A couple hours later, I found myself on the terrace, shoes dangling from my fingertips. I couldn’t spend another minute wearing those shoes and I realized that I’ve never worn heels longer than an hour or two. By this point, it was going on three and my feet were blistering and red. The wet cement was a relief to my feet as I stepped out into the night. The sky was mainly clear, with the exception of a few random tufts of clouds. The air was still cold after all the rain and the entire city glimmered from street lights reflecting off the damp streets. It was all very pretty and very relaxing. Even the cold air felt good against my bare skin, after being rubbed against expensive suits and wedging between people to escape them. I breathed in the fresh cold air and placed my elbows on the stone railing, leaning my weight forward. Could I just stay out here for the rest of the night? Would that be okay? Sighing, I hung my head. I knew I was mainly out here to avoid Liam. I could handle the majority of people, sure. All I had to do was plaster a smile across my face and pretended I cared.

But that wasn’t the case with Liam anymore. No more pretending. No more beating around the bush. I had to tell him sooner or later that this whole thing sucked, but I wasn’t about to go diving back into the ballroom to hunt him down and confess my feelings. I needed a moment to gather my thoughts and figure out what I was going to say to him. I was a mess with speaking my feelings and the last thing I wanted was to just spew out every thought that had formulated within the past six months.

“You know, you’re going to catch pneumonia out here.” A familiar British voice spoke from behind me and I nearly snorted at the irony. I may have not gone searching for him, yet here he was.

“You can’t catch pneumonia simply from being out in the cold,” I retorted.

“Alright, but why are you out here? Party’s inside.” His shoulders brushed against mine as he came up beside me and I shivered, however I don’t believe it was from the cold.

“I like the cold. Too much hot air circulating inside. You know, with all the celebrities and all.”

“Ooh, clever. Truly. But not all celebrities have a hot head.” I really tried not to snort too loudly, but that didn’t happen. “Wow, you’re lack of faith in a down-to-earth celebrity is upsetting.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe when they’re alone, but once you get them all in a room together all you hear is, ‘Oh my gosh I’m working with this director!’ or ‘I just started my new single.’ or ‘I’m traveling to Singapore to buy my new summer home.’ And frankly, I can’t exactly participate in those conversations,” I said, still not looking at him. How I had managed to keep this up for the entire night was beyond me.

“I’m sorry if we all scared you away when we started talking about our careers. There’s really nothing else we can talk about.” I shrugged and agreed to what he was saying, however I still didn’t trust myself saying much more. The word vomit sat in the back of my throat and, given the right opportunity, it would come spewing out without a second thought.

“I feel like it’s been a really long time since we last talked,” Liam said quietly. Almost more to himself than me.

“Well, I left back in October. It’s been a few months.”

“No. I mean, we haven’t actually talked. As in a real conversation. I think it was before Italy that we last had a decent conversation.”

“Perhaps. It’s probably because you got so caught up with finishing the movie and I had school.” Yes, I forced the blame on ulterior circumstances. I didn’t care anymore.

“Oh, I don’t think it’s just because I got busy with the film.” He said as he leaned his back against the railing and I could see him from the corner of my eye staring at me. I pressed my lips together and braved a look at him.

Was it possible for him to have gotten even more better looking?

His hair had grown a little more, leaving soft, brown curls framing his perfectly chiseled face. He wasn’t as tan as he was in the summer, but that made sense. I might have been slightly weirded out if he came to a holiday party at the end of December with a tan. His dark grey suit was fitted to him perfectly and altogether, he just looked smashing.

“Camille. Did I do something?”

I furrowed my brows in confusion. “What do you mean, did you do something?”

“To make you angry, to make you not like talking to me.”

“You seriously don’t know?” I asked, suddenly feeling very tired of where I knew the conversation was going.

“No.” I turned away from him and pursed my lips, not sure if I should really launch into this.

“You kissed me,” I spoke quietly.

“And that’s why you aren’t talking to me anymore?” Liam spoke in disbelief.

“No, I stopped talking to you because you kissed me and then acted like it never happened.”

“That’s not true,” Liam barely whispered.

“Isn’t it?” I huffed, pushing myself away from the railing and turned to face him. “You said you had a question, then kissed me, followed by you saying you just wanted to know, and then you left. I then proceeded to freak out until the next time I saw you, where you then acted like it never happened. Do you know what that does to a girl who get’s kissed like that and then the guy pretends it was nothing?” Liam remained silent. “It makes her feel like she just got seriously friend-zoned on a whole new level.”

“I didn’t mean to do that.”

“What? Kiss me?” I demanded.

“No!” He stepped closer to me, his body straight and rigid. “I meant to kiss you.” My heart seemed to get caught in my throat. “I didn’t mean to pretend like it never happened.”

“Okay, then, so. What did you want to ask me? What did you want to know?” He bit his lip and averted his gaze from mine.

“I wanted to know if you felt the same way.” He looked back up at me as my entire face felt frozen in shock. “Listen, Camille. I am sorry for not doing anything after I kissed you, but I didn’t know what to do. You know?” I closed my eyes and then looked back up to meet his. He didn’t know what he had to do? Was he joking? How difficult was it really to just tell me what exactly he was feeling? He had months to figure that out and he never even bothered. My head raced with questions which just made me more frustrated. But despite my frustration, I couldn’t stop my feelings for him. I was in too far deep to simply stop liking him.

“And then,” he continued, looking pained. “You started getting all cozy with Carson so I decided that I’d back off.”

“Whoa, what?” I looked at him quizzically. “Carson? What are you talking about?”

“You had a thing for Carson! The both of you got very friendly those last few months. Everyone could tell you two fancied each other,” Liam said, trying to make me realize something that never was.

“Are you kidding? Liam, no. Carson and I never had anything going on. We are simply friends. I can assure you that we both are in an agreement of our friendship.”

“Definitely didn’t seem like ‘just friends’ to me,” Liam mumbled.

“And why are you getting so annoyed anyway when you had Gemma?”

“Gemma?” He looked completely bewildered.

“Yeah, the hot blonde that you were just flirting with.” I could hear the jealousy in my voice. Maybe it wasn’t quite fair because Carson and I had flirted a lot too.

“I was not flirting with her. You were flirting with Carson.” So he had noticed.

“That’s just how our friendship is,” I defended.

“Which is exactly how mine is with Gemma. She just has a natural flirt to her mannerisms.”

“Same with Carson.”

“But you two always seemed more than just friends. You were always talking with each other.”

“That’s because I was venting to him about you. He was being my friend, because I couldn’t stand only being friends with you,” I stated, attempting to clarify this whole situation.

“So you don’t fancy Carson?”

“Oh. My gosh. Liam. I like you. ” His eyes went wide and his face looked completely shocked. The moment the words left my mouth, I felt what ever bravery I had slip away with the cool night breeze. What grade are we in? Kindergarten? I thought.

“Oh thank God.”

Without another word, Liam grabbed my waist, pulled me tight and lowered his lips to mine. He kissed them with a tenderness and sweetness I didn’t even know was possible and it didn’t take much for me to instantly respond. My stomach bursting into fireworks as we kissed, arms wrapped around his neck, hands tousling his hair, as he pulled me closer and deeper. Slowly, I felt myself being dipped, like an old-school 1940s film. My heart speeding at a million beats per second. A fire deep within me seemed to be ignited as we kissed, the space between us nonexistent. This was just perfect.

So much deeper.

So much sweeter.

This time with no questions left unanswered.

Liam broke apart, his hand still resting on my cheek as he flashed one of his killer smiles my way.

“You’re beautiful, you know that right?” He said, a smirk forming.

I smiled back at him and said, “Shut up.”

He did as he was told and kissed me instead. I never wanted to leave his arms. Was it possible for me to stay here for the rest of time? Would that be alright?

I softly pushed apart from him and stared at his perfect, smiling face.

“About the first kiss,” he began, looking at my face and playing with a curl. “The reason I never followed through with actions other than because I thought you and Carson were a thing,” I rolled my eyes, “was because I was also not sure what James would do if he figured out.”

“Oh, he was ready to kill you,” I told him.

“Brilliant,” he let out a short laugh. “But that night, you were just so… so… vulnerable and beautiful and you didn’t even know it.”

“So you kissed me?”

“So I kissed you. And I don’t regret it. And I don’t regret that I kissed you now.”

“I don’t regret either, either.”

He kissed me again, slowly and surely. He broke away and continued, leaving me dazed, “And I thought you should know that I like you too,” his smirk was evident, as if making fun of how we ‘liked’ each other. Rude. “And what I wanted to ask you, was if you would be my girlfriend?” My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. We had just confessed feelings and we were already on the dating question. “Please, Camille. Please be my girlfriend.”

“Did you ask my parents? Or even James at least?” Call me old-fashioned, but I liked it when guys asked the parents. It was a big deal to have someone else think they were worthy of a relationship.

“Yes, to all of the above.” I didn’t think it was possible for someone to get even more adorable. I was wrong. I leaned in and planted a soft kiss on his lips once more.

“Alright,” I said. I’ve never seen him smile so big as he pulled me in for a kiss again. I don’t believe I could ever tire from kissing him.

“Finally!” I heard a voice yell and I broke away from Liam to see the group of celebrities – Carson, Ava, Gemma, and James – smiling and start applauding.

Liam started laughing as I felt my cheeks turn bright red and I buried my face in my hands.

“I can’t believe you guys,” I muttered as they all started whooping and congratulating us. “We’re not getting married, back off!” I said to James as he started hugging me while laughing hysterically.

“Yet,” James replied and I pushed him off me.

“Oh, come on! Let us have our fun. We’ve been waiting for this to happen since, what, April? May?” Ava replied.

“Now you can have your six kids!” James teased and my eyes went wide, horrified.

“James! I swear –”

“Calm down, Cammie,” James said, pulling me into his arms.

“You da man,” Carson said to Liam, giving him a congratulatory smack on the back.

“Actually, he’s my man,” I said quietly, but everyone seemed to hear.

“Yeah girl!”

“Get it, get it.”

“Aww yeah.”

The blushing and the smiling didn’t fade easily.

“Wait!” I said abruptly. “James, you knew he was planning on this tonight!”

“Planning on what?” James acted innocent. Luckily for me, I had become quite good at telling when he was acting.

“Planning on asking me out, planning on kissing me. He told me you had given him permission to date me!”

“Oh yeah. That.” James scratched the back of his neck, nonchalantly. “Obviously we’ve had time to talk about this over the past three months.”

“You worked as our middle-man?”

“Yeah, somebody had to make you both realize you were being stupid. Why not the best friend and the best brother?”

Things suddenly made a lot more sense. Whenever Liam had been brought up in conversation, James would give me ultimatums, sure. But he always made sure to tell me to talk to him and discuss it before making any final decisions. James knew this entire time, but just wanted both of us to get off our high horses.

I suppose he was my older, wiser brother. But I wasn’t going to say that to his face.

“I’m just so happy you two are together now. This took way too long,” Ava said, snuggling against James. I forgot how cold it really was out here. I just didn’t mind right now. “Babe! We can go on double dates!” Ava looked up at James, expectantly, placing her hand against his chest.

“Uh, no,” I said, shaking my head quickly.

“What? Why not?” Ava asked.

“I don’t want to see my little sister and her boyfriend make out, are you kidding?” James responded for me.

“We just saw them kiss, mate,” Carson said, raising a single eyebrow.

“Yeah, first and only time.”

“No,” Gemma began. “At their wedding.” She smirked as my mouth fell. It was too early for wedding jokes!

“Okay, one more. That’s it,” James confirmed and I placed my head back in my hands again.

Then I felt a warm, comforting pressure across my shoulders and looked up to see Liam bringing me up against his chest. It was kind of perfect how well I fit in the dip of his chest. Maybe if I put on my heels I’d fit right under his chin.

“Anyway, we’ll leave you two alone. Be good, kids,” Ava said, a smirk evident, pulling James along.

“Seriously. I’m watching you two,” James warned, pointing at his eyes and then pointing back at us.

Gemma smiled at us one last time following James and Ava, before Carson wiggled his eyebrows and made a rather risqué comment. Liam hit him and Carson finally made his exit.

“So,” Liam began, looking down at me as I was still snuggled against him.

“So?” I looked up at him, having the urge to kiss him again.

“You’re my girlfriend now.”

“That is a true statement.”

“And I’m going to kiss you now.”

I nearly melted.

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

He cupped my cheek as pressed his lips against mine. It took all there was in me not to collapse in his arms.

“Come on. Let’s go back inside,” Liam said, finally releasing me, enveloping my hand in his own. It felt perfect. His hand was so warm as his thumb stroked the back of my hand. Together we headed back into the party and I couldn’t scrub the smile off my face even if I tried.

--------------------------------------------

AND THAT IS IT.

WAIT WHAT.

OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS I FINISHED MY FIRST BOOK THIS IS INSANE I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE.

Well, except that one time when I was 11 and I wrote a story that ended up being, like, 18 pages long about a teenager in a beauty pageant. But that doesn't count.

CAMILIAM IS TOGETHER. JAVA ARE TOGETHER. LIFE IS GOOD AND I'M SUPER SAD RIGHT NOW.

But seriously, thank you to every single one of you who read this story and stuck with me on it and this is just insane. aewuhisfdjlk I don't have thoughts.

There will be an epilogue and the Liam POV before the New Year aka new section a week. As for now, I will say that this story is completed and frig guys, I am going to miss this story so much.

Thank you again.

Stay classy.

- Kate