One Night Plus a Lifetime

Her Nature

He drove all the way to the outskirts of the city .. and it took them an hour to get there. a small bar stood at the end of the road.

when they walked in , Aria noticed they was a band playing some jazz music on a small stage ..it was the first sound she heard inviting her in , not a lot of people where present , Pete brought them to a table in the corner of the room, it had a great view of the entire place they watched the band play she enjoyed it a lot.

"What is this place?"

she asked curiously.

"you like it?"

Pete also asked ..he always answered questions with other questions , she did not understand why. Aria nodded her head agreeing to his words ,,..she liked this place and music was good.

"it belonged to my grandfather ...it was been here for a long time, this has always been my favourite place to come too.

growing up , he would bring Meredith and i here all the time"

Aria saw in his eyes how much this place meant to him. He was telling her about something so personal and a warm feeling grew in her heart.

"but after he died ..my father wanted to have this transformed into one of his restaurant ...I've been fighting with him over it....this place is perfect just the way it is ....something's don't need to be changed"

Pete added..he looked at Aria as he spoke.

"yeah ..some things should never be changed"

it was true and even though she only saw this place once ...she would hate it if it got destroyed , the energy and the mood here was peaceful,.

"I need to get more people to come here if i don't it will shut down by the end of the year , that's the agreement i made with my father,"

"oh ....how are you going to do that?"

she asked him , Only a few people really appreciated good old jazz music , a lot of them preferred the modern music.

"i still don't know...."

Pete came from a rich family , he could have forgotten about this place but the fact that he still wanted it to continue being open meant that he cared so much about his grandfather's memory. She thought it was sweet of him.

"Hey!...why don't you promote it on line"

Aria said ,

"i have tried but...only a few people come here"

Off course he must have thought about that , she thought that was a dumb suggestion but then she had another idea.

Aria got her phone and started recording.

"how about we show them how cool this place is ."

she said while getting up , she pulled Pete from his chair " what are you doing "he asked her following her.

She placed her phone on the table facing her direction and walked to the middle of the room, people had there attention on her . she looked back and saw Pete smiling and watching her "come on" she called to him and he walked slowly to her .

the the band noticed Aria in the middle of the room they started playing another song ..there instruments making a beautiful sound and she closed her eyes feeling every rhythm , Aria was going to dance.

Pete also started recording her live on his social media. He watched as she slowly moved her legs and her arms , she was like an enchanting goddess dancing embraced by the music.

Aria did not know what came over her , but she felt good in this place, every time she was at ease with her self , her true nature would shine spreading her colours like a rainbow, she was stepping out of her shell being lured by the music and her body moved at its vibrations.

When she was like this , she did not care what the rest of the world thought or looked at her , she was just in her element . And she felt good, the adrenaline flooded her system every time she danced and it had been ages since she felt it in her body.

it was not because of Pete but being in this place was all thanks to him, this was all because she stopped holding herself back and decided to jump into the waters , this city truly brought out the best in her and she welcomed it too as she danced.

the people in the bar started clapping as they watched her, Pete also decided to join and the two danced till the music stopped.

they swayed in the middle of the room while he held her waist , Aria looked up and met his gaze , Pete lowered his head and kissed her lightly .

It felt nice being kissed like that , it had been long since someone kissed her, the feeling of being held felt good too, it was different from highschool.

They stayed there till night. But it was late and they had to go back, from the bar till the moment he dropped her off on the door of her room, Pete never let go of her hand. And when he did her hand felt the absence of his,

he kissed her once more before he left. Aria walked inside feeling all kinds of different, her heart was shaken, she was not over her past , it still haunt her , but the present wasn't bad at all.

"You too had fun huuh?"

Meredith was making food in the kitchen , she spoke when she saw Aria.

"Uummh yeah i guess ...how did you-"

"i saw the video online...i bet everyone in school saw it....my brother took you to that bar"

Aria had forgotten about the videos they made ,

" Pete wants to bring that place back .. its lovely

"

she did not explain any further .

"well that's Pete ...he has his own way of doing things which always leads to trouble"

Meredith said as she drank the tea in her hands.

"what do you mean?"

Aria could sense that Meredith had something she wanted to say.

Meredith looked at Aria , she knew that she was a girl from a different town and was not aware of the nature and the way of life here, she knew her brother very well ,

"my brother has always had a thing of going against dad...sometimes he does not care if he gets himself into trouble ...just be careful ."

Aria heard Meredith's words, but she met a side of Pete that was different from the one Meredith was describing, Pete was warm to her and even though she had to admit he seemed mysterious ...she liked that about him.

it reminded her of her brother , if any girl went out with her brother she would have told her the same thing . So she understood Meredith.

She smiled and said "i will ..."

Meredith thought Aria did not understand her warning , but she felt it was not in her place to say more , when she watched the video of the two of them dancing , she could tell her brother seemed happy, maybe he found the love of his life , so she choose not to say more .

"had fun today ....thank you for making me dance.. Goodnight:)"

her phone buzzed she looked at it and saw a message from Pete , it made her smile, earlier they had exchanged contacts.

From that day Aria and Pete were inseparable, they would hang out almost everyday, and every Friday at the bar it was both there favourite places although Aria did not drink alcohol , she still enjoyed the music , many students started going to the bar as well ,

it made her happy cause it meant that Pete would keep the bar and his dad would not turn it into a boring fancy restaurant.

Pete picked up Aria from school after her class and took her on dates, soon enough they where boyfriend and girlfriend , a lot of girls did not like seeing her with him but she did not care.

she was falling for him , her heart was slowly leaving her the shadows of being previously broken but it felt safe with him.

he treated her good.

he always told her how much he liked her and she liked him too.

"missed me?? "Aria was seated by a tree reading her favourite books when she heard Pete's voice , he was standing over her , looking as perfect as ever his blonde hair shining in the sun and his blue eyes looking like a cool ocean.

She raised her head and looked at him. He gave her that smile she adored and she smiled back at him

"No..."

shaking her head, she looked down at her books again.

"is that so .."

he knelt close to her and gave her a slowly sweet kiss on her lips.

"Are you sure you did not miss me ?"

he asked again with a smirk playing on his lower lip.

it had been months since the two started dating and every month Pete would disappear to attend some family business for 2 weeks , and Aria missed him off course she would wait for him by the tree they met.

"Not really "

she lied , she missed him a lot. And now he was back.

He reached out his hand that he was hiding behind his back and handed her a bouquet of Red roses. Aria felt her stomach turn, she had never received flowers before , and they where so beautiful.

she reached out and accepted them they smelled so good, "wow ...thank you she said"

before hugging him, she like them so much.

"Missed me now "

"Yes yes yes !!"

she said and he hugged her back, Aria had experienced loving someone , and even though her feelings for Pete were just likeness and attraction, she liked how he cared for her , Pete was like a wind that came out of no where and knocked her senses away,

Whatever they had was good ...it wasn't complicated , it did not make her heart question things, they where just two people who liked each other...maybe the future will hold room for greater feelings between them.

He pulled her up and led her out of the school, this time he did not take her to his bar , he took her to his apartment , even though Pete was a student at the college he never stayed in the school premises he had his very own apartment that he shared with a friend.

Pete brought her to his room, he sat down on the bed, she looked around and asked him questions about his picture, he told her the stories behind them and she listened like it was an interesting story,

Aria was like an open book, she asked a lot of questions and did things she felt where okay to her, that's one of the things he liked about her , she always had a story to tell and he too enjoyed her company.

they talked till the sun set. Until they started kissing, he moved his hands caressing her arms and her back and she responded to his kiss, he moved it further down to unbutton the buttons on her shirt. She pulled back away from him and stood up .

he did not understand why , every time he wanted to get intimate with her she would pull back , at first he thought she wasn't ready but four months had gone by since they started dating so why was she holding back. He had a lot of questions , s*x was normal amongst people that where dating to him.

Aria was no where near ready for intimacy , her first time was with a boy that completely humiliated her , she was only 18 at the time and it was a painful experience not only emotionally but also physically , she did not enjoy any minute of it , that boy did not care that she was a virgin and was too rough with her ..before she could even recover..his friends stormed the room with flashing lights.

Every time Pete tried to get intimate with her she would pull back , her body reacted out of impulse and she knew she was not ready yet, Aria was never going to make the same mistake twice of having s*x with a guy just to please him , she was not naive anymore and even though she liked Pete , if she was not ready then she was not going to force herself.

Her feelings where more important to her no matter what he thought of her .

she could see the questions in his eyes , she decided to explain the truth to him , if he liked her and cared for her just the way she was then he would want to be with her without s*x in there relationship.

"listen Pete i know that being intimate is common in relationships , but i am not ready yet , its not because i don't want to ..its just that....last time i decided to do so with a guy he turned out to be a jerk"

Aria went on and explained the events that occurred that night , she could feel her heart beating loudly but she knew she owed him at least an explanation.

"so that's why am not ready yet, ...i know you are a guy and that you have your needs but-"

"i understand ....and i like you for you ...i don't care if we don't have s*x ...if you are not ready then ill wait."

he cut her off , after saying that he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.

Aria was happy when she heard his words, maybe, he was the one for her , she deeply hoped she could give herself to him without her body being scared ...a guy willing to be with you without being intimate was rare, he did not judge her for her past , nor did he ask any more question, he just held her till they fell asleep in each other's arms.