Together in Berlin

Chapter 1 - Cole's POV

It was just Beth and me.

She'd chuckled. "At least one good thing happened today."

I'd stroked her face and kissed her eyelids.

Another lingering kiss later, we had fallen asleep soon after, my arms around her, her head tucked under my chin.

The second time I bought a plane ticket on a whim was for her second audition, this time in Paris. I had gotten the time to get there a day before her audition and we'd spent the day in the city, walking around, trying to lighten her mood so she wouldn't be too stress that time around.

I bought her a dress in one of the little boutiques we visited for her audition.

She had gotten the part.

That night we'd kiss again, after drinking champagne and dancing around her hotel room.

I had wanted to take the dress off of her. I'd wanted to take everything off of her.

But she wasn't on the pill and I hadn't brought any protection and it just felt like it was the universe telling us that that night wasn't the night.

It was okay. My years of loving Lilibeth Eaton had made me patient. I never wanted to have regrets with her. And I never wanted to rush anything. At this point, there was something almost exciting about all this waiting, about never knowing when we'd actually start dating, when everything would finally be real and official.

I'd gone to see her in Berlin too, on my own a couple more times, often in between two flights on my way to build a case for my job.

We'd go eat dinner at a restaurant, or I'd listen to her practice the violin or just sit in on one of the ballet classes she was teaching kids.

I loved following her around in her little routine. It made me feel like a part of her life.

We were both so busy all the time, her with all her classes and chasing her grand dreams and me with my human rights cases and my delusion that I could actually change the world for the best.

Beth and I, we'd always been hopeless romantics, it made sense for that side of us to also affect every other parts of our lives.

I took my laptop out of my backpack, trying to occupy myself for the next couple of hours so I'd stop going down memory lane and make myself miss Beth more, when she was already so much closer than she usually was.

I had a little over a week off from work, which was kind of a miracle. You couldn't really take a break from fighting for human rights. Humans never stopped being shitty people, so others had to keep fighting to balance things out.

I was working at a firm that focussed on human rights, more particularly when it came down to children. I'd spent the last year building a case to change adoptions laws on a worldwide scale with the UN. I wasn't in charge of the project or anything, I was still a newbie after all, but even if I just spent hours every day organizing files and running around, it felt good to think that maybe one day we could make a difference.

Every time I was tired from the work, I thought about Maika abandoned and about her Dads that weren't even allowed to adopt her, and about all the twists and turns they had to make in order to bring her home.

So, I spent the rest of the flight going over some files, distracting myself really.

When the plane commenced its landing, that's when I let myself really think about Beth. I hadn't planned on staying with Beth for so long before and alone.

I'd spent weeks here, but Jayden and Maika were always there.

I'd seen her back home during the Holidays too, but that was always different. It never felt like we were free and could really be together back home.

Of course, we wouldn't exactly be alone this time either since Nikki was her roommate, but it was different with her. Beth's best friend was a lot more chill than mine.

The last time I had called Lilibeth, she hadn't told me that she was unusually busy, so I hoped that my dropping by now would be a happy surprise and not an inconvenience. That was the trouble with surprising someone. It could always backfire. Wouldn't be grand if got there and Beth was with a boyfriend of hers, she had never mentioned?

Of course, there was no doubt in my mind that this was not going to happen.

There were a few things I was certain about in life and our feelings for each other was one of them.

I looked out the window as the plane started its descent.

After finally landing, I swung my bag over my shoulder and made my way out of the airport.

I was travelling light.

Once I stepped outside, I was grateful for my warm leather jacket because it was pretty chilly out. There was snow still covering the grounds in some spots.

I hailed a cab, and told the driver my destination in my shaky German.

Whenever we would go out when I was Berlin, I'd let other people order things for me. For some reason, I was just really bad at speaking German. I kind of understood the basics, but speaking it was a whole different game.

Every minute on the ride to Beth's apartment felt like an hour.

My whole body felt alive, thinking about the fact that we were in the same city right now.

Finally, the cab dropped me off in the little street where Beth lived.

Her apartment was on the fourth floor of an old building without an elevator.

We often joked that she didn't need to go to the gym with all those stairs.

I felt giddier than a kid at Christmas as I climbed up, the whole staircase smelling like old wallpaper.

When I finally reached the right floor and walked up to the right door, I took a deep breath.

I knocked. I heard a bit of commotion inside. After a few seconds, Beth opened the door. She looked a little breathless, like she was in a hurry.

And she let out the mother of all squeals when she saw me, jumping in my arms.

I hugged her, lifting her off her feet. "Hi Kitten," I whispered against her cheek. 

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Well, well, well. Here it is. I hope you enjoyed it. This is one of the longer chapters. so like, expect them to be shorter sometimes. This story is about 24K works in total, so it's not the longest one.

See you tomorrow with Beth's POV. :D