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Jeremy parks in the side lane of the Del Perro Apartments, home of the B Crew's “secret” penthouse, engine idling and fingers tapping at the wheel. His eyes flick up to look at the front doors, nervous about the coming night. He hopes everything will go as planned. It’s not too long before the door swings open, and out steps Cherry.
She’s dressed up beautifully, vibrant red jacket covering a white bustier, a pair of dark jeans hugging her curves, and Jeremy loses the ability to breath for a swift moment as she descends down the pathway. It’s close to what she wears normally, but that doesn’t bother Jeremy, whose elected for a plain jeans and leather jacket combo over his usual eclectic get-up.
“Hey, lovely.” Jeremy grins up at Cherry as she opens the door to his Tempesta (for once a tame colour of dark blue), stepping inside. She grins back, hair done up in curling waves, reminding Jeremy of the setting sun on the ocean surf, all fire dipping into glimmering strands of white.
He pulls away into traffic once she’s put on her seatbelt. No traffic laws being broken today of all days. Not yet, anyways, while the night is still young. Traffic’s surprisingly light when he turns onto Bay City Avenue, so it doesn’t take much time at all to pull up to Cortes Street and park near their first stop.
“The Pizza Coven, huh?” Cherry laughs and gracefully accepts Jeremy’s arm, after he'd sprinted over to get the door and help her out. She takes a second to grab her purse out of the car and adjust her jacket before she closes the door.
“Hey, you said you wanted something that was possibly greasy and full of flavour, so…” Jeremy laughs when she smacks his arm with her purse lightly. “I know this is our anniversary, but it feels right to not do anything too fancy, y’know?”
Cherry beams at him and leans over to give him a peck on the cheek. “I’m sure greasy pizza isn’t gonna do us any harm, even if I’m gonna get shit for not bringing any home. You know how much the others would kill for pizza.”
Jeremy laughs again and presses the fob in his hand, locking the car. They make their way around the corner of the sidewalk and up the stairs to the entrance, Jeremy holding the door open for his girlfriend. The place is fairly busy for a Tuesday night, and Jeremy counts himself lucky he asked about getting a reservation ahead of time. Once he gives his name at the front, the waitress leads them over to a corner booth and leaves them with a smile and the menu.
Jeremy checks his phone when it dings, quickly tapping away a message before he slips it back into his pocket. Cherry gives him a questioning glance and he smiles gently. “Nothing to worry about, just the Lads wishing me a good date.”
The waitress returns with water and takes their orders, disappearing back into the throng of people as she weaves her way towards the kitchens. Cherry’s taken to playing with the straw in her drink, and it gives Jeremy butterflies in his stomach. It’s been a year since they’ve officially started going steady, and he’s hoping to whatever god out there looking after him that nothing fucks this up.
They chit-chat about how each of them has been since they last talked, and it doesn’t take long at all for the pizza they ordered to arrive. Jeremy dutifully plates a slice for Cherry and then himself, and then he lifts his plate up to his face to inhale deeply, letting out a huge “ahhh” over how good it smells. Cherry laughs at him, and then flicks the paper covering from her straw that’s been balled up at him.
Jeremy gasps and retaliates with his own, narrowly missing it landing on her plate, and they both grin at each other before laughing and digging in to the food. In the time it takes Cherry to finish off two slices, Jeremy has already packed away at least three, and she’s nursing a bottle of liquor when Jeremy flags the waiter down for the bill. She groans good-naturedly and leans back to pat her stomach. “If I don’t fit these jeans in the morning I’m stealing yours.”
“Sounds good, babe.” Jeremy grins at her and waggles his eyebrows. “Though I’m not sure you’re gonna need to wear them in the morning.”
“Jeremy!” Cherry gasps, laughing. Stretching, Jeremy gets up out of his seat when the waitress returns, and once he’s done paying, offers his arm to his date. At the door, a delivery driver slips out carrying a large case of pizza, but he pauses when the pair walks up to hold it open for them. Cherry thanks him while Jeremy nods, and they watch as he hops down the steps and heads off down the sidewalk.
“Shall we go meander around the boardwalk, my lady?”
Cherry plays along, tilting her chin up just slightly and imperiously wrapping one of her arms around Jeremy's after standing. “We shall, my good sir.”
Jeremy’s smile brightens, and the pair step out into the evening sun from under the overhang. With the entrance facing the beach, the sun is casting a warm glow over large swathes of sand. The light shimmers across the waves rolling in, and over the roar of the pier he can make out the gentle noise of the sea. Jeremy turns his head to Cherry, and her eyes reflect the ocean, gleaming just the same.
Jeremy tells her she’s beautiful.
Cherry’s face lights up as red as the setting sun, and Jeremy insists.
“I really do mean it! You’re gorgeous, and I’m a fool not to say it every chance I get.”
Cherry shyly intertwines hands with his when he offers, and he uses it to pull her in for a chaste kiss, raising his other hand to cradle her cheek. “I’m so in love with you sometimes it hurts just to think about.”
“Jeremy, you’re gonna kill me one of these days.”
“Cherry, you’re gonna kill me regardless.”
She squeezes his hand and Jeremy sighs softly, tugging her closer for another kiss. “I can’t help it.”
“You can, you scoundrel.” Cherry makes a noise in the back of her throat, embarrassed. “Now, you told me you wanted to walk along the beach like, let me remember right, the cheesiest rom-com ever. Woo me, Dooley.”
“Wooing.” Jeremy replies dutifully, and together, they step off the sidewalk and into sand.
They spend the next two hours as the sun slowly sets wandering around the beach, dipping close to the water and back up to the storefronts. They pass by Arin’s coveted beachfront bar, and Arin herself is standing in the patio taking orders. She pauses briefly to wave at them, before turning to head back inside.
The sunset is gorgeous tonight, casting long purple and orange beams over the scattered clouds. In the distance, there’s the sound of children laughing and playing in the surf, and teenagers and young adults running rampant further up the beach.
Cherry convinces Jeremy to get her a small keychain of a little orange cat from a shop tucked away at the end of a row of tourist traps, grinning as he does. They’ve almost made their way to near Muscle Beach and have doubled back around closer to the water, to the sand sculpture of a shark. Jeremy takes a moment to lean against it, tugging Cherry close to him.
“You ever just want to stop and watch the fireworks on the pier?”
“Sometimes,” Cherry admits slowly, hesitantly leaning into his arms when he tugs again. “We can almost see them from the penthouse, but we’re normally too busy to watch them.”
“It’s a good night for them.” Jeremy checks his phone for the time, and takes the chance to reply to another message. “It’s almost dark enough for them to start, we could probably make it to the boardwalk and get some ice cream before they do.”
“From that new Cherry Popper place?” She asks him with a squint to her eyes. In the distance, her eyes snap to track a group of people sprinting down the storefronts carrying long cases, shouting at each other, and then over back to Jeremy when he taps her cheek.
“I don’t know, the Bean Machine has some pretty stellar cream…” Jeremy snorts at his own joke and leans over to kiss her cheek again when she frowns at him. “Yes, we can go check them out.”
“You’re the worst.” Cherry laughs and this time takes the lead, pulling slightly as their feet sink into the warm sand. The sun is just dipping down below the waves when they make it to the arcade on the edge of the pier, where all the non-fair food resides.
There’s a slight line-up going out the door, and for a brief moment Cherry thinks she spots Ryan turning the corner as they wait, but she shakes her head and whoever it was is gone. It’s another few minutes before they get to order, and she picks out a plain vanilla cone.
Jeremy picks out a cherry garcia concoction, and sighs after taking a lick of it.
“Nope, not as sweet as you are. I was hoping with the name and all...”
Cherry carefully shifts her ice cream to the other hand and smacks his arm. “We’re in public, please!”
Jeremy shrugs and grins. “Well, regardless, it’s almost time for fireworks.”
Cherry shakes her head fondly. They step out of the parlour, and this time she’s sure she sees Lindsay standing down the pier near the ferris wheel before she turns and sprints away.
“Jeremy.”
“Yeah?”
“Is that Lindsay over there?”
“Over where?”
“By the wheel. What’s she doing here?”
“If it is her, I don’t know. She said she had plans with Michael tonight before I left.”
“Odd…” Cherry frowns, heading to the railing on the back side of the roller coaster. Whether it was actually the self-proclaimed queen of cats and chaos or not, there’s no sight of whoever it was as they walk. She’s distracted from her thoughts once the fireworks start up, but instead of them being off the end of the pier where they normally fire from, it’s up on the beach near where Jeremy and her had just been.
There’s a slight commotion as people all around them stop and point, staring and talking amongst themselves. The seemingly impromptu show has a lot of reds, whites, purples, and oranges before finishing off with a big burst of green in varying shades, and the very obvious custom duck design of the Fake AH Crew.
Cherry pauses. Cherry turns to Jeremy. Jeremy grins and hands her a long black case he definitely did not have at any point before this, and she wonders which crew member dropped it off.
Cherry definitely does not start crying at this point. Jeremy shushes her and gathers her into his arms, whispering “I love you”, and “Happy Anniversary”, and almost a last minute “You should probably open that when we get back to the car and not here.”
She sniffles, wiping at her eyes with the napkin that had been wrapped around her cone. “Jeremy, did you have the Fakes plan a fireworks show so I wouldn’t notice one of them giving you this?”
“No, but I did tell them to make a distraction. I’m sure I saw Soren and Avery sneaking around earlier while we were eating.”
“Animals, can’t even let me have a date alone.” Cherry sighs fondly in jest and clutches the large case to her chest. She has a feeling she knows what’s inside it already, but Jeremy’s surprised her before.
It doesn’t take long to slip down to where they left the Tempesta parked, and there’s a note tucked under the windshield wiper that Jeremy snatches and crumples up before she can get a look at it. He mutters something to himself that she doesn’t quite catch.
“What was that?”
“Oh, nothing. You should open your gift now that we’re out of the open, though.”
Cherry suddenly remembers she’s holding a case, and gently places it on top of the car’s trunk before popping the latches on it. She gasps, tears springing to her eyes, and steps back.
“Jer…” She sobs openly, staring in shock at the very large gun nestled inside the case. The light hits it just right, showing off a very familiar shifting paint that gleams a deep red-orange-black. The metal is carved into a flowing blossom pattern, curling up around the stock to meet up with an engraved decal of a pair of cherries on a stem. There’s a very fancy looking scope and attachment kit nestled in the foam of the top half of the case, and the magazine is detailed with small embossed flames with a bright red band across the middle of it.
“God…. Jer…. I can’t accept this…”
Jeremy steps up behind her and rests a hand on her hip, while his other one gently tilts her head towards him as he kisses her softly. “You can, love. It’s all yours, every single piece of it.”
“How…. Why…?” She can’t believe it. Yes, she’s slowly gotten more gifts from the others after opening up to them, and the zippo Allison gave her always rests in her pocket, but this is a big gift. It means a lot, and she isn’t quite sure she can handle what it means without taking the time to process it.
“Because I love you.” He kisses her again when she turns in his arms. “Because you deserve it. Because the world was cruel and unkind and I want you to have every little bit of help you need fighting it back. Because I spent about 17 days learning how to carve metal and paint it, and all they’d let me help with was the magazine before the gunsmith kicked me out for hovering too much, wanting it to be perfect for you.”
“But…” Jeremy kisses her silent again. Cherry’s still crying, the tears dripping through her makeup lucky if they make it past the leather jacket enclosing her shaking body.
“I know you aren’t used to gifts, and that’s a damn shame, and I’m gonna rectify that however I can. So I got you a really cool sniper rifle, and another gift, and this date, and the entire Fake AH and B Crew working together to help me with this.”
“Another? What could you have that could top a sniper rifle?” Cherry hiccups and wipes at her eyes with her sleeve. “I knew I saw some Fakes earlier while we were walking down the beach. And Ryan at the ice cream parlour.”
“Ryan’s a sucker for sweet things, I’m not surprised. I also told him we were headed there so they had time to get ready.”
“Was that who you were texting all night?”
“Not just him, and it wasn’t all night. But c’mon, don’t change the subject. You have another gift in that case.”
“Wha… Another?” She peers down at the case and it takes her a second to see it, delicately placed in a spot where on any other sniper case there wouldn’t be an indent in the foam. It’s a pair of car keys. The fob on it is very, very sleek, and the key is solid black.
“Jeremy…” Cherry hesitates before gently prying it out of the case to look at it. Stamped across the back of the fob is the word “PRINCIPE”. She almost drops the keys in shock.
Jeremy closes the case for her and slides it into the trunk. He wraps a warm, soft hand around hers and smiles. “Shall we go see it?”
Cherry nods, still in shock, and lets him lead her into the passenger seat. She absently pulls on the seatbelt when prompted, and spends the entire ride back to the penthouse running her hand over the key fob, back and forth.
Jeremy pulls into the back lot, parking in one of the open visitor stalls. He collects the case from the trunk while Cherry takes a deep breath and gathers herself before stepping out. She’s digging in her purse for the garage fob when Jeremy stops her at the door, taking a hand in both of his. “Don’t worry about the door.”
She makes a confused noise, and then notices it’s been propped open, and there’s a note taped to the window. Jeremy lets her read this one, and her eyebrows raise upon seeing Allison’s loopy scrawl:
‘We didn’t park it in your spot because we figured you’d want to take it for a spin. Or take Jeremy for one. Both work ;). Have a stellar night, we love you! and also please remember you’re buying groceries tomorrow <3 ’
Cherry snorts at the note and tucks it away in her purse before wiggling in through the now open door past Jeremy’s arms. She heads right for the elevator, swiping her private access card by the reader to open the doors, and is joined by Jeremy right after in time for the doors to slide open.
It’s a quiet ride, and Cherry idly flips the Principe fob in her hands. This night seems so surreal, she’s not sure what to expect. But Principe only has one flagship car, and so, it could logically be only one model.
She’s proven right when the doors open, the rest of the crew’s cars have been pulled away from their neat rows, and front and center is the car of her dreams. Cherry tries to refrain from screaming, and manages it just enough to let out a choked sob. Jeremy laughs quietly next to her and guides her closer.
The Deveste Eight sits low to the ground, all sleek lines and glimmering paint that exactly matches her brand new sniper rifle. The lava red iridescent gleams as she circles around, and it reflects off the chrome of the bumpers and wheel rims. The windows are tinted, but through the windshield she can see the interior is solid black with red stitching. Hanging from the mirror on a green string is a pair of red balls, styled to look like cherries with the stem.
She clicks the remote start on the fob, and the car rumbles to life with a purr that makes her shiver. A soft red glow reflects onto the floor from the underglow and Cherry can’t help but turn around and pull Jeremy close to her, kissing him hard. She’s crying, laughing in shock and happiness through her tears, and when they break apart Jeremy wipes them away.
“Wow…” He breathes, smiling a little goofily at her. “Wanna take her for a ride?”
“God, yes. No. Maybe.” Cherry reaches out to open the driver’s door, and shivers. “This doesn’t feel real. God, I bet I could reach an easy 100 in this without even trying.”
“I heard it can go as close to 130 without any mods done to it.”
Cherry kisses him again, wipes her eyes, and runs her hand over the interior before ducking into the driver’s seat.
“130, huh?” She grins, wiggling around in the seat to get comfortable. Jeremy opens the passenger side door and slides the rifle case into the storage behind the seats, getting in quickly after.
Cherry revs the engine, rolling her shoulders. She takes it slow up through the parkade, and just the idle power of the Deveste Eight makes her dizzy. The night’s fully fallen by the time she pulls out, and there’s barely any traffic around when she pulls out left onto North Rockford Drive, heading out to Highway 11.
“Better buckle up, Jer. This might get a little... wild.”
No traffic means no reason to follow the lights, and Cherry spins the tires with a grin, catching the sight of red billowing behind her before she floors it. The force pushes her back into the seat from the kick of it, and she laughs as they all but fly up the road.
They make it up to Tongva Drive in what feels like only seconds, and she cranks the wheel to the side and they drift hard onto Marlowe before fishtailing straight. She has to slow down, just a little, from all the curves, but under her hands the wheel drags smooth and easy, and she sets a course for Jeremy’s private apartment.
She has all the time in the world to play around in this dream car, and the new sniper will be going through its paces soon, but right now, she needs to show and tell her wonderful boyfriend just how much she loves him, and how damn thankful she is for her gifts.
It’s a lot.
Cherry makes sure to mention it for the rest of the night, over and over again.
Jeremy says it back just as much, and peppers her with kisses between every word.
(She does end up wearing his jeans in the morning.)
