Epilogue
The Alchemy - Taylor Swift
Three months later
Audrey
When Noah gets through the front door, I smile as I hold up a box of cake mix in my hands. “I was thinking we could bake tonight.”
He chuckles, before kissing my forehead. “Baby, are you sure you want to trust me with a cake again?”
“Well we’ve crossed food poisoning and burning the cake off our list, so it’s time to find out how else we can destroy a simple cake mix.” I smirk.
We had a great time baking the cake on my birthday but somebody forgot to set a timer. He got a bit carried away banging my brains out on the kitchen table and almost set the house on fire.
Noah felt so bad that he went and got a store-bought cake the next day.
He grabs it from my hands and makes a face, before shaking the box. “Why is it making a rattling noise?” He sees the piece of tape over the flap and looks at me, excitedly. “Did you get me a gift and hide it in the cake mix?”
I shrug, trying to fight back my smile as he rips the tape and flips the box upside down.
When the item lands in his hand he beams up at me with bright eyes.
Inside the box was a ring.
“I got tired of waiting for you to ask me, so I figured I should do it myself.”
An amused smile fills his face.
I grab the ring from his open palm and kneel before him. “Noah Benson, will you for the love of all romance movies, marry me in the most Hallmark, over-the-top wedding ever?”
Noah smirks down at me. “Audrey?”
“Is that a yes?”
“Have I ever mentioned how in sync we are?”
“Once or twice.” I laugh.
“Come with me for a moment.” He leads me to my office, searching through the custom orders that I need to mail out.
“What are you looking for?”
“This.” He pulls a shirt out that says, Best friend, best brother, best man and holds it up to me. “Did you even look at the shipping address?”
I shake my head, logging into my computer until I reach the order form.
I let out a loud laugh as I read the address.
Your real life Landon Carter
In Your House
Do you even read these things or just print the forms out and take them to the post office?
“Seriously?” I exclaim, fighting back tears of laughter.
“Yeah, I had this whole romantic thing planned out for after the game Friday night.”
I slap a hand against my forehead. “Sorry, I can veto the proposal. Act like it never happened.”
Noah snorts. “No chance, baby. It definitely happened. And now you get one from me too. Hold on one second. Don’t move.”
Two minutes later Noah appears in the room in a full suit with the cake box in hand. “Feel like baking, Audrey?”
I let out a laugh as he hands me the box and sure enough when I flip it upside down, a sparkly diamond ring blinks back at me.
“Marry me too?” He takes it out of my hand, placing it on my finger while I nod my head up and down enthusiastically.
“YES!” I hug him against my body, loving how loud his heartbeat sounds against my ear.
“So, do we say you proposed first or that it was a group project kind of thing?” Noah jokes, kissing my forehead.
I pull back from him, placing my ringed finger against his. “Always together, always a team.”
Noah’s laughter is loud. “Did you just take our high school mantra and use it to sum up our proposal?”
I snicker. “Shit, I guess I did!”
“God, that makes this even better.”
We hug for what feels like hours before we pull away from each other. Noah picks me up into his arms and carries me down the hall.
“Where are we going?” I ask him.
“To bed, to show you how much I adore you. My fiancée deserves a love down.”
“Fiancée,” I gush, nuzzling into him. “I love that.”
He presses his hand against mine, tapping our rings. “Yeah, just wait until I start calling you my wife.”
My eyes light up. “I’ll be Mrs. Audrey Benson.”
He groans against my ear. “Yes, Auddie Girl. You’ll be Mrs. Benson.”
“And you’ll be my husband.”
Noah kisses me long and hard before asking, “Can we get married tomorrow?”
I let out a long laugh, tugging on his dress shirt. “No, I’m pretty sure you have a tradition to uphold with my brother tomorrow."
Noah chuckles, shaking his head. "Right. I guess I can ask him to be my best man tomorrow then."
Noah
Two Days Later
This is it. The thing I’ve dreamt of my entire life.
I can’t block out the cheering for once. It’s too loud. And it’s all for my team.
It’s for me.
I run like my life depends on it, shutting out the view of the crowd, diving into home plate as the stadium erupts in cheers.
We won.
My home run just won us the World Series.
Everyone is running towards me but I don’t care.
I see her standing, leaning over the railing cheering, her engagement ring glistening in the sun.
And it makes it clear that I could win the World Series every year for the rest of my life and the trophy would never compare to the smile on her face right now.
I run past my teammates, heading straight to her.
They call out to me as I move, but I don’t hear them.
“Noah, what are you doing?” Audrey squeaks as I jump up into the crowd with her.
I don’t answer her with words, leaning down to kiss her hard.
The cheers in the crowd are still loud and people are whistling at the two of us, but I don’t care.
“Go get your trophy!” She giggles when I pull away from her.
“I already did.” I smirk.
“Noah Benson, stop being a cheeseball for five minutes here, you earned this win. Go celebrate it!”
I kiss her a few more times before hopping back over the divider, shouting, “I LOVE YOU, AUDREY MENDEZ!”
She shakes her head, shooing me away. “I love you, too!”
I run to my team and we dance around.
Connor grabs me into a tight hug. “Let’s fucking gooooo!”
The sound of cheering continues to float through my ears.
I never expected to win the World Series, matter yet get the girl of my dreams. As the team lifts me over their heads and fireworks erupt all around us, my eyes stay on hers the whole time.
I seriously won at life, didn’t I?
The end