Chapter 11

"Happy Anniversary!" I hear, in my sleep, then feel a body crashing into mine, making me lose my breath.

"Good morning sleeping beauty. Happy anniversary!" I look up at Ethan and he showers me in kisses. I giggle, a warm feeling spreading inside me.

We've been in Italy for 4 days now, and it has felt like an absolute dream. Ethan has taken me to different cities around here, some of the best restaurants, and has even cooked me some of his favorite childhood dishes. Every day I've been waking him up with breakfast in bed, but I guess today he woke up earlier than me.

"Good morning love." I grin, sitting up. "Happy anniversary!" We wrap our arms around each other.

"I can't believe it's already been 3 months." Ethan sighs. "It's gone by so fast."

"I know, right? It feels like we just started dating, but it also feels like I've known you for years." I laugh. Ethan pulls me into his lap, facing him. I wrap my legs around his waist.

"I feel the same way." He laughs, pulling away so that we can see each other.

"There's breakfast ready. And I have gifts for you. I know you don't like when I buy you things...and I think I kind of went overboard this time.." Ethan bites his lip. "But it's for our 3 month anniversary! So please don't get mad at me. I just love you so much I was excited to get you everything." he laughs.

"Wait, when did you even go shopping?" I tilt my head, curious. "We've always been with each other all day. What did you buy that I don't know about?" I laugh.

"Hmmm you'll see." He kisses the top of my nose.

"Well I also have gifts for you." I say, putting my arms around his shoulders. He frowns.

"You didn't have to buy me anything." He scrunches up his face. "When did you go shopping?" He laughs.

"Kai helped me." I smile. "And it's our anniversary. How can I not get you something?" I play with his hair.

"Ah, sneaky Kai." He laughs. "I rather give you gifts than receive them. But thank you, my love." He smiles warmly at me. I nod happily.

"Let's go eat." He says, standing up from the bed while holding me.

"Wait, we need clothes on." I say. Both of us are butt naked.

I've used 2 out of 3 of the lingerie sets Callie and Lorena gave to me. The first time I surprised Ethan, he was so shocked and asked to take pictures so he 'never forgets this sight'. He asked the same thing the next night when I wore a different set. It's safe to say that he loved them.

"No we don't." He smirks down at me.

He walks down to the kitchen and places me on one of the stools in front of the island. He never sits at the table, he insists that eating at the island is more fun. A bunch of different food lay out in front of us. He grabs two plates and some utensils before sitting down next to me.

"Eat whatever you want, dig in." Ethan smiles at me.

I put some food on my plate and notice that Ethan isn't doing the same. I grab his plate and put a little bit of everything on it before putting it back in front of him. He watches my every move.

"Thank you my love, but you didn't have to do that." He smiles.

"You weren't getting any food." I frown.

"That's because," he leans in close to me so that his lips brush mine when he speaks. "the meal I want to eat is sitting right next to me." He murmurs, connecting our lips. I feel my face heat up, and a pool of heat forms below.

"You are my favorite meal. I want you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everyday." He pulls away from the kiss, grinning.

"Maybe one day you will." I smirk, and his eyes light up at that.

"Hopefully." He grabs my right hand, brushing his thumb over the ring he gave me for my birthday.

"Let's eat, I want to give you your presents already." Ethan grins.

"Okay, me too." I agree and we start eating.

We eat until our hearts are content, excitedly feeding each other bites of something we found to taste really good. I have to admit though, I think we kissed and touched each other more than we actually ate....but I'm not complaining.

"Okay, now I think putting clothes on is a good idea. I don't think we'd be able to get though our gifts if we don't." Ethan picks me up, kissing my lips. I wrap my legs around his torso, and my arms around his shoulders as he walks back to his room.

"Maybe that's not such a bad thing." I mumble, leaving kisses on his neck. Once we get to the room, Ethan immediately lays me down on the bed and hovers over me.

"You're right, maybe it's not." He smiles.

I cup his cheeks in both my hands as he leans down to kiss me. Not a second later Ethans phone starts ringing. He groans, reluctantly getting up and walking to his nightstand, picking up his phone and answering the call. I turn over to my side and watch as he speaks Italian to whoever is on the other line.

He's so beautiful. The sunlight coming from the ceiling-tofloor windows create this golden hue around him. Every part of his body glows in the light, and I can't help but to thank god that he's mine.

Ethan runs a hand through his hair, I swoon at the muscles in his back as he turns away from me. I smile, standing up.

I go through the closet where we both hung up our clothes, getting one of his sweaters and throwing it on along with a pair of spandex that I brought. I grab a T-shirt and some sweats for Ethan and lay them on the bed gently. Then, I go into the bathroom to brush my teeth and put my hair up.

When I walk out of the bathroom, Ethan is sitting on the bed, dressed in the clothes I put out for him. I smile, walking over so I stand in front of him and wrap my arms around his shoulders.

"Hi." I smile, looking down at him.

"Hi." He grins. "You're so cute." He laughs.

"You ready? I have your gifts in a separate room." He says, I nod.

"Wait, let me grab yours first." I say and quickly go to the side of the bed. I get on my knees and pull out multiple wrapped presents and gift bags, putting them onto the bed.

"Can you help me carry them?" I ask, Ethan blinks, nodding.

"Geez, how did you even get all this? We never even went to exchange money for you." Ethan stacks most of the presents in his hands and I grab the left overs.

"You said Kai was really professional, so I trusted him. I gave him my card and he went and took out money and exchanged it for me. I wasn't going to have him buy the things, but he offered to and said that he knows this place better than I did. So I gave him a list of what I wanted to get for you, and he seemed like he was more than happy to go. I just wrapped them when you slept." I smile.

"Ah, you two are sneaky! You are so smart my love." Ethan laughs, leading me to a room a few doors down. I push the door open for him, since his hands are full. "Also, we're staying in today. Kai has a family emergency so I told him to take the day off to get it sorted. Is that okay with you?" He sets the gifts down on the bed, along with the other countless gifts that were on there already. I do the same.

"Yeah, of course. I hope everything is okay." I say.

"Yeah, I think things are fine." Ethan nods.

"Okay, here." He grabs the two chairs that were sitting at the desk in the room and pull them up to the bed. "Sit down." He instructs and we both take a seat.

"Why does this kind of feel like Christmas?" I laugh. He nods, agreeing.

"I can't wait for Christmas with you. Let's go somewhere snowy." He grins at me.

"Okay," I laugh. "somewhere snowy." I repeat.

For the next hour, we opened each other's gifts. I was nervous about how Ethan would react to what I got him. I'm sure his gifts would be hundreds of dollars each, but mine weren't as expensive. His whole life he's gotten super expensive things, so it kind of made me worry about how he would react to what I bought. But the entire time he was excited and grateful for every thing I got him.

I gave him 2 sweaters from his favorite bands, I made a scratch book with all our favorite memories including the day we started dating, a picture of our rings and necklaces, our first date, a picture of us on the boat all dressed up, pictures of us kissing, pictures of us when we decided to match our clothes, us with his aunt, pictures I took of him without him knowing, and other cute moments like that. I also got him two tickets to see the weeknd, which is one of his favorite artists, I got him a few car fresheners because he always has them in his car and I heard him mention that he wanted to get some more, I also got him the cologne he always wears, which I absolutely love the smell of. And the last thing he opened was a '100 things I love about you' jar where I wrote 100 things that I love about him. Every time he opened a gift his eyes lit up and it melted my heart.

He gave me some of my favorite snacks, a cute butterfly anklet, a small glass accessory to add to my keychain that has a picture of him kissing my cheek and me laughing, some designer clothes, a pair of freaking red bottoms, a few candles that I mentioned one time that I was obsessed with, and a channel purse with a matching wallet. Some of these things I had looked at while we went to stores the first day we got in Italy.

"How did you pick these things?" I smile up at the boy next to me.

"I had someone follow us when we went through the stores and buy everything you seemed interested in when we left." He admits, biting his lip. "But you didn't look at nearly as many things as I wanted you to." He laughs.

"You mean you wanted me to have more?" I shake my head, looking at him like he's crazy. "This was so expensive already. I couldn't imagine if I touched everything in the store. You probably would have bought it all." I laugh.

"Maybe." He grins, leaning over to kiss me. I pull away, standing up and wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

"Thank you." I kiss his forehead, cupping his cheeks. "For everything. I love you so much. I love everything you gave me." I say, smiling down at him.

"I love you too Nova. I love everything you gave me as well. I will cherish it forever, I'll promise you that. I can't wait to go to the concert with you." He grins.

"You don't have to take me." I laugh. "Go with one of your friends, have fun."

"I want to have fun with you." He shakes his head, I just smile at him and kiss his lips.

"Oh, before I forget. There's one more thing that I got for you." Ethan says, sounding nervous. I pull away from him.

"You gave me all that, and there's more?" We both laugh. Ethan stands up, cups my cheeks and just looks in my eyes for a moment. I smile at him, placing my hands over his, and give him a quick peck on the lips.

"Nova..." he smiles down at me, and I offer an encouraging smile back. He takes his hands off of my face and puts a little bit more of a distance between us.

I tilt my head, curious as to what he's going to do. He pulls out a burgundy velvet box and my breath hitches in my throat as he starts to lower himself onto one knee. He opens the box, revealing a diamond ring right in the middle of it.

"This isn't a proposal...yet." Ethan trails off. I smile down at him, tears already threatening to spill from my eyes.

"Nova, I love you so much. More than words could ever explain. You make me warm and you make me feel like I'm where I belong in this world. I don't know what I would be able to do without you. My heart longs for you when you sleep in your own bed instead of mine. I want you to stand by my side for forever. Until we're ready for more, and I get the blessing from your family, will you please accept this as a promise of my love?" He takes the ring out of the box. I let out a shaky breath I didn't even know I was holding.

"Yes." I nod my head furiously. "I will." I laugh at myself. Ethan grins and slips the jewelry onto my ring finger.

He quickly stands up and takes me into his embrace, spinning me around. I squeal, both of us laughing. He puts me down and I wrap my arms around him. The two of us have tears streaming down our checks.

"Why are we crying?" Ethan laughs, wiping my tears away.

"Because we're happy." I sniffle, reaching up and doing the same to him. "I love you. I love you so so much." I say, placing my hands on his chest.

"I love you too baby. Forever." He grins, kissing me. He picks me up, supporting my weight by holding onto my thighs as I wrap my legs around his waist.

"Forever, and ever, and ever." He kisses me between every few words.

I chuckle, looking up at the man of my dreams. I honestly couldn't be happier than I am right now. I feel like I'm in a dream. He starts to walk out of the room and I tighten my grip on him. He walks back to our room and gently lays me down on the bed, hovering slightly over me. I take in the sight. His hair falls right above his eyes, not styled, his eyes shining down at me, the chain around his neck dangling, his muscular arms on either side of me.

I love it. I love him.

"What's on your mind?" He asks softly, smiling down at me.

"You." I smirk, cupping his cheeks and pushing his lips against mine.

~~

For the rest of the day, we didn't do much. We played some card games, watched a couple movies...but we didn't watch all of either movie because we got busy half way through each time. But he did play the piano for me! And it was such a beautiful sight to watch Ethan as he effortlessly strung his fingers along the keys.

It's about 1am now, and I lay in bed half asleep. I feel Ethan shift for a minute, and then the mattress rises a bit. I turn my head to see him standing up, putting on his sweats.

"Where are you going?" I mumble, closing my eyes again.

"I just need to use the restroom. I'll be right back my love." He says and a second later I feel him kiss my forehead.

"Okay." I whisper, drifting off to sleep. In the distance I can hear the ringing of a cell phone, but I ignore it. I'm too exhausted to even care.

Crash!

The sound of glass shattering makes me jolt out of my sleep. I reach out to my side, in hopes of waking up Ethan in case someone broke in. But I don't feel anything, and I frown. Looking over where Ethan is supposed to be laying next to me, I see that it's empty. I quickly get out of bed, throwing on Ethan's T-shirt and slipping into my house slippers. I quickly make my way to the door and run out the room.

"Ethan?" I call out, getting nervous. I make my way to the top of the staircase, and can see a light coming from the kitchen.

I can also hear muffled noises coming from there, so I bolt down the stairs and quickly push open the door leading to the kitchen. The smell of alcohol immediately hits my nostrils. I look around, there's countless empty alcohol bottles. I see glass shattered everywhere on the floor and assume that, that's what I heard. I rub my eyes, trying to wipe the tiredness away. My eyes meet with Ethan's and what I see makes my heart ache. He looks...broken. Something is obviously very wrong. His eyes are puffy, signaling that he has been crying. I look over to the stove, it's clock reading 2:48am. What could have happened in such a short amount of time to make him like this?

"Nova." Ethan starts to make his way over to me, then suddenly stops. I take a few steps towards him but he quickly puts his hands out in front of him. He's shaking.

"D-don't come closer." He stumbles over his words. "I-I don't want to h-hurt you." His voice cracks. What is he talking about?

"What's wrong?" I ask, tears forming in my eyes. I don't like seeing him like this. I just want to make him feel better. I want to do everything I can to make him feel better.

"I just- I..." He starts breaking down, crying. I run towards him and quickly take him into my arms. He holds me tightly, as if I'm just going to disappear.

"What's wrong baby?" I ask. "Are you okay? You're going to be okay, okay? I'm here for you. Don't worry, it'll be fine." I coo into his ear as he continues to sob into my shoulder. I rub his back, tears falling down my eyes as well.

"Everything is going to shit. I made promises I can't keep all because...all because that..." he doesn't finish his sentence.

"You don't have to talk about it right now if you don't want to. Or ever. It's your choice baby. Just know that I'm here with you. Whatever it is, we can get through it. I promise, we can handle this together."

Ethan's POV

I sob, already feeling completely empty and drained from the thought of not having Nova around. How am I supposed to tell her this? What am I supposed to do? I love her so much, she's the only thing that truly makes me happy in this world, and it's all getting taken away by my mother.

Earlier in the night, I had gotten up to go to the bathroom when my mother called me.

"Hello? Hi mother." I answer the phone after drying my hands. I peek outside back into the room and see Nova sleeping.

I smile before quickly walking out of the room, not wanting our conversation to wake her up. I go downstairs and sit on the couch.

"Ethan, what the fuck do you think you're doing with your life? I am pretty sure your father and I raised you better than this." I hear my mother spitting into the phone on the other line. My lips turn into a frown.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, running my hand through my hair.

"You're dating one of those people Ethan. Do NOT play with me right now! I will not have my son embarrass the family like this by dating a negro. Why would you do this to me? Do you hate me?" I just blink at what my mother is saying. I've never thought of her as a racist woman before.

"Mother, what do you mean? Nova is a really good person. I think you'd love he-" She cuts me off.

"Do not talk back to me boy! I am your mother and you will listen to me. You are to be home by tomorrow evening. And get rid of that girl. If you don't, I will. And god knows you don't want me to interfere, I will not hold back. Do you understand? I do not want you to be associated with her, or any of the other ghetto, loud blacks in this world. If you do not listen to me, I will be sure that you regret it. Do I make myself clear?" My mother seethes into the phone.

I have never seen this side of my mother before. Maybe it's because half my childhood was spent with another woman filling the role as a mom in my life. If there was one thing I knew about my mother, it's that she definitely does not play around.

My mouth suddenly feels dry.

"Ethan! Did I make myself clear? Get rid of her NOW!" The tone in her voice makes me flinch.

"Y-Yes ma'am." I whisper into the phone.

"Good boy. I always knew you wouldn't let your mother down. Be home in time for dinner tomorrow okay? I'm sending your fathers private jet to get you first thing in the morning. Goodbye now. Love you." She says, hanging up the phone.

The conversation I had with my mother plays over and over in my head, making the tears not stop. I don't want to hurt Nova. She means everything to me. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing the pain I would cause her.

After what feels like forever crying, I pull away and look at Nova. After letting me know that she was here for me and that we could work things out together, she let me cry in silence. And I was grateful for that.

Why is she crying though? I see the tear marks on her face. I raise both my shaky hands up to her cheeks and cup them.

"Don't cry." I whisper. "Why are you upset? Did I make you upset? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I whisper. I feel like I have no more tears left to shed.

"Hey, don't apologize. I just hate seeing you like this. I wish there was something I can do." She whispers, placing her hands on my chest.

I soak everything in. Her presence, her touch, the way she looks, her facial structure. I take it in like it's the last time I'll see her. God knows it is...

"Marry me." I say, looking into her eyes desperately. If we get married right now there's no way my mother could make us separate. "Let's go- right now. Let's get eloped." I rub my thumb over her cheek.

Please say yes. Please, I need you in my life.

"R-right now?" She asks, shocked.

"Yes, right now. Let's go right now. You and me. Let's go get married." I'm almost pleading now. I see Nova's eyes soften, and she frowns.

"You've been drinking. You don't know what you're saying." She shakes her head.

My shoulders drop. It's true, I have been drinking. But I know exactly where my thoughts are. I realize now, that there's absolutely nothing I can do. I can't tell her what happened between my mom and I, or she'll try to intervene and I don't want anything to happen to her.

"Right." I whisper, closing my eyes. I feel a lump form in my throat. This is really the last night I get to spend with the love of my life. I already feel empty.

"We can talk about it in the morning okay? I think you need some rest. How does that sound?" I open my eyes at the sound of her voice. I just nod.

"We have to leave in the morning as well. Something came up at home and I need to be there immediately." I say, my voice weak.

"Alright, go to bed. I'll clean up here and pack up our stuff okay? Get some rest." She leans up, kissing me.

I hold her there for a moment, savoring the feel of her lips against mine.

"I love you." I whisper, heart aching when she smiles up at me softly.

"I love you more." She responds. I kiss her forehead before going upstairs.

I lay down in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing I know, I feel Nova slipping into the bed. Without looking, I quickly take her into my arms and hold her to me, afraid that at any given moment someone is going to take her away.

I'm sorry, my love. Our story wasn't supposed to end like this. I'll always love you.