All I've Never Wanted (52 page)

“Absolutely, totally, one hundred percent sure,” I whispered back, recapturing his mouth with mine.

And when we fell back on the bed and made good use of those foil-wrapped presents Parker gave me, I added any emotion to the list: that of complete and utter bliss.

EPILOGUE

Six months later

I’m going to suffocate. Seriously. With the way my parents were hugging me, you’d think they would never see me again or something.

“Oh, honey, I’m so proud of you.” My mom’s eyes glistened with tears as she beamed at me, her face as proud as could be. “You—“ She sniffled. “You did great. I can’t believe—“ Another sniffle. “I can’t believe you’re all grown up now. And of course, you’ll be leaving for Paris tomorrow…”

“Now, come on, Shelly, you’re embarrassing her.” My dad released me to slip an arm around my mom, who seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown. “And you—“ Here he cast a stern look at Roman, who moved closer to me now that there were no parental units in the way. “You better take care of my daughter.”

“Of course I will, you don’t need to worry about that. I’ll guard her with my life,” Roman reassured him, giving me a sly wink when my dad turned away. 

I blushed. No doubt he was thinking about what we were going to do once we were settled into our hotel in Paris. He was such a pervert. Although I’ve become a bit of a pervert myself, so I couldn’t really say anything.

“Oh no,” I suddenly groaned, stepping closer to Roman when I saw who was headed our way. “Here they come.”

Roman blanched and pulled me protectively into his chest while both my parents immediately backed off.

“Well, I, uh, I think we’re going to go look at the food,” my dad blurted, grabbing my mom and dragging her away. “Boy, that ceremony sure made us hungry.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “Dad, there’s no food here.”

He turned scarlet. “Uh, yeah, well, you know. It never hurts to look. Ok bye now!” With that, he nearly ran across the lawn with my mom.

I shook my head while Roman chuckled. I swear, my parents were like kids sometimes. Luckily, in the past few months, my relationship with my father had strengthened to the point where we were
almost
back to the way we were. It certainly helped that he’d been spending a lot more time with my mom and I, working from home and taking us on random family trips over the weekend. Actually, I thought fishing is just about the most boring thing in existence, but it was nice to spend more time with him.

“Looks like they’ve learned faster than us,” Roman commented dryly, wincing when the hurricane finally hit.

“Mayaaa!” Venice nearly tackled me into the ground in her excitement, her eyes shining and her smile so big I was surprised her face didn’t break. “I’m so, so happy for you! You did it!”

“No, we did it,” I corrected, laughing as I tried to disentangle my limbs from hers.

She sighed happily. “I can’t believe we
graduated.
That’s absolutely insane. Goodbye, school! Hello, world!”

“Um, you do realize college counts as school too, right?” I raised my eyebrows while Roman rolled his eyes, but there was a small smirk on his face. He’d confessed that there were certain times when he just wanted to wring Venice’s neck because of how exuberant she was—which I found funny, considering he’s friends with Zack—but after so many months he’d gotten used to it.

“College, schmollege.” The redhead waved her hand dismissively in the air. “I don’t even want to think about that right now. We have a whole glorious summer ahead of us, and boy, I can’t wait.”

Another happy sigh.

I was finally able to stand up again, and I was sure my graduation gown now had a series of grass stains on the back, but I barely managed to straighten fully before I landed right back on my butt.

“My-My! You did so great!” Zack cried, nearly suffocating me with a bear hug. “The way you took your diploma. That was just
awesome!”

I wondered what he was talking about, since I received my diploma the same way as the other two hundred or so students in my class, but I knew better than to ask. Zack did a lot of crazy things, but one thing he didn’t do was make sense.

“Thanks, Zack.” I caught sight of Roman’s disbelieving face over the blond’s shoulder and cracked up all over again.

“Dogpile!” Venice randomly shouted, ignoring the scandalized looks surrounding families cast in our direction as she dove on top of Zack.

“Oof!” I grimaced at the extra weight. Yep, there was no way I wouldn’t have grass stains. In fact, my whole back was probably green.

I shot Roman a frantic, help-me look, but he just shook his head and smirked. No doubt he enjoyed my quasi-misery. Ever since Venice and Zack officially started dating, about a week after New Year’s, they’ve been inseparable. The most worrying part about their crazy hyper relationship—other than the fact that those two had taken to randomly chasing puppies together and therefore inspiring desperate fear in almost all dog owners in Valesca, since nothing good ever came out of Venice’s canine pursuits—was that they’d become even
more
hyper since they'd gotten together.

Yes, it is possible. Just ask my parents. They now refuse to be within ten feet of Venice and Zack when they were together. I didn’t blame them. If they weren’t such good friends, I would’ve permanently duct-taped their mouths shut by this point.

Although a very,
very
tiny part of me had to admit they were quite the adorable couple.

“You smell like cotton candy,” Zack sighed, twisting his head to sniff Venice’s neck.

She beamed. “I snuck some under my robe during the ceremony,” she giggled, fluttering her eyelashes.

And then the two proceeded to make out. Did I mention they were still on top of me?

That was it. I take back everything I said about them being adorable—nauseatingly sweet is more like it—and with a superhuman strength endowed on only the truly desperate, I pushed them off of me. They didn’t even break contact, and just rolled over on the grass while they continued to kiss and giggle.

“That’s absolutely disgusting,” Adriana declared, sauntering onto the scene with her signature long, confident strides.

She looked flawless as usual, her blond hair gleaming under the sun and her custom dress hugging every curve. Adriana, being Adriana, had long ago ditched her graduation robe. Beside her, Parker looked pretty flawless himself, in a button-down Thomas Pink shirt and Hugo Boss pants. His signature Rolex shone almost as much as Adriana’s hair.

“They really need to stop.” Adriana wrinkled her nose at Venice and Zack, who were still making out, except they were now standing up and kind of dancing at the same time.

Don’t even ask.

“Ok, that’s it,” Parker announced. “There’s no way I’m letting freakin’ Zack outshine me in the girl category.” He immediately followed up his declaration by laying a kiss on Adriana, who pushed him away and pretended to be uninterested, but finally acquiesced and kissed him back.

I sighed, linking my arm through Roman’s and resting my head on his shoulder as I stared at the scene before me. Everyone was happily coupled up. Well, maybe not
everyone.
At least, not yet.

“Hey, where’s Carlo?” I suddenly asked, looking around to catch a glimpse of the towering Colombian.

“Maybe he’s on his way to Australia right now,” Venice suggested. She’d finally broken out of her makeout session.

Roman and I exchanged a look. “Do you really think so?” I asked cautiously. I found it hard to believe Carlo would make such a huge decision without telling one of us first, but then again, he hadn’t exactly been acting like himself lately. Love did strange things to people. Trust me, I would know.

“You never know with that boy. He’s been in all kinds of torment lately. Go, don’t go. Tell her, don’t tell her.” Parker sounded bored. “I told him to just pick the answer out of a hat but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

“I wonder why,” Roman said sarcastically.

“I can’t believe Daria’s going to Australia for a
year,
” Venice mused. “I’m so jealous.” She pouted. “I wish we didn’t have to split up and go to college.”

“We’re not going to really be spitting up,” I pointed out. “I mean, we’re all within train ride distance. Short train ride distance, at that.”

It was true.

When college decisions finally came out in late March and early April, I was ecstatic to learn I’d been accepted to every school I applied to, including Stanford and Columbia. I was even more ecstatic to learn Roman had also gotten into Columbia, and even though I’ve always wanted to go to Stanford, I finally decided to go to school in New York with him. It wasn’t
just
for him though. Columbia had a great writing program, and I was definitely happy to be so close to home. I wouldn’t even have to buy a plane ticket every time I wanted to come back for the holidays and whatnot.

After much debate, crying, pleading, and negotiating, my parents finally relented and decided I could live with Roman in the Soho loft his parents got him as a graduation present, instead of staying in a dorm. They’re still not fully comfortable with the idea of their eighteen-year-old daughter living in the big, bad city with her boyfriend, but they trusted me and (sort of) trusted Roman too.

Before we move into our apartment and start classes, though, Roman and I are going a tour of Europe over the summer. I insisted on paying for half of the trip myself, and to my surprise, Roman didn’t put up much of a fight. I think he understands that I’m not the type of girl who can keep freeloading off others, even if their families did make billions more than her own.

Speaking of the others, they’re all going to college nearby too. Zack was going to be at Berklee, which is one of
the
best music schools in the country. He’d gotten into Juilliard too, but decided it was too stuffy for him. I didn’t have a single doubt he was going to rule Berklee. Meanwhile, Venice was going to be at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, which meant she and Zack would still be living in the same city. I’m positive they were going to be highly entertained. I heard Boston has a lot of puppies.

Adriana, who never settled for less than the best, got into as many schools as I did, but her choice was instantaneous: Yale. Parker, on the other hand, followed in his ancestors’ footsteps and registered at Princeton, where his great-great-something grandfather had been part of the very first graduating class. Those Princeton girls had no idea what was coming their way, even though the renowned playboy has (gasp) renounced his ways. Part of it was because he actually loves Adriana. The other part? I’m pretty sure he was slightly terrified Adri would cut his balls off if he ever cheated on her.

And what about Carlo, you ask? Well…that was up in the air. Literally.

He was
supposed
to be going to Middlebury, but after everything that happened with Daria, he might take a gap year and spend it in Australia with her. If they still had a thing. I don’t even know. They had a very…complicated relationship, to say the least.

I really did like Daria, though, so I hope they can figure it out. Even though we didn’t meet her until the second semester, she had become part of our highly dysfunctional family.

“Maya!”

I immediately tensed, and the exact same expression crossed everyone’s face: mild fear.

Taking a deep breath, I turned around and gave my grandmother a big smile. “Hi, grandma! I’m so glad you could make it!”

She frowned at me, not looking glad at all. “Maya, why you wear white? Not your color,” she chided. “Your butt look even bigger in white!”

And here we go again.

Luckily, distraction came in the form of a little fur ball called Mickey—or Mikey, as everyone called him in front of my grandmother, since we didn’t want to set off another broom incident.

The puppy bounded over with Giselle hot on its heels. I’ve gotten to know her a lot better the past few months, and was surprised by how funny and down-to-earth she was, considering how much her husband was worth. Of course, the elder male Fiori had only stayed for about a minute before jetting off to Japan or something for business.