“Yes.”
“Alright, let’s say that’s an option. What else?”
“We text whenever we can and we call each other once a day. We’ll figure out what time works for us and make it our daily date.”
“Look, we can go into this with plans, but we also need to be aware that sometimes things change and we have to adjust. I want to be with you but I need this degree and I have to work to survive,” I said, turning to Liam. As much as I wanted to talk to Liam every single day, the reality was that it might not be possible.
“I know, I understand everything can change. Nothing we plan to do is set in stone. It can be adjusted to meet our needs as those needs change.”
“There are going to be days where a phone call isn’t possible, you’ll need to be okay with that. Additionally, there may be months when I say we need to skip the visit so I can concentrate.”
“We’ll take it day by day. If you’re jam packed, try to text me letting me know that you’re busy. If it’s a month when we are preparing for finals or something, we skip it. But, breaks are for us.” Liam pulled me into a hug.
“Every break we will spend it together as much as we can while still working,” I agreed and he smiled down at me and kissed me slowly.
We were really going to make this work somehow. We’d take it day by day once we headed back to school. We had a tentative plan and if we needed to adjust it for something, we would. It’d take effort but it’d be worth it, at least I hoped so.
Chapter 16
Liam
It was Saturday night and I was lying in bed with Hannah. We had the house to ourselves since her dad was out of town again and Ashley was out with Bas tonight. We’d already had sex twice and we’d been watching movies naked in bed.
“All I’m saying is Marvel is going to be record-breaking for years to come,” Hannah said.
“How? They’re superhero movies. Not everyone likes superheroes. Iron Man is overrated,” I argued.
“This is it, this is how we break up,” she joked dryly, and I laughed.
“Give it a couple of years and Hollywood will give up this superhero kick and we’ll go back to action and teen movies dominating the screen. There is no way that they can go bigger than The Avengers.”
“I bet you a hundred dollars that in ten years Marvel movies are still being made and bringing in large amounts of money.” Hannah stuck her hand out towards me.
“I’ll take that bet. Only because now you have to stick around for ten years. Either way, I win.” I gripped her hand and pulled her in for a kiss and when we broke apart, she smiled at me with her head tilted slightly.
“I love you,” she whispered, “I want to be right next to you in ten years, twenty years, and fifty years. I want forever. I want it all.”
I stared into her green eyes and a smile grew on my face. Tackling her to her bed, I laid over her, kissing her repeatedly. Hannah giggled as I kissed her cheeks, jaw, and neck. I stopped and pulled back to look down at her.
“I love you too,” I whispered.
Hannah pulled me down for a soft and slow kiss. I already knew she loved me, but finally hearing those words made me feel incredible. Hannah was everything I ever wanted and she wanted me too.
We were going into a difficult part of our relationship with our eyes wide open. The decision to not give up, to push through the hard times, and to make sure the lines of communication were open was all we needed to survive it.
The only thing I had to do now was force my mom to back off. I was tempted to sweep Hannah off to marry her right now, my mom wouldn’t be able to stop it. Getting married would force my mom to stop bringing women over, especially once it hit the gossip columns that Hannah and I were married. I looked into Hannah’s eyes.
The gossip columns would have a field day with Hannah. They’d call her every name in the book. They’d say she was pregnant or seeking money. It was not worth hurting Hannah in order to stop my mom from pulling her bullshit.
The option to pull some dirt on my mom from Bas and force her to back off with the threat of going public with that dirt was possible. The only thing that stopped me was my dad.
Pushing aside thoughts of my family I focused on Hannah. She finally told me she loved me. I laid on my side and pulled her against me. She put her leg over mine and we wrapped ourselves in our limbs. Iron Man played in the background but we didn’t pay attention to it. We laid there breathing each other in. In that moment, there was peace in the world and everything was right.
I’d been soaring most of the week since Hannah told me she loved me. There was a big party down at the beach tonight and Hannah had a rare Saturday off. So planned on going to the beach to spend the entire day together. I jogged down the stairs to leave and my mom came into the entryway.
“Oh good, I want to ask you something,” my mom started.
“What?”