Sweet Cheeks. Rucas. GMW CHOICE AWARD WINNER!

Chapter.71.Driving a Hard Bargain.<3

Understanding.

It's a vital necessity to any relationship. Whether it be with family, friends or even your significant other. Because let's face it, more often than not you're going to fight and argue with someone you have a strong relationship with, and you don't want to throw it all away because you don't put on your big girl panties and deal with it. It takes a lot of understanding to progress a romantic relationship, there's going to be a lot of things that piss you off to absolutely no end, or in my case make me super sad, but when you try and not focus on yourself so much and look at the bigger picture, things get easier.

It was easy to tell myself that it 'was just my birthday'. Or, 'he's really busy, he just took over a company''. I could come up with a million and one things that I said to myself yesterday to give me reassurance and understanding. I guess my situation also called for a strong dosage of humility, but I will put that on the backburner for now, and maybe we can discuss it later. You're probably thinking I am taking it way too easy on Lucas Gabriel Friar, and you are honestly probably right in a way. But I also know that this isn't something that he'll just brush off because I've forgiven him. And I know that because the last image I remember was me stroking his hair while he clung to me like a leech since we couldn't cuddle properly.

Now I know what you're thinking, what kind of guy cries over an argument. Aside from my father, Lucas. I happen to love the fact that he's so open about his feelings and emotions and I honestly would have expected the opposite after losing his parents. Instead of locking up what love he had left after losing his parents, he poured it out on me. Drenched me, and soaked me to the bone. That's what she said. Anyways back on track, he didn't emotionally shut himself off from the world when he could have and no one would have blamed him for it. Lucas understood that it was an unfortunate accident, and decided to relish in the time he had left here.

He understood life was short, and could end unexpectedly, so he wanted to make the most of it.

I understood that things happen in life that you can't always control. There's always ways of handling situations better, but the only thing you can really do is learn from your mistakes and hopefully grow.

I've been pretending to be asleep for roughly 5 minutes, I don't have a clock in my brain. Nor could I roll my head to catch a glimpse of my phone. You're probably thinking, 'Riley just open your eyes and use your hands to grab your phone'. That's a valid point, but here's the deal, opening my eyes could bring me good news or bad. Either Lucas is here or he's not. I haven't heard any noise the last 5 minutes so that worries me. Okay, this is the moment where I slide on my big girl panties. Instinctually, I yawn while parting my lips and blink several times to really get that sleepy haze out. But what I'm met with isn't necessarily shocking – because it is Lucas – but it is definitely surprising. On my bed there is a brand new heating pad – still in the box – a heating pad, memory foam pillow, and pain reliever. But wait, there's more... My orbs shift towards my vanity, there's 2 separate bouquets. White roses and red roses, I smile softly and narrow my eyes to catch a glimpse of the cards that are attached, 'I'm Sorry' and 'Happy Birthday'.

Lucas would.

Sitting in between the flowers is – what I can only assume – is a cake and my heart swells. There's several gifts that are wrapped messily sitting on the floor besides the desk and I can't help but squeal in excitement. And that's when my door bursts open, "Riley!"

"Hi." I whisper, slightly embarrassed that I just squealed like a pig. I lift up my arms and gesture to everything around me. "You didn't have to do all of this." But you have no idea how glad I am that you did. I'm just wanting to tear into that heating pad, or maybe he could just return that one. We have one here anyways, I just forgot to grab it when I was rushing to make sure Lucas stayed hidden. Before he can respond with something along the lines of 'yes I did', I continue speaking, "How long was I out?"