22. Epilogue
Katie
"Happy birthday, Babe," a soft whisper wakes me up, warm lips resting right under my ear. I groan, pulling the blanket over my head, or I’m trying to.
"Come on, sleepyhead. Let's get up." Pax pulls the blanket down and I whine when it exposes my skin to the cool air in the room, while he drops a kiss on my hair.
"No, it's so comfy." I snuggle further into the warm bed, complaining when it’s just not as comfy without the blanket covering every inch of me, even with only my shoulder exposed. Only now do I crack one of my eyes open the tiniest amount. Pax's face is right in front of mine, amusement lighting up his eyes.
"I've made breakfast." I open my other eye, only slowly getting used to the light in my bedroom.
"Hmm, I smell bacon," I croak and stifle a yawn, and he takes my moment of distraction as an opportunity to drop a kiss on my lips. I raise my hand to push his face away. He can eat me out and do whatever he wants to me in bed, but I draw the line at kissing without having brushed my teeth.
"I’m making pancakes," he mumbles against my neck, undeterred by my attempts to push him away to let me sleep. I freeze.
"Pancakes?" The word wakes me up like a bucket of ice water.
"Yup," he confirms amusedly, nipping at the skin of my throat. "With chocolate chips. And with bacon and maple syrup." My eyes grow wider with each word. "And I got you a salted caramel latte."
"God, I love you," I sigh and bury both of my hands in his hair, massaging his scalp. For a moment, he closes his eyes, sighing under my touch.
"Love you, too. Now get your pretty ass out of bed so we can eat."
"Hmm, say it again," I demand and grin at him lazily. After writing it to him the first time after he talked to Hystoria, the topic dropped. We told each other via text, but it took us a while until both of us were able to say it, face to face. But now that we have, I can't get enough of hearing it.
"Love you," he repeats. Then he grabs the corner of my blanket and fucking rips it out of my hands.
"Hey!"
"Pancakes!" He takes the blanket and drapes it around his shoulders like a cape, the bottom of it dragging over the floor as he walks into the living room. I look after him with a stupid smile on my face.
A month after his talk with Hystoria, he walked me into the final, furnished apartment, looking very proud of himself and announcing that I would move in as soon as Luke was off to university. It didn’t come as a surprise. After all, he’d picked it long before and asked for my input and ideas on the interior.
While my therapist and I had slowly started to work on what was stopping me from accepting help, the apartment was like being thrown into frozen lake, in a good way. It's bright and spacious and all the windows are leak-proof, the heating works, and I can take hot showers for longer than ten minutes. It's also in a better part of town. And the best thing?
Pax's apartment is only three levels above mine.
We'd talked about moving in together. I mean, we already knew it would work. But we concluded that it might be a tad too quickly. Plus, I'd been looking forward to an empty nest for so long, that getting another roommate immediately, even if it's my boyfriend, didn't quite appeal to me. Pax also mentioned wanting a space for himself, one where he could retreat to and, maybe even more important than that, one where he could play his drums. The real deal, not the digital ones he set up at my old apartment.
And while I admire his dedication and talent, I'd prefer to admire it from an apartment where I don't hear it all the time. Soundproof rooms only work to a certain degree after all.
I yawn again but finally decide to force myself to get up. The bed isn't half as comfy without a blanket, even though the apartment is warm. My bare feet pitter-patter on the laminate floor as I make my way to the kitchen. Pax is clanking about at the stove, reminding me of that first time he made pancakes for me. Only now he doesn’t turn the whole kitchen into a mess.
I approach him from behind, snaking my arms around his middle, locking my hands over his bare stomach, my fingertips tracing the soft lines of his abs and laying my forehead between his shoulder blades. His hand wanders atop mine, encasing them in gentle warmth as he traps them between it and his abs as he flips the pancakes. I only let go when he nudges my hands apart.
Dropping a kiss on my head he walks past me, with a plate stacked with chocolatey goodness, and sits down at my kitchen table, patting the chair on his right for me to sit on.
Instead of following suit, I plant myself right in his lap, though.
"You're cuddly today," he observes pressing his lips against my neck. "I like it."
"It's been a while since I had someone go all out for my birthday," I whisper and nod toward one thick pancake in the middle of the table that has the words 'Happy Birthday' written on it and one small candle in the middle. It's so cute, and so him. "Thank you." I lean my head against his shoulders and hearing him gulp before he hugs me tightly.
"The first of many," he assures me. With his free hand, he grabs his fork and pierces a piece of pancake, holding it to my lips. "Say 'aah.'"
"Ah.” I make a throaty moan sound, giggling when it catches him off guard. He sets down the fork and tickles my ribs until I'm a giggling mess in his lap, trapped between his body and the table with no way of escaping.
"Stop, stop," I beg him, but he digs his fingers into my ribs one more time before he gives in.
"Now eat your pancakes, birthday child." Instead of feeding me, he hands me my own fork. I pout. Guess I had that coming.
I remain on his lap, though, and steal quite a bit of food off his plate. Usually, he'd steal it right back, but I guess today I have the birthday bonus. The smile doesn’t leave my face throughout breakfast.
"So, what do you want to do today?" Pax asks as I put the last piece of pancake into my mouth. I tilt my head and take a moment to think about it.
"Nothing," I finally let him know. "I want a day of doing absolutely nothing apart from lounging on the couch, eating something I don’t have to cook, and watching TV."
"How about we do that, but we go out for a late lunch?" he asks, pressing a kiss to the side of my neck. "The new Italian place two blocks down opened last week."
"Do they have pizza?" I ask curiously and he chuckles, shaking his head at me.
"What Italian place doesn't have pizza?"
"I don't know, but it looks fancy enough that I was wondering." I smile at him.
"I'll check before we go," he promises and takes a sip of his coffee. I reach out for his mug, but he leans over to the other side of the table and hands me the mug sitting there. "Your salted caramel latte."
"Right," I giggle and take a sip, sighing happily when the flavor hits my tongue. "Best birthday ever."
"So, what are you going to get?" I ask Pax excitedly as we walk the short way to the Italian restaurant. It's a lovely late summer evening and the sun has been shining all day, but luckily, the nights are already starting to cool down significantly. His arm lays heavily around my shoulders and mine is snaking around his hip as we stroll down the sidewalk.
"Something cheesy," he says with a smile and drops a kiss on top of my head. I remember how unsure I was of this gesture in the beginning, but I’ve really grown to love when he does it. I squeeze his hip as he rubs his thumb on my upper arm in response. "How about you?"
"Tiramisu," I say full of conviction, and he laughs. "Hey, it's my birthday, if I only want to eat desserts, I'll eat desserts." God, my therapist is going to be proud of me.
"Just like you to skip straight to sweets," he says with a chuckle and winks at me. "Ah, here we are."
"Are you sure it's open?" I look up at the very dark-looking brick facade with dark windows. "Because it really doesn't look like it is."
"Trust me." With another wink, and instead of the main entrance he leads me to a hidden door at the side of the building, walking past the trashcans and suspicious-looking trash bags.
I look at him with wide eyes when he opens it, his muscles straining with the weight of it, and it makes a loud squeak echo in the alley.
"What are you doing?" I hiss and my hand shoots to his arm, fingertips digging into his flesh as I stop him. "Are we breaking in?"
"We're not breaking in," he assures me and reaches for my hand. “The door was open.”
I let him pull me inside, very skeptically, I might add, into a very dark hallway, only illuminated by a small lamp over one of the doors leading out of it .
"Promise me no jumps care zombie is going to frighten us?" I ask him quietly as we sneak along the rooms, until we reach a door with the thinnest sliver of light protruding under it.
"No zombies," he promises and stops in front of the door. He directs me to stand in front of him. "Close your eyes." I do as he says and hear the door open in front of me, before his hands cover my eyes from behind.
"Hey, I'm trustworthy."
"You're too curious," he chuckles and pushes me slightly forward with his body. "Come on, go inside."
Carefully, I put one foot in front of the other, letting him lead me until he stops me. The symbolism is not lost on me. After all, he is the only person I would follow blindly, and the first person to force me to put that trust in him by just taking decisions out of my hands. The first guy I let do that to me. He leads me somewhere into the room before he finally takes his hands off my eyes.
"Surprise!"
I jump when people around me start to shout and a party popper goes off somewhere to my right.
"Holy shit," I clutch my heart and blink, my eyes only slowly getting used to the bright light. "What the hell?"
“Sorry for the jump scare,” he chuckles, pressing his lips against my temple. “But no zombies.”
Laughter fills the room and suddenly, Phoebe is next to me. "Happy Birthday, Katie!" She beams at me and pulls me into a hug.
"What? You said you were-? "
"Working today? Nah, we closed the bakery today and brought your birthday cake." She points towards a table standing at the back of the room.
"And we outdid ourselves if I may say so." Noel suddenly pops up behind her holding out his hand, but I pull him into a hug. "Happy Birthday, Katie. I hope you like caramel."
"I fucking love it," I laugh and the tension seeps out of his body, relieved. Then Harper appears and pulls me away from Noel.
"There you are, birthday child," she sings and pushes me over to said table. I couldn’t see it past all the people standing in front of it, but there’s a giant cake on it, and I mean giant.
It has three tiers with a pastel turquoise to teal fade along the outside, decorated with pastel-colored chocolate pieces and macarons. When I step closer I realize Noel and Phoebe wrote 'Happy Birthday' on the side and it's very visible who wrote which word. It's adorable and wonderful and I love it.
"We all love you, but for god's sake, please cut the fucking cake. We've had to stand here for half an hour looking at it and the guys are almost drooling." She points somewhere to the side where the band has lined up. My eyes grow wide. They're really in Windmeadows? Just for my birthday? "Seriously, if you slip on something wet on the ground, send them your medical bills, it's most likely their fault."
"Will do." I laugh and step closer to the cake. It's so cute that I don't even want to cut it yet.
"Here you go," Pax pushes a knife into my hand, watching me just as eagerly as the other guys are eyeing the cake.
"And you're teasing me about wanting dessert?" I nudge him with my elbow, and he presses his lips against the side of my head.
"Don't be so hung up on the past," he murmurs with a wink and nods towards the cake. "Now cut that thing."
I shake my head but do as he asks, and I press the knife into the cake. Realizing what's going on, everybody gets in line and that's when I realize for the first time who is here. There are Cole, Si and Jake and their girlfriends, even though Eve is shooting Pax glares. At least she's not jumping him. There are Phoebe, Noel, and Micah is walking through the door with Serena. When our eyes meet he triumphantly raises his hand which is intertwined with hers, dropping a kiss on the back of her hand. I beam at him. Fucking finally.
I hand out pieces of the cake until the first tier is gone and everyone is scattered around the room with a full plate and fork.
"Hey, can I get one, too?"
"Of course - Luke!" My eyes grow wide when I see my little brother right next to me.
"Surprise," he says dryly. Then he snatches the knife out of my hand before he opens his arms for a hug. It’s been an awesome, but also weird two months since he left for university. I miss him and worry like crazy, at the same time, it’s so refreshing to only have to care for myself.
"I thought you have a campus thing tomorrow."
"Nope, I just wanted to surprise you," he chuckles, and I shake my head at him. That’s so sweet, even though I don’t like being lied to.
"You definitely achieved that."
Pax hands the both of us a plate with cake and the three of us walk over to a table.
As Luke tells Pax all about his university, I let my eyes wander over the room. So many people are here, for me. For me.
Pax planned this whole thing, rented out the place, contacted everyone, and coordinated the surprise. For me. My throat closes up and my eyes start to sting, but I bite my lip. Crying would be such a party pooper move. Instead, I lean my head against Pax's shoulder. Immediately, he raises his arm, so I can cuddle into his side, never stopping his conversation with Luke or diverting his attention.
"So, what are your teachers like?"
"The Profs are awesome!" Luke grins and I chuckle at his slight correction, receiving a pinch from Pax in response. Luke tells us about a game they're playing in one of his classes. One of the students assigns the other students random words before each lecture and they have to incorporate it somehow. "If the professor mentions what you're saying doesn't make sense, you lose a point. If you incorporate it without him noticing, you get a point. You're looking at the current champion." His eyes shine with glee.
"What was your last word?"
"Zucchini," Luke chuckles. Pax continues to ask about the game, and I can't help but smile at the two of them.
He's come such a long way. From the guy who didn't give a damn about my university days to asking Luke about his. From almost breaking up the band to getting everyone together for my birthday.
Luke gets up for another piece of cake and Pax drops a kiss on top of my head.
"Thank you," I murmur and lift my chin until he drops one on my lips as well. "This is the best birthday party I've had in years." And the first one since our parents died, but I don't want to mention that and bring the mood down.
"No, thank you," he mumbles against my lips. "For being born. Being awesome. For being my girlfriend." I feel his lips stretch into a smile.
"I'm in trouble," I sigh, and he raises his eyebrows. "I'm so fucking in love with you."
"Then I'm in even more trouble," he chuckles. "Because I'm really fucking in love with you, too."