Epilogue
The slamming of a car door makes me jolt, my paint brush making an ugly mark on the canvas in front of me.
‘Shit,’ I mutter, dropping the brush into the murky glass to my left and inspecting the damage.
I quickly dab at the mistake with a wet cloth, movements precise so I don’t mess with any more of the still-drying paint.
Thankfully it doesn’t look too bad once I’ve pulled my hand away, because I don’t have time to fix it now.
It’s my tenth commission this week of the same painting, and it’s by far my most popular.
The other nine are lined up in the hallway, wrapped up in an excessive amount of bubble wrap and nearly blocking the entrance to the treehouse.
More car doors slam shut and Daisy starts barking at the door.
‘Wait a minute, girl,’ I call as I untie my apron.
Her tail is wagging as she waits for me to open the front door to release her and go greet our guests. Once everything is put away safely, I go over and give her a good scratch behind the ears.
Once the last week of the holiday ended, and it became clear I wasn’t going back to London anytime soon, Rory asked if I would mind him bringing Daisy here.
When he was on his own, he felt like it would be too difficult to properly look after her here, so most of the time she lived with Kevin’s family back in London.
They’d kindly taken her in when Rory had fully taken on managing the resort, but now with the two of us here and my schedule meaning I spend a lot of time at the treehouse, we’ve made it work.
‘Ready?’ I ask her, my hand hovering on the door handle. She paws at the wood, and I push it open as a voice calls my name from the bottom of the spiral staircase.
‘There’s my little snow princess!’ Tilly drops the handle of her suitcase and abandons it with David as she runs up the stairs to meet me. ‘I’ve missed you so much!’
‘I’ve missed you too,’ I echo back, squeezing her in a tight hug.
She takes in the view from the first-floor balcony and whistles. ‘I can’t blame you though when you have a view like this.’
‘I don’t know, the view from your place wasn’t bad. I only saw men peeing in that alleyway a couple of times.’
Tilly mimes being sick next to me, her whole body shivering at the memory. ‘Oh god, I can’t wait to move out.’
I’d almost forgotten she is moving out in only a few weeks.
When I was in London last month for Christmas, nothing had been finalised yet.
Little did I know it would be the last time I’d visit her one-bed flat in Elephant and Castle.
Next time when I come and visit, it’ll be to ogle the new flat that she’s sharing with the guy currently attempting to drag her suitcase, and his own, up the stairs.
‘Hey, David, need a hand there?’
‘Nope,’ he huffs, refusing my assistance as he lifts the suitcase up the final few steps. ‘But I would like to know what’s in this thing which makes it so darn heavy.’
‘I didn’t ask you to carry it for me,’ Tilly says, standing with her arms crossed.
‘A simple thank you would do,’ he replies.
She bats her eyelashes and nods towards the door. ‘I’ll thank you once you’ve finished carrying it to the bedroom. No praise for a job half-done.’
He sighs, muttering complaints, but the smirk on his face betrays the fact he enjoys the fact their sarcastic back-and-forths are back. He squats down so he can cradle the suitcase in his arms, and I point him in the direction of the room I’ve set up for the two of them.
‘Glad nothing’s really changed between you two.’
‘Nope. Only now when we bicker it’s usually without our clothes on,’ she says, winking as she walks away from me, and I cover my ears like that’ll take back the fact she’s already said it.
‘Ew, okay I do not need that image in my head.’ As happy as I am for them, I do not want to imagine my two best friends getting it on, especially when it’s likely going to be happening in the room that shares a wall with mine for the next week.
I turn back to the door as two of my other best friends climb the stairs, not running quite as quickly as Tilly, but still taking them two at a time as they rush to greet me. Meghan reaches me first, and once her feet are both on flat ground, I wrap my arms around her.
Then I immediately pull her back, giving her room to hold her hand between us, palm facing her chest.
‘It’s even more gorgeous in person! Lucas!’ I release her for a second, only so I can pat Lucas on the back for picking such a stunner of a ring. ‘I didn’t know you had such good style.’
‘Well, her mum may have helped,’ he admits, and I can’t blame him for getting advice from a literal fashion icon for a ring for her daughter. I pull them both in for a crowded hug.
‘I’m so glad you could both make it,’ I say, knowing they’re in the midst of wedding planning following their engagement that came only a few months ago.
‘Of course! It’s tradition now.’
At the airport last year as I waved the others off, David made the offhand comment, ‘Same time next year?’ And although I think he was joking when he said it, I thought about it for weeks afterwards.
And as the days went on, and my life here started to take shape, I thought maybe it didn’t have to be something said in jest.
So I offered everyone rooms either with us at the treehouse or at the hotel, and within an hour everyone was booking their flights. It turned out I wasn’t the only one who thought there was something special about this place, and everyone else was keen to experience some of it again too.
‘I feel like I’ve stepped into one of your canvases.’ I hear his voice before he comes into view, standing a few paces behind me, hands on his hips as he takes in the view.
‘Hi, Adam.’
‘Hi, Lotts.’
I step around Meghan, who heads inside with Lucas, to pull him in for a hug. I haven’t seen him in a while because the last few times I’ve made it to London he’s been up in Scotland visiting his girlfriend.
‘How’s Georgina?’
‘Very sad she couldn’t be here, but she says hello and wanted me to tell you she loved your last “day in the life” post. She said you’d know what that means, even though I have no clue.’
He’s right, I do know what she means. It was her latest post idea for me, and I’m glad she suggested it because it ended up blowing up and I’ve had twenty new orders from it so far.
My art business was still new when Adam first introduced his new girlfriend, someone he had met at a company event where she’d been working as a videographer.
Turns out her official job is a social media marketer, and when she heard I was launching a business she made me download several apps immediately.
I had no clue what I was doing when I started posting videos, mainly planning clips of me painting and Daisy curled up at the foot of my easel.
But with her guidance, I started posting better videos and now six months later I have a solid following that generates the majority of my sales.
‘Tell her thanks from me. It’s really good to see you.’
‘It’s good to see you, too.’
I wasn’t sure how things would go between Adam and me once he’d left with the others last year.
‘We’ll still be friends’ is such a common line after a break-up, but it rarely works out that way even if you’d like it to.
So I’m grateful for the friendship that’s been able to grow from the remnants of our relationship.
For the sake of the group, but for both of us too.
We both really did leave our old selves at the table in the après bar that day, and things have never been better.
Tilly and David reappear from the house, and I leave Adam chatting to the others while I follow Daisy, who’s dashed down the steps to jump up at the guy who’s appeared at the bottom.
‘Did my girls miss me?’
I scoff. ‘You only drove to the airport and back, you were gone for less than four hours.’
Rory ruffles the fur at the scruff of Daisy’s neck while she leaps up and licks him across the face.
‘What if I said I missed you?’ He meets me halfway up the stairs and leans in for a kiss.
‘I’d say, don’t put those dog-kissed lips on mine, thank you very much.’
He chuckles, ignoring me and kissing me anyway, and I can’t be mad when he wraps his arms around me and I get that feeling like I’m floating on air. It never has gone away, even a year later.
‘Thanks for picking everyone up.’
He shrugs. ‘Of course. I didn’t want them missing out on the evening by having to take a transfer.’
‘It’s only dinner, the holiday doesn’t really start until tomorrow,’ I say, looking down to check the time on my phone and realising I need to dash off to the shops to get ingredients before they close. ‘I better get going, or we’ll be eating cheese toasties for dinner.’
Rory takes my phone out of my hand and turns off the screen so the time is hidden. ‘Don’t be silly, I’ll sort out food, you go catch up with your friends.’
I’m about to fight him on it, especially given he’s only just got back from a long drive, but he gives me a stern look that tells me not to bother.
‘You’re the best,’ I settle for instead.
‘I’d argue that prize goes to you.’ He gestures up to the balcony, where all my friends chat while admiring the snowy scenes around them. ‘For finally making this place less lonely again.’
I smile, my heart melting knowing he feels that way, and his thumb presses into the dimple that forms on my cheek.
Later, when we’re all sitting around the table with a mouth-watering truffle pasta dish placed in the middle that Lucas may have had a hand in making, I tap my spoon against my wine glass to prepare for a toast.
‘Here’s to another great holiday!’ I say, and everyone lifts their glasses to clink against mine.
‘Maybe a slightly less eventful one though, with less injuries or proposals,’ Meghan adds.
‘I wouldn’t speak too soon,’ Tilly counters, directing the comment over at me, but I laugh her off.
For now, I’m happy with everything just the way it is. I’ve got my art, a life in a place that fills me with joy every day and Rory by my side through it all. And to top it off, tonight I’m surrounded by my best friends.
To think, it all came from taking a leap into the unknown. And the best part?
Who knows what could happen next…