Love Hits Hard

Chapter 8-Formal

"You look amazing Athena!" Adelaide screams and plays with my hair.

"Am I too dressed up?" I ask Brendan.

"No, you...you look amazing," he responds as Ethan glares at him.

"Ethan, retract your claws and thank you, Brendan. Let me just bring these bags upstairs and then we can go," I say as I turn to Adelaide. "Did Adam come yet?"

"Yeah," she responds. "He came just a few minutes ago actually."

"Oh okay, how was he?"

"Good, he came with a girl names Jasmine, she seemed really sweet."

"That's good, I hope Jackson will be happy," I say with a concerned look on my face.

"Stop being a mother for a day and go have a good time," she laughs and pushes me towards the stairs.

"Okay, mom," I joke and quickly go upstairs and drop the bags off. I grab a small clutch and put my keys, phone, and gum in there.

As I make my way down there I see Brendan standing by the door, waiting for me and I finally see his outfit fully for once. He looked quite hot if you asked me. 

He was wearing a button up shirt with a pair of dress pants and a pair of nice shoes. The shirt perfectly fit around his arms, emphasizing his muscles which made me want to jump on him then and there.

"Are you ready?" He asks me as I make my way towards him.

"Yeah, I think so," I say as I smile up at him. "No, wait. Shit I forgot money, let me go grab some cash from upstairs."

"No, it's fine. I'm paying tonight," he says with a smile and hooks his arm in mine.

"Are you sure? I feel kind of bad."

"Hey, I'm the one who asked you on the date, let me treat you. For once in your life, let someone spoil you."

"Alright," I say with a sigh. "I guess I can do that."

He leads me to his car and holds my door open for me. When I get in he closes it for me and makes his way to his side and I look around.

I see a small jewelry box sitting in the cup holder and my breath quickens. Don't make any assumptions, I tell myself. For all I know it could be for his mother. He gets in and smiles at me and for some reason, I immediately feel calm.

"So, where are we going?" I ask with a smile.

"It's a surprise," I says with a small smirk on his face.

"I don't like surprises."

"Well, you'll like this one," he grabs my hand in a reassuring manner and rubs his thumb along my knuckles. "Take a nap if you want, it's going to be a bit of a long ride." I nod my head and allow myself to relax and I can feel myself drifting off, I was most tired than I had thought.

I wake up to feel someone gently shaking me.

"Athena," I hear Brendan whisper. "We're here, wake up." I check the car clock to see that it says that it is past 9:00.

"You drove for so long, over two hours. You didn't have to do that," I say looking him in the eyes.

"I know I didn't but I wanted to. You seemed kind of stressed lately so I wanted to do something nice for you," he says smiling and meeting my eyes.

"Thank you, this means more to mean than you know," I said leaning over and giving him a hug through the divider. 

"Are you ready to see your surprise?" He asked with an eager smile on his face.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I laughed and opened the door on my side of the car and got out.

I don't think that anything in my life could have prepared me for the sight in front of me. There was a gorgeous pathway in front of me that led to what looked like a small cottage in the distance. The sun had set so the sky was covered in stars. 

I looked up to see that he was already looking at me.

"This is amazing," I said hugging him.

"It's not that much," he laughed. "I just wanted to make this an amazing experience for you. I wanted to make this special for you."

"If this is our first date, I don't know what to possibly expect for our next dates," I laughed into his chest.

"Next dates? Are you planning our future already Athena?"

"What?" I blushed "No, I was just saying."

"It's alright, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't already thinking of other ways to sweep you off of your feet."

"You're adorable," I said and turned to look at the view again.

"Shall we?" He asked and held out his hand for me to take.

"I would be honored," I smiled as I took his hand. We made our way down the cobblestone path lined with flowers and small lamps to light the pathway.

"Do you like this?"

"Like it? I love it, no one has ever went out of their way to do something like this for me."

"Not even Adam?"

"No, he was more of the, stay home and get drunk type. He didn't like planning things so I was usually in charge of the dates and paying for everything.

"That's awful, does he not have a job?"

"Oh, he does. A really well paying one as well but he didn't seem to care for someone four years younger than him. I wasn't worth his time."

"I promise to you now that you will never feel that way with me," Brendan said while squeezing my hand ever so slightly but enough that I could tell.

I smiled and we continued on our path to the cottage. 

We got there in after a few minutes of walking in silence, but it was a comfortable silence.

He opened the door to the quite big cottage and I was shocked by the sight that created me.

From the outside, it looked like it would have been a very cozy setup inside but I opened up the door to see a very sleek and modern look. There was a grey and white color scheme throughout the whole house and had an open floor plan.

After taking a tour, I had seen that there were a bedroom, baths, kitchen, dining room, family room, as well as a nursery on the first floor. There was a basement w

"Was the nursery just a nice touch?" I laughed and poked him in the ribs.

"I was planning just in case Jackson had to make a quick stop and the plans with Adam fell through again," he laughed and poked me back.

"How did you find this house anyways?"

"Well, it's a bit of a strange story." He laughed. "This is actually mine."

"What do you mean it's yours, when did you get it?"

"Around the time I turned 18, I wanted to have something of my own to have when I moved out and went to college so I got all my money that I had been making since I started working at 14 and bought this place."

"Are you kidding?" I said in shock. "This must have cost a fortune."

"I had to get a small mortgage but I'll pay it off before I turn twenty."

"This is amazing, you're amazing."

"Thanks," he said with a smile on his face. "Now, lets go make some dinner."

***