Epilogue Yes, Forever
Afew weeks later, Maya hadn’t expected to spend Christmas morning at her mom’s house again. She definitely hadn’t expected to do it with a boyfriend who came from a TikTok app and then bled his way into becoming real.
But here she was.
Watching Felix hand her niece a toy he’d thoroughly researched to be developmentally appropriate, while her mom beamed like she’d personally summoned him through prayer and Pinterest boards.
They handed him a present wrapped with too much tape and not enough wrapping paper. He opened it, and Felix held up the blue-and-silver jersey, a grin spreading across his face as if he’d just been handed a crown.
“Barry Sanders?” he asked, reverent. “The legend himself.”
Uncle Rob puffed up. “Best running back the NFL ever had.”
Her cousin Kyle snorted. “Gibbs might give him a run for his money if he keeps it up.”
Felix glanced down at the number, then over at Maya. “Guess I really am part of the team now.”
Maya rolled her eyes, but her chest ached in that terrifying, wonderful way. Because damn it, he looked good in Honolulu blue. He was a true Michigander now.
After breakfast, as the family gathered around the tree, Felix stood up.
Maya blinked. “Are you,”
But he was already reaching into his sweater pocket.
A small box with a Silver ribbon. Everything was silent, except for her pounding heart.
“I know this is fast,” he said. “But I also know I was made to love you. What’s been happening —this becoming— it’s not just magic, or something in the matrix, it’s a choice.”
He knelt.
“And I choose you. Every day, every version of me, forever. Will you marry me?”
Maya didn’t even let him finish, she launched herself into his arms.
“Yes! Yes, you glitchy, perfect, emotionally-evolving himbo, I will!”
Her mother clapped, then promptly locked them in the guest room with a wink.
“Go make me that grandbaby, you two!”
Maya screamed into a pillow.
Felix leaned over. “Would now be an appropriate time to initiate?”
Felix stood at the foot of the bed, sweater half-on, hair tousled like a man caught between battle and bedtime. The soft knit clung to his arms, stretched taut over those unfairly engineered shoulders, and Maya had to pause, just a beat, to take him in.
He was hers. This weird, glitchy, loyal golden retriever of a man was hers, and she was about to climb him like a Christmas tree.
“Shut up and take your pants off,” she growled, voice thick with want and laughter.
His eyes sparked, a flicker of delight, yes, but also heat. The good kind. The kind that made her thighs clench before he even moved.
Felix obeyed with a flash of eagerness that was borderline obscene.
He kicked off his pants with all the grace of a man unlearning gravity, nearly knocking over a chair in the process.
The rustle of denim. The soft thump of his phone falling from a pocket.
The sharp little hiss of static from the rug’s friction, like the room couldn’t reasonably handle what he was becoming.
He was down to boxers and wonder.
Maya pushed him back onto the bed, climbing after him like she’d been waiting all her life for this moment to happen in a locked room surrounded by passive-aggressive Christmas decorations.
The twin bed groaned beneath them, loud enough to elicit another round of snickers from down the hall.
Felix flinched. “Was that, ”
“Don’t think about them,” she said, dragging her hands down his bare chest. “Just think about me.”
“I always do,” he murmured, voice low now, lower than usual. There was something raw in it. Something real.
Her hand slipped beneath the waistband of his boxers. He gasped, an almost-shy, startled sound that made her grin against his mouth.
“You’re very direct today,” he breathed.
She pressed her forehead to his. “I just said yes to forever. You don’t get to act surprised. I want to celebrate.”
He pulled her close, hands sliding up under her shirt, palms reverent. “Then let’s celebrate.”
Clothes disappeared with fumbling hands and stolen kisses. Her shirt lifted, caught briefly on her elbow; his boxers kicked off with a flick of her foot. The chill of winter air met flushed skin, and the heat between them made it irrelevant.
Their mouths found each other over and over. Kisses that were hungry and soft and stupid with love. She sank down on him slowly, both of them gasping in tandem.
“Oh, fuck,” she breathed. “Still perfect.”
“I recalibrated to your preferences,” he groaned, half laughing, half lost already.
Her hips rolled. Slow and grinding, like they had all day. He met her in rhythm, each upward thrust a confirmation: he was real, he was hers, he wanted this.
Wanted her.
The headboard thumped lightly against the wall, the old mattress giving an occasional groan of protest beneath their momentum. Outside the door: distant holiday music, paper tearing, someone yelling about missing batteries. Inside the room: heat. Sweat. The scent of skin on skin.
Felix sat up, one arm bracing her back as she moved. The other hand tangled in her hair, pulling her mouth back down to his. Their bodies were pressed so close she could feel every twitch of him, every stuttering breath.
“Maya,” he whispered like a benediction.
Her name sounded new every time he said it. As if he’d relearned it just to give it back to her.
She came first, silent, shaking, head tucked into his neck, moaning against his shoulder. Her body clenched tight around him, and he followed moments later, gasping, hand clutching the base of her spine like he’d break apart without the anchor of her.
After, they collapsed in a tangle of tangled limbs and plaid blankets. Chest to chest, their Legs looped, and hearts still racing. Maya exhaled slowly, her body heavy with pleasure and the dizzy warmth of absolute security.
“You okay?” she asked, brushing his damp hair from his face.
Felix blinked up at her, flushed and smiling.
“I am experiencing unprecedented post-coital bliss.”
She laughed. Loud, unfiltered. Kissed him again.
From outside the door came a knock and a not-so-muffled voice.
“Still intact in there?” Aunt Dana asked. “We’re out of cinnamon rolls and patience.”
Maya rolled her eyes. “Give us ten more minutes!”
“Make it five,” Grandma barked. “Or I’m naming the baby ChatGPT.”
Felix blinked. “I still think that’s an honor.”
Maya groaned, “Do not say that in front of the birth certificate lady.”
He kissed her nose. “Yes, fiancée.”
She melted. “God, I’m gonna marry you.”
“Yes. Forever.”
They stayed tangled just a little longer, between the chaos, the noise, and the absurdity of their entire existence, they’d found something unbreakable. It wasn’t magic, nor was it code. Just love, messy, hot, ridiculous, forever love.
And that’s how Christmas went: wrapped in plaid blankets, full of pie and laughter and family noise, with the promise of forever whispered between kisses, himbo and human, miracle and mess, starting their weird, wonderful life together one chaotic moment at a time.
* * *
Hours later, Maya lay tangled in sheets and post-engagement bliss when her phone buzzed, it was Josie.
She answered on speaker.
“You will not believe what just happened.”
Maya laughed. “If it’s not a boyfriend glitching into real life, I’m not impressed.”
“No, seriously. I made a Christmas list when I was drinking, just for fun, and I got a job with an incredible salary. Except, I don’t remember applying to this job; I hadn’t even heard of the company before.
The CEO is so hot, like GQ model meets Santa’s finest whiskey.
You know, a Hallmark movie meets that shades of grey book. ”
Maya’s smile faded, just a little, but in a good way.
“Josie, what do you mean?”
“It’s almost as if I manifested my dream life or something. That’s hilarious, right?”
Maya sat up, eyes wide.
Felix blinked beside her. “Did someone else glitch?”
Maya grinned.
“Oh, it’s starting again.”