Written in the Stars
By Tvdfanpam
Chapter 12
School's Almost Over
Ana and Christian were in Ana's room; they had walked back to Christian's apartment from the bookstore. She was in the closet packing to go back home to Vancouver and he was texting someone as he paced around her room. There was a knock on the door.
"Ana can you come out here for a minute?" Christian asked and Ana came out of the closet with her small rolling suitcase and her makeup bag. She was shocked to see three men inside her bedroom instead of one. "Ana, this is Luke Sawyer." She shook hands with the blond headed giant wondering why she was being introduced to him. She thought he looked like a former soldier with his buzz cut hair. Christian turned to her and rubbed her arms and kissed her lightly on the lips.
"I know we haven't talked about this but he will be your new driver/bodyguard. We are a couple now and since your picture was in the papers with me it isn't safe for you to be without protection." He kissed her again to silence her. "He has been shadowing you this last week and since I am going out of town, I think it is a good idea for him to be close protection." He said all that in a rush, filled with anxiety. He could tell by the look on her face that he went about this all wrong. "Please baby. I won't be able to concentrate on work if I am worried about you."
Ana stood there in shock, embarrassed and wondering what brought this on. "No absolutely not. I don't need a bodyguard. We have been dating ONE WEEK." She wanted to stomp her foot in frustration. "Why?…this is not necessary. I will be on campus or my apartment all week, I will be perfectly fine." She tried to reason with him. He kept rubbing her arms with his hands and it was very distracting.
"Remember when we had that conversation about my net worth?" He said softly in her ear. "Well, somebody would love to have their share of the wealth in exchange for you." She stood there in total shock.
"Are you saying someone wants to kidnap me?" She started to see black dots in front of her eyes. He moved her over to the bed and placed her on it and put her head between her knees.
"Sir?" Taylor said, thinking his boss had made a mess of things. "Miss Steele, there are no active threats at this time but we anticipate that there will be therefore we thought it would be best to be proactive and start you out with a bodyguard instead of having to find someone later." That was just making it worse to Ana.
Luke Sawyer thought he would add his two cents. "Miss Steele, I will not invade your privacy. I will just take you to class and work and make sure you are protected at all times." Christian glared at him.
"Ana, can we try it for this week?" Christian pleaded with his girlfriend. "I do have three active threats against me and would hate to have them switched to you instead since you will be on campus where everyone now knows you will be. That damn newspaper said you were a student at WSU Vancouver."
She stood up and hugged him. "Is this how it is for you all the time?" She asked. "Maybe you need to ramp up your own security. I will be fine. I promise I won't go anywhere alone." She smiled, trying to wheedle him into giving in. She never gave it any thought that he might have death threats or someone might try to abduct him. It was very scary.
"Gentlemen, please wait for me in the security office." Christian asked politely. He shut Ana's bedroom door and then sat down beside her on the bed. "I'm sorry Ana. This is not how I wanted to have this conversation. I'm sorry to put it off until you were leaving. I worried about bringing this subject up all weekend. If we are going to continue to see each other, you will have to have a bodyguard. I promise that Luke Sawyer was not hired to spy on you, if that is what you were worried about." He looked at Ana seriously and she looked back at him just as seriously.
"Okay. But he only follows me to and from class or the library. I live in a secure building and the classrooms are locked after the start of each class." He nodded. "You should not have waited until now to bring this up." She frowned at him then leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips. "Will this be how it will always be?" She had to know. He nodded sadly.
"Please baby, for me? I have to know you are safe. I promise I will always have Taylor with me if you will have Sawyer with you." He tried to bargain with her. This was new to him. "Luke is going to take you home so you can get to know him on the drive home." She made a face.
"I understand but I don't like it." She had to say. He put his arms around her and gently laid on top of her on the bed. "You go to whispering sweet nothings in my ear to hiring a bodyguard. Talk about crazy." She said under her breath. He grinned then kissed her again.
"Thank you. It means a lot to me." He kissed her lips then her neck. "You always smell so good Ana. I will think about that while I am gone to Chicago." They laid there for a few minutes each thinking their own thoughts.
"Will you be able to call me this week?" Ana kissed him on the lips. "I work Tuesday night and Thursday night but I will be out of class by 4:00 pm except for Wednesday. That's my half day." She explained her schedule, not sure if she had already told him that. She rambled when she got nervous as she did when they had breakfast with his parents earlier. She was still slightly embarrassed about talking about that silly book.
"Yes, I will call you every night at 9:00 pm. If that will work for you. I know you go to bed early but I don't think I will be done with meetings and dinner until then." He was nervous now. What if she didn't want to be with him anymore since he more or less forced the bodyguard on her? He fiddled with the throw pillow.
"That will be fine. I will look forward to it." He rolled off the bed and grabbed her hand and pulled her up with him. He gathered her close and kissed her more passionately. It left them both breathless.
"That will have to do until next weekend. I will come see you Saturday after you get off work." She tried to talk and he shushed her. "I know you have to work on Sunday too, I just have to see you if only for a little while." He grabbed her suitcase and rolled it out and she followed him with her makeup bag and sweater. He kissed her again and then she left with Luke.
****TIME JUMP****
It was the day before graduation. Ana was sitting on the sofa in her apartment with her laptop fine tuning her speech for the graduation ceremony. She had done it! Graduated top of her class and was excited to be moving on with her life. She was sad to be leaving the college town, she had made a lot of happy memories there. Kate was running around the apartment trying to pack and kept telling Ana how much she would miss her. "We'll stay in touch Kate, I promise." She hugged her roommate. "We'll be in the same town, we can have Friday night girls nights once a month."
"I know, but it won't be the same. You will be working at Lakeside and I will be in Grad. School. We will be going in different directions in our lives." She sat down beside Ana. "You'll always be my best friend Ana." The girls hugged.
"And you will always be mine." They drank a toast to that. They had been sharing a bottle of wine. "You'll have to come see my apartment. I am so excited to be on my own." She stopped when she saw the look on Kate's face. "I'll miss you too."
Ana's phone buzzed with a text message from Christian. He was in Los Angeles and getting ready to head back to Seattle. He would be there tomorrow for Ana's graduation ceremony. He was going to meet her mother and stepfather. Her mother and her latest husband were coming in for the ceremony much to Ana's shock. Her mom said she had a surprise for her. Ana's dad was driving in early in the morning and was going to take her to breakfast before they had to be at graduation.
Ana and Kate finished up their chores and were getting ready to go to bed. Kate was exhausted from finals and the end of the school year tasks and would be leaving immediately after graduation to go on vacation with her family. Ana was going to move to Seattle tomorrow. She had one month to get settled in her new apartment before the summer term started at Lakeside Prep where she would be a librarian assistant. Christian was hiring a moving company to move her to Seattle to her new apartment at Escala.
Christian was going to surprise Ana with a trip to celebrate her college graduation and the start of her new career as a librarian. He was taking her to the Florida Keys for five days. He really wanted to propose to her while they were there. He even made a trip to Montesano to ask Ray Steele for his permission to ask his daughter to marry him. Ray said YES. He laughed at Christian and said he would have to convince Ana to marry him though. He said to ask to see her five year plan. That made Christian a little nervous. He already had a ring for her. It had a pink diamond. He thought it would look beautiful on her small hand. He hoped she liked it and didn't think it was too big and flashy.
The doorbell rang and Kate ran out of her bathroom to get it. "I wonder who it is." She looked out the peephole. "It's Jose. Do you want to see him?" Kate whispered to Ana. She shook her head no.
"ANA, KATE, I know you are in there." Jose called through the door. "I could hear you in there. I know you are still up." Kate opened the door a crack with the security chain still on.
"Hi Jose. We were going to bed. Big day tomorrow. Did you need something?" Kate said, trying to be polite but she was tired of their nosy neighbor.
"I was on my way to work and wanted to say goodbye. Can I come in?" He asked. Ana was behind the door and was shaking her head no and waving her hands.
"That's so sweet. I'll tell Ana you stopped by. She is already in bed. She'll be around tomorrow afternoon if you want to try to catch her before she leaves." Kate said and shut the door and made a shushing motion with her finger. The girls waited a minute then heard him stomp off. Ana breathed a sigh of relief.
"I won't miss being neighbors with him." She whispered to Kate. They walked into Ana's room and sat on the bed. "Sawyer has had to warn him away from me several times. He thinks he is in love with me." Ana rolled her eyes.
"I agree with Sawyer. Don't be surprised to see Jose tomorrow before you leave. He has it bad for you." Kate said. "Make sure you aren't alone with him. I wouldn't put it past him to try to give you a good bye kiss or try to get you to go out with him."
A/N: We will find out next what Ana's mom's surprise is and if Jose gets to say goodbye to Ana. Thanks for reading and reviewing. I really appreciate it!
