Love Lives and Lies

Winter Sophomore Year- 2

Chapter 23

Theo and I text all night until he finally passes out from exhaustion. Before he fell asleep though, we decided to meet up halfway between our two houses to go out for lunch the next day.

I wake up early in the morning so I can get a good workout in before I finally get to see Theo. I decide to do my run first and then do some plyos using my homemade gym equipment on the back patio. I'm way too sore today to go for a lift at the gym again.

Two and a half hours later, I'm showered and ready to go see Theo. I can't contain my excitement. I'm a little worried because the two of us have been through so much since we last saw each other, but it also feels like no time has passed. I think back to our time spent together last spring and I get goosebumps just thinking about how it'll feel to kiss him again. I hope I get to kiss him again...

I text Theo as I'm about to leave, just so he knows when I'll get to the restaurant. He texts back that he's about to leave as well, so we should both get there at the same time.

I listen to music on the way there and when one of my favorite songs comes on, I think of Cody. It's been a while since I've seen him and that's not normal for us. I've been home for winter break for almost five days and I miss him. We still text each other, but it just doesn't feel like our usual banter. I hope he's okay and he's not going through something or keeping anything from me. I'll have to chat with him later to see if we can hang out sometime to really catch up.

Twenty minutes later, I pull into the restaurant parking lot. I don't spot Theo's car right away, so I take a minute to pull myself together before he arrives. I don't know why I'm so nervous. Theo and I are amazing together. He's the best boyfriend out there and he really cares about me. There's nothing to be nervous about.

I see his car pull in a few spots down and I take a deep breath. I'm not sure how he's going to react when I see him, so I'll try to play it cool.

I hear a car door slam, so I collect my belongings and step out of the car. I see him before he sees me as he looks around the parking lot to find me. He's a bit thinner than he was when I last saw him...paler too. He looks just like my Theo though.

He finally catches my eye and the brightest smile breaks through his face.

"Get your ass over here," he smirks and I take off running.

I can't seem to stop myself. I jump into his arms and wrap my legs around his waist. He's still so strong and he holds me tightly against him.

"God, I've missed you so much, Ava. I'm never leaving again. It was too hard being away from you, baby."

I have no words to respond, so I pull back and crush my lips against his. He's still holding me up as he cups my ass through my jeans and pulls me even tighter against him.

We steadily make out for a minute before someone honks their horn behind us. Shit. I forgot we're in the middle of a restaurant parking lot. How embarrassing.

With one final deep kiss, I slide down Theo's front and stand in front of him looking up into his deep blue eyes. God, I've missed looking at this man.

He laces our hands together and starts leading me towards the restaurant door. He holds the door for me, but doesn't let go of my hand.

We reach the hostess and ask for a table for two. She leads us to the back corner of the restaurant and I'm secretly thankful it's a bit more secluded and quieter back here. I sit on one side of the table and Theo reluctantly lets go of my hand to sit on the other side. The hostess hands us our menus and tells us our server will be right with us. We don't even look at her before she's walking away. We can't seem to take our eyes off each other.