New Year's Eve

"Jane? Jane? Have you seen my cufflinks, love?"

"On the dresser!"

"They're not here!"

Jane dashed out of the closet of their new loft in SoHo, looking absolutely ravishing, Charlie thought, in a black bra and knickers set with lace trim.

"What are you talking about?" she asked in exasperation as she scooped them up.

"Just wanted to see you one more time," he said with a grin as he grabbed her around the waist.

"Charlie Michael McAllister!" she laughed, hitting his chest.

"Jane Bennett Carroway!" he responded, rubbing noses with her.

"We're going to be late," she murmured, closing her eyes and tilting her head as he leaned into her neck.

"I'm the star, they'll wait for me," he replied, nuzzling into her.

"It's a new year's eve movie premiere, I think the time table's pretty tight," she said, finally managing to pull away.

She slipped back to the closet to finish getting dressed, just managing to pull her dress on before she heard Charlie calling her again.

"Jane? Darling?"

"Yes?"

"I need your help with these cufflinks! I've bollocksed them up somehow," he called plaintively.

"You'd better not be messing around this time," she said, emerging from the closet. "I can't go to your premiere half-dressed, okay?"

"Not messing around, see?" he held out his cuff, which was, indeed, twisted in some weird way. "Though you look smashing, I must say," he added. "Why don't you just go like that?"

She deftly adjusted his cuffs and twisted the cufflinks while he leaned in and pulled apart the front of her unbuttoned dress with his free hand.

"Jesus, Charlie, in the words of the immortal Prince, act your age, not your shoe size," Jane said, though she was laughing. "Now give me your other sleeve."

He held out his other sleeve while continuing to mess around with Jane's dress. She finally managed to fix the cufflink, but he grabbed her before she could leave, holding her close.

"Jane, Jane, hold up for a sec, just calm down for a mo, please," Charlie entreated.

"What?"

He looked at her, from her unbuttoned front, up to her face, where he fixed on her sea glass eyes. "You're beautiful, you know that, right? I mean, you really, really know?"

She looked down, letting her hair fall forward, before looking up, meeting his warm gaze. She nodded, smiling softly. "Yes," she said firmly. "I'm beautiful."

This was a ritual for them, and a very big deal. Charlie knew, from going to therapy with Jane, that she'd had nightmares where there were things wrong with her body, terrible things.

A common dream was one where her breasts were somehow on her body backwards, so they were hollows pointed into her body, and she had to go to school like that, and everyone saw her. And she dreamed that they were like that when she was recorded in the car with Charlie, too. Or that she had no eyes. Or that her teeth were falling out.

Awful, humiliating, things.

Charlie had no idea her body image issues went so deep.

But she was getting better.

"Kiss me, Jane," Charlie murmured, and she leaned into him with her lips parted, so he could taste her sweet, sweet mouth.

"Made me hard for you, Jane," he said, smiling as he leaned his forehead against hers. He rubbed his hips against hers, and he saw her close her eyes from the sensation.

"You're going to get so lucky later, Charlie," Jane said, rubbing her hips back against him, making him see stars from the husky tone of her voice.

He quickly did up the buttons on the front of her dress, kissing her collarbones first. He admired her as she walked away from him, hips swinging, long legs moving beautifully in the black dress.

Naturally, Charlie was ready way before she was, so he sat in the dressing room and watched her finish putting her make-up on, chatting and keeping her company.

"So you really like this place?" he asked. "The location and everything?"

"Yeah, don't you?" she responded, brushing a little powder on her cheekbones.

"Sure, but I really want you to be happy, that's the important thing," Charlie said, reaching out to pat her bottom.

She caught his glance in the mirror. "What about you? Your happiness?"

He blinked at her. "As long as I'm with you, I'll be happy," he said with a small smile.

"Charlie, you need to stop, or you're going to make me cry, and I'm going to have to start all over," Jane admonished, blinking rapidly.

"I'll stop, I'll stop," he promised with a grin, "as long as you acknowledge that you are an absolutely enchanting young woman who fulfills me in every way, okay?" And he reached out and patted her bottom again, though not in a sexual way at all.

She smiled at him and nodded. "You too, Charlie, you're enchanting."

They made it to the car with minutes to spare, and made it to the red carpet, where they walked together, and smiled and held hands, and Jane didn't look down or worry that people were picturing her in the back of the SUV with Charlie once.

One of the reporters asked Charlie if they planned to attend the Grammys next February.

"Yeah, I think so," he said, slipping an arm around Jane's waist. "I'm nominated, and it's another chance to see my girl all dressed up, so why not?" And he kissed her cheek.

And later, another reporter asked, "It it true that you're taking a break from show business?" She asked it in a joking way, not really expecting a serious response. Many reporters had asked this over the past few weeks, while Charlie was doing press for Manhattan Nights, but he'd been evasive in his answers.

"Actually, yes, that's true," Charlie replied, shocking the hell out of the reporter as well as everyone around them who could hear him. "We're both matriculating at Cambridge next year, so I'll be taking the next four years off to be a full-time student, yeah," he continued with a grin, knowing the effect his words were having.

"Really?" the reporter asked, recovering quickly. "What are you going to study? And what are you going to do between now and then?"

"We haven't decided yet what we're going to study, and we're going to travel a bit, I think," Charlie responded in a pleased voice. "Just enjoy being together, you know? Be happy."

"That sounds wonderful," the reporter gushed. "Anything to add?" she asked Jane.

Jane shook her head. "Not really. I think Charlie said it best. We just want to, um, yeah, be happy."

The End

🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄

December 1st, 2018
For those of you who were hoping for a bit more, I've written a one shot about Anna and Bear for Christmas that I added after this epilogue. It originally appeared in a Christmas Anthology, but IDK how many ppl will read it now that Xmas is over, so keep scrolling for a bonus chapter about Anna and Bear!
Oh, and in the Love Letters book, I wrote a letter from Anna to Bear and a letter from Bear to Anna, both of which are pretty cute if I do say so myself 😉Maybe I should put those in here as well? Hmm, I'll have to think about that...