A New Life

sixty one.

"If you insist,"

Danielle's POV

Friday, April 3rd

"Good morning, beautiful," I whisper, leaning over Stefania to kiss her forehead lightly in attempt to wake her up. She stirs slightly underneath my touch, and I gently caress her face, admiring how peaceful she looks.

"Mmm," she hums lowly,beginning to wake up. "Buongiorno, bambina," she says in a groggy morning voice, bringing her hand up to rub the sleepiness from her eyes.

"I love you," I say right away in a whisper, not being able to stop saying it since the first time I blurted it out last night. An amused smile creeps across Stefania's face

"I'm never going to get used to hearing that," she says back quietly, and leans forward to capture my lips in a soft kiss. "I love you so much, bambina," she says with her forehead pressed against mine, and a swarm of butterflies invades my stomach. I scootch over closer to her, and lay my head down on her bare chest.

"I want to stay like this forever," I say quietly, reaching out to find her hand with mine and intertwining our fingers.

"We have to go to work," Stefania chuckles, and I groan.

"Five more minutes," I reason, closing my eyes and wrapping my free arm around her waist.

"I might fall asleep again," Stefania says. "I'm exhausted,"

"I wonder why," I tease playfully. "I told you if we stayed up any longer we would be tired."

"And like I said last night...it was worth it," she places a kiss to the top of my head.

"I hope Abby was asleep by the time we came in here," I giggle.

"She's fine," Stefania giggles as well. "Her room is far enough away...and you can be quiet when you need to be," she smirks. I look up at her and smile, a thoughtful look on my face. "What's that face for?" she asks me.

"You said 'her room'," I say with a smile, and she quirks an eyebrow at me. "I don't know....just, that is her room...she's gonna be living here soon," my smile grows even bigger.

"She is," Stefania smiles and kisses my forehead softly. I let out a deep sigh and rest my head back down on her chest.

"If you were to tell me a year ago that I would soon be laying in bed with the woman that I've had the biggest crush on, next to the room where a sixteen year old is sleeping and is about to be living in..." I shake my head in disbelief. "I would not have believed you," we lay for a moment quietly, not saying anything.

"How long did you have a crush on me for?" Stefania breaks the silence.

"I still have a crush on you," I smile, turning my head to rest my chin on her, so I can see her face now.

"You know what I mean," she narrows her eyebrows playfully. "Before we got together." A shy smile creeps across my face.

"I don't know, to be honest," I admit. "The first moment I laid my eyes on you at that table read I thought you were hot," I giggle. "And, I don't know...during the first couple of months that we met I definitely had a little crush, but I always told myself that it was just because you were so attractive and we had such good chemistry and that it would go away." Stefania smiles at me. "But then it didn't...but we had just started to get so close with each other and we're building this amazing friendship...and I mean, we definitely were always flirty with each other and obviously to other people it could have seemed like we were dating because of how we acted around each other..." I trail off, reminiscing about how much I resonated with all of the fans' wishes of the two of us being together. "I kind of pushed my feelings to the side for a long time...a very long time...because I was terrified that you didn't feel the same way and if I said anything, it would ruin the most amazing friendship I've ever had," I look deeply into Stefania's eyes.