Epilogue
The following January
SIMONE WAS ABOUT TO TAKE A major risk, and she knew it.
She yanked off her mitten and reached into the pocket of her parka, where she gripped her phone with her bare hand. Squeezing it like her life depended on it, she brought it out into the open air and turned on the camera.
“Put that away,” Ryan demanded.
“Just one photo.”
“Simone, do you realize where we are?” He flailed his gloved hands at the winter wonderland around them—or rather, beneath them. Fifty feet below, skiers and snowboarders glided through the fresh blanket of snow that had fallen on the mountain overnight.
“Yes, I do realize we’re on a Whistler chairlift.”
“Do you remember what happened the last time you took out your phone on a Whistler chairlift?”
“Hmm.” She pretended to have to think about it. “I seem to remember us having a very romantic foray in the snowy woods.”
“After we both nearly died on a double black diamond.”
“But we got to share a beaver tail afterward, which was also very romantic,” she pointed out. “Come on. The longer you protest, the longer my phone is hovering dangerously over this very high drop…”
“Okay, fine.”
She’d been with Ryan long enough to know he wasn’t really upset. He was just her moody gargoyle, doing his best to ward off any dangers that might befall her. They pressed their helmets together, and Simone quickly snapped a selfie.
“Luis, Roberto: You guys wanna squeeze in?”
The middle-aged Ecuadorian couple paused their conversation in Spanish and scooted in for a smiling group photo. The sky behind them was a vivid blue.
“I can’t believe how perfect the weather is,” Simone said to Ryan as she tucked her phone back inside her parka.
He prodded her pocket himself to make sure it was secure. Only when he was satisfied that they wouldn’t be repeating last year’s phone-dropping fiasco did he say, “They really lucked out.”
“So did I.” She snuggled into her boyfriend’s side.
They were on the Peak Express—the chairlift that ferried riders to the summit of Whistler Mountain.
A year ago, they’d taken this route to watch Margot propose to Thea.
Today, they were headed back to the Top of the World to watch the couple get married.
It had been easy for Simone to get the time off work to come to the Whistler Pride and Ski Festival again.
Her boss, after all, was Glen, who was seated on the chair ahead of them, along with Byron, Phoenix, and Phoenix’s new partner, Orla.
In spite of the water main shit show, the Loving Minds fundraiser had been a huge success—and when Glen’s longtime program manager had announced her retirement a few weeks later, he’d offered the job to Simone.
Seth and Lucy were still at the Rainbow Museum, and she still talked to them all the time, which was how she’d stayed on top of all the drama that had transpired since she’d left—or really, because she’d left.
Seth had been so inspired by Simone taking a stand against Frankie that he’d worked up the courage to send screenshots of their former boss’s messages to the Rainbow Museum’s board of directors.
Frankie had given up his majority stake in the company in exchange for all the capital he’d raised, which meant the board had possessed the power to strip him of his CEO title—and that was exactly what they’d done.
They’d recently hired someone new in his place: a woman with a vision of building out the educational sections of the museum, and, yes, giving a portion of the proceeds to charity.
Simone was holding out hope that a Loving Minds partnership might actually come to fruition.
Her relationships with Ryan’s moms were also on the up.
She’d opened up to them about the reasons for her and Ryan’s tumultuous start, and she’d been relieved when Paula and Claire had responded with understanding.
Claire had even asked Simone to forgive her for being so guarded the first time they met, and Simone had said she understood—after all, she loved Ryan, too—and then both of them had hugged, and laughed, and hugged some more, and long story short, they now texted each other about the addictive, low-budget queer dating shows that Paula and Ryan refused to watch.
Simone and Ryan had split the holidays between Florida and Barrie, meaning less time with the Whitakers and more time with the in-laws she was growing to love as much as Ryan.
Not that she didn’t love her own parents—nor did she think they didn’t love her.
Like Lucy had once told her, it was just that her parents were too scared to change the world, so instead they wanted Simone to do the changing.
Lately, Kathy had pivoted to badgering Simone and Ryan about when they were getting married, since they were both in their thirties, after all, and did Simone really want to have a geriatric pregnancy?
How Kathy had decided Simone wanted kids—when Simone wasn’t even sure herself—was beyond her.
George was as unhelpful as ever, preferring to keep the peace with Kathy rather than rock the boat.
Simone was working with her new therapist on setting boundaries, because she didn’t want to tie herself in knots anymore to make her parents more comfortable. She didn’t want to do that for anyone.
Of course, with Ryan, she knew she would never have to.
With him, she knew she could be her truest self, and he would love her—not in spite of who she was, but because of who she was.
The brides wore white ski suits. Simone, Ryan, and around thirty of Margot and Thea’s friends and family members gathered at the summit and cheered as the women sealed their vows with a kiss.
Simone wiped away heartfelt tears, remembering how she’d also felt like crying a year ago in this very spot, when she was falling for the man standing next to her, but scared that she was wasting an opportunity.
She still stood by what she’d told him the night they got back together: that being with Ryan felt like infinite opportunity.
The plan was for the wedding party to follow the brides down the mountain in the world’s most on-brand wedding procession, which would lead to a casual après-ski reception.
But right before they took off down the slope, Simone tugged on the sleeve of Ryan’s parka.
He turned to her and lifted his goggles, looking concerned. “Are you okay?”
She lifted her own goggles and looked up at him with a blissful smile. “Kiss me on top of the world.”
The lines disappeared from his forehead, and he smiled back at her, his gray-green eyes sparkling in the midday sun. “There’s nothing I’d like to do more.”
As he kissed her on the snowy summit, warming her from the inside out, Simone knew she wanted to soak in Ryan’s love forever—or as long as the universe would let her.
And until then, her queer little heart would love him more every day.