EPILOGUE
One Month Later
“Dammit,” Alex curses as he goes to put his jacket on.
I’m finishing up getting ready for the night, applying lipstick in the mirror attached to our dresser, and my eyes find him in the reflection. I watch as he attempts to slip his left arm through, but the sleeve falls when he feels a pinch of pain.
“I told you I would help you.” I sigh because he does this all the time.
Thinking he is able to do things on his own when he still needs help. Capping the lid on the lipstick and stepping over to him. Taking his hand in mine, I slowly insert it into the sleeve.
“The doctors told you to take it easy for a while.”
He groans, pouting as he slowly slides his arm through the coat. “But it’s been a month since it happened.”
“Alex, you just got out of the hospital a week ago.” I stare up at him, tears filling my eyes at the memory of the reason he was in the hospital. “You’re still recovering.”
“I know, but I am doing better. If I wasn’t, they wouldn’t have released me,” he says, pulling me out of my head. “I just hate not being able to do things myself. And not being able to have sex with you has been terrible.”
I smirk, carefully bringing the fabric over his shoulder. “All the other things we’ve been doing haven’t satisfied your needs?”
“No,” He answers, then pauses, thinking about what he just said before he adds, “I mean, yes, but it’s hard when you’re sucking my dick or my head is between your legs, not to take it further.”
“Maybe after tonight we can try taking it further.” My eyes flash to his, and I can already feel the heat brewing inside of me. “But I’m on top.”
“Fine by me.” He grins before he closes the distance to capture my lips with his.
His hand wraps around my body, settling on my lower back as he pulls me closer. I continue to kiss him for a moment longer before I put an end to it.
“But we need to be super careful, you’re still healing and—”
“We will be careful.” He gives me another kiss, cutting me off. “Now, let’s go so we can get tonight over with and start with our new plan.”
“So eager.” I laugh, turning to grab my jacket off the bed. I put it on, tucking my hands into the back of the collar to free my hair. “Is your mom downstairs already?”
A single chime filters through our bedroom, coming from Alex’s pants pocket, and he pulls out his phone to read a text.
“She just got here.”
He puts his phone back in his pocket and takes my hand, leading us through our new apartment and guiding me to the front door.
In the hall, he locks up behind us, and then we make our way to the elevator.
The entire descent, Alex has his lips on mine, making it really hard to continue our night without just canceling and going back upstairs.
“Did I tell you how breathtaking you look in this dress tonight?” He says against my lips, his hand coasting over the deep red fabric to grab my ass.
“You didn’t,” I grin and pull back, seeing the way my lipstick has smeared around his mouth.
Giggling, I reach into my purse, take out a makeup wipe, and begin cleaning it off of him.
“You’re going to have to stop kissing me if you don’t want to be wearing my lipstick.”
“If it means I get to kiss you, then I don’t mind wearing it.” He smirks, leaning in again, but I lift a finger to his lips and shake my head, to which he huffs in annoyance.
The elevator dings, and the sliding doors open to the lobby. We walk through and out the front door, and when we arrive at the parking lot, his mom is waiting by her car. Her face lights up when she sees both of us.
“Hello, you two! Celine, you look beautiful!”
“Thank you, Lillian,” I hug her, and when I go to compliment her back, my phone rings.
I release her, grabbing my phone out of my purse, thinking it’s going to be Vince yelling at me because we are running a little late, but it’s not.
It’s my mother.
After ignoring her in the hospital following the stunt she pulled on the news, she tried contacting me one more time while Alex was still recovering. I ignored that call as well, and since I didn’t answer her call on Thanksgiving Day, she has been trying to get a hold of me more recently.
The only reason she is calling me is that it’s the holidays. She most likely thinks that because it’s a special time of the year, I’ll feel bad for ignoring her and finally answer the phone.
Except I don’t feel bad. Not one bit.
The screen goes black, then lights up again with a missed call notification, and a text from Vince appears.
“Vince is asking why we are late,” I tell Alex.
He looks over my shoulder to read the time on my phone. “We have another ten minutes before we need to be there.”
“Which, in Vince’s mind, means we are basically ten minutes late.” I laugh, sending my best friend a quick text to let him know that we are on our way, and then shove my phone into my purse. “Let’s go before he starts blowing my phone up, demanding to know our exact location.”
Alex opens the passenger door for his mom, but she insists she is fine sitting in the back.
After a minute of fighting her on it, he caves and opens the back door to let her slide in.
He gently closes the door and opens mine for me.
I flash him a thankful smile, and he does his best to help me into the vehicle.
“You raised such a gentleman,” I praise her after the door shuts, and I settle into my seat.
“We sure tried.” I see her smiling in the review mirror.
Alex gets into the car, starts it up, and puts the gearshift into reverse. “Is Allen coming tonight?”
From where I sit, I see Lillian’s cheeks flush.
As Alex started his recovery journey in the hospital, she and Doctor Allen grew closer.
She felt bad and tried to hide that she didn’t have feelings for him, but Alex told her that it was okay.
That after everything she has been through, she deserved to be happy.
“He had to finish his rounds at the hospital, and then he said he’d head over. He’ll take me back to the hotel so you two don’t have to worry about dropping me off.”
“You could have just stayed with us,” I remind her.
“I didn’t want to impose.” She waves us off. “You’re grown adults. You need your privacy.”
“Well, when we get a house, we will make sure to have a guest bedroom where you won’t feel like you’re imposing,” Alex assures her, and it warms my heart hearing him talk about our future together.
Getting an apartment together was a given. After the experience we went through, we didn’t want to be separated. And since I didn’t want my mother showing up out of the blue to talk to me, we decided to break my lease and find a new place where she couldn’t find me.
And thankfully, she hasn’t found me. Then again, once she realized I’m no longer living in my original apartment, she probably didn’t put in much effort to figure out where I moved to.
Living in the apartment with Alex has been nice.
A dream, really. He is there when I wake up, and he is there when I fall asleep, holding me in his arms and whispering how much he loves me every single night.
I couldn’t ask for anything better, but hearing him talk about getting a house together?
A place we can settle down and make our own?
That’s a huge step, and whenever he is ready for that, then so am I.
“Look at that.” Alex grins, pulling into Vince’s driveway. “We are here with two minutes to spare.”
I giggle. “Tell that to Vince. See what he says.”
“I’m good,” Alex states, pursing his lips. “He’s probably already stressed with hosting. I don’t want to push him over the edge.”
“Good idea,” I agree and go to grab my door handle.
“Don’t.” He stops me and gets out of the car, rounding the front to come and open my door.
Holding his hand out, he guides me out of the seat until I am standing on the pavement. While he does the same for his mom, I keep my eyes on the beautiful house before me.
Things escalated between Vince and Asher quickly while I was still in the convent, and while Alex was still in the hospital, they bought a house together.
And even in the chaos of moving, Vince said he wanted to host Thanksgiving and was okay if the celebration didn’t happen on the exact holiday.
Especially since at the time, we didn’t know when Alex would be released.
But we didn’t object. Even if Alex had gotten out in time for Thanksgiving, which he hadn’t seeing as we are a week into December, we would not have been in the best shape to host.
We approach the front door, and before we can knock, it swings open. Esther stands there, looking at me with wide eyes.
“Thank goodness you are here! Is he always this bossy when he is stressed?”
“Unfortunately,” I giggle and pull her in for a hug. “I’ve learned just to do as he says to avoid conflict.”
After I saw Alex in the hospital, in his recovery room, and knew he was truly okay, I introduced Esther to Vince and Amelia, and the four of us have been inseparable ever since.
Vince and Amelia came to the hospital every day, and after Esther was discharged, she stayed anyway.
The three of them helped make our time in the hospital more manageable.
“I fear that my help isn’t alleviating his stress,” Esther states.
“Is Amelia here?” I ask as we step into the foyer, closing the door behind us.
“Yes,” Esther answers. “But she is in the living room. Said she refused to help Vince when he was being so cranky.”
“Sounds about right. Well, why don’t we grab a bottle of wine and the ladies go keep her company while Alex helps out in the kitchen?” I turn to Alex with a smile and innocent eyes.
“Throwing me into the wolves’ den?” He asks, pinching my side
“Mhm.” I nod and take off my jacket.
Luckily, I no longer have a cast on. My wrist healed quickly, and I only had to have it on for a month. My ribs have healed and are no longer in excruciating pain. There is only a hint of soreness whenever I lift my arm or twist my body.