Epilogue
Two Years Later
A re you ready?”
I glance out the window to the dusty building Marcela and I are parked in front of. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much. The glowing neon sign is out of place against the old gray brick, but Krystal seems to like the juxtaposition. After a while, it grew on me too. More so when I realized what building it was.
“Ready,” Marcela tells me, undoing her seat belt. “Should we be worried that they refused help setting up?”
“They have a staff for all that.” I wave off her concern as we cross the street, making our way to the bar. “I’m just here to drink.”
Back when Krystal first showed me the building she and Theo had found for the bar, she had waited for me to get it on my own, eyeing me with patient excitement as I squinted my eyes at the unassuming, abandoned building. Inside, I kicked at the trash on the floor as I made my way around the space for the first time. The wooden beams were nice, but the unfinished ceiling and concrete floor left much to be desired.
“I don’t get it,” I finally told her. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”
Her smile was giddy.
“This used to be your favorite view,” she told me. “But I get why you wouldn’t recognize the building from up close or inside. You needed some distance to get the full picture .” When I still didn’t understand the hint she was giving me, it finally clicked when she said, “It looks a little different since they washed off the mural, doesn’t it?”
This was the building that started it all. For Natalia. For me. Now, finally, for Krystal. When I met Natalia two years ago, I couldn’t shake this feeling that our fates were tied. Now, as the sign Natalia designed and built blinks back at me, it’s as if the three of us have come full circle.
There’s already a line wrapped around the corner. After a successful soft launch last week, people around town have been rallying for the Elixir Lounge to open for normal hours with an extended drink menu. It’s even gotten great reviews and buzz in local and national publications. A security guard waves us through in front of the long line, and even though Marcela and I have met Steven on several occasions, it still makes me feel like a treasured VIP guest when he lets us pass without so much as a blink.
Inside, the place has come a long way from the first time Krystal and I visited. The back wall behind a row of booths has been replaced with tempered glass and gold metal plating that lets in lots of sunlight during the day and gives a greenhouse effect. There are rows of multi-colored neon lights behind the bar that make the place look more like a nightclub when the sun goes down. Plant life is everywhere—on the shelves beside bottles of liquor, hanging in pots above our heads, on top of tiered shelves against the windows. There’s plenty of Natalia’s artwork as well. Any wall space not taken up by trailing vines holds framed paintings, and an array of sculptures in various sizes are mixed in with the plants by the window.
Krystal and Theo are talking with the staff in a circle, possibly discussing the game plan for tonight. While they’re occupied, I make my way behind the bar. Marcela shakes her head at me as Krystal excuses herself from the group.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Practicing my moves.” I grab a bottle of Malibu from behind the bar and toss it in the air. My girlfriend catches it in midair before it can land in my hand. I pout at her glare. “Oh, come on, I’m getting better!”
“You can try at home, not here.” Home means her place or mine, but more often than not, we end up at her place. I moved into my own apartment last year when I landed a youth librarian position minutes away from what would become the Elixir Lounge, but I’m still not fully unpacked, which makes my apartment a disaster zone. The last time Krystal stayed over, she spent three hours unpacking my kitchen while I was sleeping.
“Fine,” I grumble, but it doesn’t last long when she kisses my cheek. I turn my head and catch her lips, because even after two years, kissing Krystal never gets old. “Are you excited for tonight?”
“I’m more nervous than anything,” she admits as I wrap my arms around her neck. “What if something goes wrong?”
“Nothing is going to go wrong.” She harrumphs like she doesn’t believe me. “You worked hard for this, and there’s a long line of people waiting outside who are all excited to be here. You got what you wanted, Krystal. Don’t forget to enjoy it.”
“I guess you have a point,” she says, looking at me like she’s not sure how she got so lucky. It’s a feeling I’m all too familiar with. A hand comes up to cup my cheek and her eyes go soft. “I do have exactly what I want, don’t I?”
I’m right—the night goes off without a hitch. Marcela and I watch from a corner booth as customers enter the bar with oohs and aahs, smiling as they order drinks and marvel at the general ambiance of the place.
Before long, everyone I love is inside these walls. Theo finds some time to hide away at a back table with Marcela. Briana and her husband pop by, greeting me with her signature bone-crushing hug that only seems to get stronger each year. No Esme, but I didn’t expect her. We may never see eye to eye, but that’s fine. She’s not someone I need in my life, but I’m glad the same can’t be said of Briana.
Julian and Leti show up an hour after opening, hand in hand, smiling at each other like the idiots in love they are. Their relationship has certainly come a long way in two years, but I couldn’t be happier for them. Natalia and Stephanie show up around nine for two drinks before heading back. I don’t get to see them nearly enough these days—ever since the scavenger hunt and completing her art residency, she’s been booked and busy.
“I hope you’re proud of all the work you put into this place,” Natalia tells Krystal as they hug goodbye. “The bar is amazing. Dare I say, it might even be a new hangout spot for me and Stephanie.”
“Bet you feel right at home, what with all your art pieces hanging around here.” I gesture to the wall where even more of her work is framed.
“You could call it a perk.” She smirks. “I have to visit the statues every once in a while. Make sure they don’t miss me.”
“Thank you for everything, Natalia,” Krystal says. “And thanks for being the first to bring my attention to this prime real estate.”
Krystal’s arm falls around my shoulders as we watch them leave. It’s funny, all the transformations a person can go through with enough time. I couldn’t have imagined this life for myself two years ago. I have my dream job and once I get my shit together, a nice, cozy apartment that feels like home. A girlfriend I’m dizzyingly in love with, who returns those feelings tenfold. Not one, not two, but three best friends—but if Marcela asks, she’s still my number one. Natalia and Leti have rounded out our group quite nicely, especially during monthly brunches when our numbers increase to include significant others.
That once-constant loneliness that dogged my every step? Turns out it was ephemeral after all.
“I do too,” I tell Krystal much later, once the bar is closed for the night and we’ve said good night to everyone. We’re in her car on our way back to her apartment. It’s three in the morning, either way too late or far too early for my contemplative thoughts.
“You what?” She turns to me, eyes sleepy but still alert.
“I have exactly what I want too.” At the stop sign, I cup her face and she leans in to kiss me.
“I love you so much, Angel.”
“I never get tired of hearing that.” I smile against her lips. “I love you too.”
My life is so much fuller than I ever thought it’d be. I guess that’s what happens when you’re surrounded by people you love, and who love you in return. They fill your heart. They never leave you alone. And, if you ask me, no kind of love is truer than that.