Until Now

                                    

                                          
"I don't wanna get out of bed," Shawn yawned as he draped his arm around his girlfriend.
                          
"Let's just not then," Camila suggested sleepily. It was the morning after Christmas day and they were both still riding the high of happiness from what an incredible day it had been. Camila turned her head to look at her boyfriend, admiring his dozy face before leaning in to kiss him. They kissed lazily as his hands slowly ghosted over her sides - the feeling of his rough fingertips delicately caressing her skin giving her goosebumps. They remained like that for a while before Camila's phone buzzing interrupted them. It was a text from Bristol.
                          
B: Good morning my beautiful best friend. My BOYFRIEND and I would like to know if you and Shawn would like to get breakfast. If so, please text me back so I can let my BOYFRIEND know and me and my BOYFRIEND will meet you there.
                          
Camila snorted and showed the text to Shawn.
                          
"Damn...they really did it, huh?" Shawn said with a chuckle. "She seems excited about it."
                          
"She was getting impatient," Camila sighed. "I'm sure she's thrilled. So breakfast?"
                          
"Sounds good, tell them we're in." Despite their initial plans for the day, the rolled out of bed and quickly got ready to go meet their friends for breakfast. It didn't take long for both Shawn and Camila to realize that Brian and Bristol far out-did them when it came to PDA and cringey lovey-dovey mushiness, which was saying a lot. Shawn snorted and shook his head when he saw his best friend feed Bristol a forkful of his pancakes. "You two are no longer allowed to make fun of Camila and I for being too affectionate."
                          
"Hey! We're allowed to be like this. We made it official yesterday, we're still in the honeymoon phase." Shawn and Camila both rolled their eyes in tandem at Brian's response.
                          
After breakfast, the four friends decided to spend some more time together to celebrate the holidays. They walked together through the snowy streets of Toronto for a bit before deciding to go ice skating. Both Camila and Bristol had never been ice skating before, so the boys had a lot of fun teaching them how to skate and trying not to laugh whenever one of them would fall. After skating, the four of them got lunch together before once again going their separate ways for the rest of the day. Shawn and Camila went back to his apartment and ended up on the couch watching movies together. Although Camila didn't want to risk ruining the sweet moment, she knew they needed to talk - especially after hearing the way his mom talked about his experience with his previous relationship the day before.
                          
"Can we talk...?" Camila asked as she sat up on the couch. Shawn's face instantly looked scared which made her feel bad. "I'm not breaking up with you, I promise." He clearly relaxed a bit and sat up with her.
                          
"Sure...what's on your mind?"
                          
"I don't know...I guess I just realized that we've never really talked about what our previous relationships were like. I mean, not that we have to...but I don't know...I guess I was just wondering-"
                          
"Camila," he interrupted her. "My mom said something, didn't she?" She bit her bottom lip and nodded. He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair.
                          
"All she said is that you were really upset when your last relationship ended and that she loved seeing you this happy again."
                          
"Well she's right," he sighed. "On both accounts. I was really upset when that relationship ended, but I'm also really happy with you." Camila smiled softly.
                          
"Tell me about her?"
                          
"Her name was Zoey. We were together for a little over four years. It was really the only serious relationship I had been in. She didn't give me much of a reason for breaking up with me, just that she needed to 'find herself' and that she couldn't do that while she was in a relationship with me."
                          
"That really sucks," Camila sighed. "I'm sorry."
                          
"It's okay," he said with a shrug. "It definitely tore me up...but time heals all wounds. Besides, I met this really cool girl from Miami and now it's kind of difficult to think of anyone but her." Camila blushed and looked down. He noticed and placed a finger under her chin, lifting her face up and giving her a sweet kiss. "What about you?"
                          
"I've dated three guys, the longest relationship of the three lasted for only a year."
                          
"What happened?" he asked. Camila sighed and looked down again. Although she had been over her exes for a while, the pain of the memories still hurt.
                          
"They cheated on me...all three of them."
                          
"Seriously?" Shawn asked in disbelief. She nodded. 
                          
"Yeah...I haven't really had the best luck in the boyfriend department."
                          
"Until now," he said as he took her hand into his and squeezed it gently.
                          
"Yeah, well...we'll see." Her reply wasn't good enough for Shawn, who cupped her face in his hands and pressed their foreheads together.
                          
"Until now," he repeated confidently before kissing her lips. Camila felt her cheeks turn a deeper shade of pink as she let herself get lost in her boyfriend's kiss. "I love you," he whispered quietly as he pulled away.
                          
"I love you too."
                          
Through their various phone calls, texts, FaceTimes and even letters - Camila had heard countless stories about Shawn's job as the manager of a local record store. She always felt like the job was the perfect fit for him and he seemed to absolutely love everything about it. She had mentioned about a week before going to see him that she had wanted to see the store he worked at so he made sure to include it in their list of things to do while she was in town, but he wanted to make it special.
                          
She wasn't sure where they were going, all he told her was that he had a special date planned for them. When they pulled up outside of the record store, she was a bit confused. She was excited to see where he worked but the store was closed so she was intrigued to see how he was planning to turn this into the "special date" he had told her it was going to be. Her questions were answered when Shawn unlocked the store and let them in. The old brick building was lined with rows and rows of vinyl records, but in the middle of it all was a blanket on the floor surrounded by candles, food, and wine.
                          
"I know it's not a typical date, but I knew you wanted to see the store so I figured I might as well make it special," he said with a shrug.
                          
"This is beautiful, baby..." Camila cooed. "I love it." Shawn walked over behind the counter and put on some music for them to listen to while they enjoyed their meal - pasta from one of Shawn's favorite Italian places. "We've been together all day, how did you get this set up?"
                          
"I know a guy," Shawn said cheekily. "And by that I just mean that I offered to pay for Brian and Bristol's dinner if they came in here and set this up real quick."
                          
"How sneaky," Camila giggled. They sat on the blanket on the floor, sipping their wine and sharing sweet kisses as they talked endlessly about nothing in particular. The song changed and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli started playing throughout the store. Shawn stood up and held his hand out to his girlfriend.
                          
"Dance with me?"
                          
"I'd love to," she said quietly as she took his hand and stood up. Despite the extreme height difference, she managed to rest her arms on his shoulders as they swayed to the music. She played with the curls at the nape of his neck while his hands rested on her hips. Camila rested her head against her boyfriend's chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat combined with his beautiful voice quietly singing along to the song.
                          
"I've never felt like this before," Camila whispered. "It's kind of scary."
                          
"I agree," he sighed. "It's scary, but I' love it. I love you."
                          
"I love you more."
                          
"I love you most," he countered. She didn't have a retort, so instead she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him slowly and tenderly.
                          
"I think we should go back to your place now," she said quietly as she ran her hands over his abdomen. 
                          
"Alright," he chuckled, knowing her intentions behind the request. "Let's go."