Epilogue One
WESLEY
Rosie and I had been dating for a few weeks, and everything was somehow going better than I could have imagined.
There were learning curves. No one had ever complained about my snoring so much—she almost smothered me with a pillow, feigning innocence when I woke up to her with a pillow in her hand, shooting me daggers with her eyes.
She was also really terrible about dishes and leftovers. It drove me absolutely bonkers.
Bonkers. Up the wall.
I was the happiest I’d ever been.
I opened the fridge and started pulling out everything I needed for Lionel’s dinner. The greedy reptile was impatiently roaming the kitchen and getting in my way while I tried to do exactly what he was asking of me. “Some room would be nice,” I chastised him, not like he cared.
Rosie was bringing leftovers to Larry’s.
She had invited him over, but he always said he much preferred to stay at home, and I knew it was because he was surrounded by the memories of him and his wife.
He felt her there—he’d told me a few days before.
“I feel her here in this space, so I like to be in it as much as possible.”
I didn’t know if I would have understood him a year ago, but I did then.
The front door opened, and in came Rosie. “How was Larry?”
She sighed at my question. “I think he’s lonely,” I continued chopping up a cucumber for a nice treat in Lionel’s dinner.
“Of course he’s lonely.”
“We should do something about that.”
“Rosie,” I warned. “Let the man be?”
“And where would we be if our friend hadn’t meddled?”
“In the exact same spot, having this exact same conversation.” She scoffed at me, and I stopped what I was doing and pulled her into my arms. “I think we should call in reinforcements.”
She gave me a look like a cat who caught the canary. “I already did.”
A rough pinch happened on the back end of my calf. “Ouch! Lionel! I’m going!” While he was warming to me, it really was minute by minute. Rosie once completely forgot to feed him his afternoon snack, and I was the one who got bit for it.
My phone rang from my back pocket, and I pulled it out to see that it was my mother calling. I had yet to tell her about Rosie and me, and this was the perfect time.
“It’s my mom.” She walked over to me, kissed me on the cheek and said she was going to shower before walking off in the direction of her bathroom.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Sweetie! We’ve been playing phone tag for weeks.” Her cheery voice was a balm to my soul. “Tell me everything I’ve missed.” So I did. I told her about Rosie, about my stupidity, about everything but kept some things on a need-to-know basis. I finished almost a half hour later.
“I love her.” My mom’s squealing on the other line let me know that she 100 percent approved. She loved Rosie. I heard her relaying bits of information to my dad. “I hear you, Stella. I heard. Congratulations, son!”
“You know, it kind of reminds me of our story,” Mom said.
“What do you mean? You and dad always had it easy.”
“Oh, you know, it all worked out in the end, but we spent more time apart than together in the middle there. It took a lot of hard work to get to where we are. It wasn’t built overnight, Wesley.
You boys came after the hard part, so we got to relish our love story.
But it was hard. It still can be. You understand that, right? ”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to.” My eyes never left Rosie’s as I took in my mom’s words.
When Rosie mouthed, “I love you,” I knew exactly what I wanted, and exactly where I was supposed to be—right there, with her, whatever may come.