Forever

Chapter 14 _ Me Encantaría

It was Sunday morning. Day 2 since the news broke. Juliana hadn't slept the entire night. She couldn't. Valentina tried to help her sleep but Juliana's mind just wouldn't shut off and after 3am Valentina couldn't stay awake any longer so she snuggled into Juliana as they spoke and drifted off to sleep as Juliana played with her long brown hair.

Around 4am Juliana snuck out of Valentina's bed and went over to her window where she had a set up for people to sit or lay down. Juliana opened the curtains allowing the moon's light to filter in as she pulled out her sketchbook. She went to the next available page and began to let her hand move with ease as her thoughts were transferred onto the page. By the time the sun rose she had filled 26 pages with different dresses and outfits.

When Valentina awoke she felt around the bed and grew worried when she opened her eyes and Juliana wasn't in bed. She was about to jump out of bed to go search for Juliana when she sat up on the edge of the bed to put her slippers on and noticed the girl sleeping next to her window with the sketchbook about to fall. She smiled as she reached over to get a blanket to cover Juliana and removed the sketchbook from her hand. When she covered Juliana she saw the girl get comfortable so Valentina decided to close the curtain and walk over to her desk and began to edit.

Midterms had come and gone so the focus had immediately shifted to the final 6 images of her portfolios for all 3 of her photography classes. Given her background she was granted entry to the introductory class but waved the required introductory course for the digital imaging class and the portfolio class. The department head was very enamored with her work and granted her the permissions needed to take the advanced classes. Valentina's focus for her portfolio class was a product based fashion portfolio meaning she would get unreleased pieces by 12 different designers and shoot those with 12 different models. She met with the design department and found 10 up-and-coming designers who were more than willing to get their work out there through her instagram promotion given she has over 2 million followers. She convinced Renata to be her 11th designer in exchange for house sitting over the summer. Despite finding 11 she still had one more slot open that had to be filled two weeks before Christmas break.

After editing for a while she turned to her right where she had set Juliana's sketchbook down and she immediately thought of her girlfriend to be her 12th and final designer for this project. She wanted very badly to skim through her work but she didn't want to invade Juliana's privacy so she decided to wait until the girl awoke to ask for her help and collaboration.

Juliana awoke around noon and she found a tray with food set on a little table next to her with a note that said, "Enjoy, hermosa." She smiled and turned to see Valentina focused on her work and listening to her music not noticing anything around her. Juliana took this as her opportunity to hug the girl from behind.

"Buenos dias bonita." Valentina said as she took out her earphone and turned around in her chair.

Juliana instantly pulled her into an intense kiss, biting Valentina's bottom lip when she pulled away.

"What was that about?" Valentina said with a huge grin across her face.

"I just wanted to say thank you for bringing me breakfast and taking care of me." Juliana said acting completely innocent.

Valentina laughed at how quick her girlfriend had shifted into an adorable puppy. "Well then I guess if I want another one of those kisses I'll have to bring you breakfast every morning." She said still not believing Juliana could be so sexy and confident one moment and so adorable the next.

"Ha-ha very funny. So what are you working on?" Juliana said as she played with Valentina's hair taking a bite from the croissant Valentina had brought up for her.

Valentina laughed understanding that Juliana wanted to change the subject but had she not needed to speak to her about work she wouldn't have let her off the hook so easily.

"Okay, Ms I'm Innocent, I actually do want to discuss something with you. So you know how on Fridays I have my portfolio class? Well I decided to challenge myself by talking to a few local designers to let me borrow some unreleased pieces so I could use them in my fashion shoots for that class buuuuuuuut I still need one... and I was thinking that one could be you? I'd love to photography your work and it's the perfect way to get you exposer for some of your incredible pieces. Que dices?" Valentina said hoping Juliana wouldn't refuse.

"No, pues Val me encantaría... but I don't have any of my equipment with me... everything is back at my parents. I just brought some clothes and that was it..." Juliana said trying to figure out a way to help her girlfriend. "But I do some new sketches I just made that you could choose from and I could try to get my dad to bring me my sewing machine and some of my work that I'm going to need for Renata's school anyway. Let me see what I can do okay?"

Valentina's face lit up at the fact that Juliana was willing to be her 12th designer. Had she not already made a proposal to the other 10 and Renata she would have loved to shoot all of her images using different pieces of Juliana's work. She had truly fallen for Juliana's work, she wanted Juliana to succeed so she could have her own boutique one day.

After showing Valentina her entire sketchbook so she could pick her favorite pieces for the photoshoot, they discussed the type of model who would wear Juliana's pieces and what kind of lighting to use to display the clothing.

Once they had settled on their plan Juliana asked Valentina for Renata's number so they could discuss the job opportunity. She had decided that she needed to start working in order to get her own place. That was something Valentina wasn't too happy about but she agreed nonetheless knowing Juliana wanted to be more independent and not have to rely on her for everything now that Juliana was no longe with her parents.

The rest of the day went by in a flash with both girls working on their own stuff. Juliana was redrawing her favorite pieces onto bigger paper for her portfolio presentation for Renata's new fashion school who had admission presentations coming up. Meanwhile Valentina completed her lighting diagrams in order to be able to use the studios at her university for the following month. Valentina liked to have her portraits taken in weeks in advanced so she had plenty of time to edit each one.

When the evening rolled around the girls had dinner with Leon and Luica. Leon told Juliana how things went with her parents. After discussing her parents, Juliana informed Leon & Lucia of her plans to accept Renata's work offer and get her own place. Leon agreed but insisted that she didn't have to leave right away, that she could stay as long as she needed.

Before heading to bed Juliana called Renata and they scheduled a time to meet the following day. Renata was very content with the idea of having Juliana work with her.