Oceans Away.

Chapter 8 - Stephen

"We?"

Walking out of the restaurant I took a hold of her hand. I interwind our fingers, locking them together. I brought it up to my lips, kissing the back of her hand. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?" She lifts her head up, giving me a big smile.

"You have no idea." She takes the lead to the car, opening the door beating me to it. We get in and I drive off to my house I just bought. Staying the hotel started to feel weird so I contacted a good friend of my parents that lives in Calabasas. He- well his name is Wyatt, he's fourth-five. Wyatt went on to look for a house for me... and Claudia.  He knows what I like so it was easy for him to pick the right one for me.

I noticed Claudia looked confused and a little lost, she then went and asked, "where are we going, Stephen?" I looked at her and smiled.

"You'll have to wait, babe." I know how she feels when I call her that. I saw the way she looked at me back at the restaurant when I called her babe. Her eyes lit up, the side of her mouth curled up into a small smile.

♡

I pull up to the big gate and wait for her reaction when she sees what's behind them. I put the code in and the gates began to open up.

"Whose property is this? I thought we were going to the hotel you're staying at?"

"I got tired of staying there so... I bought a house." Her eyes widen.
"You like it?" I told Wyatt to get a house where she'll feel free and alive like she has the power to do anything she wants.

"It's big!" She exclaims, "it's- it's crazy beautiful, don't get me wrong but I thought you didn't want to live here?" I park the car and jog over to open the door for her, she takes my hand, we walk to the front door and I put the key in.

"Having a house here will make me want to come back more. Maybe even live here permanently, you have to persuade me to stay here Claudia." I smirk.

She rolls her eyes walking in. "Wow, you really chose a big house for one person." Turning my way she crosses her arms over her chest. "Do you have a family that I don't know of? Is your wife at work, while you're here flirting and bringing me to your wife's house?" I slowly walk to her, cupping her face with my hands. "How many kids do you have?" She squints her eyes.

"Will you do me the honor and be my girlfriend Claudia?"

I thought I was going to wait but she smiles brightly and blurts out, "Yes!" I pull her face and kiss her. Her lips part, giving me access. She wraps her arms around my neck, I take her legs around my waist. I would take her to our room but I know she's still hungry, I am too so I sit here on the kitchen island.

"Let's eat a baby." She laughs getting off the table and walks to the fridge.

"When did you stack up on food?"

"I had people come and fill up the place, clean it, add furniture, food, and all the other things we need to live here." She tilts her head.

"We?" Did we slip out of my mouth? Shit.

I rub the back of my neck. "Yeah... I bought this house for us- well you mostly. Lacie told me more about your situation with your mother through text. You were crashing with her, you didn't have a permanent place to stay so I bought this house for you."

"But I have money to get my own place. I stayed with Lacie because I didn't know if I wanted to stay in California or not." She sighs. "It's a beautiful house, it really is," she wraps her arms around my torso. "but I thought we were going to get away from this place. You said it yourself, you like visiting not living permanently." I caress her cheek with my thumb then brushes my lips against hers.

"Let's just make this our getaway, yeah? we can live anywhere we want, you name it. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you by the way."

"Don't apologize, no one has ever done anything like this for me. Thank you, for everything babe."

"Anything for you." I kiss her. "Tomorrow we're planning where we're going to go cause right now I'm starving!" We take out all of the ingredients to make pancakes and eggs with bacon and start cooking.