Escaping to Ireland

Liam

"What are you doing here?" she asked me after my phone had just chimed; I was assuming the text was from her.

"Vinessa," I said, taking the seat next to her. Even though I dreaded the twelve-hour flight to Chicago, I would have dreaded having Vinessa go back without me. "What type of boyfriend would I be if I made you go back and do this by yourself?"

"It's a wedding," she said, still smiling up at me in shock.

"A wedding of the man that kind of brought you to me."

"So you are my plus one to this wedding?" She asked me.

"Baby," I said, taking her hand in mine. "I'm going to be your plus one for a long time." She leaned forward and kissed my lips, she had been getting more used to public display of affection, but when she did kiss me in public, it would take everything I had in me not to prolong it.

"I never slept with Shawn." Vinessa had said to Susan a month back. She had stepped out of the kitchen. I knew the sex talk would be coming up. Vinessa had spent plenty of nights at my house, and even though we had passionate make-out sessions, it never went farther than that. It drove me crazy, but I would do anything to keep her in my life; I was not going to risk anything to cause her to bolt out on me.

When she stepped back into the kitchen, I asked her point-blank about it.

I was not expecting to hear "I'm a virgin" come out of those sweet lips of her. My smile vanished for a moment, but it was because it was the first time I ever regretted not waiting for her. I would not give her the number of partners I had been with unless she asked for it. Every day, I waited for her to ask me to know the exact number and who and when. But she never asked. I had to have this talk with Chloe two months into our relationship. I regretted every day I thought that I had not waited for her. To be able to have that special first time with her.

"What's wrong?" She asked me the one morning waking up next to me.

"I'm just waiting for you to run away, to know you deserve so much better."

Her eyes were downcast, and I could tell talking about leaving each other affected her as much as it did me.

"Why do you think that?" She asked, curling up into my side.

"I didn't wait for you...." She knew what I was talking about even though we had never talked about it except for that one night. "And I regret it," I told her, wishing that the stupid seventeen-year-old that I was would have thought twice before I started a pattern. "Doesn't that bother you?"

She wrapped her arms around me tighter. "Anytime I think about you with anyone, it makes my stomach sick. But, this was my decision, and I made it when I was a teenager; I stuck to it. I knew that when I found the one most likely, there would be a good chance he wouldn't have the same views on this matter as me. And I am fine with that. I don't want you to regret anything you can't change; it's not worth the time or agony." She kissed my bare shoulder. "If it is too hard, I can stop spending the night...."

I spun her on her back and kissed her on the mouth. "That will not be needed. I can behave myself," I said as she squealed from all the kisses I trailed down her arm and back up. If I had to wait for the next ten years, I would do it. It would almost near damn kill me, but I would do it.

"You have got to be kidding me," I heard from the aisle after Vinessa kissed me in first class.

Vinessa looked up, red spreading across her face. "Do we know her?" I asked Vinessa about the flight attendant who looked at us like her worst nightmare.

Vinessa giggled next to me. "Let's just say don't order any drinks today. That's the flight attendant I embarrassed in front of you."

"It's because I knew at that point I was sitting next to my future wife," I said to her, causing the red to spread everywhere. It was too hard not to bring up marriage with Vinessa. I was just relieved I could swing going to Chicago with her. I would have to travel quite a few times in the next few months, and it would drive me crazy to be away from her, so any second I got with her now would have to do.