Epilogue
Gabriel
June of the next year
Gabriel was in a suite at the Imperial Airlines Arena in Chicago.
He wore a Chicago Architects hockey jersey with Drew’s name and number on the back.
It was the Crawford Cup Final, and the Chicago Architects were playing against the Boston Minutemen.
It was the third period, and the game was tied.
Gabriel was with a gaggle of friends and other wives and girlfriends of the players (he was still campaigning for a better nickname for the partners of professional athletes, but WAP—wives and partners—had been shot down).
They were all talking and cheering loudly, and Gabriel was very happy.
He liked cheering for Drew, and he liked living openly with him.
They had become a somewhat famous couple online, for their style and their attractiveness.
Drew had started a celebrity book club on his social media and had a huge following.
They loved Chicago and had formed a good circle of friends.
Gabriel had dinner at least once a week with some of the partners of other players on the team, and had introduced Drew to his coworkers.
They were a golden couple, and they were very happy.
Gabriel watched and cheered as, in the last seconds of the game, Drew assisted in a pass, and the Chicago Architects scored the winning goal of the Crawford Cup Final.
The arena erupted in cheers. There would be no bad blood with the Boston Minutemen.
Drew had maintained good ties with his former teammates, and Gabriel had even met Quentin while Quentin was in town for the Final.
Quentin was a nice guy and clearly working through a lot on his own.
He hadn’t come out yet, but he had seemed encouraged by Drew and Gabriel, and there was another out player on the Minutemen, Henri Bellancourt, who had befriended Quentin.
Things were looking up, and it made Gabriel happy. He had found his happily ever after, and he hoped others would too.
Later that night, after all the celebrations had finished, Gabriel kissed Drew in their apartment in River North.
They would make love later, but right now they just held each other.
In two days, they would leave for their cottage in Orion.
They would spend the summer up there in that beautiful small town, and they had Evan and Aubrey’s wedding in three weeks.
Drew was one of Evan’s groomsmen, and Gabriel was Aubrey’s man of honor.
As Gabriel lay in bed with Drew, his head on Drew’s shoulder, and gently played with the hair on Drew’s chest, he buzzed with anticipation. He was excited to go back to Orion, but there was something he was more excited about.
He loved Drew more than he’d ever loved anyone. They weren’t perfect, but nobody was, and when they worked through their imperfections together, they only got stronger.
He had been thinking about something for a long while and had finally decided that it was time.
He had already packed for the trip to Orion.
In his duffle, tucked beneath his socks and hidden in an innocuous pouch, was a velvet box.
In the box was a ring, and on the first morning in Orion, when he and Drew were walking on the beach, or drinking coffee in their cottage, or reading books on the porch with glasses of wine, he would ask Drew a question.
He had never been so certain of wanting to ask something before. He loved Drew, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
They had been together for almost a year, which to some people wasn’t a lot of time, but Gabriel had been certain about this for months.
Drew was his soulmate, his partner, his lover.
Gabriel didn’t believe that you needed to be married to be committed to each other, but he wanted to be married, and Drew wanted it to.
They were proud to love each other and thankful they had the opportunity to do so openly.
They wanted to proudly declare their love to the world, and mark it with ceremony and ritual.
Drew didn’t know that Gabriel was going to ask him, and Gabriel had a suspicion that Drew might be preparing to ask a very similar question.
He kissed Drew’s cheek as they lay in bed. “Did you know that I love you?” he whispered, smiling at his lover.
Drew looked at him with a sleepy smile, love in his eyes. “I do,” he whispered, the words quiet and almost holy.
Gabriel kissed Drew on the lips, very gently.
“Did you know I love you?” Drew whispered, just as softly.
Gabriel repeated the words that Drew had said, a simple proclamation carrying the weight of a sacred vow: “I do.”
The End
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