After stopping back at her hotel room to comb her hair, brush her teeth, and grab her favorite pink knit scarf, Jen climbed into her black Audi and drove to the Steveson Library. Her heart fluttered; she was bubbling with excitement. Tonight, she would be meeting her on screen lover and real life best friend /alone/. Best friend... yes. Whether or not she was willing to admit it to herself, she hoped for him to become something more. Meeting him... yes. Whether or not she was willing to admit it to herself, she hoped for their little meet up to turn into something more. Why had he been so mysterious when he passed her the scrawled invitation on a scrap of paper from his script? There couldn't be a reason besides him being up to something. She knew she was knee deep in a prank war with him, but whether or not she was willing to admit it to herself, she would be seriously pissed if that's all this turned out to be. As she pulled up to the library parking lot, she decided to just hope for the best. She could already see his beat-up beige Ford parked in the corner. He was standing by the front doors of the building, fiddling with his coat. Jennifer took a deep breath, unhooked her seatbelt, and opened the car door without hesitation.
"Morrison!" the man exclaimed. "You're here!"
She beamed the smile that had gotten her so far in her career and felt the blood rushing to her cheeks. She cursed that all-American blood that caused her to blush so easily. "Yeah," she spoke. "I am." She tried to hide the excitement, but it seeped through her voice and turned into a giggle as she walked towards him.
He exhaled and the frozen air in front of him became a tiny cloud of familiar, peppermint scented breath. "It's cold." he observed. Neither was cold, though. The adrenaline pumping through their veins was enough to keep them snug.
"Yeah," she agreed simply.
"Jennifer, the reason I asked you to come here tonight... I need to tell you something," he blurted, more quickly than he had intended. Her eyes lit up, and he smiled at this. Mikey looked down at his shoes and back up to face her. "I think..." he sputtered. "I think... I'm falling in love with you."
He watched the elation flicker across her face and let it continue across his own. "Mikey..." and in that moment, she knew she was willing to admit it to herself. "I think I'm falling in love with you, too." His eyes became squinted as a grin began to take up much of his face. In something she was finally willing to admit to herself, she encircled him in her arms. They wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer. He didn't pull away. Following suit, he wrapped his arms around her waist, without breaking eye contact. Simultaneously, they leaned in towards each other with their heads. Their foreheads touched before anything else, in the way Emma and Neal's did in Tallahassee. However, Jen and Mikey were no longer portraying their characters. Their love was true, more real than anything else on this earth. Mikey broke into a smile. He'd admitted "it" to himself long ago; he'd been waiting for this moment for months. Ever since they started working together, he knew there was something about her that he couldn't stay away from. Once their friendship had flourished, his feelings only grew stronger. Jen radiated back at him and giggled. "We're just like Neal and Emma!"
"Yeah, I guess you're right." He chuckled. Without thought, he leaned in and placed his lips on hers.
She didn't object. Their lips moved in synchronized patterns, sending a symphony of emotions to their hearts. Love, happiness, excitement, relief. Their heartbeats sped up, pattering faster than they had any other time that night. Their stomachs churned, butterflies completely taking control. Jen reached up to toy with the curls emerging from the bottom of the ridiculous Louisville Cardinals hat he was sentenced to wear when he lost a bet with Josh. He was to wear it at all times for that next week, with the exception of filming. In response to her caress, Mikey moved his left hand from her waist to her middle back, just to hold her closer. Somewhere in that time, mouths had opened and tongues began to dance in foreign mouths. She could taste the gum he'd been chewing and he could taste some sweet sort of lip gloss she'd applied. They continued fully into the endeavor; no inch of one's mouth was untasted by the other. She unwrapped him from one of her arms and traced a line down his back. In turn, he temporarily pulled away, but hastily returned his kiss to her neck. She smirked while he sucked on the soft skin just above her collarbone. "Mikey," she whispered. He took a step back and looked up. "I'm freezing."
"Oh, here. Have my hat." He smirked, placing it on top of her bun and tying the flaps around her chin. She grinned and watched him intently. "...Perfect."
"You know, Josh said you have to wear that at all times." She reminded him, wagging her finger.
"I think he'll understand. You know he loves you. Plus, incredibly exquisite women are way more important than filming." Mikey explained. Jennifer could practically hear her face burning a bright blush. She was speechless. Her mind and heart had been racing since she had arrived at the library. She genuinely could no longer contain her jubilation and began to laugh.
"Thank you, my handsome prince."
"You're welcome!" He replied, taking her face in his warm hands and giving her a soft kiss on the lips. "You know, that hat looks great on you."
"I know!" She beamed.
"Hey, wanna get outta here?"
"You mean, like..."
"Oh! God. No. I mean, not unless, not unless you want... but, but I wouldn't wanna rush this, JMo. I mean, you mean so much to me, and I just wouldn't wanna rush things–"
"Mikey, Mikey, calm down! It's fine, babe." He exhaled deeply. She smiled at his concern, noting that he must really care about her. A lot of the men she had been with only wanted her body, but there had always been something wonderful and caring about him. "Yeah, lets get outta here. But let's take your car and maybe you can pick me up for filming tomorrow. Then I'll get it and go park in the lot and no one will ever know we were here."
They walked, arms around each other, to Mikey's car. He was a perfect gentleman, opening the passenger side door for her before walking around to enter the driver's seat. With one of Michael's hands on the wheel and the other in Jen's, the pair drove off into the moonlight.