Till The End

Twenty

I feel sparks go off in the pit of my stomach as he deepens our kiss, placing both his hands on the nape of my neck. I wrap my arms around his waist, pulling him in closer to me. I gasp when he lifts me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. He sets me down on my table, beginning to trail kisses down my jaw and neck. I moan quietly as he sucks softly on the skin.

I laugh, pulling away when he unzips my cropped sweater, revealing my breasts. "And on that note," I use my hand to cover myself before zipping it back up. "we should stop." I look up at him, smiling.

"You sure?" he asks, his hands resting on my thighs.

I use my thumb to gesture behind us. "I'm sure." I nod.

"Shit." his eyes widen once he notices the crib in the room. "I completely forgot for a second."

I smile, pulling him in for another kiss. "It's fine. I just don't feel comfortable having sex with you while my daughters sleeping in the same room." I laugh lightly.

"No, yeah. I completely get that." he chuckles, embarrassed. His attention goes back to the crib. "Can I...see her?" he asks nervously.

I also get kind of nervous by the question, but smile, nodding. "Yeah, come on." I hop off the table, taking his hand. I lead us both to the crib quietly and stop once we've reached the railing. "That's Bella." I say quietly, looking up at him.

"She's so beautiful, Ximena." Juan smiles down at her, squeezing my hand gently.

I feel a wave of emotions wash over me as I see the way he's looking at her. His smile when he looks at her is the most genuine and pure I've ever seen it. "Thank you." I say, nodding. I begin to back away slowly, taking him with me. I pull out a chair from my table, making him take a seat. "Want something to drink? I was having some wine before you got here."

"Wine sounds nice. I'll have a glass." he nods. "Is it the one you recommended me from your restaurant?"

I almost let out a laugh at that, taking two wine glasses out of my cabinets. "Absolutely not. A bottle of that wine costs almost as much as my entire pay check." I smile, shaking my head. "This is the cheap stuff." I say as I begin to pour him a glass.

"I'm fine with that too." he nods, shrugging nonchalantly. He picks up the glass, taking a look at it before taking a sip. "Not bad." he says.

I smile, taking a seat next to him. "How'd you find my apartment?" I ask.

"I had to knock on a lot of doors before I found yours." he says, shaking his head. I believe him, being that I'm pretty much the last apartment on the second floor. "I've probably left an entire trail of pissed off people."

I laugh at that, taking a sip of my glass. "Pissed off sleepy people." I add, shaking my head.

"Even worse." he sighs. "But it was worth it. I found you." he smiles, shrugging.

I feel my heart warm at that, and smile. "Well Im glad you went through all the trouble."

"How have you been?" he asks after a second, reaching for my hand with a warm smile.

I rub my thumb back and forth on the top of his hand, nodding. "I've been good. Really busy." I add with a small sigh. "How about you? I've noticed you haven't been around the restaurant..."

"No, I have not." he chuckles lightly. "I had to find a new favorite spot in town. It was too hard to think about going there and potentially seeing you." he shrugs, looking down.

Understanding what he means, I nod. These past few months, I've been dreading potentially seeing Juan at work, so I know how he feels. "Yeah, I get it."

"I also went back home to Colombia for a few weeks, tried to get my mind off of everything."

I look at him, kind of in shock. My thumb freezes on the top of his hand. "You were so upset you had to leave the country?" I ask, flabbergasted.

"Yeah." he chuckles, nodding. "I mean come on, you were the first girl I could see myself having a serious relationship with ever, and then you kinda just dumped me right when I thought things were going great...I was upset about it." he nods again, adding a small shrug to it.

"Things were going great," I nod, a sad smile on my lips. "you were the first guy I had dated since Bella's dad, Juan. I really saw things going somewhere for us too. It just got to be too much too fast when the paparazzi came here..." I sigh, shaking my head.

He stretches over to give me a light kiss. "And that's why we're going in with a different attempt this time around."

"It's a plan that's only going to work for so long." I shrug, taking a long drink of my wine.

He sighs, sitting back in his seat. "I have a question." he says, running his hands over his beard, a serious look on his face. I nod, letting him know to ask his question. "Is being in the public eye something you can ever be at least somewhat okay with?" he asks. "Because that's what comes along with being with me. My career revolves around the media and fans, and attention. I need to know that at one point or another you're not gonna leave me again because of this." he grabs my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You can leave me for a million other reasons, but not that. Not over my career that I love with everything in me."

"Juan.." I shake my head, feeling my heart swell. He really loves his career. I can't let it get in the way of us being together. "I want to be with you. And I also don't want your career to be a reason we break up. So with that being said, yes, I'll learn to be okay with being in the media." I nod.

He smiles, sitting up again. "Really?" I nod, laughing a little. He wastes no time in smashing his lips against mine, his hands on my face.

I stand up, careful to not break our kiss as I rest my legs on either side of Juan, straddling him on the chair. He rests his hands on my thighs, running his warm hands up and down my legs gently. We kiss for a few more moments before I pull away. "I have a double date I have to cancel." I say, biting back a laugh. Juan smiles, pulling me in for a tight hug.

This feels right.