Title: The Little Things
Summary: Josh decides to make a grand, romantic gesture for Gabi by copying the playbook to her favourite movie, Pretty Woman. (Cooper NEVER turns up at Gabi's door. Alternate ending to the finale) Purely Josh/Gabi FLUFF. Please Read & Review.
Disclaimer/ Note from the author: So the finale was pretty perfect right until the last three minutes! I knew that Josh wouldn't be KNOCKING at Gabi's door, because of the whole conversation they shared at his birthday dinner about Richard Gere climbing up the fire escape and not using the font door etc. So when the door knocked my heart sank. I wasn't expecting Cooper but I knew that it would be somebody to complicate things with Josh and Gabi. Anyways, feeling kind of unfulfilled and totally robbed, I decided to write an alternate ending. It's purely fluff but nevertheless I hope you like it. Please read and review ;) Paris xx
Date Published: 29 August 2014
© theboyfriend-and-theprettygirl, 2014
The Little Things.
"Girl, I'm going to bed." Sofia said yawning loudly, before jumping off the couch and switching the television off. "And so should you. It's almost 1:30am, Gabi. Don't you have to be at work at seven?"
"Uh, I can't go to bed until I finish frosting this cake, Sofia...or else Caroline will kill me." Gabi said laughing nervously. "In case you haven't noticed, Caroline is kind of a bridezilla and I'd rather not die any time soon. Though, given the fact that the guy that I am madly in love with is marrying someone else tomorrow, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing after all."
"Gabi, you're not in love with him." her best friend and roommate said rolling her eyes quickly. "You just think you are because you're all alone and dateless to his wedding. You wouldn't be feeling this way if Cooper was still in the country."
"Uh, I think I would know if I loved him or not." Gabi scoffed loudly. "I can't help how I feel, Sofia. He's the one, I just know it."
"He's the one? Are you really going with that?" she asked shaking her head dramatically and crossing her arms across her chest for emphasis. "You had one night with him babe, let it go. He's marrying Caroline tomorrow...there's nothing that you can do."
"Actually there's plenty I can do. I can tell him the truth about how I feel. I can object at his wedding. I can tell him that I made him the blanket...which by the way cost me three weeks of my life and half of my savings...all because I wanted to replicate his grandmother's blanket that he lost in the fire, because I know how much he loved the darn thing."
"Or you could just be the bigger person and let him be happy. He loves Caroline and he clearly wants to marry her. I mean his wedding moved up six months and he didn't freak out or ask for more time. Gabi, he still wants to marry her."
I know." Gabi said sighing heavily. "I just wish I didn't have these feelings. Am I a horrible person for secretly wishing that their wedding gets called off while I'm frosting their beautiful wedding cake?"
"Oh totally."
"Well, I'm going to hell then."
"Don't worry, so am I." she said smirking a little. "I'm a very bad girl. But look, on the bright side at least we will have each other in the after life."
"Do you think I should've told him that I made the blanket?" Gabi asked changing the subject quickly.
Sofia groaned loudly and threw her hands up in the air. "Gabi, we have been over this! The present was too girlfriendy anyways, so its better that he thinks it comes from Caroline."
"But he said-"
"I know, Gabi. I know." Sofia said cutting her off quickly. "You spent three hours after work telling me, in detail I might add, all about the way his face teared up and how he said the most romantic things about the your lame present."
"But Sofia, he said-"
"No buts. Off to bed. You need sleep. NOW." she said trying to push her into the direction of her bedroom.
"I can't. I'm going to be at least another hour or so on this cake."
"One more hour?! What have you been doing all this time? Never mind. Don't answer that."
"It's just...he said 'that the woman that would give him the blanket was the woman that knew his heart and the woman that he wants to spend the rest of his life with.' And well, that was me, dammit! Not Caroline!"
"I know babe." Sofia said wrapping her arms around her friend in a tight hug.
"I just don't want him to be tricked into marrying, Caroline. Like what if he finds out the present was mine later on and he hates me for not telling him, hmmm? Then what? Or what if they divorce and its all my fault because I wasn't honest with him in the first place?"
"Woah, slow down there speed racer. How many red bulls did you have tonight?" Sofia asked, reaching across the table to feel how many empty cans there were.
"Three?...five? I don't know. The point is, I feel really bad for not telling him, Sofia. What should I do?"
Sofia sighed heavily. "I have been telling you all night to let it go, but seeing that you are not listening to me...I think you should tell him the truth."
"You're right. I'm going to call him."
"Not now, you little weirdo. It's almost 2am, you're going to seem crazy."
"Oh right."
"Tell him tomorrow when you get to work or before the reception. If what he said about the present was true, then there isn't going to be a wedding after all. If you tell him and he still marries Caroline, well then...that should tell you where his heart lies."
"Good plan." Gabi said nodding her head up and down in agreement. "When did you get so smart?"
"Well, I do work with Lawyers all day...I think they kind of rub off onto you."
Gabi laughed. "It's late. You should go to bed. I'm just going to finish this section and I'll do the same."
"Promise me, you won't call him tonight."
"Duh. He's probably sleeping anyways." she said scoffing quickly and rolling her eyes a little. "You don't mind if I play some music, do you?"
"As long as you don't do that thing you do when you're uspet."
"What thing?"
"You know...oh come on! When you sing the lyrics out in sobs-"
"I do not."
"Oh yes, you do. So I'm taking your Adele CD with me."
"What? Noooo. Don't take my Adele CD." Gabi whined. But it was too late, Sofia had already confiscated it from the CD rack. "What depressing album am I meant to listen to now? Nobody gets my mood like Adele does."
"Good night babe." Sofia said kissing her cheek quickly before heading to her room. "Try to get some sleep, soon. Okay?"
"I will." she said, before spreading some more icing onto the tiered wedding cake.
-x-
Forty minutes later and not even close to be finishing the cake in the twenty minutes that she had allocated for herself, Gabi sobbed out the lyrics to the pretty woman soundtrack.
It must have been love, by Roxette had been on repeat for the first half hour, before Sofia had texted her that she was on the verge of confiscating that CD too. So with a heavy heart, she had decided to skip the track and drown her sorrows to Go West's King of Wishful Thinking.
"I'll get over you, I know I will. I'll pretending my ship's not sinking. And I'll tell myself, I'm over you, because I'm the King of wishful thinking." she sobbed out, applying some more icing to the cake.
A knock on her balcony's sliding window made her jump out of her skin. Reaching for the knife quickly, she turned around armed and ready to face the stranger. Her heart melted when she saw Josh standing soaked in the pouring rain, holding a dozen red roses.
"Josh! What are you doing here? Come inside, you're drenched!" she said opening the door wider so that he could get inside.
"I'm so happy that you are up. I was sure that you would be sleeping, but I had to see you." he said, his lips chattering a little because they were blue and freezing cold.
"Josh.. what is going on?."
"Is that my wedding cake?" he asked frowning a little.
"Yes."
"But I thought Caroline ordered one from her favourite French bakery? Why are you...?"
"Turns out that when your venue became available six months early..." she said laughing a little nervously,"they couldn't make her cake in that short period of time. So..."
"She asked you to make her one?"
"She kinda demanded that I did, otherwise she was going to ask you to fire me."
"Gabi, I can't believe that you did that."
"It was no problem...I need this job anywyays, so I didn't really have a choice."
"You could've told me that she was being unreasonable and I would've made her find another cake. Is this why you're still awake?"
"Yeah." she said blushing a little. "But don't worry, another half hour tops and I'll be done. It will be ready for your big day, I promise."
"That's not why I'm here." Josh said softly.
"Oh. Are you here to ask me about the catering? Because Elliot seems pretty happy with Chef Micheal doing your reception. I'm sure everything is going to go smoothly tomorrow, so you can relax."
"No. I came to give you these."
"Okay...Do you need me to like give them to Caroline as a surprise tomorrow..because of the whole 'can't see the bride before the wedding ceremony' tradition?"
"What? No."
"So are they the flowers that Yolanda and I are setting up as church decorations, then?"
Josh placed a hand on Gabi's shoulder. "No, these are for you, Gabi. The wedding is off." he said quickly, making her frown a little in confusion.
"Oh. Is it about the rain? Did Caroline freak out or something? Because I don't really know how long this cake will be good for unless you guys get married in the next couple of days. I've never made a wedding cake before."
"Gabi, its over. I broke up with Caroline tonight."
"Oh." she said softly her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry." OMG. Had she heard him right? Was this the miracle that she had been praying all day for?!
"I know that you made me the blanket. Not Caroline." he said, placing the flowers down at the end of the table. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't think it would matter who it came from." she said lying quickly and doing her best to avoid his eyes.
"Even after you heard me say what the blanket symbolized for me?" he asked with a hint of pain in his voice. "How could you let me believe that Caroline was the one who made it?"
"Because she was your fiance, Josh and you were having a really stressful day...you know, because of all the wedding preparations. I wanted your birthday to be perfect and when I realized that she had forgotten it, I jumped in and gave her my present. It was no big deal." she lied, shrugging her shoulders.
"It was to me." he said honestly, searching her eyes for some kind of response."Why did you make me the blanket, Gabi?"
"I don't know." she lied quickly. "It gets cold at night. I figured you could use one." she said laughing nervously and doing her best to still avoid his eyes.
"I think you made it for me, because you know me better than Caroline ever did."
"Josh..."
"Do you know that Caroline and I have literally like nothing in common?" he asked pacing her living room floor quickly. "And did you know that when I asked her some simple questions about me, she couldn't even answer them? Even things as basic as what's my favourite colour, where I went to college or my middle name?"
"I didn't know that. I'm sorry Josh."
"And it seems silly to call off a wedding because of these insignificant things; but then I realized you know all of these little things, Gabi. You know that my favourite colour is blue and that I went to USF...you know that my middle name is Daniel and you know so many other things like...that I'm terrified of clowns and that I don't consider gymnastics to be a real Olympic sport.." he said, as his lips curved into a small smile. He stopped pacing the floor and looked up at her. "And more importantly, you know that blanket was priceless to me because it was my grandma's and that I was devastated when it was destroyed in the fire. This was something that I should've known already when Caroline tried to pass it off as her own. I mean, how stupid could I be to think that she would know how important it was to me?"
"Josh..."
"No, please let me finish before I loose my nerve." he said cutting her off quickly. "You know so many things about me, that my own fiance never bothered to learn, because she was selfish..and because she never really cared about me in the way that you do."
"That's not true, Caroline did care about you, Josh. She just had a really funny way of showing it." Gabi said sighing heavily. She figured she should give Caroline some credit where credit was due.
"Caroline never loved me. She loved the idea of being with me. She loved my money and the engagement ring I bought her. She loved the life that I could offer her but she never loved me. She forgot my 30th birthday for crying out loud and its kind of a milestone birthday!"
Gabi winced painfully. She had no idea what to say to make him feel better. He seemed hurt and devastated by the whole break up situation.
"Gabi, you and I have a real connection." Josh said taking her hands into his and caressing them gently. "I knew it from the moment we met and it really became clear to me after we...well, you know." he said laughing a little nervously. "I kept fighting what we had because I thought I owed it to Caroline. She was my girlfriend and we had history and I thought that I was doing the right thing by her. But I was fighting for the wrong girl. I should've been fighting for you."
"Ok. Wow Josh, I think the rain has gone straight to your head and made you sick or something, because you are talking all kinds of crazy things. Come, let me get you a towel to dry off before you catch pneumonia." Gabi said pulling her hands out of his and distancing herself from him a little.
"I mean every word!" he said desperately. "I should've been more honest with you. Maybe then you would actually believe me now. But I don't understand why you would doubt me...I mean, I even made up that rule about you not being allowed to date Cooper, because I was so damn jealous. Before him you didn't have a boyfriend and I kind of liked that. I suspected that you might sort of have a crush on me, but once Cooper came into the picture, I knew that you were getting over me. It made me feel sick and I know that its hypocritical for me to have wanted you to like me forever when I was with Caroline, but I didn't want to loose you. I don't want to loose you, so that's why I'm here. I couldn't wait to tell you this in the morning. You needed to know exactly how I felt."
"Josh, that's really sweet but-"
"Gabi, I watched Pretty Woman for the first time in like 15 years, just so I could be more Richard Gere like. I even came up the fire escape instead of knocking on the front door."
"Yes, I noticed." Gabi said biting down hard on her lip, to contain the tears that were starting to fill in her eyes.
"I'm sorry that it took me so long to get here. I'm sorry if I made you feel like your feelings were one-sided." Josh said tilting her chin up to him. "But I'm here now and I wanted to tell you that...I love you, Gabi Diamond. I've known that for awhile. I think that's why I had my doubts about marrying Caroline and why I really wanted to believe that the blanket was from her, because I needed some kind of sign or reassurance that I was doing the right thing. But I always knew that she could never come up with such a sweet and thoughtful present like that. I should've put it together sooner. I just hope that I am not too late and that you are not over me."
"I'm not over you." Gabi said a little too quickly. Woah, slow down there Gabi. Be cool, she thought mentally scolding herself for sounding a little too overly excited.
"You're not?" he asked hopefully, snapping up his head to look deeply into her eyes.
"Well, I mean, it sucked for me...watching you be all lovey-dovey with Caroline. I tried really hard to get over you and nothing seemed to work. Cooper was a good distraction but then he left for China so that was that. And Sofia thought I was crazy because even up to a few hours ago I was praying for some kind of miracle so that the wedding wouldn't go through...Oh wow, I now see that worked. Sorry." she said grimacing a little.
Josh laughed. "Don't be." he said pulling her closer towards him. "Because if I married Caroline, I would've made the biggest mistake and would've regretted it for the rest of my life. You're the woman that knows my heart, Gabi. I meant what I said when I saw the blanket...You are the one that I want to spend the rest of my life with."
"I love you, Josh." she said quickly, before standing up on her tipy-toes to kiss him passionately.
He kissed her back hungrily and with such a force, that it made her suddenly weak at the knees. This must be what love feels like, she thought smiling through their kisses, she had never experienced this with any other guy before.
"Not to ruin the moment or anything..." Sofia growled from the entrance of her bedroom, "because I heard that you two finally sorted out all your issues and bravo.. but its like 3:30am so can you maybe take this elsewhere? Some people are actually trying to sleep, you know."
Gabi and Josh pulled apart quickly and Gabi buried her head into Josh's chest.
"Hi Sofia." he said holding up a hand to say hello awkwardly. "Sorry if we woke you."
"Goodnight Josh. Gabi." she said before shutting her door closed with a loud thud.
"I hope we didn't wake her. She seemed really mad." he said grimacing a little.
"Oh, she will forget all about it in the morning." Gabi said shrugging it off quickly. "But she does have a point. What do you say that we take this to my bedroom, because the way I see it... not only do we have to get you out of these wet clothes... but you've got a hell of a lot of making up to do, mister." she said winking playfully.
-x- The end -x-
Author's note:
Like it? Hate it? Too fluffy?
Okay, so maybe they shouldn't have said that they love each other so soon, but I'm a sucker for romance and fluff etc.
Please leave me a review?