Phineas stared at the two women that went in line in their cafeteria. He was on the verge of lashing out on his girlfriend, in front of his colleagues - but he realized that it wasn't worth the anger. Instead, he took a couple of deep breaths to stay calm as he needed to confront Bella in a collective and mature manner.

"So you told Holly you're going here but not me?!" Phineas asked in frustration. The ravenette remained silent, so he turned to Holly. "Dude, can you give us a moment alone please?"

Holly didn't reply, either - causing Phineas to rub his temples in an attempt to not lose his cool. "Honestly Bella, I have no time for your petty nonsense today, alright?"

"I just wanna catch up with her! Am I not allowed to do that?" Bella raised her voice. This caused some of the mechanics to stop eating and watch how this would end.

"She does have a point dude." Holly defended, "Not everything has to be about you."

Phineas conceded the thought, but still held his ground. "You could've at least texted me or something that you're coming here." he said softly. He scooted his way towards the food bar and got his lunch then sat down with the other guys, while the girls sat with the women mechanics on the other table.

After an uneventful lunch, Phineas dragged his girlfriend into a gap between two parked buses. This gave them a decent level of privacy, provided no one would come check on the buses. Before he left, he informed Holly to only call him on his walkie talkie when he's absolutely needed.

"Babe," Phineas started calmly, "I'm trying to do this the mature way so please, allow me to say my part." Bella huffed indignantly as she leaned against the bus.

"Fine." she snorted. Phineas shook his head, trying to keep his composure. He knew that if he blew his head on his girlfriend, it would put them both in the wrong.

"Bella, I understand that you're frustrated because you aren't used to this dating thing yet. I'm not used with it as well, but we try to learn from our mistakes and make our relationship a healthy one." he started, "You may think that because I'm so pre-occupied with studies and work that I'm having an affair with another woman, guess what? That ain't happening with me."

"But I keep overthinking about you doing those things!" Bella suddenly shot back. "Maybe you aren't like that, but you're still a man, just like every other man in the world."

"You're looking at too much of those stupid depressing quotes on Facebook. Did you really think that I would do that to you? Hell no! This is why a lot of relationships end in miscommunication: every time one side sees a depressing post on relationships, the media romanticizes it! It's like they can't accept having a mature relationship in the world. Just because a lot of people have toxic relationships doesn't mean it has to be the norm!" Phineas raised his voice slightly. "Don't you understand Bella, that I'm not those 'men are trash' junk! I'm my own man, and if I decide to maintain a healthy dating life with you, then I'm sticking with it! So what if I only dated one girl? At least I'm loyal to her and I wanna spent my life with her."

"I've said this before but I'll never get tired of saying it again," he paused for a moment, "I love you, I won't leave you and I understand why you're pissed off. It reminded you of some painful memories from last year when we weren't going out yet. You thought that I was so busy in school and work that I never find time to spend with you. When you accuse me of doing something that I clearly would never do, like seeing another woman, it pains me to see that you don't trust me one hundred percent. Do you remember when we confessed our feelings for one another?"

Bella choked a sob at that particular memory. "Y–yeah. I remember that all too well."

"You said it yourself that you've been busy in our senior year of high school, that's why we never found time to date or even hang out." Phineas looked at his girlfriend, who now had unshed tears in her deep blue eyes.

Knowing that he was right, Bella looked away in shame. She now felt awful as her mind flooded with all the moments she got mad at her boyfriend for some of the most petty reasons, some of which dating back to their youth. She tried her best not to let her tears overcome her just yet.

Phineas wasn't finished, "We may be in a relationship, but we both have our own separate lives. I work here as a bus mechanic; you're on the soccer team, SG treasurer, an RA, and a member of debate club. Hell, I only know how to fix cars, trucks, and buses while you can do anything!"

"That's because your work here is a lot, the only extra you do in campus is play street ball with your buddies." Bella said softly, still facing away from the redhead.

"Exactly! Did I ever blow up on you when you came home late due to SG meetings or soccer practice?" Bella shook her head. "You see Bella, this is what I want you to realize. You must be flexible with each other, not always going with your plans and assumptions. I don't want us to be dating just because 'I love you, you love me'; we're dating because we want to pull each other up towards our goals and as your boyfriend, I want you to be successful in your field so when time comes that I'm gonna marry you, we can go back and reflect that we had each other's backs all the way."

Bella froze at the mention of Phineas marrying her. Although it was too early for them to talk about marriage, it's a topic most young adults their age has to inevitably go through. And this soon he's already thinking about spending the rest of his life with me? Oh my god, I don't deserve him.

"Y–you wanna marry me?" She looked at him with her puppy dog eyes, widening her irises and batting her eyelashes.

"Yeah! As for when, that's a TBD." Phineas shrugged. Without warning, Bella threw herself into her boyfriend's arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face on his grease-stained chest, feeling his steady heartbeat. It was then where she let her tears fall through his shirt and Phineas caressed her hair as she sobbed.

"I'm so sorry Phinny." she mumbled, "I never thought that even after all the hell I've unknowingly put you through, you still come here to save me."

"It's alright babe, and I'm sorry for making you feel alone again." Phineas placed a kiss on Bella's hair, while stroking it with his free hand. "I love you – don't you ever forget it." The couple stayed in the embrace for a few minutes, soaking in each other's warmth, until Phineas pulled Bella out to prevent from getting her clothes covered with grease.

"So, are we good now?"

"Yes honey, yes we are." Bella lurched forward to press her lips on his. Phineas leaned on the other bus as he let the raven haired Latina dominate him for the moment. Once they pulled out, they gazed at each other lovingly until...

"Hey Phineas, I'm over at bay 7. We got tranny work on 5161." Holly called on his walkie talkie.

"10-4. Be right there in a minute." Phineas replied, then turned to his girlfriend. "Well, looks like I'm called for duty again." He sighed, "And I thought I'd have a free afternoon today."

"I have to go on debate club after classes. I might quit since Mom only made me join because of my senior high track record." Bella rubbed the back of her neck, "That's why I left two weeks early thanks to damn debate camp."

"We could've done something better than debate camp in those two weeks." the redhead joked, causing Bella to chuckle. He changed to a serious tone. "Whatever your decision is babe, I'm here to support you."

"Thanks honey." she smiled, giving her boyfriend one last peck on the cheek.

Once Bella departed the garage, Phineas went to bay 7, where him and Holly were working on removing a transmission. The dark skinned woman noticed her colleague's bright facial expressions, as he smiled more often rather than being stone faced. She didn't say anything at first, going back to their task on hand. It took them 15 minutes of back-breaking labor, but the two friends managed to get the suspect part out.

"And voila! One busted tranny ready for a rebuild." Phineas secured the straps holding the transmission in the lift. Holly smirked at him with her arms crossed on her chest, causing the redhead to give her a questioning look. "What?"

"You seem more...upbeat today dude. Did you and Bella made up again?" she inquired. Phineas told Holly about his pep talk with his girlfriend earlier in full detail. He also mentioned about how he hinted about marrying the raven haired Latina in the future, making his dark skinned coworker squeal like a fangirl, causing some of their other colleagues to turn heads in their direction. Phineas made a wave gesture translating to 'Don't mind us'.

"You just had to go out and tell everyone the status of my love life, how nice." he said sarcastically, glaring at his still laughing friend. Him and Holly pushed the transmission lift towards the rebuild room and left it beside an empty work table - as someone else would go over the teardown. The redhead noticed a large stain of transmission fluid on his shirt and chuckled softly.

"What's so funny?" Holly raised an eyebrow.

"I remember this convo with Bella this morning. We had a party in their unit to celebrate our victory in the sportsfest, so naturally I slept in with her. Then when I started to get ready for work, since the work shirt that she keeps in her closet isn't clean yet, she gave me this." Phineas gestured to his polo shirt, "I told her 'I'll take the polo shirt assuming I'm not removing a transmission or something', yet here we are, working on this bad girl."

The dark skinned woman's chuckled. "Coincidence much?"

"Maybe." the redhead shrugged, "Why did Bella hit up on you anyway, besides trying to rip my head off?"

"She just wants to catch up, you know. A little girl time at the mall tonight."

Back in campus, Bella and Jessie were walking to their next class. Their afternoon classes proved to be a real pain in the ass; they only have 2 subjects but each had its equal amount of work to be done – not to mention Bella still had to go to debate club afterwards to settle her departure there. She was deep in thought about what Phineas told her earlier about being mature in their relationship that she didn't notice the trash can in front of her. Luckily, Jessie dragged the dreamy girl towards her, averting a collision.

"Hello, Earth to Bella, are you there?" She waved in front of Bella's face, which caused the latter to snap out of her thoughts.

"Huh….oh…what's up Jessie?"

The blonde cheer captain had a look of concern in her. "You nearly hit the trash can over there. Are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, it's just I've been thinking on a lot of things today."

"Girl, you know that I know those 'things' of yours always involve Phineas."

"I'll tell you later, okay?"

Their next class passed by without a hitch and with Jessie and Bella going their separate ways, the latter went to the English lab room, where the debate club holds their meetings. She had a lengthy talk with the club adviser, stating that she needed to focus more on her studies. Afterwards, Bella felt relieved that she now has three extracurriculars that she really wants: she can handle being the SG treasurer with ease, she loved playing soccer, and with being an RA, she was only limited to being on call for seminars and campus tours. Without worrying about debate club anymore, which held meetings on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Bella's schedule was more free - since she had SG meetings every Mondays and soccer practice on Fridays.

With that in mind, Bella headed back to her apartment's lobby, where Holly would come by and pick her up for their girls' night out. At around 10 minutes to 6, the ebony teen pulled in with her SUV and Bella got on board likewise. They arrived at a mall in Newark a few minutes later. The two former Fireside Girls went shopping for new clothes, watched a movie together, and even ate in a high-end resto that they only get to eat when one of them was on a date. A couple more hours of enjoying each other's company and Holly and Bella returned to the latter's apartment.

"I'm glad you and Phin sorted out your differences, girl." Holly reflected, "Dating may be all lovey dovey at first, but when it gets longer, that's when your committment gets put to the test."

"So am I, Holly." Bella smiled, before closing the door on Holly's SUV. As the ravenette watched her friend depart, she felt a sense of peace wash over her. Now this is what being in love feels like.