Epilogue
JOCELYN
“SIR!”
The cashier cried out in a New England accent, nearly spilling her coffee in the rush to put it down. I couldn’t blame her. The crash on the other side of the store was catastrophic.
“Oh my God… are you alright?”
Her voice was bitter, rather than concerned. She rushed over, slipping through the narrow aisles with practiced ease. Near the entrance, a man stood amongst the glittering remnants of a hundred shattered shot glasses.
Damn, it was almost beautiful.
“I’m s—so sorry,” he stammered. “I guess I just turned too fast, and then—”
CRASH!
The cashier jumped again as an even louder noise diverted her attention. Near the front of the store, not far from where she’d just been enjoying her coffee, an entire display of ceramic ornaments had fallen from the cash wrap. These broke into even more pieces, skittering across the floor like tiny white flakes of utter ruin.
“WHAT WAS THAT?”
She sprinted over, just as another man leapt from the little shop’s back room. His face was confusion and fear. He had no idea what was happening.
“SIR!” he cried. “Did you just—”
“Sorry, sorry!” a second large man apologized. “I’m so clumsy.”
“Sorry!?” the cashier gasped. She stopped short of the mess and clutched her face with both hands.
“Yes. Very sorry.”
“Y—You’re going to have to pay for this!” she cried. “This is crazy! This is too much to—”
I stepped out from behind the postcard rack, where I’d witnessed the whole thing. I almost considered knocking it over as well, for good measure.
“Hello, Ashley.”
My ex-business partner froze instantly in surprise and shock. It was a payday moment. Watching the blood drain from her freckled face was worth every last mile it took to get here.
“How’s business?”
Ka-boom!
Another crash erupted out of nowhere, in another part of the store. Ashley so desperately wanted to turn her head to look, I could see it in her eyes. But those crazy green eyes were already prisoners of my own.
“J—Jocelyn!”
My other business partner — and her fiancé — slid quickly to her side. Upon seeing my face however, Jeremy’s heart dropped into his feet.
“Shit.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled, crossing my arms. “Shit.”
The two of them had run as far as they could — all the way to Newcastle, Australia. I admired them for the commitment, even if I despised them for who they were.
“W—What do you want?” Ashley finally managed.
I couldn’t hide my own disbelief.
“What do I want?” I repeated with genuine incredulity. “What do I WANT??”
“I mean… I know what you want,” stammered Ashley. “And why you’re here. I don’t know how the hell you found us, but—”
“Does it matter?” I snapped.
“No, no, of course not,” Ashley said quickly. “And we’re sorry, Jocelyn. So, very, very sorry.”
Three pairs of booted feet finally turned their heads. Kayden and Bishop walked up on either side of them, as Andre slid up behind me.
“It doesn’t sound like she’s sorry,” said Bishop. “Does it?”
“No,” Kayden agreed. “Not at all.”
He swept his arm, and an entire shelf of books and magazines collapsed to the floor. A nearby customer — the only other one in the store — quickly made for the exit.
“Sorry doesn’t cut it anyway,” said Andre. “Not in this situation.”
“No,” Bishop agreed. “Sorry just pisses people off.”
He raised his fist, holding it directly over a shelf of tiny crystal figurines.
“WAIT!” Ashley shouted loudly. “PLEASE!”
“Please?” I scoffed. “Now there’s a good word. I remember calling you from our empty warehouse, leaving you messages. Messages like ‘please Ashley, don’t do this. Please come back.’”
Bishop’s arm fell, cruelly ending the lives of a hundred crystal kangaroos, koalas, and kookaburras. In that moment, I saw Ashley’s will break. She began crying, and I almost felt bad for her.
Almost, but not quite.
“I don’t know what’s worse,” I told her. “You stealing every last penny I had, or the two of you using that money to set up a dime-store tchotchkes shop on the other side of the planet.” I picked up a nearby wooden boomerang in disgust. “This is repugnant,” I said, shaking it at them. “Unfuckingbelievable that you even—”
“It’s all my fault.”
Jeremy moved to take a step forward. He was immediately stopped by a sudden change in body language, and three menacing stares.
“I mean, please, Jocelyn. Don’t blame her.” He looked almost apologetic. “I was the one who suggested we run away. I was the one who came up with the idea of just selling it all, packing our things—”
“And cutting me out of that equation completely.”
He nodded slowly, looking ashamed. “Yes.”
A sullen silence fell over the little store. It was broken only by the clink of glass, as something dropped off another shelf a few aisles over.
“Jeremy can’t take all the blame,” said Ashley. “I could’ve said no. I—I should’ve said no…”
“But you didn’t,” I reasoned. “And now you’re pressing T-shirts in a souvenir shop at the ass end of the world.” I let out a sigh, then stopped to look around. “Is it at least nice here in Newcastle? Do you like it?”
My ex-friend and business partner gave a shy shrug. “I like it.”
Her fiancé edged a little closer to her. It was almost cute.
“We uh, we’re also sort of in the middle of something else right now…”
Ashley stood up straighter, and ran her hand down her belly. And then I saw it. And my heart leapt into my throat.
“Oh my God, you’re pregnant? ”
She smiled and nodded. “Five-and-a-half-months.”
Jeremy was beaming now. He did it cautiously, while side-eying the three solemn men who flanked him. But he was still beaming proudly.
“Well isn’t that a kick in the ass.”
I took her hand, pulled it in, and placed it on my belly. For a moment, she didn’t understand. Then, slowly, her eyes went wide.
“You too?!” she gasped.
“Sixteen weeks.”
I rubbed my own baby bump, using her hand as a guide. Getting pregnant wasn’t something I’d wanted or expected, it just sort of happened. Like life. Like getting all of your money stolen and fleeing to Greece, where you end up unexpectedly embroiled in a deadly mercenary company’s civil war.
Or like falling in love with your very best friends; three incredible men, who just so happen to want to share the rest of their lives with you.
“Oh my God, Jocelyn!” Ashley cried out loud. “Congratulations!”
She moved to hug me, and for some reason I didn’t stop her. The hug felt weird, but strangely comforting. I wanted to hate it. I wanted to hate her, and him, and everything about this place.
But somehow…
“I’m so, so sorry,” Ashley cried again, and this time there were actual tears in her eyes. “I really am. I mean, I can’t believe I did what I did. I mean, what we did. I mean—”
Just then Andre stepped forward with his hand out, and the shop went silent again.
“Someone who was sorry wouldn’t betray their friend, steal her life’s savings, and flee to the other side of the world,” he said coldly. “But that’s okay, because you’re going to make it up to her.”
I let go, and she pulled reluctantly back. Jeremy tilted his head.
“You’re going to pay her what you owe her,” added Bishop. “Minus everything we took from the safe at your house.”
The last part of his statement didn’t register. At least, not at first.
“The safe…” Jeremy repeated, like he was in a trance. “At our house?”
“Yes, specifically the floor safe,” Bishop went on. “You know the one. Up until an hour ago, it contained about half of what you stole from her.”
Jeremy’s mouth dropped open. Ashley hid her face in her hands.
“No,” he said fearfully. “You can’t just—”
“Already did,” said Andre. “And from here, we’re going to be generous. You’re going to send her a check once a month, every month, until you’re all paid back. And the very minute you’re late on even one of those checks…”
“One of more us will be back here,” finished Kayden. “To rectify the situation.”
There was the jangle of bells as another customer walked in. She saw the mess near the door, stopped, and looked up.
“We’re closed,” said Bishop, adding a shrug. “Renovations.”
Still looking confused, the woman turned and left. The door jangled again.
“This place seems pretty busy,” said Kayden. “That’s good. Maybe you should send her checks twice a month.”
“W—We can’t,” choked Jeremy. “There’s no way. We’ll barely be able to—”
“Keep talking and you’ll be paying her interest,” growled Andre. “We’ll make sure of that.”
I’d had so much hatred for these people over the past year. I’d seethed and I’d plotted, just imagining the sweet karma of such as reunion. Replaying; in my mind’s eye, all the vengeful things I would say.
And now I was actually here. I could say anything. Do anything. I could finally, at long last, take my revenge.
Instead, all I could do was stare down at the gentle swell of Ashley’s belly. A slightly larger version of my own.
“Forget it,” I said. “We’re even.”
All three of the guys turned toward me at once. By the looks on their faces, I might as well have been speaking in a different language.
“Wait, what? ”
“I said forget it,” I repeated. “We’ve been in their home, we took their savings…”
“We took your savings,” grunted Bishop.
“I know,” I admitted. “And you’re right. But at this point, what’s the difference? We’ve been very, very blessed. In more ways than one.” I nodded at Ashley’s baby bump. “Them, too.”
The hard edges of their handsome faces softened, one by one. First Bishop, then Kayden, and finally, even Andre. I nodded, and they made their way toward the exit. I couldn’t help but chuckle as Bishop reached down and swiped a shot glass on the way out.
“Good luck with all this,” I told my former business partners. Shifting my gaze to Ashley, I allowed myself a smile. “The baby too.”
“Thank you, Jocelyn,” she sniffed.
“Don’t thank me,” I told her. “Thank whatever’s in the air today. Australia’s beautiful enough, but ever since I woke up this morning, I’ve been feeling extra generous.”
I walked out without looking back, into the sun-splashed streets. Two steps later, a hand slipped into mine. Kayden squeezed my fingers in his, while looking down at me proudly.
“You’re a bigger person than I’d ever be,” he lamented.
“Yeah, right.”
“No, I’m being serious,” he shook his head. “After all this time. And to think you came all this way…”
“ We came all this way,” I corrected him. “Besides, we needed the vacation. Especially since I won’t be able to travel for very much longer.”
Up ahead, I could see Bishop and Andre at a small cafe, retrieving what looked and smelled to be delicious coffee. Decaf for me, of course. But coffee was still coffee, and tricking my undercaffeinated brain was fun.
“I also think I just needed the closure,” I added. “More than I needed the money.”
“Money’s always good though,” Kayden pointed out.
“Yeah. True.”
“I mean, we’ve already blown through three-quarters of what we had, just setting up the restaurant. We still have permits to pay for, vendors to advance. Some of the lighting isn’t quite perfect yet. And don’t get me started on—”
I pulled him down and kissed him, shutting him up. If I didn’t, Kayden would go on about the restaurant well past lunch. I couldn’t blame him. We’d found the perfect place in the perfect spot, and he’d been on cloud nine ever since.
“YO!”
We broke the kiss reluctantly, just as it really started to heat up.
“Quit hogging the mother of our child!”
Bishop bounced over and slid a coffee into my hand. Not to be outdone, he kissed me for good measure.
“The mother of whose child?” asked Andre, cracking his knuckles.
For some reason, they were all looking at me expectantly. As if I had the answers.
“All of you, really,” I shrugged. “You know how we roll.”
“Oh we know,” quipped Kayden. “And yes, we’re all going to be proud, happy fathers,” he cleared his throat, “but I think he means biologically.”
Biologically, of course, it was a roll of the dice. It was fun for them to speculate which one of them had knocked me up, so I gave them the same answer I always did:
“I guess we’ll find out when the baby comes.”
They frowned at the non-answer.
“Maternal instinct?” Bishop asked, pulling on his own shirt.
I shook my head. “Can’t tell ya. I’m not a mom, yet.”
“Women’s intuition, then?”
I let out a laugh. Honestly, I was just as unable to give them an answer as I was unwilling. Maybe it’s because the boys always took me together, decking me from all sides, filling me up like it was some sort of contest. They hadn’t let up for a single minute. Come to think of it, I hadn’t either.
For those reasons alone, I couldn’t even blame my birth control when it failed. At first I was shocked, then nervous, then worried about their collective reaction to the little pink stick in my trembling hand. Turns out I shouldn’t have been. The boys were absolutely thrilled.
I remember the night I actually told them. They’d all cheered like they’d won the super bowl, then took me out to celebrate. We returned after a night of revelry, then fell into bed where they’d made slow, gentle love to me one by one. There was a lot of holding and kissing — the first such night of many just like it. It was cute at first, because I knew in my heart they thought I might break. That I would be fragile, now that I was pregnant. After a few weeks of enjoying being treated with kid gloves, I sat them down and told them the truth. Which was that while I enjoyed all the tenderness, every once in a while I still needed to be bent over the nearest piece of furniture and totally railed… just as they’d always done before.
“Pretty sure it happened that one time we were in the shower,” Andre was saying.
“Oh yeah?” I humored him. “Which time?”
“The one where I went really deep. And I just held it, buried in there. And you were hanging onto the shower head with both hands, so tightly it almost came off.”
“Again, which time?” I chuckled.
“It had to be that day we signed the lease,” Kayden countered. “You were so horny you jumped me in the car; before we even got home, and I had to pull over. I thought we were going to get caught—”
“We did get caught,” I smiled. “Remember?”
“What, by that deer?” he laughed. “Deer don’t count.”
Another hand slid past my waist, squeezing me in, crushing me against another hard, beautiful body. It was something that happened a lot. It still gave me shivers, every single time.
“You’re both out of your minds,” bragged Bishop, planting a goofy kiss on my cheek. “She’s obviously carrying my child. I know all the right moves, and I’ve got all the perfect angles.” He shrugged in mock innocence. “Not my fault I slipped one past the goalie, but it is what it is. Maybe next time I’ll give one of you two a shot. But for now—”
Next time …
I hadn’t even given birth yet, and the thought made me hot all over. The boys made me feel so loved, so welcomed, so totally ecstatic that I’d be bringing a precious baby into the beautiful chaos of our lives, that I couldn’t wait to do it for all three of them.
A whole family.
Over the past year, I realized I wanted this more than anything: a family that rivaled my own. Each of our children would have three dads. One mom. Four times the love. Our household would never be boring, always filled with activity and exuberance and laughter. There would never be an end to how much we cared and looked out for each other. We were bonded in ways that could never be broken.
“Look, whichever one of you manics got me pregnant — through my birth control, no less — the others will eventually get their chance. But for now?” I took a sip of my coffee and sighed. “Let’s focus on relaxing and enjoying our vacation. It might be our last one for a while.”
The restaurant. The baby. It was all coming up so fast! I thought about the last year, and how it had been such a whirlwind. After Greece, we’d traveled a little more, before finally arriving back in New Hampshire to visit friends and family. Once there, we had to withstand Jason’s intense scrutiny, and anger over being blown off. Worst of all, we had to pretend we’d shared nothing more than a nice dinner or two together on Mykonos, instead of several hot weeks of climbing all over each other.
My father was weary, but happy to see me. We’d caught up on lost time, while the guys branched out to decide where we might settle down next. A month later, we were in New York, then Worcester, and then Boston. By the time Kayden found the perfect spot in Andover, we were more than ready to settle in.
And now here we were: a new home, a new business, a new life on the way. The boys were every bit my lovers, my protectors, my life’s partners. One day I would marry them — it wasn’t even a question. One day, I knew in my heart, I would be the wife to three of the most amazing husbands in the world.
“Do you think that place will make it?” asked Kayden, offhandedly.
“What? Ashley and Jeremy’s shop?”
He nodded.
I squinted into the sunrise, as we wound our way through the streets of the cute Australian town. “Who knows?” I shrugged. “They seemed happy at least.”
And happiness, I knew, trumped everything.