Epilogue
ABOUT ONE YEAR LATER
I tried not to hurry through my last client of the day—an older woman looking to get new headshots for her real estate business. I was more than eager to get home—more than normal.
Sean and I had been together for a year.
An entire year of getting to kiss him every day.
An entire year of countless moments and memories together.
Hell, there were times I thought I was going to have to fight my dad over spending time with Sean.
Dad loved Sean the moment he met him, even if he tried to pull the old Dad trick of “You hurt my baby girl and I’ll hurt you” fiasco.
We quickly fell into spending time together every day that we could.
Which, in a way wasn’t too far off from what we had been doing.
We would see each other five days a week before.
Now, instead of me trying to pay the barista for a coffee every morning, he’d let me pay him in kisses. He was cheesy like that.
And I loved every bit of it—and him. It hadn’t taken us too long to swap the three words, but it did take a lot of nerves. We both knew that we loved each other early on but we were each terrified to say it. I think we both even knew that the other already felt the same as well.
But it took one of us accidentally blurting it—me—for us both to say it.
We were at dinner with Sean’s bandmates, enjoying wings after they had finished an acoustic set at the restaurant, and he was joking about how I had sauce on my nose, cheek, and eyebrow. Naturally, I pretended to not believe him but tried to secretly check.
“I see you.” Sean quipped and I found that he was looking at me from the corner of his eye.
“You made it sound like it was all over my face.”
“Here, let me help you then.”
Instead of taking the napkin from me or using another one, he decided to start licking my cheek, causing me to burst out in laughter and squirm.
“What? I’m just helping.” Sean joked.
“How? By making it worse?” I said between laughs.
“Admit it. You like it.”
“You’re such a goofball.”
“Yeah, but I’m your goofball and you love it.”
“Yes, I love you.” I rolled my eyes before realizing that I didn’t say what I’d intended to. What was supposed to be continuing the joke suddenly brought everything into view.
I said it first. But instead of being flooded with fear, I was elated.
Especially when his next words were, “I love you too, Zette.”
We sealed it all with a kiss before anyone else had even noticed anything happened.
“Hey!” Sean called from the front door, pulling me back to the present, and I heard him heading towards the kitchen. I met him in the archway and leaned up, giving him a kiss as a hello. I’d barely been home long enough to change and get a drink.
“Hey.” I responded when our lips parted. “Happy Anniversary.” We’d both said it when we woke up, but I couldn’t help saying it again.
“Happy Anniversary, Baby.”
Sean wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. I furrowed my brow and looked up at him with a tilted head. “Sean?”
“Yes?”
“Why are you sweaty?”
“About that…” He trailed off and pulled back slightly but took a hold of my hands instead. “Come with me.”
“Really? It’s not even dinner time!” I laughed, expecting him to lead me to the bedroom.
“Not yet. I have something else to show you first.” Sean stopped when we got to the front door and turned to me to wrap one hand around my cheek. I leaned into his hand as he brought his face merely a centimeter from mine. “Although, I wouldn’t mind taking a detour first.”
He knew exactly what he was doing by dropping his voice this low. He knew exactly what it would do to me.
“Sean.” I whispered, trying to get him to stop before he completely turned me into putty.
“What? You’re the one that started it.”
“Yeah, when I thought that was where you were going anyway.”
“Fine.” Sean teased, turned back towards the door.
“Oh hell no.” I laughed and wiggled between him and the door. I looked up at him with one eyebrow raised and bit my lip to challenge him.
“Oh now, who’s teasing?” Sean didn’t wait for me to answer before crashing his body against mine and taking full advantage.
Sean’s right hand slid under my t-shirt up to the underwire of my bra and he gripped me tightly before pressing his mouth to mine, hungrily nipping at my lip.
It was already a tug of war between us as we pushed into each other. His free hand clasped mine and our fingers intertwined has he my hand against the door, reminding me of the first time I stepped foot inside his—now our—apartment.
We kept kissing, tugging, and pulling at each other before I couldn’t take it anymore and I gripped his shirt hem with one hand and yanked it up.
I was hungry for him and couldn’t wait anymore.
“Take me.” I breathed between kisses. “Now.”
Just that one phrase sent him over the edge as well and before I knew it, he’d lifted me up, walked us to the couch, and playfully dropped me onto the couch before leaning over me.
I tugged and yanked his shirt up over his head and the moment it hit the ground, I was already unbuttoning his jeans.
I expected some quip from him but when I caught his eyes, the only thing I saw was primal desire.
I pushed at his jeans and made sure his boxers went with them. When I saw how hard he already was for me, my core twitched, and I was more than wet enough for him.
He pulled back to find a condom in the coffee table drawer—no, this was not the first time we’d found ourselves in this predicament on the couch and we made sure after the first time to always be prepared.
While he got it, I whipped my t-shirt off, unhooked my bra, and started to undo my jeans all while I watched him roll the condom on.
I’d found that just watching him roll on the condom and stroke a few times was even a turn on for me. I knew what was coming and it only served to make me want him more.
I leaned forward, abandoning my own process, to slide my hands up his thighs. I looked up, catching his eye as he watched my every move. I saw his eyes widen as my lips parted before taking in the length of him—of what I could handle, at least.
“Fuck.” Sean groaned and gripped my hair.
Thankfully, he was never the type to expect this or to “encourage” me by pushing on my head. He’d just grip my hair for his own stability, spurring me to keep going. I felt a sense of euphoria, knowing that I could make him weak in the knees or beg for me too.
[FINISH SCENE]
Sean kept his hands over my eyes as we stumbled inside the coffee shop. The small chatter that we’d heard from outside was not completely gone and I was left with only the pounding of my heart beat in my ears.
“Sean, what is going on?” My words sounded more like I was singing.
“One second.” He answered, focusing more on directing me just a few more steps forward. At this point, I imagined I was close to the counter and reached forward, finding that I was correct. “Okay. Are you ready?”
“Yes! Yes, please!” I jokingly begged.
“Okay.” Sean took in a deep breath and held it as he pulled his hands from my eyes. I could feel his nerves through his tense fingers as he held on to my shoulders.
I looked around, seeing that everything looked the same so far. Except for Natalie and a couple other employees behind the counter standing completely still and also looking nervous.
“What…” I started when I caught Natalie looking up at the menu board then back down at me.
When I looked up, I couldn’t help but gasp. The entire sign was new. And right in the center of the new menu was:
The Zette
Below it was just a short phrase.
“The daily regular that is anything but.”
“Oh, my god. Sean.” I felt my eyes brimming with tears. “Is this what you’ve been working on?”
He’d been spending more time here over the last few weeks, sometimes even huddled over his laptop at home many nights. Anytime I’d ask him what he was working on, he’d give me his classic smile and tell me to “just wait”.
I turned to him and wrapped my hands around his neck.
“Do you…do you like it?” His eyebrows were still stitched together in worry, and I instinctively reached up to smooth them apart.
“Sean, I love it. It’s more than I could have ever imagined.”
“Good because the new sign comes next week.”
“Wait, this is only the temporary menu?” I indicated to the board behind me.
“The new sign for outside.”
“Out—” I started but then it dawned on me, and my mouth slacked open. It took me a moment longer before I could regain my composure. “Did you change the name of your own coffee shop and name it after…me?”
Sean broke out into a wide grin. “I did.”
“And this isn’t a joke or a dream?”
“No, it’s all for you.”
“I—I can’t believe it. Why?”
“When are you going to stop asking me that?” Sean teased.
“I guess this all still feels like a fairytale to me.”
“Lizzo, this is so much more than a fairytale. This is what it is to be with someone who loves you more than anything else. I told you before that I wanted to worship every part of you, and I never intend to stop. Fairytales mean we have to wake up to something different—something that isn’t as wonderful.
And I only ever want to wake up to you.”