Luxury

“Oooh, it smells good in here,” Camilla smiles as she and Gordie step into their favorite pizza restaurant in Motostoke.  

“It does,” Gordie agrees, taking in a deep breath as he lets the door close behind Camilla.  “Table for two, please,” Gordie tells the hostess, and she smiles and seats them immediately, handing each of them their own menu.

“Your server will be with you in a minute,” she says graciously, then leaves.

“Thanks,” Camilla and Gordie chirp in unison.  A moment later, Gordie turns to his girlfriend.

“Well,” he says with a smile.  “We really can’t go wrong with any of the food here, and after that exhibition battle against Kabu, I’m starving.  So what looks good to you, Cammy?”

Camilla smiles and bobs her foot a little under the table.  Truthfully, Gordie is right - everything on the menu will be delicious.

“Whatever we get, I want extra Moomoo Cheese,” she says, her eyes scanning the menu quickly.  There’s a make-your-own-pizza section, and also a section with specialty pizzas where the chef has preselected a variety of toppings.  And, Camilla notes, opening the menu a page further, there’s a paper insert with the daily specials.  

“Extra cheese sounds good,” Gordie approves, also leafing through his copy of the menu, but Camilla’s only half listening.

“Hey, check out the daily specials,” she says, holding up the little paper leaflet.  “They’ve got a bunch of specialty pizzas named after the Gym Leaders.”  A note right at the top of the page reads:

Attention!  If your favorite Gym Leader doesn’t have a pizza yet, we welcome you to check in with us soon!  We’re always developing new flavor combinations and soon will have all 8 (pizza) badges!

“Huh, that’s kinda fun,” Gordie murmurs, pulling out his copy of the leaflet.

Camilla’s heart skips; she hopes there’s one for her boyfriend.  She scans the page quickly, looking for his name -

And there it is.  

The Gordie.

“You’ve got a pizza, Gordie!”  Camilla exclaims, her heart skipping a beat.  Her boyfriend has a pizza named after him at their favorite restaurant in Motostoke!  

“Do I really?”  Gordie asks, scanning the page himself and finding The Gordie for himself.  It’s tagline is a pizza with bold, stylish flavors and textures that really rock!, and it’s topped with slow-roasted Wiki berries, sweet apple slices, Smoke-Poke Tail slices, and extra Moomoo cheese.

“It doesn’t sound bad,” Camilla says, raising her eyes from the menu to see Gordie’s reaction to The Gordie.

“Actually,” he admits, raising his eyes, too.  “It sounds pretty good.”

A grin breaks across Camilla’s features at this.

“You wanna try it?”  She asks.

“Yeah,” Gordie laughs, taking his sunglasses off.  “I think I do, actually.”

Their waitress bustles over soon after, and offers to take their drink orders.  Gordie gets a Soda Pop and Camilla gets a Lemonade; before the waitress leaves, though, Gordie speaks up.

“If you don’t mind, we’re actually ready to order our food, too,” he says.  

“Oh, of course!”  Their waitress nods.  “What can I get for you?”

Camilla stays silent, giving Gordie a teasing look.  He flushes bright red and fumbles once he realizes his girlfriend is going to make him actually say the order out loud.

“Um.  Can I uh.  Can I get the Gordie, please,” he finally manages, ducking his head a little as he continues to blush.  Their waitress laughs good-naturedly in response.

“You know, I was really hoping you were going to order that.  Chef’s going to be so happy when I tell him the Gordie just ordered The Gordie.  It’s his newest creation,” she adds.  “Tell you what - we’ve been doing this thing with the other Gym Leaders where if they order their special pizza, we give it to them on the house as long as they let us get a picture of them with it and put it on the wall.”  She gestures across the restaurant, and only then do Camilla and Gordie notice the faces of quite a few of Gordie’s peers, smiling with their respective pies.  “Would you guys be interested?”

Gordie gives Camilla a sidelong glance, and she nods.

“Yeah, sure,” he agrees.  “But only if Camilla gets to be in the picture with me.”

Camilla blushes, but smiles happily, unable to resist thinking how sweet it was of him to want to make it clear that she was important to him.

“Sounds good to me!”  The waitress chirps.  “I’ll be back with your drink orders and I’ll put in one order for The Gordie!”

Then she gathers up Camilla and Gordie’s menus and leaves.

Except, Camilla notices, for a single leaflet of the daily specials that has been left behind.

“Let’s go see who ordered what,” Gordie grins, nodding in the direction of the wall of photos and waving the leaflet of specials in one hand.  Camilla can’t help but smile, too.

“Well, now I’m just curious,” she agrees.  Camilla and Gordie leave their bags on their seat, and Gordie sets his Rotom phone on the table, too - they’re not going far, after all, just a few feet away, and their things are an easy enough placeholder for their seats for a few minutes.

The wall has quite a few Gym Leaders already, to Camilla’s surprise.  Milo smiles out from under his sunhat, a Wooloo on his lap; his pizza is loaded with a variety of greens and vegetables.  The Nessa is more expensive per the specials menu, but it’s also loaded with a variety of seafood.  The Gym Leader herself has struck a particularly elegant pose for the wall, which is impressive, given that Camilla hadn’t even considered that it would be possible to pose elegantly with pizza.  Kabu’s pizza is smothered in spices and spicy berries, and he gives the camera a small half-smile on the wall with a thumbs up, his signature towel around his neck.  Bea and Opal both have pizzas, though neither have their pictures up on the wall; apparently, neither had visited so far.  Only Piers and Raihan don’t have pizzas named in their honor yet.

“This is brilliant,” Camilla grins, and snaps quick photos of all of Gordie’s colleagues.

“Definitely fun,” Gordie agrees.  “Though I can’t believe Kabu can eat that pizza. ”

“Me neither,” Camilla laughs.  “It looks like fire in food form.”  Gordie chuckles in agreement, and the pair drift back to the table together.

As they go to sit down, Gordie’s Rotom phone jumps up, flying through the air excitedly.

“Gordie!  You have four textzz from your mother!”  He calls.

Gordie’s face goes somewhat whiter than usual, and his brows furrow.  To his credit, he stays calm otherwise, sitting down and reading through the texts in silence.

“Is everything all right?”  Camilla asks.  She hopes it’s nothing more than an update on the Gordie Fan Club that Melony’s been involved in lately, but she also knows that that many texts from Melony could very well mean something had gone wrong at home.  Hadn’t one of his younger siblings just gotten over a nasty fever?  Hopefully that hadn’t come back…

“Yeah,” Gordie mumbles.  “Listen to this.  Hey sweetie, I just got a text from my friend Marly, the who works at Devon Corp.  The one who’s really rich?  You remember her?”

“Wait, your mom knows rich people from, what, Hoenn?”  Camilla interrupts, frowning a little.  “How did that happen?”

“Honestly, at this point, I can’t keep track.  She’s got connections all over,” Gordie shrugs.  “Anyway, I thought she probably just wanted free babysitting from me or something, cause that’s all Marly used to text mom for.  But the text says, and I quote, Marly had something come up with her father’s health and she doesn’t think she’ll be able to take her family to their timeshare in Coumarine City this year.  She’s offered a week to me, but I don’t think we’re in a position to travel right now.  Any chance you and Camilla want a week in Kalos’ top seaside resort area for free?”

Camilla’s head immediately begins to reel.

“Wait - wait, did you say a week in Coumarine City?  Where the taxes on those villas cost more than our rowhouse itself does in a year?”

“Yeah,” Gordie nods.

“In Kalos.  A week. For free,” Camilla says, her jaw dropping open.

“A week, for free,” Gordie repeats.  How can he be so calm about this?  Is this actually all for real, or is he pranking her?

Not that he’s the type to be a prankster, but it seems somehow more plausible to Camilla than spending a week living in the sort of luxury that they could ordinarily only dream about - if they even dared to dream that large.

“This is bonkers,” is all that she’s able to manage.

“You’re telling me,” Gordie says, raising his eyes to hers.  He’s even more pale than when he’d seen his mom had sent him four texts, and somehow, it’s this that gets through to Camilla.

This is definitely for real.

“We’ve got to go!”  She exclaims, reality sinking in.  “Gordie, if your mom is serious about this - we’ve absolutely got to go.  When are we ever going to be able to afford a vacation in Kalos otherwise?  This is amazing!”

“Yeah, as long as there’s no babysitting catch waiting on the other end of this thing,” Gordie mumbles, but obliges and texts his mom back.  Camilla laughs at this.

“Either way -” she begins, but a moment later, their waitress reappears, pizza in hand and camera around her neck.

“All right!  One Gordie for the Gordie, plus his lovely lady,” she says, setting their pie on a pizza stand on the table.  “Would you like to both be on the same side of the table for the picture?”

“Sure,” Gordie says, putting his arm out for Camilla.  Although she’s suddenly a little flustered to actually have her picture being taken for this thing, she slides in beside him and gives an enormous smile, more than a little excited at the prospect of an unexpected vacation to one of the top destinations in the world…all with her amazing boyfriend.

---

Coordinating over a week straight of time off from their jobs on relatively little notice had proved to be more than a little difficult - but Camilla’s boss at Bob’s Your Uncle had understood once she’d explained the whole situation, and had genuinely wanted her to go and enjoy the experience.  Melony had done a bit of helicopter parenting, as usual, and stepped in with the Pokemon League, even offering to go back to covering for Gordie in Circhester’s Gym.  Whether the offer had been taken up or not, it had worked, and Gordie had been approved for time off, too.

In the end, they’d both wound up squarely in Kalos, stepping off an ocean liner and into the port of Coumarine City.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen boats this…expensive-looking,” Camilla says, her eyes wide.

“Me neither,” Gordie agrees.

“But I can see why they’re here.  The water is so blue, it’s beautiful,” Camilla sighs, holding to Gordie’s arm.  

“Yeah,” Gordie agrees, then leans in closer to Camilla.  “Too bad it’s hard to see most of it because of the yachts,” he snarks, and Camilla giggles a little.  His comment is true; there are so many gigantic, shiny boats on all sides of them, it almost feels like being stuck in traffic.  More importantly, it has what Camilla is sure is its intended effect - his humor puts her at ease almost immediately.

The pair follow the dock to where it joins the land, trying to juggle their medium bags of luggage while avoiding the other tourists, some of whom have packed quite a lot heavier for their stays.  As they move down the docks, the city as a whole comes into view.  Villa after villa with sparkling glass and beautiful white walls are clustered on vaulted cliffs.  Soft sand beaches stretch out in all directions, and Camilla can make out a few paths from the sprawling resort complexes down to the beach.  The pair move out of the way of the crowd, getting their bearings now that they’re back on land again.

“Hey, Rotom, could you come out?” Camilla requests.  Her Rotom Phone buzzes to life, flying out of her bag and swirling around her.

“Hey, Camilla,” Rotom grins.  “Wow, look at this place!”

“Yeah, we’re in Kalos!”  Camilla beams.  “Could you do a favor and snap a photo of me and Gordie?”

“Zzzure,” Rotom smiles.  “Say cheese!”

Camilla and Gordie smile, and Rotom snaps a quick photo for them.

“That actually came out pretty good,” Gordie grins when Rotom turns around to show the result to them.

“Yeah!  Thanks, Rotom,” Camilla agrees.  “Now, could you pull up your GPS and bring us to the address of our villa?”

“You got it, bozz!”  Rotom agrees, and begins to lead the way down the street.  “Vacation, here we come!”

“You couldn’t have said it better, Rotom!”  Camilla laughs, and sets off after her device, pulling her boyfriend along by the arm.

---

“This is unbelievable,” Camilla breathes, standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling glass wall.  It curves outwards just the slightest bit and faces the ocean, which beats against a private white sand beach with a winding path down the cliff side.

“I’ll say,” Gordie says behind her, sliding one hand onto her waist and drawing near to her.  “Did you see the welcome basket they left us?  There’s these Grepa berries from this Aquacorde Vintage and they are amazing.  Say ahh,” he murmurs, and Camilla opens her mouth.  Gordie pops a berry in, and Camilla chews down on it, savoring the flavor.

“Wow,” she murmurs.  “You’re right - these are the best I’ve ever had.”

“Aren’t they?  We’ve got a complimentary bottle of the wine they make, too,” Gordie adds.  “Any interest in sharing a glass, and then going to watch the sunset down on the beach?”

Camilla’s eyes sparkle as she turns around in Gordie’s arms.

“That sounds spectacular,” she agrees, kissing him deeply.  Gordie chuckles and kisses her deeply in return, then picks her up off her feet and spins her around.

“I’m so glad I get to take you here,” he says, then kisses her once more, a big smile stretching his lips as he does.

“I’m so glad, too,” Camilla says, pulling back for air.  “But….I want you know, I would have loved any vacation with you.  We don’t have to go somewhere as fancy as this just to make me happy.  Being with you is what makes me happy.”

“I know, Cammy,” Gordie hums, squeezing her just a little more tightly in his strong arms.  “The same is true for me.  But you’re an amazing woman, and it makes me so happy to know that you get the chance to enjoy yourself among all…this,” he says, gesturing at the room around them - the chandelier, the enormous framed paintings, the expensive-looking tropical plants in the corners of the room.  “I love you so much, and I would give you the world if I could.  This feels like a little way of being able to do that, you know?”

“I know, Gordie,” Camilla sighs, kissing him on his cheek.  “I love you so much, too.  And I feel the same way for you - I’d give you the world, if I could, too.  The world and the moon.”

“I’m a lucky man,” Gordie says, drawing away from her with a chuckle.  “Now, let’s crack into this bottle, and -”  he pauses, reading a little tag attached to the wine.  “Whoa.”

“What?”  Camilla asks, intensely curious.  “What is it?”

“They say that we technically own this beach for the week, so we can enjoy this down there.  No open container laws apply, or anything.  I hadn’t - I didn’t even consider -”

Camilla’s eyes widen.

“What are we waiting for?!”  She exclaims, suddenly enthusiastic.  “Let’s get our bathing suits on and let’s go!”

“Heck yeah!”  Gordie says, then whoops loudly, punching the air.

As the two tear into their luggage bags to find their swim suits and change, throwing stray clothes at each other playfully, Camilla feels as if the world has opened up to her and Gordie for this one, shining week.  For the next seven days, this whole villa is hers and Gordie’s playground, and they’re going to enjoy every last minute of it, drink it all in with a passion, and make memories that will last them a lifetime.  After so many years of struggling, of working so hard to make ends meet and striving to achieve their dreams as a Coordinator and Gym Leader, respectively, she feels, inexplicably, that they finally have free license to just be themselves and not worry about anything.

Having changed into her bathing suit, and Gordie now in his, Camilla grabs her towel and gets ready to go.  Suddenly, a surprisingly mischievous idea hits her.  Smiling ear to ear, Camilla grabs one of those Aquacorde Grepa berries, popping one in her mouth and holding the other out to Gordie.  He eats it from her fingers with a playful wink, and Camilla leans in seductively.  She presses her fingers to his lips and lets her mouth hover close to his ear, her lips ghosting along the shell of his ear.

“Gordie,” she breathes.

“Yes, Cammy?”  He responds, his breath catching.

A teasing smile comes across Camilla’s lips, and she has to actually resist the urge to laugh.

“How about we play a game?”  She says, struggling to continue to sound seductive.

“What kind of game?”  Gordie’s voice becomes husky.

“It’s called…” she draws back, still smiling, and finally blurts, “Last one to the beach is a rotten egg!”  Before Gordie can register what’s happened, she grabs the wine and starts to run.

“Oh, I am so getting you back for that later!”  Gordie laughs, running after her and following her out the door.

“Sounds good to me, ” Camilla calls back, already imagining exactly what he meant by that.  She’s got some very particular ideas, and she hopes they all come true - preferably in a very big, very fancy bed.

Either way, she knows one thing is true - this is gonna be one of the most amazing weeks of their lives.