Oliver knocked on Laurel's office door and she looked up from her file and smiled at him. "Hey, stranger," She said as she closed the folder and got up and put her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.
He gave her a kiss and smiled. "Happy Birthday, Laurel," He told her. He reached for something in his back pocket and he gave it to her. "I know that you said you didn't want presents this year, but I couldn't resist getting you something," He said as he put it in her hands and waited for her to open it.
She looked up at him and then looked down to the present. "You didn't have to. I meant it when I said no presents," She told him as she took the piece of ribbon of the top and turned the present over and unstuck the tape. The paper fell to the ground and in her hand were two pieces of paper.
She looked up to him and he shook his head. "Turn them over," He told her.
She did as he told and saw that the pieces of paper, were not just pieces of paper, but plane tickets. To Paris. "Oliver, I don't know what to say," She said as her eyes watered with joy. She hugged him tightly.
He knew why she had no words. It was the reason he'd gotten these tickets in the first place.
When they were fifteen and he was interested in what girls liked, he looked her straight in the eye as he lounged on his bed and asked, if money were no object, where would she like a boy to take her. Of course, he had to make sure to tell her that this was only for information gathering purposes and that he definitely did not want to date her in the slightest. No sir. No way.
And she thought about it for several minutes and when she looked back to him and smiled in the way that made his knees jiggle even then and said "Paris," He knew her as a romantic.
Tommy of course would swear that this was the first time that Oliver had ever shown any interest in what girls really liked and it was all because Laurel showed him the way. Which he would vehemently deny for many years. "Why there?" He asked in his croaky fifteen year old voice.
And Laurel who sat straight and proud looked him in the eye and gently but firmly smiled. "A boy has all that he can offer you, what really means the most is the thought. All the money in the world can't buy romance. Can't make it real. But if he loves you, he'll know what you want. He'll know that the most romantic city in the world is Paris. And yeah, that might be stereotypical, but if he really loves, he doesn't care. He'll take a picture of the both of you while he kisses you in front of the eiffel tower while trying to make sure he doesn't get pickpocketed."
"You know a lot about this kind of stuff," Oliver said back then.
She shrugged. "I've had the chance to think about it once or twice, believe it or not," She told him and that was that. They were back to their normal selves. But he thought about that answer a lot when he was a kid. He never took a girl to Paris. In his lifetime. He met a couple of girls in Paris. And sometimes they ended up in Paris. But he never expressly took a girl to Paris.
They talked about going to Paris before he went off to the island. Before he went on that boat trip. For their anniversary, he wanted to surprise her with Paris. It didn't work out. Life got in the way.
Older now, and wiser than he was at fifteen, he realized that she was telling him exactly what he could do for her. She thought about it because she'd been asked by all the girls what she would do if Tommy or he could take her anywhere. "A boy has all that he can offer you, what really matters most is the thought," He whispered gently into her ear.
She looked up at him and smiled. "God, I was pretentious back then, wasn't I?" She asked him witha bit of a laugh.
He shook his head. "You were perfect back then. And you're perfect now," He told her.
"I can't believe you got me Paris." She told him as she looked at the tickets. She almost didn't believe it. She kept waiting to wake up from the dream and be back at her desk with a neck crick, but it never came. This was real.
He shrugged. "I hope you still like Paris. I know things have changed since then, but I figured you hadn't said anything different. And there's still a picture of the eiffel tower on your laptop, it was still a pretty good bet."
"I still like Paris," She promised him as she kissed him once again. She smiled to him. "This just means I'm really going to have to up the ante for your birthday," She told him.
He nodded. "I thought you might say that, so I wanted you to also have this," He said taking something from his other pocket.
He put it in her hand and she looked down at it and then back up to him. "I can't do this. Seriously the plane tickets are nice, bu4t I can't take a black amex on your dime."
"You can and you will. Now, you have no excuse not to get me a kickass birthday present. And knowing you, you'll find something spectacular. Besides, all I want to do is share with you," He told her.
She looked down at the card and then raised an eyebrow at him, "And you're sure about this?" She asked him as she eyed the card in her hand.
He nodded. "Surer than anything." He told her as he wrapped his arms around her and relaxed. "Oh," He said, "Those tickets, are first class all the way to Paris too. Thought you might want to travel in style," He told her.
"You're grooming me into your lifestyle," She told him as she poked him in the side.
He shrugged. "Is it really so bad to enjoy the little things?" He asked.
"This is not so little," She told him with a grin.
He rolled his eyes and he looked down, "You knew what I meant,"
"I did." She told him as she nuzzled into his chest. "I love you."
"Always and forever?" He asked.
She nodded. "Always and forever."