Happy anniversary, Mrs Kingsley, the only woman who will have my heart forever. My One And Only♡.

Love, Damon

I smiled to myself like an idiot and shook my head to snap out of it. Today was our anniversary, and like looks like I'll be spending it alone like last year again. I took the necklace and placed in my hand, trailing my fingers around the heart shape design in the middle, a wide smile playing on my lips.

The front door suddenly opened, scaring the breath out of me and I clenched hard onto my chest. Damon walked in and his eyes caught mine. I'm not actually sure how I feel at this moment, should I be relived that he didn't just leave like a thief in the night, or should I be mad that he just left without leaving a note or something?

“Good Morning”, he smiled, walking towards me. “I didn't think you'll be up by this time”

I was frozen at the spot, and he noticed

“Layla, are you okay?”, he leaned closer and waved his hand in front of my face, that's only when I started blinking

“Yeah, uh, I'm uh fine”, I stuttered. “I thought you already left”

“I just went out to get us some breakfast”, he placed two coffee cups and a paper bag, that I now only notice he was holding on the counter in front of me

“At 5am?”

“Yeah, there's this coffee shop a couple of miles from here that sells the most exquisite coffee I've ever tasted in my life, what is its name again?”, he snapped his fingers together, trying to remember

“Roco's”

He grinned. “Yeah Roco's, and I recently just found out they make the most awesome donuts and croissants. So I figured I better get them while they still hot and fresh”, he pushed the paper bag towards me. “I thought you would love some, and some freshly brewed coffee”

“Thank you”, I tried to hide a smile that was threatening to show on my face. “How did you know about Roco's though?”

“I stopped for a cup of coffee the day I bought Dylan over”, he shrugged. “I Googled the operating hours this morning before I left thought. Better early than never”.

I laughed and his eyes dropped to the necklace in my hand

“I see you got my gift”

“It's beautiful Damon, thank you so much”, I walked over to hug him. “I didn't get you anything though”

“You forgot, didn't you?”, he rose his eyebrow with a smug smile on his face and I dropped my eyes in embarrassment a little

“Not really, but I didn't think we will be celebrating our anniversary this year, or that you'll get me anything “, I said as I tried to stop my cheeks from burning red. “I'm sorry”

“It's all good”, he reached inside the paper bad and placed the donuts and croissants on the counter. “So, are we eating these or not?. I'm starving”.

“Say less”

“Vanilla or Chocolate”, he asked already chowing on a chocolate donut

“A little bit of both?”, I took both flavoured donuts and ate them at the same time. Damon was about to lick some chocolate cream off his thumb when he stopped to stare at me.

“What?”, I asked with my mouth full and shrugged a little.” I'm hungry”.

“No doubt about that”, he laughed softly, taking another chocolate donut and his coffee to sit on the couch.” Come sit with me”.

I took my donuts and sat beside him

“Happy anniversary”,he held his donut against mine and I laughed before we bumped them together he laughed back before he went on to drill it with his teeth

“Thank you for staying over”, I said as our laughs died down, and I took a bite of my vanilla donut. “And for the gift and breakfast”

He smiled. “It's only a pleasure”

“Besides, there's no other place I would be, than here with you”, he said, and I flushed as I nervously laughed to hide a blush

“What were you doing last year today?”, my mouth did that thing of blabbing thing straight out of my mind without clearly interpreting them or thinking how they'll sound to the other party

He looked and stared at me for a minute. “I was watching our wedding video”.

My eyes softened a little. “Really?”

“Yeah, that's the day my life changed forever”, he smiled, and I couldn't help but to smile back

“I noticed something “, he said out of remembrance. “During the entire ceremony, your eyes were dropped to the floor, you looked at me when I said my vows”, he paused. “Why?”

“It was the first time I ever met you, and it's not exactly ideal for the bride and groom to first see each other on the altar”, I shrugged, and he chuckled. “But honestly, I was afraid of how you would look at me”

“How I would look at you?”

“The girl that would marry a total stranger to keep her family from being bankrupt, it was all for money, nothing else”

He laughed a little. “You were worried about that?”

“Weren't you?”

“I was worried about how I was going to keep my hands off you on our wedding night”, he wiggled his eyebrows together, and I hit him playfully on the arm

“And you made me sleep on the couch, you jerk!”, I jumped on him that he fell on his back on the couch and I playfully strangled him, causing him to laugh

“It was for your own good”, he continued laughing, but then his laugh died down as he saw me staring at him. “What?”

“I missed hearing you laugh”, I smiled a little, and he pulled me down onto him so that I laid on my side next to him, and he wrapped his arms around me.

“I missed you too”

“I didn't say I miss you, I just said that I missed hearing you laug-”, I protested but was soon interpreted when he leaned in to connect his lips with mine and kissed me gently at first before he started applying pressure, just like always it was just the right amount, making me realize just how much I missed kissing him. His kisses always managed to take my breath away.

“What was that you were saying?”, he whispered softly against my lips, pulling just a little so that our faces were just millimeters apart, and he grazed lovingly into my eyes

“I really did miss you”, I finally admitted, and he breathed out a laugh, leaning again to peck me gently on the lips

“I know”, he smiled before pulling me up with him, lifting me up the waist so that I straddled him and held me firmly but the waist. The light in his eyes disappeared for a mere second as he looked at me again. “I'm not perfect Layla”.

I cupped his face in my hands. “Neither am I”.

“That's where you're wrong, because you're perfect in my eyes”, I couldn't mind but smile at his words. “But I realized something”

“What?”, I took another bite of my already finished donut

“You are so much better without me”

I stopped chewing and stared at him. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“I feel like one of the reasons you left, was because I was weighing you down. You couldn't do anything the way you wanted it. I didn't allow you to clean or help around the house, you couldn't do whatever you want whenever you wanted because I had you monitored 24/7 and now, you are doing all of that and more because you're not around me, you're happy”.

“At least that time I still had you”

“You never really lost me, you just chose not to see me, you turned a blind eye to my existence”

“I don't want that anymore”, I finished off my donut and took his hands in mine. “I want to see you”

He cracked a side smile. “I think I may have a solution to that”,he stood up and paced all around looking for something. What seemed like minutes, he came back and sat next to me again and slid my reading glasses across my eyes on my face.

“Can you see me now?”, he asked, and I faked a laugh before hitting him playfully on the shoulder, and he looked at me, reaching for my face and adjusted the glasses on my face

“Man”, he exclaimed, shaking his head a little. “I missed this”

“You missed hearing me laugh?”, I tried to hide a blush, realizing he never looked away from me. He was staring at me so hard I had to look away.

“Seeing you in these”, he referred to my glasses. “It became an involuntary hobby just watching you in those glasses, reading something”

“If you consider staring as a hobby, then you honestly need help”, I joked and he laughed

“So, what do you want to do today?”

“Uh, go to work?”, I shrugged, and he raised a brow

“Can't you call in sick or something?”

“I could do that”, I said, and he grinned. “What do you have in mind?”

“Just wait and see”

“You must be out of your natural-born mind if you think I'm going to jump down there”, I said aloud so that he heard me, clinging onto one of the guides that was putting on the jumping gear on me, and I was freaked out, I couldn't even see the ground due to how high the tower we were jumping from was

“Could you just relax?”, Damon laughed as he put on one of the thousand belts we had to have on before jumping

“Are you ready Mr Kingsley?”, Zack, our guide asked him and Damon screamed in anticipation

“Zack, I changed my mind”, I took a step back from the tower. “I can't do this”

In one swift motion Damon pulled me to him. “I'm not doing this without you, we're jumping together”

I gulped nervously, clutching hard to his shirt as he was literally towards the edge

“If this was your idea of killing me on our anniversary, you could have just poisoned the donuts this morning”

“Come on, it's going to be fun”, his entire face was beaming in excitement and I shook my head like a crazy person

“No Damon I can't”, I breathed out in fear as I peeked to see the ground again, I'll be dead by the time I even reach one third of this thing. “I'm not a fan of heights”

“Relax”, he caressed my arms slowly, and I closed my eyes shut before feeling him tilt my head up to look at him. “Look at me”

I opened them a little, catching a glimpse of the deep end again, and I shut them closed again

“Open your eyes Layla”, I opened them to see his were soft against mine. “It's going to be okay, just breath”

He reassured so calmly as if I wasn't breathing right now because it's not like I had a choice, my heart was beating so fast, I think it just moved underneath my rib cage

“Breath”, he motioned me to breathe in and out, which I did until I calmed down. “Good, now give me your hand”, he put out his hand and I placed my hand in his.

“You trust me, right?”, he asked, and I was about to shake my head no, but the look he was giving me was so assuring that everything will be okay, we'll make it out of this alive and kicking

I gave a short nod and he smiled

“Alright Zack, we're ready”, he announced happily and Zack nodded his head in agreement

“Okay, on the count of three”, Zack counted down and Damon squeezed my hand gently as we took another step towards the edge

“Three.....”

You can do this Layla

“Two....”

I mean, it's just jumping right?

“One....”

Breathe

Damon squeezed my hand again, and I looked at him. He smiled before screaming.

“Jump!!”

“That was amazing”, I skipped happily beside him on our way back to the car. “One moment, it was like all my organs were sinking to the pit of my stomach, and I was going to die”, he started laughing. “Then, it felt like I was flying, to my death but anyway the adrenalin kicked in, and I just let loose”

“Told you it was going to be fun”

“Thank you”, I smiled when we reached the car. “Heights are not so bad after all”

“They're not”, he smiled. “I'm happy you enjoyed it”

“Didn't you?”

“I did, but I enjoyed seeing you have the time of your life more”

“So, we're eating pizza for dinner?”, I laughed when he placed the pizza boxes we ordered in on the table

“Yep”, he said popping the p as he poured some soda for the both of us. “Is that a problem?”

“I thought you didn't like pizza”, I said when he reached out for a box and I threw him a glare that he slowly withdrew his hand. “You could at least wait for me to get some plates”, I stood up to fetch them for us but felt his hand pulling me down to sit down.

“Forget the plates, have your pizza, I'll have mine”, he handed me my box of pizza, and he opened his

“Is that the Beef Steak and Mushroom pizza?”, I asked when I laid my eyes on his 8 slices of haven

“That it is”, he grabbed a slide and shove it down his throat, my mouth watered, and I licked my lips

“Why do we have different pizzas anyway?”, I complained, and he gave a little shrug

“I didn't want to be disturbed, which you are right now. Can you just see what you have and stop staring at me while I eat? It's creepy”, he gave me the side eye, continuing to murdering the pizza with his teeth.

“You're not being fair, you know I love beef steak and mushroom I protested a little, opening my pizza box to see he got me a large Meaty Triple-Decker, which was three layers, three cheeses, cream cheese, ground beef, beef spare rib, bacon, mozzarella tipped with BBQ sauce

On second thought ....

I moaned on the first bite that he stopped eating to look at me. His eyes widened as he saw how big and delicious my pizza was.

“That looks like something”, he said as he looked at my pizza. “Let's share”, he suggested, but I shook my head and say comfortably on the chair.

“No, thanks”, I took another bite. “I intend on finishing this all by myself”.

“Just one slice”, he begged, but I shook my head

“You're not being fair”, he scoffed mockingly, and I laughed a little

“Want to watch a movie while we at it?”, he gulped down on his soda and I nodded my head

“Why not?”

•~•~•

The sound of my phone ringing underneath my pillow violently pulled me from my deep slumber and I groaned in annoyance before peeling my eyes open, letting out a quiet yawn and turned to my side to notice Damon was nowhere in sight and I noticed a note on my bed stand:

I'm sorry I had to leave early, I didn't want to wake you up. I have an early meeting today and I can't miss it, I'm glad we had that talk. I'll keep in touch. Happy Anniversary by the way.

Damon.

I froze in my spot when I finished reading his note, slowly coming to terms with all of this....everything that happened; The gift, us spending our anniversary together....

.....it was all just a dream

I was just dreaming