Those are some words I never thought I’d utter.
Words that I always hoped would come true.
The end
EPILOGUE
Alex
Three years later
Over the last few years,I learned to control my emotions, especially the ones that are more on the negative side. When I feel panic setting in, I close my eyes, take a deep breath in and think of everything and everyone that makes me happy.
Mona Higgins is always at the top of that list.
And today, we’re getting married.
The last three years have been chaotic, but they showed me what unconditional love felt if I gave it a chance. We’ve had our ups and quite a few downs, during which Mona denied me the opportunity to run and hide like I used to.
One thing she absolutely refused to let me help her with has been money. She continued working insane hours that drove me crazy. Then, about a year into it, I asked her to move in with me.Since we were now splitting the cost of the apartment, she could afford to not work overtime.
About a year after that, we decided to move out of the city, in the same area that the rest of our friend group loved. It took a bit longer than expected, primarily because Mona refused to go until she had another job lined up out there.
In the end, my friends came through for me one again. Ray, who owns a towing business, was in desperate need of a receptionist, as the one he had for years had quit upon getting pregnant. He offered Mona the job, and she jumped at it. It offered decent pay and benefits.
Cal and Evie offered us to stay in her grandmother’s old house until we found something else that we liked. We paid rent, which we split in half, and, other than a pesky old neighbor named Gertrude, who had an unhealthy obsession with seeing me naked, as well as talking to Mona about my dick, it was a perfect location. Mona thought Gertrude was hilarious. Me, not so much.
“That’s a rite of passage,” Cal assured me. “She saw me naked once when Evie lived there. And I’m pretty sure she got a look at Ray, too, when Hayden rented the place for a while.”
That was not reassuring at all, but it gave me the push I needed to talk Mona into buying our own place. Since she couldn’t afford to participate financially, it was decided that she’d give me money toward the mortgage, like a rent payment of sorts. While it felt wrong, I understood why she insisted on it. I was also proud of her for doing it, and I appreciated her still thinking about me and how I felt about money. Meanwhile, I took the money she gave me every month and put it into an investment account under her name. I would grow it, and one day, I will let her know of its existence because one thing is for sure. She will never hurt for money under my watch.
“You ready, man?” Kyle about knocks me out when he pats me on the back. He looks like he’s about to bounce off the walls.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
He apparently doesn’t like that answer. He leans back and gives me a quick assessing look.
“I’m going to give you a heads up because you’re my best friend and I love you,” he says. “But if you leave Mona at the altar, there’s no coming back from it, brother. Zara and the others will kill you on the spot.” He pauses for dramatic effect. “Do you understand what I’m telling you? You will not leave this building alive.”
I try to hold back from laughing, but I can’t. A snort threatens to erupt from my chest until I let it all out, the sound reverberating around the room.
“You’d make a good girl mafia spokesperson,” I tell him.
He frowns. “What’s a girl mafia or their spokesperson?”
“A group of girls who make all the decisions, and they use a simple man to spread the word about all the damage they are capable of doing,” I explain.
“A simple man?” His voice goes up a couple of octaves. “Isn’t that synonym with stupid? Zara would never let them call me stupid.”
I shake my head at him, knowing that he’s only trying to distract me. Apparently, everyone is worried that I’d bounce.
“I’m not going anywhere, ass.” I take a deep breath in, a sense of calm taking over my senses. “I can’t wait to tie Mona to me for eternity. There’s nothing that could stop me right now.”
He watches me intently as he rocks back and forth on his heels, most likely trying to figure out whether I’m lying or not. A soft knock at the door breaks the slight tension in the room.
“Hey, everything okay in here?” Zara gives us both a worried look.
I smile at her. “Perfect. How’s Mona?”
