The next day, I spend the entire day running around to make tonight perfect. I've decided that I'm going to take Vincent out on a date and we'll finally get enough privacy to sleep together. He has the second shift today as the lifeguard but I talked to Jeffery and asked if he could call in Mackenzie instead. She accepted the shift but I haven't told Vincent yet so that I can surprise him when he gets here to work.

I have everything set up at the vacant house because I know that my parents will be here at the hotel and there's nobody else that should be at the house so there's almost no way that we can get interrupted.

When it's almost three, I get dressed in a blue and purple floral dress with matching blue bootie heels and I do my makeup and my hair too. I say goodbye to my dogs, grab my small purse, and I head downstairs.

I wait by the door that leads out to the pool and I hope that Vincent wasn't early because if he's already out there, that'll be kind of awkward when he sees Mackenzie there, taking the shift that was supposed to be his.

Luckily, I don't have to wait by the door for very long before I see him walking through the lobby and he's already seen me so he's looking at me curiously with a small entertained smile on his face.

"Why are you all dressed up?" He asks me when he gets to me, kissing my lips as a short greeting. "I mean, you look gorgeous but I have to get to work."

"I'm taking you out," I inform him, looping my arm through his to lead him toward the front door that he has just entered to get into the hotel.

He frowns in confusion. "Babe, I have to work."

"No, you have to come with me," I assure him. "Trust me, I've got this all planned out."

Vincent grins at me then and kisses my cheek. "That's why I'm dating the boss."

I laugh and we walk together to my car as Vincent asks me where we're going but I don't tell him. It's not a fancy restaurant or anything, just a beachside steakhouse down the beach that my dad had found so he takes us there a lot and it's pretty good.

"Okay, well if you're not going to tell me where we're going, can you at least tell me what the occasion is?"

I shrug at him as I'm driving. "Just that I love you."

"That's it?" He wonders suspiciously.

"Yes," I say with a laugh. "That's it. Can't I just take you out because I love you?"

"Of course you can," Vincent decides, reaching over to put one of his hands on my bare thigh. My dress is pretty short so his thumb starts tapping my inner thigh absentmindedly. It's a good thing that I shaved this morning. "It's just suspicious."

"I'm not going to ask you to marry me or anything," I assure him. "We're just going to dinner, you're being so paranoid. I figured that we could use a night out and I'm impatient so I didn't want to wait until your day off."

"Just can't get enough of me," He says teasingly.

"That's exactly right, Vin, I absolutely can't get enough of you," I agree with him sarcastically. The steakhouse isn't that far away and when we pull into the parking lot, Vincent looks excited so I guess that he really likes this place. That's good. I know that it's not a fancy place so I didn't have to dress up and it looks a little funny because Vincent is just wearing jeans and a t-shirt but I felt like dressing up and I thought it'd make the night just a little bit more special, I guess.

"So, how's the kitchen plan coming along?" Vincent asks me once we're inside. We ask for a table for two and the host leads us through the crowded dinner rush to a small table that overlooks the beach.

"Good. They're pretty much done, actually, I just have to show them to my parents now and hope that they like it," I say to him. "I'm pretty excited about it, I hope that they actually like it."

"They'll love it," He assures me. Even though I know that he's only doing it to make me feel more confident about it and that he doesn't actually know that because he hasn't seen the whole design that I put together, it still makes me feel a little bit better about showing it to my parents in a few days. "Because you are so perfect that everything that you do is perfect so how could they not like it?"

His reasoning makes me laugh a little bit. "You have a point there," I concede jokingly. I order a water to drink and Vincent gets a Cherry Coke.

"I know that I do," He confirms. "Anyway, I'm not working tomorrow but I do have to take Catzilla to the vet just to make sure that she's caught up with shots and everything so maybe I'll take you out tomorrow night."

"We're just going take turns taking each other out every single night?" I wonder with raised eyebrows. "That would get really expensive and you need to think more about our cat now that you're a parent. We can just spend tomorrow in, or we can go to the beach or something."

"Sandcastle building contest," He says quickly. "I'm challenging you and you have to accept, we are doing this."

"Okay," I decide. "Bring it on."

"You're going down, I can make the best sandcastle on this planet," He insists.

"But you just said that I'm perfect at everything," I remind him with a light laugh. "So which is it?"

"Alright. You're perfect at everything except for sandcastle building," Vincent decides. "Because I am the master and I will take you down."

"Sure, Vin, whatever you say," I tell him. I won't admit it in the means of competition but I know that he's better at sandcastle building. In my defense though, he has lived on the beach for his entire life and I have only been here for a few months so I feel like the expectations shouldn't be the same.

"You're already accepting your defeat," He notices proudly. "That's okay. You'll get it eventually but it takes time to be as awesome at it as I am."

"I'm glad that you believe in me. Hopefully someday, I can be just half as talented as you," I play along with a small laugh.

"I'm going to say something cheesy," He warns me quickly as the waitress is bringing us our drinks.

"Okay, I'm prepared," I assure him and I take a drink of my ice water. "Can we order first?"

"Yes, I can wait," He nods and then I turn my attention to the waitress to order a steak with mushrooms on top and French fries on the side. Vincent orders a huge steak with like, three sides because he's apparently very hungry.

"Didn't you eat before you got to the hotel?" I wonder with raised eyebrows. "I mean, you thought you were going to work. Don't you eat before you go to work?"

"I have something cheesy to say, you have to let me say it before I forget it," Vincent scolds me.

"Okay, I'm sorry, go ahead," I surrender, unable to hide a smile from my face.

"Your laugh is like a thousand suns shining at once," He tells me. "No. Wait, not a thousand. A million. A billion."

"A googolplex," I offer him, blushing just a little bit at how cute he's being. I'm glad that our argument or debate or whatever it was that happened was over so quickly because I think that I'd miss him too much if we stopped talking for more than 24 hours.

"Whoa, don't get cocky there," Vincent says to me.

"You're right," I concede. "My bad."

"But anyway, you're absolutely gorgeous," He continues. "And I love you a whole lot. Because you're really amazing."

"Vin, you gave me a whole romantic speech yesterday," I remind him but I can't deny how fuzzy inside his words make me. Not in a sexual sense, just that his words warm my soul. I think that's what I'm feeling when he says things like that but then again, I've never had my soul warmed so I'm not sure what it's supposed to feel like.

"I know but I want to do it again because I love you and I love talking about why I love you because there's so many reasons," He justifies, his gray eyes looking right into mine as if he thinks that by looking into my eyes, he can convince me how serious he is but I can tell just by the conviction in his voice that he's serious. I love him so much too. "You're just really amazing."

"You are also amazing," I smile at him. "Which is why we make such an amazing couple."

"Yeah, we are pretty great," Vincent agrees with me, making me laugh once more before I take a drink of my water.

Even though I know that Vincent likes to eat, it still appalls me that he's able to inhale his entire meal. I finish about half of my steak and all of my fries but he just devours his entire plate which is actually kind of impressive. He doesn't even look too full at the end of the meal which shocks me as well.

As he's finishing the last of his baked potato, I tell him that I'm going to go to the bathroom, which I do, but on my way back to the table, I make sure that Vincent can't see me when I find our waitress and give her my credit card so that I can pay for our dinner. I know that Vincent won't let me because he ordered so much food which is why I don't want him to know until it's too late but I'm taking him out tonight so I want to pay.

Usually when we go out, we just pay for our own food. I know that Vincent thinks that he has to be a gentleman and pay for my food but considering he's in school and he now has a cat to take care of, he can't afford to take care of me too. Which is fine because my parents are now loaded and they don't mind letting me use their credit cards to pay for things. Within reason, of course, my dad still analyzes the statements and everything.

Once I get back to the table, I take one more sip of my water but I don't sit down so that we can leave. "Ready to go?" I ask Vincent with my hand on his shoulder. I can feel the seam of his shirt protruding because, of course, it's inside out.

"We have to pay," He reminds me slowly.

"I already did," I tell him, looping my purse over my shoulder. Before he can protest, I add, "I'm taking you out tonight, remember? It's on me."

"But I ordered so much food," He protests just like I knew that he would. "And I got a soda, Bea, you've got to let me pay for my food."

"No, I don't gotta," I deny him, pulling him by his elbow out of his chair when he doesn't move. "And I'm not. It's already done so you might as well just get over it."

"You should have told me to get something cheaper at least," He mutters, walking with me out of the restaurant.

"I don't mind," I assure him, especially because it's not even technically my money but I don't say that because it makes me sound and feel like a child. "And anyway, I can think of about a thousand ways that you can pay me back that don't involve money."

We're in the parking lot when I say that, my heels clacking against the pavement, and it makes Vincent stop cold in his tracks.

"Bea Valerie Holloway, did you just make a sex joke?" He asks me.

I laugh at him and nod. "Yes I did. Now let's go, the night's not over."

When we get to my car, I even open the door for him and he graciously accepts, getting into the passenger side of the car. I have to take my shoe off to drive because it's kind of impossible to drive in heels but once that's situated, I start driving us toward the high end neighborhood where the new house is located.

"Where are we going now?" Vincent asks me curiously.

"You'll see," I say to him just to keep him curious and wondering.

"You sure do like your surprises tonight," He notices.

I just shrug at him. "I'm trying to be romantic."

"Okay, well you're doing a very good job at it," He assures me. "I'm having a great time."

"Good," I smile but I keep my eyes on the road. It's rush hour now and I have to stay focused on all of the traffic in front of us. "I spent all morning planning it out and getting everything ready."

"You're making it feel like my birthday or something," Vincent says with a small laugh but I know that he's just really curious as to where we're going. I love that I'm keeping him curious like this. I start feeling my own hands getting clammy as we get closer to the house. I don't think that I'm getting nervous, I just think that I'm really excited. It's been a lot of anticipation leading up to tonight and I'm excited that it's finally going to happen. I guess that I am a little nervous about something going wrong because up until now, it feels like every time that we've gotten close, something has always gone wrong.

When we get to the house though, I turn off my phone so that nobody can interrupt us.

"This is your new house, isn't it?" Vincent wonders, probably recognizing the front of the house from the pictures I've shown him of it.

"Yeah," I confirm, getting out of the car after I put my shoe back on and then, like a lady, I walk around the car and open Vincent's door for him. "Come on, I'll show you around."

Once we're inside, I show him some of the first floor including the living room and kitchen but I don't start talking about all of the design aspects that I have planned because I could talk about that stuff forever and I'm eager to get upstairs.

"It's really massive," Vincent says, still looking around the living room.

"Yeah, it is," I agree. "The perks of buying a hotel, I guess, is that you get an enormous house. It's not beach side but there is a really incredible pool out back. Anyway, you stay down here and explore. I'm going to run upstairs and do some final touches and then I'll come back and get you, okay?"

"Alright. I almost feel like there's going to be a clown popping up to surprise me," He tells me with a suspicious look in his eye.

"Yes, that is my ultimate plan. To get you alone and then pay somebody to dress up like a clown and scare the shit out of you," I assure him sarcastically before I kiss his cheek and then I make my way up the wide staircase. I get to the small bedroom that is going to be my room to light the candles that I have spread around the room on the floor.

There's absolutely no furniture in the house anymore so this morning, I had to bring over an air mattress so that's the only thing in this room except for the candles and some rose petals because that's the most romantic thing that I could think of despite how cheesy and cliché it looks. I like it and I think that it looks nice. I brought over my favorite blanket that I sleep with from the hotel and I even have a bottle of wine also from the hotel but I don't know if we're going to get to that or not.

Once all of the candles are lit, I go into the bathroom and freshen up before going back downstairs to find Vincent. He's looking out the back window to see the pool from the kitchen.

"It's a really nice pool," Vincent tells me.

"Yeah, it's not filled right now so we can't go swimming," I inform him. "Anyway, everything's ready so let me show you upstairs."

I'm pretty sure that Vincent knows what's going to happen, I think that I'm being pretty transparent about it but he's not giving me any indication that he is expecting it.

Once we're upstairs, I walk him to the door that is mine. "This is going to be my room, it's kind of smaller than the other ones because I won't be here for too long."

"Are you going to open the door?" He raises his eyebrows at me.

"Yes," I breathe out, feeling even more and more excited as the seconds tick by. With a shaking hand, I twist the door knob and then slide the door open to reveal the candles and roses and the air mattress in the middle of the room, away from the candles so that it doesn't catch on fire.

"This is... fancy," Vincent says as we walk into the room.

"I tried my best with what I had," I explain to him in a quiet, shaking voice. "I have wine. Sit, let me pour you some."

"Alright," He sits down on the edge of the bed and I manage to pour both of us a little bit of wine, probably only enough for two gulps, just enough to buy me some time to say what I need to say. "Did you steal this from the hotel?"

"I left a note," I justify, sitting down beside him as I hand him his glass. "Anyway, I just need to say something first."

"Okay, I'm listening," He confirms with a nod, creating eye contact with me as proof that he's listening to every word that I say.

"I'm sure about this because I'm sure about you. And I think that you're sure about me too," I tell him, grasping strongly onto my wine glass but I don't take a drink of it. "But... it's been a while since I've done this. Which you know. Just pinky promise me that you won't get me pregnant and then forget that you know me."

I hold my pinky up and he wraps his bigger pinky around mine. "I pinky promise that I won't get you pregnant and then forget that I know you. I couldn't forget you even if I tried. But I won't try."

I drink the little bit of wine in my glass and then put it on the ground by the wine bottle and Vincent does the same. There's a box of condoms by the head of the mattress because I really did think of everything.

Before I stand up from the bed, I take off my shoes because they'd be hard to take off while multitasking. "I love you a lot. Okay. Lie down, I have one more surprise."

"It gets better?" Vincent asks incredulously but he still lays back with his head on the pillows and he kicks his shoes off before stretching his legs out as well to watch me as I stand by the side of the bed.

"A little," I say with a small laugh. I reach back and unzip my dress, take a deep breath, think about how much I love Vincent and that I shouldn't be nervous about this, and then I let the dress drop and pool around my ankles.

This morning, along with getting this room ready, I had stopped by Victoria Secret for some lingerie so my lacy underwear matches my bra.

"Shit," Vincent mutters under his breath, his eyes glued to me and it makes me smile. "You're fucking gorgeous, Bea."

I smile at him, the room is hopefully dim enough to hide my blush. The way that he's looking at me gives me the confidence that I need so I step forward and slowly join him on the bed, straddling him.

"Why is your shirt inside out?" I ask him just to lighten the mood.

It makes him smile and with his hands now on my naked waist, he responds. "It's lucky. Clearly, it's working."