Epilogue
MICHAELA
It’s us against the world. Michaela opened her eyes to a spring morning.
She could hear the birds outside of her and Jay’s Vermont home.
Her wife was nestled safely in her arms, her head on Michaela’s chest. Michaela hadn’t thought of, let alone dreamt of, that first Pride they went to all those years ago for a long time.
She wondered if it was because she was stateside after having spent so much time abroad.
They’d been in Vermont for almost a year, and she was getting used to it.
Though she missed their house outside of London, she’d grown fond of the suburbs’ aesthetic.
They’d decided to move back to the States for the same reason they had moved to the UK, chasing freedom and rights.
The UK had given them the right to marry before the US, and had been a somewhat easier system to navigate as far as healthcare and family planning.
That had begun to change and finally changed all the way up to Parliament.
Now with four kids, she and Jay hadn’t feared for just their wellbeing, but for that of their kids.
Jay had convinced her to move back to the States, to Vermont, where she still had roots by way of Diana Blake.
Vermont currently had several laws in place that made it a safe haven for trans people, and the Blake name still held lots of weight.
Michaela had been working with both Blake sisters and Diana’s wife, Maggie, to create both a community center and a school they’d just received accreditation for.
The school was opening its doors the following fall, with Michaela as the Executive Director. She couldn’t wait.
Navigating all the red tape would have been impossible without the help of the Blake sisters.
This is what Michaela had explained to both Davis and Iris, when they had pleaded with Michaela and Jay to move back to California.
But Michaela knew her old friends, and Iris was particularly interested in her school endeavor.
Michaela bet it wouldn’t belong before Iris found a way to be involved, and where Iris went, Davis still went.
Though now both married and Iris with a whopping six kids, they didn’t travel as lightly as they used to.
Jay had kept her promise. She, Davis, and Iris had created a sex positive sex work and health app for queer individuals during the app boom, and Jay had made them plenty of money. Much more than Michaela had made as a journalist who also taught at one of the universities.
Turning her head to glance at the clock on her nightstand, Michaela saw that it was a little past six in the morning.
Cole, their eldest, would likely already be up and making breakfast in the kitchen.
The twins, Lou Leslie and Syl, their youngest, would likely be bounding to their bedroom at any minute.
That left the middle child, Mars, who was a bit of a nightmare in the mornings.
“Morning, baby.” Jay’s gravely voice redirected her attention to her sleepy wife in her arms. Michaela turned to see Jay lift her head and look down at her.
Jay had cut out her long black hair into a very sexy long-bob, or “lob,” as her kids had called it.
It currently was mussed with sleep. Her eyes had small crow’s feet around them now, but she had the same allure she’d always had.
Michaela loved how first thing in the morning Jay always woke up flushed, her little freckles visible.
She was even more radiant than when they first fell in love.
Looking at the woman she loved, having just had that dream, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmingly grateful and in love.
“What’s that look for?” Jay said.
“Nothing, I just love you,” Michaela said, smiling up at her wife.
Jay peeked at the clock.
“No, we don’t have time for me to show you,” Michaela said, reading her wife’s train of thought. “Kids need to go to school, and I am having the Blake sisters and Maggie over to make sure we have everything we need for the summer camp plans for the community center.”
Jay groaned. “But we fell asleep last night, and the night before.”
“We are old and tired,” Michaela joked.
“Doesn’t mean this old lady doesn’t want some nookie,” Jay said, smiling.
“Well,” Michaela said, sliding her hands to grip Jay’s still-fabulous ass under the covers, “If you’re lucky maybe I pull out the strap—”
There was a booming knock at the bedroom door. “Mommy, Mars won’t get up,” Lou’s voice came from beyond the door.
“Hold that thought,” Jay said, half sighing and half laughing.
“Yeah, good luck with that,” Michaela said, smiling back.
“What do you mean? She said Mommy, that specifically means you got this,” Jay said playfully.
Another knock at the door. “Mama, can you do my hair like last time?” Syl said. Michaela looked at Jay and smirked, triumphant.
“Of course, sweetie,” Jay called back. She bent down and bit Michaela’s cheek in retaliation as Michaela let out a bark of laughter.
“We are really doing it,” Maggie McDonald said from where she sat on the couch next to Diana Blake, who looked over at her admiringly.
Maggie was tall, like Michaela. She was all soft lines, with a thick mane of brown-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes.
Diana looked the same as ever: a shorter woman, though still taller than Jay, with shoulder-length blonde hair and jewel-blue eyes.
Those eyes had the same lines as Jay’s, and the years had worn her skin a bit, as they do.
But Michaela thought she looked the happiest she had ever seen her.
Love looked as good on her as it did everyone else.
Diana had ended up at Berkeley once Jay and Michaela entered their junior year.
Whatever Michaela had thought she would have felt back then, she hadn’t.
She had been quite taken with Diana as well.
The three of them had dated for a while, until Michaela decided to really draw a boundary with her and Jay.
Michaela needed physical monogamy for the next stage in their relationship once they had graduated.
It wasn’t so much fueled by potential jealousy as the desire to have something between her and Jay that was just theirs, especially since they were not able to marry.
Besides, they’d had fun, but Diana was clearly still pining and miserable over someone else; that person, Michaela learned, now sat next to her wearing a matching ring.
“Hell yes you four are,” Jay said, raising a glass of Blake hard cider.
Julia raised her glass in answer. Julia was Diana’s younger sister, a hot masc lesbian who totally knew it.
Michaela could just tell. She had ash-blonde hair she kept short and hazel eyes.
She hadn’t been what Michaela had expected when they’d met briefly back in college, but Julia was kind, and, Michaela suspected, not as happy with her skirt-chasing lifestyle as everyone thought.
“How long do you think before the rest of your friends get involved?” Diana said. “What did you all call yourselves again, the—”
“Collective,” Jay said proudly, “we have jackets.” Callie had made good on that promise before they graduated.
When Diana had come to Berkeley, even though they’d been together for a short period, she had really done her own thing and made her own group of friends as well.
She hadn’t become a member of the Collective like Bjorn begrudgingly had.
“That’s right!” Diana said laughing.
“The Collective, huh?” Maggie said, and Michaela shrugged.
“It’s a long story,” Michaela said.
“Well, I like the name,” Maggie said, and Michaela rolled her eyes.
“God, not you too,” Michaela mock-groaned to make sure Maggie knew she was joking. She liked Maggie a whole lot, and they’d had a big heart to heart about their wives early on when she and Jay moved back.
“I give Davis and then Iris about another six months before they want in, and I’ve always wanted to get them on the East Coast,” Jay said.
“Although Callie, Kevin, and Bjorn do have a great set up in Berlin.” They did, they’d moved there about a decade back, and it had been nice to have a part of their family in Europe.
A fact Callie made painfully clear when Michaela and Jay revealed they were moving back to the States.
“I give them a year after Davis and Iris show up,” Michaela countered, and Jay made a noise of agreement.
“Hey, you two never told me about the name, by the way,” Maggie said.
Michaela smiled and looked at Diana, “And you didn’t tell her?”
“I said I would wait,” Diana said, and Maggie made a face that told Michaela Diana had waited.
“The Edna Jones Community Center and Dr. Cecelia Jones Preparatory School—after two extraordinary women we knew at Berkeley.” Michaela shared about Dr. Cecelia Jones, Ms. Cece to them, and Ms. Edna. And how the two of them had taught them about spaces and community.
“I can’t keep saying this,” Julia said, “But this is so needed right now, and I am so glad you all are doing this.”
Michaela nodded solemnly. It was needed now.
She hoped she was able to build upon everything Ms. Cece had done in her life, the community she fostered, the self acceptance and joy she nurtured in individuals.
The way she and Ms. Edna had looked at every member of the Alliance as a person who mattered.
How special it was that both women made you feel that in their presence.
Michaela wanted to embed their legacy into every fiber of this undertaking.
She had told both as much when she’d visited them at their assisted living center.
Maybe Michaela had gotten complacent, she didn’t know.
She had suddenly been given the chance to just live, and that’s what she had done as an educator and writer, but also as a wife and mother.
She would never forget when they first brought six-year-old Cole home, or two-year-old Mars, or held newly born Syl and Lou.
Yes, some of her children were bio babies and some were not, but that had never mattered to Michaela; what mattered was that they knew they were loved.
She did the same for her students and made sure to champion tolerant language, policies, and practices.
But now things had gotten so bad once again, a reminder that the future and life she had built were tenuous.
Perhaps that’s why she’d been thinking and dreaming about that first Pride.
A reminder from her younger self to not forget.
And so she wasn’t going to. She was going to kick off a summer camp and then a school with tolerance at its core, so more children got to be their full selves. Got to grow up.
Got to live.