Together in Berlin

Chapter 1 - Cole's POV

Chapter I – Cole's POV

In an airplane forty thousand feet flying over the ocean, I was excited, but also a little nauseous.

It had nothing to do with the plane and everything to do with dropping unannounced at Beth's door.

She was in the middle of her university session. She probably didn't even have time for me. I was kind of crazy to have booked a flight and invited myself into her life without telling her first.

It was not the first time I had done it though.

Sure, with Jayden and Maika, we had flown to Germany to see Beth a few times after she had moved there for school, so the whole gang could be together. But those were planned trips.

Jayden and Maika had made a big deal out of going to see her for her eighteenth birthday, two years ago, like I should be there with her, now that she was legal.

I had wanted to be there for her birthday, just because I wanted to celebrate her in general, but I hated this idea of me lurking in the dark, waiting for her to turn of age and be mature enough for me to finally date her, like I was some old pervy groomer.

I'd already felt like such a shit person for loving her when I shouldn't have. I hadn't wanted to be like a deranged predator stalking his prey and waiting for the right time to pounce.

And I hadn't wanted Jayden and Maika to be there, clapping for us and reporting to our whole families that we were finally dating.

What I had with Beth had always felt so precious, so special and delicate that I didn't want people to know and say things and judge.

For some strange reason, I wanted to protect us.

It wasn't because I doubted my feelings for Beth or hers for me. It was just some irrational fear. It was like our relationship was this precious framed butterfly that would crumble to pieces if you touched it. As long as it stayed in its protective frame it would be okay.

The first time I bought a ticket on a whim was when Beth got her first audition in Vienna during her second year of university. She had to take the train there, and she was crazy nervous. She hadn't told her family about it. She was scared of not getting the part and having to tell everyone about her failure.

She had called me on the train on her way there.

I'd dropped everything and booked the first flight I could find.

I showed up at her hotel room the morning before her audition. I had hoped that in some way my presence could have helped her.

Unfortunately, it didn't go well. She said she was probably too stressed out.

She had gotten a call the same day telling her she hadn't gotten the part.

That night, I had kissed her for the first time since that one time at her parents' house, when she had freaked out and slightly broken my heart. I hadn't planned on kissing her that time. Apparently, I never planned on kissing her.

We'd just been sitting on the hotel bed, watching bad TV and drinking wine out of the bottle and she'd smelled so nice and felt so warm beside me, her arm pressed against mine, her ankle thrown over my shin.

I'd just turned my head, our face so, so close and I'd leaned in slow and before I knew it, my hand was in her hair and I was dragging her on top of me.

I'd kissed her slow, taking my time, enjoying not just her lips against mine, but her hands around my neck, her hair brushing my face, and the fact that she was all mine at that moment, and we weren't arguing in the middle of her family's house.