Epilogue
Bea
Seven months later ...
Charlie texts me fifteen minutes before his meeting with Nash.
Charlie
I’m on my way up.
Bea
See you soon!
This meeting has been in the works for months now, and it’s been difficult having a conflict of interest. Obviously, Nash knows that I’m stuck in the middle, but we’ve been managing expectations.
Since the blowup over Christmas, Charlie was pretty disheartened about Rivrse. Our new relationship was a great distraction, but it was only temporary. After the start of the new year, Charlie had to dig into work again. I knew it was going to be hard, but it helped that I stayed at his place more often than mine, and I also had a deepening friendship with Marco, Brin, and some of her friends from the restaurant.
In the distance, I hear the elevator ding and stand. I pluck the half-frozen bottle of water from my desk and stop at the door to Nash’s office. “Charlie’s here. I’ll send him in soon, okay?”
Nash smiles. “Sounds good.”
I walk toward the elevator and intercept Charlie in the hallway. His smile blooms when he sees me. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself. You look great.” He does. His suit is a crisp dark gray, his tie a subtle green, and his briefcase is a soft, buttery leather that I know because I picked it out myself for his birthday present this year. I put a hand on his chest, beneath his tie, where I can feel his fluttering heart and the heat he radiates. Summers in New York can be rough, and I’m sure the combination of his nerves and the July heat are equally responsible for the slight dampness I feel.
“Come here,” I say, and pull him into an empty conference room. I hand him the cold bottle. “Here, drink this.”
Charlie’s anxiety has been through the roof too, and I’ve learned to recognize the signs and what things I can do when he’s struggling. He forgets to hydrate often, and in this heat, he needs it even more.
He chugs the bottle, taking long pulls until the ice clunks against the plastic. “Thank you,” he gasps. Then he holds the icy bottle to his forehead.
“You’re going to do great, okay? And it’s Nash. You like him, he likes you.” In addition to spending more time with Brin and Marco, I’ve also spent some time with Nash and Clara. Socially, anyway. Away from the office. Charlie has met Nash a few times, but this is all business today.
“Have I told you lately how wonderful you are?” he says.
“You can tell me again.”
A grin pulls at his mouth. He pushes his nerves aside as he backs me up against the wall and grabs my chin, tilting my lips up to meet his. The kiss is deep and a little messy as our teeth clack together.
A throat clears behind us. Whoops.
Charlie steps back and laughs when he sees Arlo, who must have come up in the elevator a minute or two after Charlie, in the doorway.
He apologizes to his mentor, who just grins. “Whatever it takes to get your head in the game.”
I like Arlo a lot . He’s supported Charlie so much through the years and I’m glad he and Nash are finally meeting—I think they have a lot in common.
Charlie lets me lead them to Nash’s office. Nash stands and greets them with handshakes and offers them a seat on the couch. I offer all three of them one last wave and close the door.
Charlie
Two hours later, I walk out of Nash’s office in a bit of a daze. Bea gives me a hug, and whispers in my ear that we can talk about it tonight. She hugs Arlo goodbye too, and we leave Heartly’s offices.
This time, when I step out on the streets of Manhattan, I want to shout for joy. The past seven months have been a trial, and while I’m still not where I thought I’d be, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I turn to Arlo. “You don’t think that’s too good to be true, do you?” I ask.
His smile might just be brighter than mine. “It’s definitely true. We don’t know if it’ll pan out yet, but it’s the best offer we’ve had in a while.”
It’s the best offer we’ve had since ImmUniverse, he means. Which, in retrospect, wasn’t a great offer.
This offer, while for less money than the previous one, sounds much better; a venture capital firm and Nash have partnered with an offer for Rivrse. Arlo knows someone on the VC board, and through Bea, I know Nash. He won’t be involved in Rivrse after the sale, but he’s taking a risk and putting money into its future success.
Legal troubles with ImmUniverse took some time. A big social media company filed separate lawsuits against Rivrse and ImmUniverse, with the lawsuit against Rivrse eventually being dropped, in part because, with the help of an expensive legal team, I filed my own suit against ImmUniverse. It’s a massive liability to take on, but if Rivrse can win or settle, that will help repair our reputation. It also helped that Heartly didn’t sue Rivrse.
“Charlie!” a voice calls from behind me. I turn around and Bea is dashing up the street as fast as her heels can carry her. I stride forward to meet her and she leaps into my arms. “You did so well,” she says, voice muffled into my lapel. “You impressed Nash. He sent me home to celebrate with you.”
I squeeze her once before letting go. “Do you want to go to The Plaza to celebrate?” I’m still learning the city, but I recently asked Brin what the best place to propose would be, and she gave me a list of options like:
Cheesy—top of the Empire State Building
Old-School Classy—The Plaza
Like a Tourist—Times Square complete with billboard
Public—the High Line
Private—Le Bernardin
Whimsical—Coney Island
Manicured Nature—St. Luke’s in the Fields
Practical—Tiffany & Co.
There was a star next to private, which I took as a giant hint. I have a reservation for August 16 for a private room at Le Bernardin.
Bea pulls away and looks at Arlo. “What do you think? You want a drink?”
“I’m going to celebrate by going home to the family.” He gives me a backslapping hug and Bea a kiss on the cheek before walking in the opposite direction toward the subway.
“Hmm,” Bea says, looking up at me with a sparkle in her eyes. “What shall we do to celebrate?”
It takes us twenty minutes to get to my place, and another minute to get her bent over the kitchen counter, her skirt rucked up over her ass, her panties around one ankle, and me on my knees behind her. I strip off my button-up and fling it toward the door, where my jacket and tie litter the floor. I use my hands to pull her ass cheeks apart and dive in, savoring the way she tastes and the noises she makes as I pull her clit into my mouth and suck.
Bea gasps and writhes on the cool marble counter, and I get her right up to the edge before pulling away.
“What are you—” Bea raises her head, but I stand behind her, unbuckling my belt and pulling out my cock. Bea makes a whimpering sound of anticipation and I line myself up, pants around my ankles.
When I slide inside her, it feels so good, like home. I regret having an eight-year gap in our relationship when we weren’t doing this as often as we could, but we both needed to grow in our own ways. Our relationship would have broken one way or another, and I can’t see how it could have come back together so perfectly any other way.
I reach out and pluck at the golden coil of Bea’s hair. “Undo it,” I rasp. She reaches back to pull out the three pins that hold her hair in place, and when it twirls loose I thread my fingers through it and hold her to the counter. “Grab the other side.”
She reaches her arms up to grip the edge of the counter and brace herself. I put my other hand on the small of her back, enough that she feels pinned, and I begin thrusting.
Her hands don’t stay on the beveled edge long. I’m taking her hard, and she scrambles, getting desperate with each slap of our bodies.
I come as she calls out my name, and as soon as I catch my breath, I drop back to my knees. I swipe my tongue over her slit again and taste both of us combined. Fuck, that’s hot. I alternate between sucking and licking until her right foot, still in her work heels, trembles and lifts off the floor, her toes curling as she pulses her orgasm against my face.
I keep licking without touching her clit, slowly and carefully letting her come down until she moans in sweet satisfaction.
Finally, I rise and curl over her back, kissing her spine right above the edge of her sleeveless blouse.
She groans and I help her slip off the counter. She tilts her head back and laughs. “Well, that was one way to celebrate.”
“Water?” I offer.
“Yes, please.”
I pull my pants up and button them so they don’t fall down again, and fetch us both a glass and some cool water from the fridge dispenser. My eye catches on the magnet I bought her for Christmas—“I Love Doodles.”
I smile when I pass her the water, remembering that night by the Christmas tree.
“What?” she says, eyes curious. I gesture at the magnet, and she chuckles.
While I don’t know where this deal is going to take us, I’m less worried about where my life is going now.
It’s going to be a Bea-utiful life.