Fallin' For You-Part 3

THIRTY-FOUR

 After school, Edaline dropped Sophie off at Fitz's house for the afternoon. Sophie had no idea why he wanted to hang out, but there really didn't have to be a reason. She was super happy to hang out with Fitz!

Sophie knocked on the door and was greeted by Alden, who told Sophie that Fitz was in his room. Sophie thanked him before skipping up the stairs to Fitz's door.

She knocked on it and made sure he said, "Come in!" before she walked in. She found Fitz sitting on his bed, scrolling through his phone.

His room was decorated in green, blue, and white and it looked extremely clean and neat. But the part that made her smile was the fact that the dinosaur statue she'd gotten him last year sat on his bedside table.

"Hey," She said, causing his head to snap up from his phone. "I'm here,"

Fitz flashed her his movie-star smile. "Great! Are you ready?"

Sophie blinked. "Ready for what?"

Fitz laughed as he stood and put his phone in his pocket. "I'm taking you somewhere,"

"Okay," Sophie said as she followed him down the stairs. "Mysterious..."

Fitz laughed again as they went into the kitchen to see a classic picnic basket set on the counter. "We're going on a picnic,"

Sophie laughed from joy. "That's awesome—and really sweet,"

Fitz smiled. "Of course," He grabbed her hand and led her outside to his car. "Are you ready?" He asked as they got in.

"Yep," Sophie said before they left the Vacker's house and made their way to green space with trees and a shiny lake surrounding it.

"This is beautiful," Sophie said with a smile. "Thank you so much,"

Fitz grinned as he got out and opened the car door for Sophie. They held hands as they walked to a patch of grass under a shady tree.

"I also brought some entertainment," Fitz said as they put out the blanket and unpacked the food and drinks. He reached into the basket and pulled out a bag of puzzle pieces.

"Oh, wow," Sophie said with a small smile. She'd never really liked puzzles, but she tried to sound genuine.

"We can eat and then do it together," Fitz said with a grin as he handed Sophie a plate.

"Great idea," Sophie said. She didn't want to ruin this nice time by saying she didn't want to, so she went along with it.

The things that Fitz brought looked so good. It was fruit salad, chips, brownies, Cuban sandwiches, coleslaw, lemonade and cinnamon muffins.

"Are you sure we can eat all this?" Sophie asked with a laugh. "It is just the two of us,"

Fitz laughed with her. "Don't worry, Biana told me that any food we didn't eat that she would eat it."

Sophie laughed again before they both started eating. The food was so good that Sophie was shocked that Fitz said he'd prepared it all.

"I'm sorry for sounding surprised," Sophie said with a nervous laugh. "But, wow, I thought your mom had fixed it."

Fitz laughed. "She offered, but I told her I wanted to do it. And don't be sorry—I'm just as surprised as you are. I didn't know it would come out this good."

They ate for another ten minutes—with happy and joking conversation between it—before Fitz brought up the dreaded puzzle.

"Are you ready?" He asked with a smile.

Sophie really, really, really wanted to tell him that he should probably take her home because Edaline might get worried, but she knew that'd be a terrible excuse and Fitz would think she was a terrible person.

"Sure," She said as Fitz poured the black and beige puzzle pieces on the blanket in front of them. "What's it supposed to be?"

Fitz shrugged. "I have no idea." He started to sort out the pieces. "I guess we'll just have to find out."

Sophie tried to repress her sigh before she started helping Fitz with the puzzle. It turned out that Fitz was as good as putting together a puzzle as she was at not tripping.

So the project was slow-going.

And the puzzle made no sense. It was probably supposed to be some sort of word, but Sophie had no idea what it was supposed to say.

So she made an excuse and said she needed to call Edaline about something important. She was glad Fitz let her go with no questions, and Sophie got up and walked all the way to the lake.

She kept her phone up to her ear to pretend like she was talking to someone, but in reality she was staring at the lake and talking to herself.

"Why'd he choose a puzzle?" She asked herself. "Why couldn't it have been a deck of cards or maybe even monopoly?"

After ten minutes of standing near the sparkling lake, Sophie decided to head back to Fitz. She stuffed her phone in her pocket and started walking back, but Fitz walked over and met her a quarter of the way to the picnic area.

"I finished it, except," He placed a puzzle piece in her hand. "I wanted you to finish it."

If Sophie liked puzzles, this would be a romantic gesture, but she just nodded and walked over to the puzzle.

But what she saw when she got there made her gasp.

At first, the puzzle had been super confusing, but now she finally realized what it was supposed to spell out.

The background was a beige color, and in cursive, black letters was one word.

Prom?

Except there was a piece missing.

"Oh my goodness," Sophie said, turning to Fitz. "This is amazing," Her eyes started to tear up and she tackled Fitz with a hug. "This is the sweetest thing ever,"

Fitz smiled as he hugged her back. "...is that a yes?"

Sophie laughed. "Of course," She walked over to the puzzle and completed it with the piece in her hand. "Thank you so much,"

Fitz smiled as he pulled her into another hug. "I'm sorry it took me so long. I was so nervous I'd do something stupid—and I wanted to make it perfect."

Sophie laughed. "It was," She told him. "Everything about it was perfect."

"I'm glad you like it," He told her as he pulled away from the hug—but he still had his arms around her. "So, are we going to match?"

Sophie smiled. "Of course we are." Sophie was so excited that she pulled him into another hug. "This was awesome—thank you Fitz."

Even if you don't like Fitz, you have to admit that it was a pretty cool idea...