Lonely Together

34

MARIAH

Our last days in Hawaii went on without any more distractions—they were simply wonderful. We spent much of our time exploring the astounding island we were on—and of course exploring each other.

Now, we had been back in the city for two weeks and were thrust back into our busy work lives. He had missed a bunch of work due to vacation and often spent twelve hours at the office each day, while I was busy pushing out articles and managing the people below me.

Although he and I were both very busy, we agreed to make time for each other as much as possible during the week. Still, we knew that it wouldn't be healthy to constantly be around each other so our work was a great way to balance that out.

"Mariah, what's this news you have for me?" My mother asked over the phone as I cleaned my home as well as possible. Valentino was spending the weekend here for the first time and I wanted it to look great.

"So you know how I went to Hawaii with that guy I was talking to...Valentino?"

"Yes, oh I'm so glad you had a great time there, Mariah. But are you two not talking anymore?" She inquired, genuinely wanting to know. My mom loved to hear everyone's business, so I knew she would want to hear all about my love life.

"No...we are. But he asked me to he his girlfriend while we were there," I explained, stopping my cleaning to pause in front of the phone to wait for her reaction. I knew exactly what she was going to say.

"You're just telling me know? Did you say yes? Oh shoot, of course you said yes. I need to tell your father...and your grandmother...and your sisters!" She rushed out over the phone, making me chuckle at her antics.

"I'll call dad and tell him...my sisters too. I'll tell grandma next week when I visit her...she just let me know where she lives and she's only fifteen minutes away!"

"Girl, you know how your grandmother is. Secretive," my mom sighed, the sound of her car door closing. "I have to go Mariah, but I am so happy for you. Stay safe...you know what I mean...and I love you!"

"I love you too, Ma."

When she hung up, I sat there with a small smile on my face, thinking about how much I knew my mom would like Valentino. And then at the thought of him, I rushed back to finish cleaning before he came over.

***

"You are such a liar," I remarked from behind Valentino as he stood in my kitchen cooking pasta for the two of us.

He had gotten here two hours ago, letting me give him an official tour of my apartment that was much smaller than is. Still, he claimed he liked it and the decor that I had put together.

After my stomach began to grumble, he took it upon himself to make pasta from scratch in my kitchen—when just weeks ago he claimed he had no idea how to cook.

"What kind of Italian man would I be if I couldn't at least make pasta?" he retorted, placing an aesthetically pleasing plate of penne pasta in front of me, along with garlic bread. "My nonna taught me how to make it...she said it would impress women."

"Well she wasn't lying," I smiled as I savored the taste of the first bites I had taken, surprised at how good it was. "I told my mom that you asked me to be your girlfriend."

"And?"

"She's excited. She immediately wanted to tell my whole family, but I want to be the one to tell them. My dad would be pissed if he had to find out through her."

"Tell me about your family, love. We always talk about mine, but I want to know about yours," he spoke, breaking off a piece of garlic bread for me to taste and popping it into my mouth.

I began breaking down the personalities of each of my family members, giving him a clear picture of what each of them was like. He was a bit confused when I explained my grandmother—but in all honesty, we were all a bit confused about her still.

"They sound great," he remarked with a smile, sending me a wink before taking our plates and placing them in the sink. We both agreed that we were too stuffed to even consider washing them.

As we moved over to the living room, I grabbed something I had just brought from the store and brought it over to the couch with me, sitting beside him.

"It's a couples game. To get to know each other better with questions we wouldn't think to ask," I told him when he raised an eyebrow at me. "Wanna play?"

"Yes. You're still a mystery to me sometimes, Miss Colton," he replied, taking the box out of my hand and pulling the first card. "How many successful relationships have you been in? Besides this one."

"Two. Both in college which was a big mistake," I replied, not going into any detail. I figured they probably weren't monumental enough for me to even need to. "What about you?"

"One."

"With Deja?" I inquired, remembering the name his brothers mentioned. He nodded curtly, clearly not wanting to delve into the topic even more. "Okay, my turn. Craziest place you've had sex?"

"Front steps of a frat house," He replied fairly blandly, letting out a chuckle when I raised my eyebrows in both questioning and shock.

"Mine was in the car with this guy after he took me on an amazing date," I laughed, pressing a kiss to his lips at the memory. "Okay...ooh this is an interesting one...how would you describe the way you want to be loved by your partner?"

He sat in thought for a second before turning to face me completely, "I like the way that we randomly do nice things for each other...or doing things like this where we just talk."

"I do too," I admitted, pushing a curl out of his face as we looked each other in the eye. "I could listen to you talk about anything all day. But I agree, I like when we do sweet things for each other and just spending time in each other's presence."

When we began to bicker about some of our answers to the questions, we decided it would probably be best to get some sleep, especially since we would be spending time with our friends the next day. They sure knew how to wear us out.

Lying in my bed with his arms wrapped around me securely, I couldn't help but to smile out at the night sky, thankful for the way my life had changed in the past months. Sure, we had a rough and patch and I was still skeptical about being with a man whose family was so dangerous—but I could no longer imagine life without him.

It was both endearing and absolutely terrifying.