Chapter 21

At the evening on the same day, Eric was sitting alone in living room because Nell was busy with preparing a surprise dinner for the both of them. Of course he was anxiously waiting for his girlfriend to finish cooking, that one thing had been a secret talent from the little red haired intelligence analyst that he hadn't known for quite some time. He really wondered what other secret talents Nell Jones still hid from him, he didn't he really know for sure if it should make him frown that his girlfriend wasn't an open book to him or if he should like the idea to be surprised by her. Of course he would also love to meet her family in person, seeing hers only over a computer screen had been kind of weird and didn't really count to him as a first meeting but on the first impression he got, they all seemed to be really nice people.

Probably she didn't want them to show him some embarrassing childhood pictures of little Nell but he would certainly love to see them, because Nell had been such a mysterious person since the two had first met each other. The more they more they grew closer to each other, it really seemed to him that he uncovered more layers of her personality and Nell really had been the first girl that he had fallen in love with on first sight. Eric switched on the TV with the remote, because he was a little bored right now as he anxiously waited for the big surprise that his girlfriend was preparing for him at this moment in the kitchen. As he zapped through the channels for quite a while he thought: *should I buy her a ring for Christmas?* But a ring could probably provoke a big misunderstanding, he didn't want to force her to marry him and in the end he also didn't really know if she wanted to marry anytime soon. So he quickly put that thought away and then continued his train of thought: *Maybe a nice necklace would be better in her case.* He didn't find anything nice to view at this hour, so he went into the kitchen to surprise his very busy girlfriend: he crept up on her on his toes and softly planted some kisses on her neck. Nell at first was a little bit shocked, but then she started to laugh, turned around to face him and said: "Hey you're not supposed to see the surprise yet; patience is really one virtue that you still need to learn Beale."

He softly kissed her on her left cheek and finally replied: "No matter what you cook tonight I know that it's going to be very good because I know that you're an exceptional cook Rockstar." She was very happy that he liked her food so much, she really hadn't expected that her cooking wouldn't be such a success after trying it again after all these years. They continued to talk for a while before Nell finally said: "Now go unless you want to eat black burnt food."

She kissed him one last time on the mouth, ushered him finally out of the kitchen and quickly diverted back her attention to the meal that was still cooking in the oven. As he went through the newspaper of day again, he spotted a very interesting advertisement on the second page right next to today's cinemas film start times: A little club in downtown LA was doing a karaoke night in two days and honestly even if he couldn't really sing that good, Eric considered to go with his girlfriend there and of course surprise her with a little performance of a sweet love song. Eric was pretty sure that she would certainly love that little proof of love even if didn't need to do it in the end but he just loved to show her like almost every day how much loved her.

A little while later Nell finally came into living room with the long awaited surprise meal, Eric sat down at the table looked in awe at the beautiful arranged chicken on his plate and then finally said: "This looks wonderful and I'm sure that it will taste amazing as it always does."

Nell really didn't know what to say for a moment, because she really was flattered by Eric's compliments every time she received them from him and she couldn't tell at all if she had ever felt this good in one of her past relationships. She hadn't believed in the concept of soul mates for quite some time but after falling in love with her partner at OPS, she now believed that if there ever had been a soul mate for her it was him the entire time. The two then finally started to eat and while doing that she thought: *I wonder if he has prepared something special for Christmas and I also really can't wait to see his gift for me. Oh god I think I'm feeling like a ten year old kid again, every year when Christmas finally is there*

Eric of course was once again totally satisfied with the meal that his girlfriend had cooked, with her support his recovery wouldn't take so long anymore and so he could go back to work at OPS very soon, working side by side with "his" Rockstar. He really couldn't imagine working with anyone else by his side, after he had been very skeptical about the fact letting another person share his "personal kingdom" with but as time went by the two geeks became the dream team of OPS.

People that didn't know her as good as him, would probably say that she was a really weird person because who would sent flowers to himself? But on the other hand: Nobody could say that he was without any flaws, either you admitted or denied them and he liked Nell from the start because she directly admitted that she had some pretty annoying habits.

AN: Thanks to- Amillie for reviewing this story, Thanks to- Taylen C for adding this story to his story alert subscription. I hope you like this chapter, please read and review