Two Weeks Later

The hotel is having an employee appreciation event where the ballroom is full of free food, games, and music for all of the employees of the hotel. It was a tradition before my dad became the owner and all of the employees really enjoyed it so my dad wanted to keep it going. It happens every six months and at the last one is where Lionel and Mackenzie had hooked up which ignited Vincent's distaste for the bellhop.

Anyway, the party goes on all day so that the employees that have to work today can still come on their time off which most people do because it's a lot of fun and they're really like a family here.

Living here for a while now, I've gotten to know a lot of them but with the exception of Vincent, I wouldn't say that I'm really close with any of them. When I get into the ballroom, Vincent is already in there talking to Mackenzie. I know that they're close friends which makes it kind of strange that I barely ever talk to her at all.

"Hey, babe," Vincent greets me before he kisses my cheek. "It took you long enough to get down here."

"I was sleeping," I justify, looking around the ballroom to see what all is in here. There's a long table of catered food and then on the other side, there's games set up as if this were a festival or something and in between the food and the games, there are tables to sit at and an open area to dance to what the DJ is playing.

"Well, we have plenty of time," He assures me. "It really gets busy at night because that's when the lights go off and things get crazy."

"Not for me this time," Mackenzie adds with a bitter laugh. "I've got the evening shift and then I'm just going to head home."

"You're not staying?" He asks her with raised eyebrows. "That's a major bummer."

She shrugs at him. "I'm sorry to bum you out. I'm just really not feeling it this year."

"Okay. Well, I'm going to go with Bea to get food but I'm coming back to kick your ass at air hockey later," He warns Mackenzie as he wraps his arm around my waist and starts pulling me toward the buffet style food.

"You're on," She laughs back at him and I just awkwardly wave at her as we leave her by the drink table that they were standing by. Maybe she doesn't like me, that'd explain why whenever we're in the same room, she tends to ignore my existence. Then again, I rarely ever say hi to her either so maybe she thinks that I don't like her.

"You've been sleeping all day?" Vincent asks me curiously. We stop at the buffet and I grab a plate to fill. I'm assuming that Vincent already ate because he doesn't get a plate of his own.

"I was finalizing design plans for the dining room last night," I explain to him with a small shrug. "That's the last of the designing though. The renovation crew has been working endlessly to get the house ready so next week, we'll get to go in and see the final product."

"I can't wait, it has to look amazing," He says with a small smile. I've been stopping by the house every once in a while with my mom just to make sure that the plan is coming along how I imagined it but Vincent never comes with us because I want to surprise him with the final look. "Have you decided on a school yet? Now that you know what you want to do."

"No," I say automatically because lying to him about Rhode Island has become second nature by now which is really sad, I know, but I'm too terrified to say anything to him. At first, I was waiting for the right time to tell him but as time went on, I became paralyzed with the fear of him panicking and breaking up with me because of this and so I just never told him about it. I justify it by saying that I haven't actually been accepted yet but everybody knows that's bullshit.

"Are you looking?"

"Yeah," I confirm. "It's all expensive or impossible to get into so I don't know yet."

"Well, Bea, you're really talented so you can literally go wherever you want," He assures me as I put some macaroni and cheese on my plate and we keep moving down the table.

"We'll see," I decide to just leave it at that. "Are you working tomorrow?"

"I am not," He shakes his head at me. "Catzilla will be fine for the night if you're insinuating anything."

"Well, I was about to but you kind of beat me to the punch," I say jokingly.

"I could see where you were going with it," He justifies. Once I get my food together on my plate, we get an empty table and Vincent goes to get us two cans of soda. "And anyway, I have something that I want to give to you and it's so cute and romantic that I know that you'll be jumping my bones afterward."

That makes me grin. "Is that so?"

"It is very much so," He confirms with a nod.

"Well now I'm eager to find out what it is," I say before I take a bite of my food.

"I'll give it to you when you're done eating," He decides. "Only because I can't wait to give it to you."

That makes me eat a lot faster than I had planned. It's good food so I don't have a problem with eating everything on my plate and then dragging Vincent out of the ballroom. He tells me that this surprise is in the break room so we walk across the hotel and then into the back. Because anybody not working is at the party, there's nobody in the little lounge area right now.

"Okay, well it comes with a speech so you have to listen too," Vincent explains as I sit down on the couch and he grabs his bag from the coat rack and pulls out the same small jewelry box that he'd given to me when he gave me the little plastic ring that he later needed back to give to Ava. I remember back when he gave me that one that he promised to give me a real ring so I bet that's what he's doing right now. "I'm not going to propose."

"Alright, I'm listening," I assure him as he sits down beside me with the ring still hidden in its box. He then hands me the box and I open it to see a beautiful spiral ring with one end ending in a fake diamond encrusted starfish and the other end having a pearl. It makes me smile.

"I know that you won't stay at the beach forever and I want you to have this to remember it by. To remember me by. I don't know if I'll be with you or not when you leave but I hope that I am. I mean, I could get hit by a bus or a shark attack or something, anything could happen. If I'm not, it'll remind you of me. If I am, which I'm 99.99% sure that I will be, it'll remind you of the place that we met. So it has multiple purposes."

"It's beautiful, Vin," I tell him as I'm putting it on my right hand ring finger.

"I'm glad that you like it," He smiles a little bit, looking almost relieved. "I wanted to get a really good ring but I have to save my money because I have to start buying a lot of winter clothes. I don't have any at all."

"What?" I frown in confusion, looking up at him and away from the ring.

He pulls something else out of the bag that he'd brought with him to the couch that we're sitting on together. It's a bright orange-ish red t-shirt with the letters RISD in really big letters and then Rhode Island School of Design in smaller letters beneath it. "I also got you this."

I take the t-shirt and with wide eyes, I ask him, "How'd you know about this?"

"I found the brochure in your nightstand when I was looking for condoms last week. You were in the bathroom," He explains.

"I know that I should have told you," I start to try and explain myself. "But I-"

"Bea," He interrupts me. "It's okay. I get it. I know that it must have been hard for you to try and tell me something like that after the few weeks that we've had. I know that the whole commitment thing isn't really my thing but I'll make it my thing for you. I fucking love you so much and if you want to go to Rhode Island then we'll go to Rhode Island. I'll get an apartment with Catzilla, your dogs are probably too big for an apartment though, and I'll finish college online like I've planned to do anyway."

"Really?" I ask him incredulously, definitely not expecting this at all. I mean, I was expecting the ring but he hadn't let on at all in this past week that he's known about Rhode Island. I know that this is really hypocritical to say but I wish that he would have told me sooner, it'd have saved me a lot of stressing about lying to him.

"Yes, of course, Bea," He assures me. "I don't have anything keeping me here and your dreams are obviously in Rhode Island. It wouldn't make sense to do anything else."

I lean forward and I kiss him, feeling unbelievably relieved that he's okay with this and that he doesn't mind at all to move with me to Rhode Island if it comes to that. He's not hesitant about giving up anything here because he doesn't feel tied down to this place. "I love you so much, Vin."

"Yeah, I love you too," He grins against my lips and we kiss again. "I mean, we have so much to figure out but we have a long time until we have to figure that stuff out. We should get back to the party now."

"But," I protest. "You were right about me wanting to jump your bones after that."

Vincent grins at me as he pulls me off of the couch and puts his bag back on the coat rack that he'd pulled it off of. "I know. But I still have to beat you at the balloon game and people will start looking for us if we don't go back."

We walk hand in hand out of the break room because I know that he's right. Since he's spending the night though, we'll have all night to be together.

"You're not going to beat me at anything, I can stop you right there," I assure him with a small laugh as we walk all the way back through the hotel to return to the ballroom. "You said that I'm perfect and you can't take that back every time that you want to beat me at something."

"I can too," He objects with a troublesome little smile on his face.

With his hand around mine, it makes me smile because I feel so sure about us. About the future that we have together. I can see myself waking up to him every morning, kissing him goodnight every night. I can see myself buying a first home with him, buying our first crockpot together. I can see myself buying a ridiculous amount of animals with him.

I can see our entire future out in front of us, all of the possibilities that wait for us there and the smiles we'll have on the way. With Vincent, I feel like I have everything and it's all thanks to the White Cloud Hotel.

THE END