Chapter's song: Ariana Grande - Almost Is Never Enough ft. Nathan Sykes

I didn't last much without a job. James Olander, the chef I met in my first week, offered me a position in his restaurant. He said I'd impressed him with those brownies I made for him, and that he'd been wanting to snag me for his restaurant ever since. However, I had a feeling that Bryan had something to do with it. He probably felt bad for firing me. I wasn't complaining, though. Working at a restaurant had always been my life dream, and I knew I would give it my best.

Olander placed me in the bakery section, which was fine by me. I spent half a morning at school, and the rest of the day I baked sweet and salty breads from scratch. He was slowly introducing me to the pastry section, too. His idea was to rotate me through every team until I found out what I was best at. To be honest, I loved baking too much but I was eager to learn everything I could.

As my replacement, Bryan kept his promise and didn't hire Nadia. Instead, he offered the job to Seth. I was surprised at the beginning, considering my brother's age. Yet, the job wasn't hard. I'd made spreadsheets for every task, so he could work from home in his spare time. Bryan did hire someone else to work at school, one of the other students, a guy that had proved to be responsible and willing to work. In the end, Seth wasn't making as much as I did, but he had a job and he was happy about it.

I didn't admit to Bryan that I still felt a bit iffy about dating my teacher. I blamed my goody-two-shoes conscience. And, if I said something, he would probably expel me, because he seemed determined to be my boyfriend. Which was awesome. I wouldn't want it any other way.

In school, things remained the same. He was strict and demanding during class, and extremely sweet and romantic afterwards.

Graduation day came unannounced and too quickly for my own taste. I was going to miss seeing Bryan every day, even when he was bossy. Yesterday, chef Olander offered me a full-time job in his restaurant. I'd be working all day long without much free time to see Bryan, but I couldn't say no. It was a real job, one I'd dreamed for a long time, and the salary was great.

I smiled to myself as I thought about how my whole life changed when Seth signed me up for the cooking school. Never in my life would I have guessed that I'd learn to be a chef, get a habanero tattoo or date my teacher. Not to mention that I'd met wonderful friends like Monica and Andrew too.

With a heavy heart, filled with conflicted emotions about moving on and missing school already, I let my bed to get ready for the graduation ceremony. I was starting to style my hair when someone knocked on my bedroom's door.

"Hi Juno," I smiled.

My door opened and someone came inside. "How did you know it was me?" Juno asked.

"Seth knocks three times before barging in." I left the hair curler on the bed stand to look at her. It was still weird to see her with a pixie cut. After the wedding, she decided to get a makeover and donated all her hair to charity. The long, colorful dresses were still her everyday style, though.

"Well, at least he gives you a heads-up," she grinned as she moved closer to me. "How are you feeling?"

I turned on the hair curler again while taking a deep breath. "I can't believe that this is over."

Juno stood behind me. She grabbed a brush and started to brush my hair like when I was a little girl. "What are you talking about Jessie? This is only starting."

Our gaze met through the reflection on the mirror. "I'm going to miss Bryan."

Her smile widened. "Oh honey, I'm sure you won't. He'll devote all his free time to you. I'm sure."

My heart flipped and my lips curved. "I like the sound of that."

"Speaking of which, have you guys..." she trailed carefully, but she wriggled her eyebrows at the end.

Blushing like crazy, I concentrated on styling my hair. "You don't need to give me the talk, Juno."

She stopped brushing my hair. "I can give you a few tips, honey. For example," she placed both hands on my shoulders and my stomach started to roll, yet I had no choice but to look at her. "Carlos goes crazy when I─"

OMG! OMG! "I don't want to know! I don't want to know!" My eyes were wide and frantic and I covered my ears.

Her chuckles filled the room. She patted me on the shoulders before stepping away. "I love you Jessie."

Still breathing hard from the shock of listening to my grandma's sexcapades, I glared at her from the mirror. "Barely."

She stopped at the door and gazed at me. "Whenever it happens, I know it will be beautiful because Bryan cares for you so much." Her eyes were soft as she smiled, making me feel all giddy inside. "Then it's going to get kinky, but oh so good!" she added laughing and I scrunched up my nose, making a disgusted face.

I rubbed a palm across my face as she closed the door still laughing at me. Shaking my head, I giggled a little. I love you too, Juno.

Trying to have a different hairstyle than my everyday bun, I kept curling it to achieve the beach-soft curls. However, no matter how many tutorials I saw, I still couldn't manage the to get the sophisticated look I aimed for. At the end, my hair looked nice enough, and it I felt like a superstar with the vintage blue dress I'd found in the attic, where we kept my mom's clothes. I wanted to wear something of her, so I could feel that she was there with me. I knew she was proud of us.

A warm feeling ran through me as I made my way downstairs. Seth was waiting for me on the living room. He turned off the TV as he stood up. He was rocking the black suit, and his hair wasn't all over the place for once. Smiling, I walked to him. "You look nice, Seth."

He straightened his pants. "I know. I got the looks in the family." He smirked as he gazed up, and the gesture faded. "That was Mom's dress, huh?" he added in a small voice.

I glanced down. "I'm being sentimental." I shrugged, trying to look like it wasn't a big deal, when it was one of those days that I was missing Mom like crazy.

"You look like her, Jess." Seth's eyes were soft as he made his way over me. "Even prettier."

My lips tugged up in a warm smile. "Dude, you're such a softie now." I made a joke, trying really hard not to tear up much.

Shaking his head, Seth passed an arm around me. "I'm giving you a free pass today since it's your graduation day." My grin widened, and I was opening my mouth to retort when he added, "But you're paying for everything tomorrow!" I burst out laughing. "Let's get going, Jess. I'm sure you want to see your boyfriend before the ceremony," he rolled his eyes before making a face. We both knew it was for show. Since he started to work with Bryan, they'd become really good friends.

We arrived half an hour before schedule, but Bryan had texted me that he was already there. I left them all to find the best seat in the auditorium, while I searched for my boyfriend backstage.

He was nowhere in sight, though. I was going back to my family, when I bumped into Tom. "Sorry," I mumbled. He was still dating Nadia and I felt utterly awkward with him for no apparent reason. Okay. There was a reason. I still thought that Nadia was into Bryan. However, Bryan said that I was imagining things and that being flirty was her personality. Whatever. I knew he didn't even look at her. However, I felt bad for Tom. He was a nice guy, after all.

Tom held me by the arm. "Are you looking for Bryan?" He looked nice in a tuxedo. I'd noticed the press trucks parked outside, and I was sure he called them. Tom did love to make a show out of everything.

"Yeah."

"I saw him talking to the audio tech guy over there," he gestured to the little hallway on our right. "But, Jess. Are we okay? You're not mad at me, are you?"

His question took me off-guard. "Why would I be mad at you?"

He glanced to the hallway again. "I feel bad because I told you to stay away from Bryan, but you guys seem to be doing good, I guess." He shrugged at the same time my cheeks felt warm.

My chest tightened. "No, it's...okay." I hadn't really thought about it since camp. It felt weird that he brought it up now.

"I feel like you've been avoiding me, though."

I grinned. "It's kind of hard to see you since I don't work with you guys anymore."

Tom smiled back. "True."

We heard a door close and Bryan came out of the hallway a second later. Just like Tom, he was wearing a tuxedo, but he looked ten times better. His hair was soft and wavy like always, and the spicy scent of his cologne engulfed me as he moved closer to us.

"Hi," his gaze was trained on me. My heart started to flutter. "You look amazing, Jess."

"Okay, I'm off. See you later guys," Tom murmured, but neither of us turned to look at him.

Blushing, I smiled shyly. "Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself."

Bryan chuckled. "Are you kidding me? I know I'm rocking this."

I rolled my eyes. "I should know you were going to say that," I shook my head.

He passed an arm around my waist, pulling me to him. "But the best part is that you'll finally be okay with us dating."

My mouth fell open. "What are you talking about? I am okay!"

He gave me an are-you-kidding-me-look. "Jess, I know you're uncomfortable because I'm your teacher. You've tried to keep it a secret to everyone else all this time."

My brows creased. "Me? I thought you wanted to keep it a secret, too!"

Bryan chuckled. "Because of you."

I bit my lip as my cheeks felt too warm once more. "Sorry."

His hand brushed against my cheek. His stare was deep and mesmerizing and it was impossible not to get lost in it. "It's fine. It's cute, even."

I smiled. "You're biased."

He jerked his head back as he laughed. "I'm so biased." Someone said his name behind us. One of the tech guys wanted to ask him something. Sighing, he let me go. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Definitely." My whole body felt warm by being close to him. He never failed to have that effect on me.

The ceremony ran smoothly. Tom talked to us about how proud they were about all the achievements we'd accomplished, and Bryan gave the shortest of speeches by just congratulating everyone.

There were a lot of cameras and people I'd never seen accompanied with some chefs I'd met during the semester. The toast was pretty chaotic and quite fun. Especially when Andy sort of proposed to Monica in the middle of it all. She looked like she wanted to beat the crap out of him, but she didn't say no. Luckily for Andrew, she was actually excited by the end of the night. I blamed the mojitos, but if she was happy, I was happy too. And Andy really cared about her.

Right after midnight, Bryan pulled me aside. "Do you want to leave already?" I was so nervous and excited at the same time. I nodded. "Good," he kissed me softly before placing my coat over my shoulders.

Knots formed in my stomach as he drove us to his place. We hadn't talked about it, but I knew we both wanted to spend the night together, and as a first-timer, I was nervous as hell.

When we got to his house, he made me wait inside the car for a moment. He wanted to surprise me, but apparently, he hadn't had the time to set everything up. Ten minutes later, he opened the car's door for me.

"All set?" I mocked him.

He chuckled. "All set." We stepped to the entrance and before we reached the door he turned to me. "Close your eyes." He looked nervous, which made me feel antsy as well, but I complied. I closed them and he held my hand, leading the way inside.

"You can open them now."

I did. My lips parted as I took it all in. He'd placed tealights all over the place. The pool was shining. Literally. White flowers floated beside lit candles, soft music played on the background, but what caught my attention was the note he'd scribbled in a blackboard that he'd placed right in front of the door. It was one of those signs that some cafes have outside where they announce the specials. In his usual clean handwriting was:

Move in with me?

My whole body froze. I read the blackboard three times until I turned to him. "What?"

Bryan had lost his jacket and he'd loosened the collar of his shirt; what used to be his bowtie was hanging loosely around his neck. He licked his lips. "That's not the answer I was expecting, Jess."

"Are you asking me to move in with you?" Bryan suppressed a smile. He scratched the back of his neck, as I realized how incredibly dumb I sounded. "Like, are you sure?"

He ran a hand through his hair before taking a step closer to me. "Yes. I'm sure." My heart raced as he pulled me into his arms. "I love you Jessie, and I want to spend every second of my life with you."

I felt dizzy, like I couldn't breathe properly. "But, but..."

His eyes were soft as he leaned in. "I love you." His lips brushed against mine as he added, "Move in with me, please?"

My knees felt weak as I pulled away. "You're not playing fair, Bryan."

His lips quirked. "I'm not, but I really want you. Every day. For the rest of my life."

My stomach clenched and I couldn't utter any word.

I wanted him too. Every day. For the rest of my life.

Our kiss was filled with promises, dreams, and hopefulness. We didn't know what was going to happen next, but we did know one thing, we'd be together.

This was so hard to write. I didn't want to end the story, yet it felt like it was coming to a closure. But I will definitely add bonus chapters eventually, because you know how I love to do those! hehe

And wow...thank you for keeping up with me guys. I love you all so much for changing my life with all your votes and comments, you really have no idea how much they mean to me.

Thank you all!

PS: I went to Wattpad last week!!! Like, for real, they invited me for their 10th anniversary and it was amazing!!! If you're following me on Instagram, you can see all the pics :)