Epilogue 1 - Hunter
Six months later
It’s not too soon. I know it’s not. When you know, you know.
My knee bounces with nerves as I wait near the snow leopard enclosure. The zoo is closing soon, golden evening light filtering through the trees, but I paid for a private after-hours visit. Just me, Charlie, and the animals that started everything.
This is where our first real date happened and our first real date after we got back together. The place where we stopped pretending and started choosing each other for real. It felt right to come full circle.
I hear footsteps on the path and turn. Charlie is walking toward me, curls tousled by the breeze, wearing the same cropped t-shirt he had on that first zoo day. When he sees me standing there alone with the string lights I had strung up around the railing, his steps falter.
“Hunter… what is this?”
I take his hands, my own shaking slightly. My heart is hammering so hard I can feel it in my throat.
“I brought you back here because this is where it started again,” I say. “Right here, in front of these picky cats. This is where I realized I didn’t just want you—I wanted to deserve you.”
Charlie’s eyes are already shining. He squeezes my hands, silent, waiting.
I drop to one knee.
“Charlie,” I start, “you’ve seen every broken part of me.
You stayed anyway. You loved me when I didn’t know how to love myself.
You taught me how to show up, how to be patient, how to choose better every single day.
I don’t want another six months, or six years, without calling you mine in every way possible. ”
I pull the small black box from my pocket and open it. The silver band catches the soft light.
“I want to marry you. I want to build a life with you. I want to fight over what to name our next cat and argue about whose turn it is to feed Sofia and grow old watching you paint and dance and light up every room you walk into. I want all of it. With you.”
Tears slip down Charlie’s cheeks. He’s smiling so wide it looks like it hurts.
“Yes,” he says, voice cracking. “Yes. A thousand times yes.”
I slide the ring onto his finger with trembling hands. The second it’s on, he drops to his knees with me and kisses me hard—messy, tear-soaked, full of months of love and healing and hope. I cup his face, kissing him back like he’s the only thing I’ve ever been sure of.
When we finally pull apart, both of us laughing and crying, Charlie rests his forehead against mine.
“I love you,” he whispers. “So much it’s ridiculous.”
“I love you more,” I murmur back. “And I’m never letting you go again.”
We stay on the ground in front of the snow leopards for a long time, wrapped up in each other, laughing between kisses while the cubs tumble in the background like they did on our first date.
Later, when we finally stand, Charlie looks down at the ring on his finger, then back up at me with that bright, cheeky smile I fell in love with.
“So,” he says, bumping his hip against mine, “does this mean I get to call you my fiancé now?”
I pull him close, pressing a kiss to his temple. “You can call me whatever you want. As long as you call me yours.”
He laughs, bright and watery, and wraps his arms around my neck. We stay like that for a long time, swaying gently under the string lights while the snow leopard cubs watch us with mild disinterest.
“You know,” he says, voice soft but teasing, “if we’re doing this…getting married…we should probably stop pretending we live in two separate places.”
I raise an eyebrow, heart already picking up speed.
Charlie steps closer, sliding his hands up my chest. “It makes sense, Hunter. My apartment is closer to the firehouse. And to the city for your therapy sessions. All our friends are around here. Sofia has already claimed half your clothes as her personal property. And honestly?” He smiles up at me, a little shy now.
“I hate sleeping without you. Even one night feels too long.”
I cup his face with both hands, thumbs brushing his cheeks.
Before he can list another practical reason, I lean down and kiss him. He melts into it immediately, fingers curling into my shirt as he kisses me back as though he’s sealing a promise.
When we finally pull apart, I rest my forehead against his.
“Yes,” I whisper. “Move me in. Keep me. I don’t want separate places anymore either.”
Charlie’s smile is radiant. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I kiss him again, softer this time. “I want to come home to you every single day. Wake up next to you. All of it.”
He laughs against my mouth, happy and relieved, and hugs me tight.
We stay wrapped up together long after the zoo lights start to dim, talking quietly about moving boxes and closet space and how Sofia is definitely going to be mad about sharing her kingdom.
Six months ago, I was still trying to survive.
Now, I’m planning a future with the man I love.
And it feels like the most natural thing in the world.