Epilogue
Alex
Three years later
Over the last few years, I learned to control my emotions, especially the ones that are more on the negative side. When I feel panic setting in, I close my eyes, take a deep breath in and think of everything and everyone that makes me happy.
Mona Higgins is always at the top of that list.
And today, we’re getting married.
The last three years have been chaotic, but they showed me what unconditional love felt if I gave it a chance. We’ve had our ups and quite a few downs, during which Mona denied me the opportunity to run and hide like I used to.
One thing she absolutely refused to let me help her with has been money. She continued working insane hours that drove me crazy. Then, about a year into it, I asked her to move in with me. Since we were now splitting the cost of the apartment, she could afford to not work overtime.
About a year after that, we decided to move out of the city, in the same area that the rest of our friend group loved. It took a bit longer than expected, primarily because Mona refused to go until she had another job lined up out there.
In the end, my friends came through for me one again. Ray, who owns a towing business, was in desperate need of a receptionist, as the one he had for years had quit upon getting pregnant. He offered Mona the job, and she jumped at it. It offered decent pay and benefits.
Cal and Evie offered us to stay in her grandmother’s old house until we found something else that we liked.
We paid rent, which we split in half, and, other than a pesky old neighbor named Gertrude, who had an unhealthy obsession with seeing me naked, as well as talking to Mona about my dick, it was a perfect location.
Mona thought Gertrude was hilarious. Me, not so much.
“That’s a rite of passage,” Cal assured me. “She saw me naked once when Evie lived there. And I’m pretty sure she got a look at Ray, too, when Hayden rented the place for a while.”
That was not reassuring at all, but it gave me the push I needed to talk Mona into buying our own place.
Since she couldn’t afford to participate financially, it was decided that she’d give me money toward the mortgage, like a rent payment of sorts.
While it felt wrong, I understood why she insisted on it.
I was also proud of her for doing it, and I appreciated her still thinking about me and how I felt about money.
Meanwhile, I took the money she gave me every month and put it into an investment account under her name.
I would grow it, and one day, I will let her know of its existence because one thing is for sure.
She will never hurt for money under my watch.
“You ready, man?” Kyle about knocks me out when he pats me on the back. He looks like he’s about to bounce off the walls.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
He apparently doesn’t like that answer. He leans back and gives me a quick assessing look.
“I’m going to give you a heads up because you’re my best friend and I love you,” he says.
“But if you leave Mona at the altar, there’s no coming back from it, brother.
Zara and the others will kill you on the spot.
” He pauses for dramatic effect. “Do you understand what I’m telling you?
You will not leave this building alive.”
I try to hold back from laughing, but I can’t. A snort threatens to erupt from my chest until I let it all out, the sound reverberating around the room.
“You’d make a good girl mafia spokesperson,” I tell him.
He frowns. “What’s a girl mafia or their spokesperson?”
“A group of girls who make all the decisions, and they use a simple man to spread the word about all the damage they are capable of doing,” I explain.
“A simple man?” His voice goes up a couple of octaves. “Isn’t that synonym with stupid? Zara would never let them call me stupid.”
I shake my head at him, knowing that he’s only trying to distract me. Apparently, everyone is worried that I’d bounce.
“I’m not going anywhere, ass.” I take a deep breath in, a sense of calm taking over my senses. “I can’t wait to tie Mona to me for eternity. There’s nothing that could stop me right now.”
He watches me intently as he rocks back and forth on his heels, most likely trying to figure out whether I’m lying or not. A soft knock at the door breaks the slight tension in the room.
“Hey, everything okay in here?” Zara gives us both a worried look.
I smile at her. “Perfect. How’s Mona?”
Zara walks in nervously. “She sent me here to give you this.” She brings her arm up, and that’s when I notice that she’s holding a small gift bag.
“She said it was very important that you looked inside before you two meet…” She hesitates, her eyes flying to Kyle before coming back to me. “At the altar.”
I walk over to take the bag from her, confused when she doesn’t let go.
“There’s one more thing,” she mumbles.
Kyle, as if he can sense her distress, takes action. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her into a one arm hug.
“What is it, baby?”
She stares at me with such intensity, I am now worried as well.
“Please don’t tell me that it’s Mona who has the cold feet,” I beg her. “She’s not leaving me, is she?”
Her eyes widen in surprise, like she hadn’t even thought that would be an option.
“Oh my gosh, no! Nothing like that!”
“What is it then, Zara?” My voice comes out a little harsher than intended, but this tension is killing me.
She takes a deep breath in before letting it all out.
“Your father is here.”
It takes me a second to realize what she just said.
Things with my father haven’t been good.
He was angry with me when I told him I was in a serious relationship with Mona.
He got angrier when I told him she was moving in with me, then it escalated to insanity when we decided to move out of the city and possibly buy a house together.
“You are ruining your fucking life,” he insisted. “And for what? A woman? There are a dime a dozen out there. You can have your pick, have a different one for every single day of the week.”
“I love her, dad,” I insisted. “I don’t want to live my life without her. I don’t want a different woman for every day of the week. I want Mona for every day of the rest of my life.”
“You’re ruining your life,” he repeated. “Don’t come to me when she leaves you and takes away everything you own. You are no longer my son.”
That is the last time we had any communication. Despite it, Mona insisted on sending him an invitation to our wedding. He never responded whether he’d attend or not, the clear implication being that he wanted nothing to do with it.
And yet, here he is.
I clear my throat a few times, trying to buy myself some time before I have to respond to what Zara just dumped on me.
“Did he say anything? Asked to speak with me before the ceremony?”
That’s the only reason I can think of he would agree to come here. Stop me from even making it to the altar.
“He didn’t!” Zara’s eyes widen more with each word. “He came in and sat in the last row. Evie asked him who he was, and that’s the only reason we know he is your father.”
My teeth clench in distress, and my jaw tightens painfully.
“I’ll talk to him after,” I tell my friends. “If he even hangs around for that long.”
Zara presses the gift bag from Mona into my hands. “Don’t forget about this,” she says.”
I grab it and nod in thanks. “I need a minute alone.”
Kyle pats me on the back again. “We’ll see you out there, brother.” He then leaves the room with Zara.
With a definite lump in my throat and halfway distracted by the news of my father being in the building, I open the paper bag.
I find an envelope with what seems to be a letter, and also a long and thin box.
It looks like it could be some sort of jewelry.
I can’t imagine what Mona could be sending me, but I suddenly realize I never got her anything.
I didn’t expect to be exchanging gifts before saying our vows.
I decide to start with the letter, hoping that it will explain whatever I will find in the jewelry box.
Dear Alex, the letter starts, and I smile. She’s been teasing me mercilessly about the note I sent her through the Holidates where I started in much of the same way.
When we first met, I thought you were a cocky bastard.
You became the best lover I’d ever had, you made me fall for you, and then, you left me.
Over the next four years, that became a pattern.
It took me a long time to understand what makes you tick, and how to love you so that you can actually feel my love.
My hands start shaking as I continue reading.
That will never change even though our lives are changing. In a big way. Today, we’re getting married. Can you believe that seven years after our first meeting, we are getting married?
And… we’re going to have a baby.
There’s a whooshing sound in my ears as all the blood rushes to my head.
It suffocates me, causing for my vision to go blurry.
My hands are shaking so badly that I can’t even hold the paper up anymore.
The gift bag slips from my fingers. The faint thumping sound it makes reminds me that there was something else inside of it.
I rip the paper bag as I dig into it for the box I saw inside of it. I am having a hard time opening the long rectangular box, and when I do, I stare in awe.
A pregnancy test stares back at me. It is nestled inside the velvet, screaming at me to pick it up. There is only one word on it that my eyes pull to. Positive, it says. It’s a positive pregnancy test.
There’s pressure in my chest, to the point where I feel like I should sit down. If I fall over and bust my head open, no one will know until they have to look for me because I didn’t show up at the altar.
Me not being at the altar when Mona walks down the aisle is not an option.
I pull a chair out, and use my breathing exercises to calm down. Then, I pick up the letter and continue reading.