Nobody Like You

Epilogue

I sighed as I leaned on a nearby tree, waiting for my girl to get out of the building. I was hoping she'd get the news she wanted to hear and my plan for us could be a celebration instead of me cheering her up. When I finally saw her walk out, she noticed me waiting and ran to me at full speed and jumped into my arms.

"Wow, okay I haven't seen you this excited since Julliard accepted you," I smirked. "So I take it you have good news."

"Amazing news. You're looking at the concerto soloist for piano in our performance at Carnegie," she beamed proudly.

I picked her up and spun her around, sharing in her excitement. "Baby that's amazing. I'm so proud of you."

"So does that mean you can take time out of your busy schedule to come watch your girlfriend?" Gabriella asked with a hopeful smile.

I scoffed. "As if there was any doubt. You know I wouldn't miss you performing."

"I just had to make sure since you got a big important job now," she grinned.

Instead of taking the firm's offer, I accepted a position with one of her dad's associates working security at a fancy private school in Manhattan. Mr. Carter surprisingly gave such a good recommendation on my behalf that the associate even offered to provide tuition assistance so that I could go to school and become certified to be a security consultant.

"You just have to let me know the day and I'll be sure to make myself available," I rolled my eyes before pulling her for a soft kiss. "So, are you officially finished for the day? Because I think being chosen as a soloist calls for a celebration."

She raised her eyebrows at me. "Are we going back to your apartment for this celebration?"

"No, that part will come later. I had something else in mind for us," I winked.

As we left the campus in a taxi, I couldn't stop smiling. When Gabriella first got accepted into Julliard, we didn't know how our relationship was going to hold up if we were on opposite sides of the country but then my job offer came through and it was like the universe was rooting for us. Now we were in this big city together with nothing but opportunities in front of us.

I didn't think I would like New York as much as I did but once I saw how different it was from Los Angeles, I realized it could be easy to call it home. Especially since I had Gabriella to face these new experiences with me.

When we pulled up to a restaurant and got out, Gabriella looked at me in shock. "This place is really expensive, are you sure?"

"Hey like you said, I have a big important job now that pays me way more than I need so why not spoil my concerto soloist?" I replied.

She smiled as we went inside and were seated. "So what do you think my parents will say when I tell them about the concert?"

"I think they'll be proud of you but way too proud to admit that they were wrong about all their concerns about us being out here together," I snickered as a waiter came over to us to take our order.

When it as determined that the both of us would be in New York together with me working not too far from Julliard, Gabriella's parents insisted in her staying on campus rather than moving into my apartment with me. They were certain that if we moved in together this soon, she would lose focus in school and not perform as well but it looked like the joke was on them now.

I had to give them credit for their effort to accept us though. After Gabriella's kidnapping, their protectiveness drastically increased but when they realized that I wouldn't let anything happen to her, they finally relaxed and let us enjoy our relationship out in the open. It was like a weight lifted off our shoulders not having to hide how we felt about each other anymore.

"Have you talked to your mom and Chris today?" Gabriella asked after the waiter walked away. "I wanted to know how Chris was doing with getting ready for basketball season."

I shrugged. "He's fine, our dad has been playing one-on-one games with him to help prepare him."

"How do you feel about that?" she asked knowingly.

Nothing has changed when it came to my relationship with my dad. I still preferred not to see or speak to him, and he hasn't made any effort to change that. "I guess it's fine. If I can't be there, I'm glad Chris has another guy around to help him out. He finally stopped pushing me to talk to him, so I think he finally understands that we're not ever going to have any kind of relationship."

"And you're okay with that?"

I thought for a moment before reaching over to take her hand in mine. "The way I see it is I've been doing great without him. I've started building a career, moved to a new city, and I have the most beautiful, talented girl in the world on my arm. All things I got without his help so yeah, I think I'm more than okay with that."

Gabriella smiled and squeezed my hand. Once our food came, we changed the subject and talked about how her classes had been this week and I told her about the kids at the private school. As much as I wished I had her waking up next to me every morning, having her stay at my apartment for three days out of the week seemed like a decent trade, especially when it was the weekend when I got to have uninterrupted time with her.

It was Gabriella's idea for this arrangement, not only to prevent her parents from finding out about her staying at my place too often but also because she claimed she didn't want to invade my space and smother me. She still didn't understand that I could never get tired of being with her or hearing her voice. We could be together all day but the second I took her back to campus and went back to my apartment, I missed her like crazy.

But tonight was all about us and I could have her as long as I wanted which meant that I wanted to enjoy it. As she took one last bite of her food, I smiled at her. "Dance with me."

She looked at me in shock. "Really? You want to dance in public? Aiden Thompson, I'm shocked."

I rolled my eyes as she giggled. "Yeah whatever. Come on."

I stood up and went to her side, holding out my hand. She took it and we walked onto the dance floor with the other couples who were dancing. As we swayed to the music, I pulled Gabriella as close to me as we could get, wanting to savor every moment of this.

A year ago, I couldn't imagine doing anything like this in public with her without getting into trouble but now we were free to be in love with nothing stopping us. No one threatening us, no one disapproving of us. We were free to just be us and I was free to finally have what I wanted and not focus so much on what everyone else wanted.

"I love you," I whispered in her ear.

Gabriella stepped away a little before looking up at me, as if she was thinking about everything it took to get to this point. "I love you too."

She leaned up and pressed her lips against mine, but it wasn't her usual sweet kiss. It was a kiss that showed me she wanted me. As much as I was trying to make this night romantic without sex, I couldn't ignore the desire I had to press her against the wall and make her forget everything but my name.

When she pulled away, I looked down at her. "I think it's time to get out of here."

"Good idea," she smirked.

This girl never failed to surprise me. Once everything was paid, we practically ran out of the restaurant to get a cab back to my apartment. When we got there, Gabriella kissed me eagerly as I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom to finish what we started.

As we made love that night, I could only think about how lucky I was that this girl was mine. As much as I tried to fight it in the beginning, I ended up becoming crazier about her than I ever imagined. Gabriella has shown me what could happen once I start taking care of myself and allowing myself to have what I wanted.

When we reached our climaxes and laid there together to come down from our activities, I kissed her forehead. "Becoming your bodyguard was the best thing to happen to me."

She laid her head on my chest and tangled our legs together before looking up at me with a wide smile. "Same here."