Epilogue

Penny

I looked in the mirror as I pulled the curling iron through my hair. It was considerably shorter than before, but with everything going on, I needed a change, so I cut it up to my shoulders. It made me look a bit older, but I was twenty-eight and didn’t really need to look like a teenager anymore. I applied my eyeliner, listening to Gabby on the speakerphone telling me about her day. She was going through some crazy stuff at work and I was getting to be a listening ear for her for once.

“So, anyway, my boss is a dick,” she said. “That’s the short of it all.”

“You should have just stayed at the café,” I joked.

“Yes, I got a seventy-thousand-dollar college education to serve rich dicks coffee,” she laughed.

“Hey, I buy coffee there,” I said, looking down at the phone.

“My point exactly,” she said, sarcastically, then giggling.

“That’s not nice,” I laughed. “Besides, I’m not rich.”

“No, but you will be soon,” she said.

“Hopefully,” I laughed. “Otherwise I’ve spent my blood sweat and tears on a cute little project funded by my boyfriend.”

“Meh, he has enough money for like ten people to play out their dreams,” she scoffed. “He needs to set me up with one of his billion-dollar friends.”

“How about Jay?”

“Ew,” she laughed. “So, I can white boy dance my way through life? No thanks.”

“So, I’m getting ready to go on a date with Gabriel,” I said, looking at my makeup. “I don’t know, it seems different. I have this gut feeling that tonight might be the night.”

“You’re probably right,” she sighed. “And I’ll always be a bridesmaid and never a bride.”

“I mean, you could be a groomsman,” I joked.

“You are an ass,” she said.

We both burst into laughter, thinking about Gabby dressed up in a tux at a wedding. She was the girl that felt like the only times pants should be worn is when you were working in the yard or hiking through the Alps. She talked about the damn things like they were humans, and she seriously had an attachment to them like a dog or a cat. “So how is the business doing?”

“It’s great,” I said, excitedly. “We just had our quarterly meeting and our profits have tripled since last quarter. After the demo was released and we moved into the building that Gabriel bought us and stocked with everything we could possibly need, the ideas just started flowing. We realized how good we were as a team and were able to put out some seriously solid software systems. It’s definitely on the rise, that’s for sure.”

“Penny, that’s fucking awesome,” Gabby said, with true excitement in her voice. “I mean it’s the one-year anniversary of your launch today, right?”

“Yes,” I said. “We had cake and balloons and all that fun stuff at work today. We went over growth patterns and were blown away at how quickly this software was picked up. That’s also the reason Gabriel says he is taking me out tonight, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the software.”

“Yeah, and you are seeing right through that one,” she laughed.

“I’m trying not to read too much into it, though,” I replied. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, be wrong, and then be bummed, ruining a night I would normally really love. You know how I am with pumping myself up for disappointment.”

“That has always been your specialty,” she said.

“Shit,” I replied, looking down at my watch. “I gotta go. I told him I would meet him in the lobby five minutes ago.”

“Have fun,” she sang.

I met Gabriel in the lobby, smiling as I walked through in the same black dress I had worn to his charity event a year before. He whistled, smiling at me since he had told me this was his favorite dress of all those he had seen. I kissed him on the cheek and he led me out to the curb where we took a limo to the restaurant. It was packed, but we had our normal amazing seat. He ordered wine, and we talked, laughed, and had a really good time. We discussed the business and the findings for the day and he told me about a possible merger he had on the horizon. If he did merge, it would make his company one of the largest real estate investment firms in the world. It was crazy to me just how amazing he always was with business.

When we were done eating, he took my hand and we walked through the park, breathing in the cool night air. When we reached the area of the park where the first entrance to the running trail was, I stopped, realizing that Gabriel wasn’t beside me. I had a flutter in my stomach and turned around, looking at him with curiosity. He smiled his charming smile and stepped forward, bending down on one knee. I watched excitedly as he pulled a small box from his pocket and opened it up, revealing the most beautiful diamond ring I had ever seen. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, I giggled.

“Yes,” I screamed out laughing. “Yes, yes, yes.”

“How did you know?” Gabriel was laughing and stood up, pulling the ring from the box and slipping it on my finger.

“I just had a feeling,” I said, holding my hand in the air before turning to him and walking in close.

“You are so amazing,” he said. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

In the background, we could hear people cheering and my cheeks blushed as I giggled. He pulled me in close and pressed his lips against mine, kissing me passionately in front of everyone in the park. When we pulled away, he was beaming, and it set my heart on fire. He slid his hand down my arm and grasped my hand, continuing to walk down the paths. The park was so beautiful, and they had just finished putting up the large strands of sparkling white lights that they always did before Thanksgiving. We talked as we walked along, no hurry to get anywhere but right where we were. He grasped my hand and pulled it to his lips, kissing it lightly and smiling over at me. I loved that man so much and I couldn’t believe that I was going to marry him.

“It’s crazy to me how far we’ve come in a year,” I said, looking up at the sky. “When we first met it was seriously just a whirlwind of emotions. I didn’t think you were interested in me for anything other than sex.”

“I didn’t think I was interested in anything more than just sex,” he laughed. “But it didn’t take me long to fall in love with you. When everything went down with your father, it was the scariest week of my life. I really thought I was going to lose you, and I knew that I loved you more than anyone I had ever known.”

“It all turned out okay, though,” I said, smiling at him. “And now we can be a family.”

“Yes,” he said smiling. “And have some babies.”

“Slow down there,” I said, laughing. “You sound like my father now. Speaking of him, does he know about this?”

“Of course,” he said, laughing. “I asked him for his permission before I even bought the ring. I couldn’t have felt comfortable doing this if he wasn’t standing behind it.

I stopped, realizing suddenly how much my father had grown on Gabriel. His own father was lost in the background noise of his life, and I knew that hurt him a lot. It looked like he had really grown closer than expected to mine, and that was more than I could have ever asked for. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around the man who I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I leaned in and kissed his lips.

“I love you, Gabriel,” I said, smiling.

“I love you too,” he replied. “Forever.”

The End