They posed, getting their photo taken for their save the date cards. After long discussions, they decided to get married this year rather than the next and then sparked chaos. There was so much to do and Bonnie almost felt as if she was about to explode. Honestly, she would be fine marrying Stefan in his mother's backyard but he told her that he wanted to give her the best experience that he could.
Stefan kissed her lips gently, smiling as the flash went off causing her to smile herself. He moved his head back and tickled her, causing her to erupt in laughter as her head tilted back and all he could do was smile and admire her. His future Mrs. Salvatore. His future wife.
…
After their photoshoot, Bonnie headed straight to her dress appointment. Stefan called in some favors and was able to reach a designer who would customize a dress for her, but couldn't promise that anything would be ready until the day before or the day of the wedding. They decided to take the risk anyway, Bonnie keeping in mind to not gain or lose a single pound or at least gain it or lose it before the wedding.
Stefan watched as they measured her hips, waist, thighs and other parts and decided to take a photo then post it, posing the question of what's she getting fit for. They wanted their personal wedding date to stay personal then post about it possibly a day or two after the New Year.
"Okay, bye, babe." Bonnie kissed him, gaining his attention.
"What?"
"We're designing the dress now, I don't want you to hear,"
"Okay, fine, I love you." He pulled her into his body.
"I love you more." She looked up at him then closed her eyes as their lips met. She moaned at the feel of his tongue against hers, causing his hands to grab her ass.
"I'll miss you," he spoke against her lips.
She smiled. "I'll try not to be too long,"
"No, get everything you want. I'll see you back home, okay?"
"Okay,"
They kissed some more before pulling away from each other, turning in different directions. Stefan looked down at his phone seeing a text from Mason saying that they need to talk. He narrowed his eyes but remembered that he was meaning to talk to Mason because of the whole Bonnie situation. He's not sure if he'll be honest with him, but maybe he'll provide him with more insight into the situation since Bonnie won't.
"Stefan?"
The man in question looked over and smiled see Elena walking toward him. When she was close enough they hugged. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I was just on my way to meet a friend. You?"
"Bonnie has fitting, I was just about to take off. Wait, so how are you doing after—"
"Oh, much better. Thank you for being there,"
"Of course."
"What makes it even better is that you didn't even know it was me, you would've helped anyone." She smiled, looking into his eyes.
"I would've tried, not sure if I would've succeeded."
They chuckled.
"Anyway, Elena, I have a meeting to get to, but I'll see you around,"
She nodded then watched him get into the black car beside them before it took off down the road. She grunted loudly then continued around the block to retrieve her car.
…
Mason looked up seeing Stefan walk in and discreetly took a deep breath. "Hey, man,"
"Hey, I got your text, is now a good time?"
"Yeah, do you mind closing the door?"
Stefan walked over and closed the door before sitting down and Mason moved to occupy the seat beside him. They turned their chairs toward one another and Stefan was starting to think that whatever was about to come out of his mouth would not be pretty in the slightest.
"Is this about Bonnie?"
"Most of it, yeah,"
"I'm not sure if I want to know."
"I need to tell you, Stefan, for my sanity, for all ours."
"You fucked her,"
"No. But we kissed once."
"When?"
"When I invited her out for dinner those months ago."
"Who initiated it?"
"I did. Stefan, I- I love Bonnie. I fell in love with her—"
"Bullshit. You have no idea who she is, you're in love with the version you make her out to be. You don't spend every day with her like I do, hear and see and experience the things I do in regards to her. You can't be in love with her because you don't know her."
"Maybe you're right. But that's just how I feel right now. And I've told Bonnie this and she asked what she could do in order for me to get over her, to move on. I didn't have an answer so she pretended to break up with me. Wanted me to mourn our breakup so to speak so that when I heal, I'll be over her."
"When did this happen?"
"Um after the Halloween party. Bonnie loves you, Stefan, only you and I know that and I hope that you know that too. I'm sure she didn't say anything because she wanted to salvage our relationship and I thank her for that because you're my best friend, Stefan, and I know my actions may say otherwise but I don't want to lose you as a friend. You can fire me or do whatever, but I would still hope that we can be friends." He watched him think.
Stefan met his hands to his face, exhaling loudly then removed them. "I don't- I don't man I have to think. I was ready to fucking kill you, thinking that you fucked her but it's just feelings and a part of me can't get upset. I fell for Bonnie quickly. I missed her after Milan, we talked on the phone and she made me smile like an idiot. I wanted to be around her so I get it. I do but she's my fiancée, Mason. She's going to be my wife."
"I know,"
"So you have to let go. Go to therapy or something but let her go."
He nodded then watched him stand but before he could make it out the door, Mason called him back. "Wait, Stefan, there's one more thing."
"Okay,"
He stood, walking over to him. "Elena. She's trying to break you two up. She came to me and asked me to be on her side because I guess Bonnie told her about everything and figured I would want the same goal. I don't and I never truly did. I just thought that you should know."
Stefan chuckled shaking his head. "That fucking bitch." He walked out.
The bathroom, her casually bumping into him earlier. She's stalking him to get him to possibly consider leaving Bonnie for her. What a stupid plan. When the invites get printed, he'd make sure to hand-deliver hers and give her a front-row seat to their union. She should know him better, he's not that type of guy, never have been.
…
Bonnie smiled hearing the door open and closed her eyes hearing him approach. Stefan pauses at the threshold, seeing her there on their bed then walked softly towards it. He was expecting to beat her home but figured that maybe he was out longer than he thought. He got on their bed and caressed her face before kissing her forehead. He chuckled seeing her try to fight back a smile. "I know you're awake." He smiled as she did. "I thought I'd beat you here," he kissed her once her eyes opened.
"I really just wanted something elegant and simple, like I'm floating on a cloud and they drew the perfect design. I'm excited."
"Me too. I can't wait to see you walk down that aisle to me." He kissed her twice. "I uh, I went to see Mason. He told me everything. That he's in love with you, that you kissed."
"Oh,"
"Yeah."
"So how do you feel?"
"I want to hear your side."
"My side? I don't really have one."
"Sure you do."
"Um, well I guess I'll start from the beginning? When we first met, you weren't exactly a stand-up guy so I would talk to him- to Mason here and there and we developed a nice little friendship. If I'm being honest, he was trying harder than you and a part of me thought that when Enzo inevitably breaks up with me, I'll date Mason and just be your pretend girlfriend, but then you wanted me to hang out with you here and Mason faded away and I started falling for you. Then he asks me out to dinner and suddenly I remember our connection. At that dinner was when he first started voicing his feelings for me, I honestly can't remember what he said because shortly after that Enzo happened but I kissed him. He made me feel like I don't know like there was no one else but me that he saw, that he loved. But afterward, I felt horrible because I had you. So I got out of there and the next morning you told me that I was your everything and I felt so shameful. After that, I remember calling him and telling him that we could only be friends and he agreed. And then all that time passed and the party came and we made eye contact dancing and I would blame it on the punch, but I can't make excuses for myself. Then the next day I visit him and we talked about it and he told me that he's in love with me and I told him that I'm your fiancée and that I'm marrying you and we both have to respect that. And I broke up with him so to speak so he could get over me. I don't know if it worked or not- I guess not since he told you." She sighed. "That's it."
"So moral of the story is if I was a "stand up guy" to you earlier, none of this would've happened."
"No one said that."
"Basically that's what you said."
"Stefan, not everything is fucking about you, okay, this is about Mason and his feelings, not you or yours. Stop taking everything so personal because it's not. He doesn't love me because he hates you, he loves me because that's just the way he feels, nothing more or less about it."
"Mason doesn't love you, he doesn't know you."
"You can't tell someone how they feel, Stefan. Even though I may agree with you, that's still how he feels, only he can change that because I'm not going to act differently or anything like such for him to. I told him I would back off and keep my distance but that's about it."
"So how do you feel?"
"I love you, stupid. If you can't tell that after everything we've been through, after everything Mason and I told you then I don't know what will. Or if anything ever will." She watched his eyes. "How do you feel?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know if you love me?"
"I love you, I just don't know if I want to marry you."
She watched his eyes. "Okay," she got up from their bed and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Stefan exhaled, closing his eyes as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Fuck." He got off the bed and stood by the door, pressing his ear against it and frowned hearing her crying. He felt his heartbreak and wanted to comfort her but a part of him was saying to leave her be so that's what he did and walked out of their room.
…
Stefan looked up from his book seeing her walk out of their room, ignoring him to go into the kitchen. He sighed then stood, walking over to her but kept his distance as she grabbed a knife. "I shouldn't have said what I said and I'm sorry."
"You said a lot of things, Stefan." She started chopping a cucumber.
"I'm sorry for questioning my marriage to you, it's just that you've been keeping so much from me and it makes me think about what else are you comfortable keeping from me during our marriage."
She turned to him. "None of this was comfortable for me, Stefan. I wanted to tell you but he's your best friend and I didn't want you to lose that because of a feeling. If anything escalated further than that then I would've told you right away but it didn't and I knew it wouldn't."
"I get it but I don't want you keeping things from me anymore. You want me to be honest with you, I want you to be honest with me. About everything, no matter how small you think it is because this to me was a big deal. Someone- no matter their relationship to me was trying to take my wife away from me and I don't like that. By voicing your feelings to someone you have hope no matter how big or small that they feel that same way back. And if you did, he would've run off with you, no questions asked, no looking back leaving me broken and alone by myself. That's what means so much to me. So yeah, I may be looking at the worst-case scenario and taking it personally, but that shouldn't be my fault because when has anything in my personal life ever gone right?"
"I guess I didn't think about it that way,"
"I guess I should've explained it."
"It's okay, I forgive you."
He chuckled, shaking his head. "Come here,"
She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry. I promise to be honest with you about everything."
He kissed her. "I love you, I want to marry you."
"I love you and I want to marry you too." She leaned in.
"Before we kiss, there is one more thing."
"What?"
"Mason told me that Elena is trying to break us up."
"What?"
"She's been bumping into me randomly and I didn't think anything of it but when he told it made sense."
"And here I go thinking she's starting to become my best friend."
"Sorry. But you know what she'll have a front-row seat at our wedding and—"
"Wait, you still want her to come to the wedding?"
"Yeah, so we can rub our never-ending love in her face."
"I guess. I'll make sure to hire bodyguards if she tries to ruin our day."
He chuckled. "Deal."
She sighed heavily. "Can we move far, far away?"
He smiled then met their lips twice. "How about we go on a nice far, far away honeymoon for a week."
"Yes please." She kissed him.
He opened his mouth to her and lifted her thighs around his waist, walking them back to their room.
…
She straddled his lap. "Stefan," she nibbles on his ear. "Baby," she kisses along his neck.
"If I wake up will you stop?"
She smiled and kissed his lips. "Your mom is here,"
"What?" His eyes opened. "Why are you getting me hard then?"
She laughed. "Sorry,"
He exhaled then sat up. "How long has she been here?"
"About an hour. She wanted details on my dress which is why we kept you asleep."
He kisses her then Bonnie moves off his lap so he could stand. Stefan stretches then walks out of their room with Bonnie not far behind. He smiles as he locks eyes with his mother, then hugs her once she's in arms reach. "How are you doing, mom?"
"Just fine. Bonnie was telling me some details about the wedding,"
"Yeah, we still have a few more things to do but thankfully things are getting done."
Lily smiled. "Well, since I have you both here, I figured instead of waiting for the save-the-date, I'd tell you in person."
Stefan frowned. "You can't make it?"
"No, I can make it, it's just… I won't be alone,"
Bonnie's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hand. Stefan blinked processing her words and when it finally clicked he frowned some more. "Who is he?"
"It's Tim."
"Tim? The man I hired to protect you?"
"I know how this may seem—"
"I'm going to kill him." He stood.
"Stefan, wait. He would just park outside of my house so one day I invited him inside and he protested but eventually came in and we talked and it was nice."
Stefan watched his mother's eyes then closed his after seeing happiness in them. "Okay. But if he ever does or says anything to hurt you, I'm not holding back as I did with Frank."
"Deal."
He exhaled. "I want you to be happy, mom, but until I really get to know him, I won't be happy about this."
"And I understand, which is why I want to try and invite you both out again if you aren't too busy or have plans."
Stefan and Bonnie exchanged looks. "We would love to," she answers and smiled, hugging her future mother-in-law back.
She watched Stefan's face as he hugged his mother and knew that she needed to talk him down before, after, and during this dinner.
…
Bonnie held his face, looking into his eyes as she straddled his lap in the driver's seat of his car. "How do you feel right now?"
"Angry. This is not what I wanted at all."
She nodded. "Think about this through your mom's eyes though. I'm sure she wasn't expecting this to happen either, but sometimes things are meant to be. Just like us."
"Don't compare them to us,"
She chuckled then kissed him. "Okay. But you can at least see what I mean."
"No."
She met their foreheads. "Babe. Promise me you'll try at least for tonight?" She caressed his face.
He watched her eyes. "Fine."
"Come here," she moved her arms around him, hugging him close to her body and tighter as his arms moved around her. "I love you."
"I love you more."
Bonnie moves her head back and met their lips, kissing him once. "Let's get inside," she moved back to her seat before opening the door, getting out then met Stefan in the middle.
They held hands walking into the restaurant then looked around before spotting the two at the end of the restaurant. They made their way over and hugged Lily before sitting across from the couple.
"So, Stefan, Bonnie, as you know this is Tim."
"You date all your clients, Tim?"
Bonnie held his hand.
"Hi, I'm Michelle, I'll be your waitress for this evening, may I start you all out with some drinks?"
"I'll take a Sprite," Bonnie ordered.
"Two Cokes for us," Tim followed.
"Tom Collins."
Bonnie sighed but pasted on a smile until Michelle walked away.
"To answer your question, Stefan, no, I don't, and I'm sorry that it happened with your mom, especially after the situation with Frank. I understand how difficult this must be for you, but I care very deeply for Lily."
"How old are you?"
"I'm thirty-two,"
"You know my mom is in her forties,"
"I do,"
"You can't just toy with her feelings."
"I can assure you that's not what I am doing. Everything- we just flow together and after spending time with someone like that you'd hate yourself if you never acted on it and then next thing you know you find out she's with someone else and you're fucked. I didn't want that to happen to me, I hope in some way you can at least understand that."
Stefan looked over at Bonnie as her hand moved to his bicep and they locked eyes.
"Your drinks," Michelle placed their desired drinks in front of them. "Are we ready to order?"
Stefan opened his menu, not looking at it since they sat down and Bonnie followed suit asking the couple in front of them to order first to give them time. Once everyone ordered and handed their menus back, a silence fell at the table.
"If both of you don't mind, I'll share some things about myself. Um, as I said, I'm thirty-two, I've been a bodyguard for about five years now, initially, I wanted to be a teacher, but," he smiled after Bonnie's chuckle. "I've never been married, I don't have kids. Uh, I like to go on hikes every once in a while and of course go to the gym."
"Tell then where you're from," Lily smiled.
"Oh, I'm from Mystic Falls,"
"No way,"
"You too?"
"Yeah, that's crazy. My world just got that much smaller."
He smiled. "I wasn't born there but my family, we moved there in the middle of my first grade year so it was cool, everyone was nice since I was the new kid. I spent the next twelve years of my life there."
Bonnie smiled. "It is a very nice place to grow up. Not much at all to do but people found ways to still get in trouble somehow."
He chuckled, nodding. "What about you, did you move straight here from Falls?"
"No, actually, I moved to LA, got a job at an art gallery as I was auditioning my ass off. I was there for maybe a year and a half before Stefan and I met thanks to his managers short and once we really started dating, I moved in."
"Oh okay, that's nice."
"Yeah,"
"Do you miss it there?"
"In a way, yeah. It was my first time living alone, my first time taking on a state by myself, being alone and independent. It shaped me a lot. I, of course, love it here now, but I wouldn't mind going back to visit."
Stefan narrowed his eyes at the way Tim was now looking at his girl and started rapidly bouncing his foot involuntarily. Bonnie looked down noticing his leg bouncing as it did when they first went out with Frank and placed her hand on his thigh, rubbing it a few times before leaving it there. She breathed out as the bouncing slowed and would every few seconds move her thumb back and forth.
When their food arrived, she moved her hand away and leaned in to grab her utensils. She looked over, seeing him still seated back and mute. "Babe, come help me with something really quick," Bonnie stood then pulled up in his arm having him stand and she led them outside. "What's wrong?"
"I didn't like the way he was looking at you."
"When?"
"After you two got finished going down memory lane. I don't need this shit."
"Stefan-"
"Don't defend him, Bonnie."
"I wasn't I was just going to say that I love you. I love you so fucking much and no matter who or what causes you to think that I would ever let you go, remember that I'm your Mrs. Salvatore and nothing will get in the way of that. Not now, not ten years from now. I'm yours." She stood on her toes, looking him in the eyes.
"Okay,"
"Okay. Kiss me,"
He does so, kissing her deeply and holding her tightly in his arms. "I love you so much."
Their lips continued for about a minute longer then they held hands walking back into the restaurant.
"Everything okay?" Lily asked as the two returned.
"Yeah, sorry," Bonnie answered taking her seat. "So what were we talking about again?"
"Mystic Falls,"
"I forgot to mention, Stefan took us there so he could meet my parents. How'd you like it, babe?"
"It was nice. Very quiet."
"Speaking of, when will we get the pleasure of meeting them?"
"For Thanksgiving, hopefully, if that's alright. I've been meaning to call to see if they already made plans, I guess I have to set myself a reminder."
"That would be great, let me know when you do,"
"Of course,"
The talking paused for a while as people started getting into their meals but every once in a while someone would make a comment just to not keep everything too silent. Once their meals were over, Tim quickly grabbed the check and paid for the meal.
"Thank you both for tonight, this was fun," Bonnie smiled, standing.
"No problem, I liked it too," Lily followed suit.
The two hugged before she went to hug her son and held him a little longer than usual. Stefan let out a breath hugging her back.
"Thank you for trying." She spoke then looked him in his eyes before kissing him on the cheek.
He nodded Tim goodbye and watched as the two held hands walking out of the restaurant.
"How do you feel?"
He looked over at Bonnie. "My mom thanked me for trying but I wasn't really trying at all."
"It's okay, we still have Thanksgiving. Hopefully, by then your mother's relationship would be better placed in your mind. This was sprung on you, on the both of us so it's hard. Next time will be better. Come on, let's go home," she took his hand.
Once they arrived home, they took showers, scrubbing away the day then joined one another on their bed. Stefan wraps his arms around her tightly and she closes her eyes at the pressure. "I love being in your arms,"
He smiles and kisses the top of her head. "I love your body in my arms,"
"Hold me forever?"
"Forever, I promise."
She smiled then snuggled more into him.
