Finally, the day Ava would meet Lily arrived. She was changing in the closet and I was laying in the bed, waiting for my kisses.

"Baby!" She called out to me.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Uhm... come here." She said nervously.

"What's going on?" I asked, getting up and making my way to the closet. I didn't want to go in and invade her privacy, I knew she would be a little hesitant to let me see her without a full set of clothes on.

"Can you come in here?" She asked me.

"You want me to come in?" I asked in confusion.

"Yes, please... I have to show you something." She said.

"Uhm... baby, are you sure?" I asked her.

"Yes, come in here!" She groaned, opening the door and pulling me in.

I was immediately distracted by her long, toned legs. She turned and she pulled out two pairs of pants, making my eyes fall on her beautiful behind.

"Ava... Ava, why am I h-here?" I asked her.

"Because you're my boyfriend, so you can be in here and you can see me... and I want you to also tell me which pair of pants to wear." She said to me.

My eyes made their way up to her perfect back, then her toned belly after she turned around and her distracting chest.

"Gabriel..." She said, waving two pairs of pants in front of my face.

"Yes, gorgeous?" I asked her, not tearing my eyes away from her beautiful body, but pulling her closer instead.

"Gorgeous?" She asked me.

"That's what you are, Ava. Damn, baby... I landed this?" I asked.

"Yes, you did." She giggled.

"Can I have a kiss?" I asked her.

She laughed and pulled me down to kiss me. I wasn't expecting her to be comfortable with kissing me so deeply with only her bra and panties on. I knew she had some level of trust issues when it came to intimacy and her body. But she didn't seem to have any sort of difficulty trusting me in that moment.

I tried not to be touchy, but God she was making it hard. She pulled away and she smiled at me.

"Come on. We should probably stop and get ready." She said to me.

"I was ready... I'm no longer ready. I... have something to take care of, I'll be right back." I said to her, rushing off with a tent in my pants.

I started trying to think of anything that would help me calm myself. Eventually, I was able to use the embarrassing memories with Romeo to get rid of the excitement.

Ava eventually came out of the closet fully clothed and she dragged me to the car. We picked Eleanor up on the way, since she was coming too. I drove us to the school and when we arrived, Ava wanted to go see my classroom.

I got Eleanor settled with the kids in the gym who were just arriving and I took Ava to the classroom. We started grabbing the paint supplies that I needed to take out to the field. But before Ava and I could get all the supplies out of the cupboard in the back of the classroom, a little girl was running through the classroom and grabbing onto my leg.

I couldn't actually see her, but when she grabbed my leg, I knew it was Lily.

"Hi Lily." I chuckled, pulling another box of paint out of the cupboard.

She didn't respond, so I looked over at Ava who was smiling at Lily. I stood to my full length and looked down at Lily who was still hanging onto my leg. She was staring up at Ava and I could see the little gears in her head turning.

"Earth to Lily." I said, making her hide behind my leg.

"Hi, Lily." Ava waved, causing Lily to completely disappear behind me.

"Lily, this is Ava... my girlfriend." I said, making Lily shake her head.

"Are you going to come outside and paint with us?" Ava asked her.

"Mr. Morelli." Lily said softly.

"What's going on?" I asked her, crouching down beside her.

"Make her go." Lily said.

"I don't want her to go, she's my girlfriend." I said.

"No." Lily said, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"I promise, I'm nice... just like Mr. Morelli." Ava said, but Lily just held onto me.

Ava smiled sympathetically at Lily.

"Will you help us take some paint out to the field?" I asked Lily.

She nodded and she let me go, grabbing a small little bag with some old paint and taking it with us.

"Lily, do you have a change of clothes?" I asked her.

She nodded her head, leading Ava and I out to the field where I had set up the large poster paper and taped it to the ground.

"Wow." Ava said, looking at the huge paper.

"It's going to be so much fun, just wait and see." I laughed.

"Is it really fun? What do you think, Lily?" Ava asked.

"It's fun." Lily whispered.

I smiled and took Ava's hand, kissing the back of it. Lily was eying our hands as if trying to think what she thought of it.

Soon enough, all the kids were running around playing some games and some of them came and started on the painting, Eleanor came and sat with Ava, which allowed Lily to occupy my attention.

We painted together and I teased Ava a little by smearing a little dab of paint on her cheek. She then took the opportunity to paint a flower on my arm, much like the one Lily had drawn over my whole face.

After the painting was complete, I started to pack everything up, and Ava helped me, Lily just stood there watching skeptically.

"What's going on with you today, Lily?" I asked the poor little kid.

"How come you like her?" She asked when Ava left with the paint.

"Because she's very smart, she's kind and she helps people and she makes me feel happy and excited. Whenever I'm sad she lets me talk to her and she helps me feel better. And she's also very beautiful." I said.

"Is she gonna come play in the water with us?" Lily asked.

"Do you want her to?" I asked.

"No." Lily said bluntly.

"She's going to. Give her a chance, Lily. She's very nice." I said softly.

"No.... I only give you chances." Lily told me.

"Well, she's my girlfriend, so give her a chance." I chuckled.

Lily sighed and took the little bag of paintbrushes and helped me take them inside.

Ava was in the classroom looking for her phone when she saw us come in.

"Hey guys." She smiled. "Gabe, will you call my phone, I don't know where I put it."

"It's in my backpack, baby. Hurry up and come join us." I said, pecking her on the lips and then walking out of the classroom with Lily.

We went out onto the field where the teachers were spraying the water everywhere. Kids were jumping around, yelling, screeching and laughing happily. Lily giggled and took my hand, pulling me closer to the chaotic water situation.

Ava eventually joined us and started spraying Lily, Eleanor and I with a bunch of water. The girls had a lot of fun and then it was finally time to go dry off and get changed. Again, Lily refused to move after she changed her clothes, waiting for me to come out of the little changing rooms. She really didn't seem to want to be anywhere near Ava. But Ava didn't push it, she knew that Lily needed to trust someone before speaking to them.

"We went inside, watched the movie as usual with Lily insisting that I let her sit in my lap. Then after the movie we walked around in the gym and Lily played some games. Again, she was the last kid other than Eleanor. We were driving Eleanor home and I wasn't going anywhere until Lily's parents showed up.

Eventually, Ava just took my car and took Eleanor home. I stayed back with her to wait for her parents. Ava drove to Remi's place, dropped Eleanor off, and came all the way back and Lily was still waiting with me.

"Lily. Do your parents know you're here?" I asked her.

"Yeah." Lily nodded.

"Ok. Well, are they going to come pick you up, Lily? All the buses are gone already." I said to her.

"I don't know." Lily shrugged.

"Sweetheart, did your mother or father say they'd come get you?" I asked her.

"Yeah." Lily nodded her head.

"Alright. Then, can you call them and ask where they are?" I asked.

"Ok." Lily nodded, taking my phone and calling her mother.

Her mother didn't respond to the call, but after another twenty minutes of Lily acting like this was perfectly normal, Ava began to get very agitated. Then, her mother walked into the gym with sunglasses on and called out for Lily.

"Lily! Let's go!" Her mother called, making Lily spring up and run to her mother's side.

"Excuse me!" I called out before the woman left.

"Oh, yes?" The woman asked me.

"I'm Lily's teacher, I need to discuss something with you. Do you have a minute?" I asked.

"No, not right now. Feel free to email me later." The woman said.

"No, I've emailed you countless times, we need to have a meeting about Lily." I insisted.

"Listen, I just don't have time for this." The woman said.

"Listen to me." Ava suddenly stepped in. "I'm just another concerned woman over here hearing that your daughter's teacher has tried to reach out to you countless times and you haven't responded, and here you are now refusing to meet with him about your daughter. It clearly seems urgent... not to mention you showing up three full hours after everyone else left.... this seems to me like neglect and I may just have to shove my nosy butt into your business and call child services."

"Listen, I've got a lot to do right now, I have to get Lily home. I can speak to you tomorrow after I pick Lily up from here." The woman said, even though it was Friday.

"Ok, but if you don't come on Monday, I'm afraid, I will have to dig deeper into Lily's home life. It's been almost eight months of Lily struggling and you were completely unresponsive." I explained.

"Yes, I'm just very busy, in the future, email her father, I have to go now, I'm in a rush, so sorry." The woman said, not giving me a chance to say anything else.

She walked off with Lily and a large empty feeling settled in my gut. I didn't feel good about letting Lily walk away like that.

"I hate her." Ava told me.

"I hate her too." I sighed. "I did email the father, he doesn't respond either!"

"This is messed up." Ava said.

"It's ok. We'll see if she shows up on Monday." I said.

"She better." Ava said, suddenly very protective of Lily who didn't seem to like her one bit.

Lily's mother did end up showing up that Monday, and from then on, Lily was picked up on time when she didn't take the bus. It seemed things had gotten better after Ava's warning. At least for Lily they did, but after that fair, Ava started acting strange.

She seemed to be hiding from something. When I came into our room at night, she'd hide her phone screen and her laptop screen for me. At one point she pulled Momma and Dad aside and had a private conversation with them. I was annoyed to say the least, I didn't know what to think. But I just brushed it aside, telling her she was being weird lately.

Regardless, I still loved this girl more than anything, no matter how weird she was, and I went and bought her the perfect ring. I called her father, asked him how he felt about me proposing and he was very happy about it. They were planning on visiting us anyway in a week, so I planned the proposal for when they were arriving.

I couldn't wait to get engaged and then married. Everything was so exciting with Ava. I was ready to spend the rest of my life with that woman. Seeing her smile and laugh and making her the happiest that she could be.