Into the Unknown

Chapter 18

A couple of months have passed since we attended the premiere and it's now Noah and I's first anniversary. We are going to Playa del Carmen, Mexico for a week to celebrate. "Come on, Mills," Noah says as we sit in our seats in first class. I collapse on the seat and lean my head back against the headrest. "I am so tired." I yawn. "I was up all night thinking about random stuff."
"You can sleep now," Noah says, kissing my forehead. "I'll wake you up when we are about to land." I smile and close my eyes. Soon, I eventually fall asleep. "Millie, wake up." I hear a voice say. I open my eyes and see Noah shaking me gently. "What time is it?" I ask groggily. "It's one in the afternoon," Noah replies, packing away his laptop and doing his seatbelt. "We are landing in about a minute." On cue, I hear the pilot announce on the PA that we are landing in Cancun Airport.
Once we land, we passed through security and grabbed our suitcases. We are trying to bypass paparazzi and fans the best we can. However, we got ensnared by a fan, who demanded that we take a picture with her and get an autograph. We obliged and took a quick picture with her and left before anyone could recognise us from Into the Unknown. The second we stepped outside, we were met with cameras flashing and people shouting our names. Noah grabs my hand and pushes through the crowd, ignoring the shouts and the cameras. He hails a taxi and throws our suitcases in while I slide into the car. The second Noah slams the door, he tells the driver to take us to Playa del Carmen.
"So much for trying not to grab attention," Noah mutters, looking back at the airport.
"At least it was better than Caleb and Bella," I say. Noah looks at me with confusion written on his face. "All the girls at Stanford came up to Caleb and attacked him. They tried to take his phone, touch his hair and get his attention. Caleb barely escaped from the crowd. Bella was embarrassed by how the girls were acting around him."
Noah lets out a low whistle while looking outside and back to me. "Well, let's try to lay low this week."
I nod as I say, "I don't want to wake up to my phone buzzing with news of us in Mexico." We are silent on the drive over to our hotel, which is the Fairmont Mayakoba. We thank the driver and hand him the money before stepping out of the car. Noah heads to the front desk to check us in while I look at the beach in the distance. A minute later, I feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist and I lean back and sigh. "You wanna go to the beach?" Noah asks me, following my gaze. I nod as he takes my hand and leads me to our room. Noah gets changed into board shorts and a white T-shirt with his sunglasses that I bought him while I am wearing a blue bikini. We leave the hotel room and head for the beach. I put my bag down onto the sand and sat on the chair, soaking up the warmth of the sun. I put on my Coach sunglasses and pull out The Notebook, the book that I'm reading that is written by Nicholas Sparks.
The story is about a mill worker Noah Calhoun and rich girl Allie are desperately in love that takes place in the 1940s in South Carolina. But her parents don't approve. When Noah goes off to serve in World War II, it seems to mark the end of their love affair. In the interim, Allie becomes involved with another man. But when Noah returns to their small town years later, on the cusp of Allie's marriage, it soon becomes clear that their romance is anything but over.
"Hey," Noah says once he takes off his T-shirt. "I'm going to go for a run along the beach then go for a swim. You want to join me?" I shake my head. "No. I'll join you when you go swimming." He nods and kissing me before heading off. I watch as he takes off and smiles to myself before returning to my book. After a half-hour, I close my book, set it aside and close my eyes. Feeling the sun hit my skin makes me drowsy and tired.
"Hey." I hear someone say. I open my eyes and look up to see Noah standing over me. "Hey," I say smiling. "You ready to go for a swim?" he asks, pointing to the water. I nod as I stand up and put my sunglasses into my bag. I take his hand and follow him into the water. I shriek at the cold water as the wave hits my legs. "Come on, Millie!" yells Noah as he dives into the water. I shake my head as he emerges from the water. He shakes the water out of his hair and runs his hand through before grabbing my hand.
"I love you, you know that?" he asks, as he wraps his arms around my waist. "I love you too," I say, before kissing him. After spending at least two hours by the beach, we head back to the room to get changed for dinner. We were fortunate today due to no one ambushing us for photos or autographs. I got changed into a white dress with flowers on them with elastic drawstring waist tie, flowy hemline, and v-neckline. Noah's wearing a white dress shirt and beige khakis with a watch. We put in a reservation at a Mexican restaurant that is down the street.
"Hi. We got a reservation for Eaton," Noah says to the waitress once we get to the restaurant. The lady nods as she finds our name on the computer. She gestures us to follow her and leads us to our table. Once we sit down, we had our waiter come and asks for our drink order.
"So what do you feel like having?" I ask looking at the menu.
"Um, the chicken tacos look delicious," Noah says.
"Hmm," I look at the chicken and I have to say, it looks delicious.
It has a skinless chicken breast, garlic, fresh black pepper, goat cheese and inside of the chicken was purple onion, baby spinach, grape tomatoes chickpeas and basil-infused olive and balsamic reduction for drizzling with a corn tortilla.
"That looks delicious," I say. "I think I'll have the beef tacos." It's a steak in tortillas, topped with onion, cilantro and lime with seasonal vegetables and roasted potatoes on the side. The waiter came back with the two water and asked us what we would like. Noah told him that he would the chicken tacos and I said that I'll the beef tacos. The waiter said that it will be out soon. Noah lifts his glass as I do the same and we clink our glasses together. "Happy Anniversary, Mills."
Just as the sun is going down, Noah and I are walking along the beach admiring the view. An older couple took a couple of pictures of us and we thanked them before staring at the pictures. One of them is Noah's arms are around me and I am leaning my head on his shoulder and the other one is us kissing. I post the picture of Noah's arms are around me and I am leaning my head on his shoulder and tag him with the caption: If I know what true love is, it's because of you. You're the one for me, Noah Eaton. I swear I couldn't love you more than I do right now, and yet I know I will tomorrow. Loved you yesterday, love you still, always have, always will. Noah does the same except his caption reads: I believe everything happens for a reason because it led me to you. I'm so lucky that I'm in love with my best friend. I love you... I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life.
I know that we are young and have only been dating for a year, but I have a feeling that we will last forever. If not forever, then many years. I would rather share one lifetime with Noah than face all the ages of this world alone. I love our story. Sure it's messy, but it's the story that got us here to where we are today.