A New Life

sixty.

"I love you so much."

Danielle's POV

Thursday, April 2nd (same day still)

"I love you, bambina." Stefania kisses the top of my head while I'm still curled up on her chest, just after our activities of the night. "I don't know I went this long without saying it," she admits. "I've been wanting to say it forever...I mean, we said it all the time before we were dating but obviously this is way different."

"Me too," I reply, lifting my head to rest my chin on her chest instead, looking her in the eyes. "I was too nervous that I would scare you away if I said it too early." I explain to her. "I know we've both had serious relationships in the past that ended ugly, and he was the last person I said it to...and I thought I meant it at the time, but now that I'm with you I've realized that I've never actually experienced true love before you. Everything is so different with you."

"Me too, bambina." Stefania smiles as she speaks. "I don't think I've ever been this happy before," she whispers as her hand comes up to cup my face, her thumb softly running across my cheek. "I love you so much," a moment of silence is shared between us as we just stare into each other's eyes, soft smiles gracing both of our faces. "I don't think I'm ever going to be able to stop saying it," Stefania laughs softly.

"Me neither," I smile. "I love you." I lay my head back down on her chest, this time facing toward Stefania's face. She brings her hand up to my cheek, and delicately caresses my skin. I play with the ends of her hair, the thought of what could have been bothering Stefania all day suddenly popping into my head again.

Not knowing whether or not I should bring it up again, not wanting to ruin our moment, I stay silent for a long time.

"What are you thinking about, bella?" Stefania says in a quiet voice.

"Nothing," I simply state, and Stefania narrows her eyes at me.

"Sometimes I think you forget that we've been best friends for years and I know you very, very well," she says playfully.

I move my head slightly so I can look at her, still not knowing whether or not to say anything.

"You can ask me," she whispers knowingly, like she can read my mind and knows exactly what I'm thinking about.

"What happened earlier?" I ask her, scootching off of her chest and laying down on the pillow next to her so our faces are just centimeters apart.

"My dad called me," she says. "I haven't talked to him in...gosh, I don't even know how long." she shakes her head slightly as she speaks, and breaks eye contact with me, looking up at the ceiling. "We kind of had a big fight the last time we spoke, about my acting career and how it isn't going to last forever, and that I need to find a real job. Anyway, you know how my family is." She turns her head to look at me again, and I nod knowingly. "They're very conservative. So my dad called to apologize for that huge fight, even though it was probably six months ago at this point that it happened, and I kind of forgot about it." She turns to look back up at the ceiling. "Even just seeing that he called me and seeing his name pop up on my phone again took me off guard, so when he started asking if I was dating anyone, I panicked." I can see Stefania start to get worked up, her voice getting shaky and fiddling with her fingers. I reach over to grab her hand with mine, and squeeze gently. "I wanted to tell him that I'm with the most amazing woman in the world and that she makes me the happiest I've ever been, but I was so terrified of his reaction to the fact that I'm with another woman." Stefania's eyes begin to tear up, so I reach out with my free hand to turn her head to look at me again.

"You're okay," I whisper when she goes silent, knowing there's more she needs to tell me about what happened. She takes a deep breath before continuing.

"But I told him anyway. You mean so much to me...I needed my dad to know about you," she says, trying to smile to fight off her tears. "He went completely silent when I said it, and I swear I could actually feel my heart drop to my stomach and break into a million pieces." She pauses again for a moment. "But..." her voice cracks, and a singular tear falls from her eyes. I reach out to wipe it away immediately. "But the worst part was..." more tears start to fall, and my heart aches seeing her like this. "He told me that my mamma would be disappointed in me," she barely gets these words out, and I can feel my heart break at her statement. "But I know she wouldn't be...she was always my biggest supporter no matter what I did," her voice breaks immensely as she looks up at the ceiling and attempts to stop anymore tears from falling.

"Hey," I whisper, my voice slightly in a panic. I bring my hand up to her face and tilt it so she's looking me in the eyes. "Don't try to stop the tears, okay? You're okay, let yourself cry," As soon as I say this, she breaks out into full-on sobs. I quickly wrap both of my arms around her body, holding her close to me despite the awkward angle of us both laying down. Her body shakes in my arms, and I hold her as tightly as I can, feeling my own tears threaten to form.

When her sobs begin to die down, I release her from my embrace and hold the sides of her face with my hands.

"I don't care what your dad said, I know for a fact that your mom would your number one supporter right now if she was still around," I watch as tears continue to fall rapidly from Stefania's eyes. "But since she can't be, I will, and it doesn't matter to me what anybody else thinks, I'll love you no matter what." I kiss her lips softly. "I know how important your family is to you, but I also know that you know deep down, that they live in a place where our love isn't accepted."

"It isn't my whole family," Stefania explains, wiping underneath her eyes after her tears stop. "Just my dad. My brother and sister have been texting me all day trying to apologize for what he said and telling me to ignore him. But you can't just ignore what he said, you know? It hurt...a lot."

"I know, baby," I caress her face gently. "And it's allowed to hurt. You're allowed to feel this way. I just wish you didn't try to hide it from me,"

"I was scared that you would be hurt that I didn't want to tell my dad about you," she starts to cry again.

"Hey, no, no, baby..." I try to wipe her tears away. "I'm not mad at you," I press a long kiss to her forehead. "I just want you to know that you can talk to me about anything, okay?"

"I'm sorry," she cries softly into my shoulder.

"Beautiful, look at me," I say seriously, taking her face into my hands. "I don't want you to be sorry," she looks into my eyes with tears filling hers. "I'm sorry that I was giving you an attitude...you were right, you aren't obligated to tell me everything, but I want to be here to support you through things like this," I kiss her lips softly, and she nods her head.

"I love you," she whispers, causing a smile to break out across my face. I'm never going to get used to hearing that.

"I love you more," I respond quietly and kiss her again. A brief moment of silence is shared between us, both of just looking into each other's eyes and smiling softly.

"Wanna go again?" she asks with a mischievous grin, and I smirk.

"We're gonna be tired in the morning," I try to reason with her, but I know I'll end up giving in. Who would be able to resist her?

"It's worth it," she says, rolling over on top of me and bringing me in for a passionate kiss.

"If you insist,"

a/n: don't worry guys, I wouldn't hurt Stefania too too bad, just a little angst:)

also just wanted to let you guys know that i'm on vacation right now, and most likely won't be updating again until i'm back home...but that's only a couple of days away. i've been on vacation for a couple days already, and i had these last two chapters in my drafts ready to post:)

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