment so they will match.

I head into a small cafe and get some coffee, I sip on it watching the rain pour down outside. I post up some of the photos from yesterday, I then do the rounds of texting my family some updates on my travels.

My phone buzzes.

SM:
'I'm bored'

:JM
'Are you still in the meeting?'

SM:
'Yea, they're talking legal stuff that I don't understand'

:JM
'Surely it should be over soon?'

SM:
'Hopefully so I can see your amazing skating skills'

:JM
'Don't get too excited lol'

SM: 'Either way I'm excited! Also, can't believe you didn't return the favour and carry me to bed last night 😮'

:JM
'Sorry I'm weak lol I did get you a
duvet though!'

SM:
'Why didn't you wake me?'

:JM
'Cause you looked you cute 😉'
:JM
'I did try to wake you but you were completely passed out lol'

SM:
'Hey! Don't use my own flirting against me, I must've been even more tired than I thought haha thanks for the duvet!'
'think this is wrapping up now meet me at the address in 5 mins?'

:JM
'No probs'

I down the last of my coffee and walk over to the address, it's an extremely tall building. I stand outside under some trees and wait, a couple of minutes later Shawn's jeep pulls up on the kirb and I hop in.

We pull up at a small community centre Ice rink.

"Shawn it says it's closed" I say looking at the closed sign hanging on the door.

"Not for us" he says getting out of the jeep, grabbing his kit bag.

"Hey Chris how are you" Shawn says to a little old man that I assume is the caretaker.

"I'm good, nice to see you back" he says patting Shawn on the back.

"This is Jenny" Shawn says and Chris shakes my hand.

"You kids have fun" Chris says tossing a set of keys to Shawn.

"Usual place?" Shawn asks and Chris nods before leaving.

"What was that?" I ask.

"This is where I trained to play ice hockey, Chris is an old friend he always lets me do this" he says as we enter the rink. Shawn jogs ahead of me sliding in behind the counter. "What size of skate madam?" He says in an overly polite voice.

"Ugh 5 UK size or 38 European size, I don't know what shoe sizes you use" I say. Shawn browses the skates for a moment before handing me a pair.

I sit down on a bench and put the skates on, Shawn appears with two hockey sticks and a puck. Whilst he's putting his skates on I get onto the ice and try to familiarise myself, Shawn laughs as I almost fall over but after a couple of nervous laps I build up some confidence.

"You coming or what?" I say leaning over the wall of the rink. He finishes tying this skate and joins me on the ice, he makes it look so easy.

We skates some laps, Shawn overtakes me multiple times. He zooms past me causing me to loose my balance and fall onto my knees and he laughs at me before coming over to help me up.

"What am I doing wrong? Why can't I go as fast as you?" I say.

"Well it's down to practice, but you also need to stop thinking about falling and just skate" he says before taking my hand and skating beside me, we skate along and I feel much more confident. "See? It's not that hard you're just overthinking it, who cares if you fall it's only us here" he let's go of my hand and I continue skating along as confidently as I can.

Shawn grabs the hockey sticks and hands me one, he passes me the puck and I slowly dribble with it before passing it back to him and he immediately scores from the half way line.

"Show off" I scoff, he smirks at me.

He retrieves the puck and dribbles straight at me, he fakes right then passes the puck straight through my legs.

"Oh come on, this is just mean" I whine.

"Well do something! don't just stand there" he says. I skate towards him and try to take the puck but he's able to move it out of my reach, I take my stick and gently hit him behind the knee causing him to wobble and I steal the puck. "Okay that's definitely not allowed but I'll let you off this time" he says as I skate away laughing.

I skate towards the goal as fast as I can but he beats me there blocking the puck from going in, I have no idea how to slow down or stop so I end up skating straight into him and we both fall.

"Okay I know it's a contact sport but I don't think that means skating straight into people" he says laughing.

Our faces are so close, how do we keep ending up in this position. I try to get up but I can't get any grip, I collapse onto his chest in defeat.

"I give up, just leave me here forever" I say and he chuckles. He helps me up and we play hockey for a little longer, I score eventually but end up falling on my victory lap.

"Well I have a whole new respect for ice hockey players" I say taking my skates off.

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