Epilogue – Virginia
It was graduation day, and it was made even more special by the fact that I had everyone I loved around me. My parents and Carl were all there to see me receive my scroll onstage and nobody clapped harder than the man I had been in a relationship with for the past year and a half.
Afterwards, we had taken photographs of each other and Carl declared that he wanted to take us all out for a family dinner.
We were sitting together at the table in a fancy Italian restaurant. Dad and Carl were deep in conversation as usual, and as I looked at them. I knew that I couldn’t have asked for a better relationship. The fact that my boyfriend and my father were friends – were still best friends – was a gift. It almost felt like Carl had brought our family even closer together.
Even though it had taken Mom a few weeks to get accustomed to the fact that I was in a relationship with a much older man, she trusted my decision. She had seen how happy Carl made me and just like my dad, she couldn’t complain.
“I am so happy for you, honey,” Mom said to me and I turned to her and she placed a hand on mine.
“Are you going to apply for your Masters in sociology like you planned?” she asked and I nodded my head and tore myself another piece of garlic bread.
“I want to stay in academia,” I told her and she patted my hand like a proud mother.
My relationship with Carl had been a smooth, effortlessly happy one, even though it was my first serious one. It felt like I had been in a relationship for years, especially since I had been in love with him forever.
It was amazing how easily we had fallen in sync with each other and how happy it made me wake up in bed beside him. He made me more confident in myself. He made me feel beautiful and cherished every day, and it wasn’t until we got stares from people when we walked together hand in hand that I remembered he was much older than me. I couldn’t imagine myself being with anybody else – he was the man for me.
Carl stood up from his chair abruptly in the middle of his conversation with my dad. We all turned to him to find him crouching down beside my chair on one knee.
“I’m sorry, beautiful, I was going to wait until dessert but I can’t concentrate on anything else,” he said and I stared at him with my mouth hanging open.
I didn’t want my mind to go there. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I saw him pulling out a small blue velvet box from the pocket of his pants.
“Virginia, I have a question to ask you and I hope you say yes,” he began and I clamped a hand on my mouth. I could feel my hands shaking as I stared at him opening the box. There was a beautiful solitaire diamond ring in the center of the box and it blinked at me while he remained kneeling on the floor.
“I am in love with you, and this past year and a half has been the happiest of my life. I want this to go on forever, and the only way I know how to make that happen is by asking you to be my wife,” Carl continued and I could feel my breath caught in my throat.
I hadn’t seen this coming. We hadn’t even moved in together yet, even though we had talked about it. We had decided a couple of months ago that we would seriously think about moving in together after my graduation; after I had decided what I was going to do with my life after school. Carl didn’t want to discourage me from the idea that I might have to move to a different city for graduate school, even though I had already decided that I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I’ve already spoken to your parents, Virginia, and they had graciously given me their blessings. All you have to do now is say yes,” Carl said and I stared at his handsome, happy face. This was the same man who my mom used to joke about being a confirmed bachelor when I was a kid. This was the same man who had awakened the woman in me when I was a thirteen-year-old gangly teen.
I had always fantasized about being in a relationship with him, about sleeping with him, but never even in my wildest dreams had I imagined that we could be married.
“Virginia . . . ” he began to say and I jumped out of my chair and hurled myself at him.
“Yes, Carl, yes, a thousand times yes! There is no other man I would rather marry than you!” I was laughing and crying at the same time. It felt surreal to be proposed to by him; to see him on a bended knee asking for my hand.
Carl kissed me, even though he usually shied from kissing me in front of my parents. How did it matter anymore? He was going to be their son-in-law soon!
I kissed him back fiercely, and I could hear cheers and claps around us. It wasn’t just my parents who were cheering for us, it was the whole restaurant.
When we broke away from our kiss, Carl was still holding me, and with his free hand, he was slipping the ring onto my finger. It was a perfect fit, exactly the way he was for me. The diamond sparkled on my finger as I wrapped my arms around him again.
“You have no idea how happy you just made me, Virginia,” he whispered into my ear as we hugged each other again. I was smiling, my soul was soaring, all my dreams were coming true, and then some!
“You have no idea how I wish I could go back to my teenage self and tell her that everything is going to be all right,” I said, just as Carl leaned in to kiss me again.
*****
THE END