He nods matter-of-factly. “Good to know.” He smirks and turns, looking back at Sarah. “I think we should get a pet. The apartment needs a pet, I think?” he asks, and I chuckle.
“You don’t like my apartment anymore? You said that you couldn’t let someone else rent that apartment, so you bought the entire building because you loved the place so much. Then you moved in with me, and now you’re saying it’s not good enough?”
He laughs. “No, not at all. I love our place. I’m just saying I think now that I’m the owner of the apartment, and I make the rules, I say we can have a fish or something.”
I nod. “Oh, a fish. Well, a fish I can do.”
“Or maybe a stick insect?”
“Oh, yes! I want a stick insect,” I say excitedly.
He chuckles and shakes his head.
“What?” I ask.
“Just us. One minute we're talking about babies and marriage, and the next, stick insects. You know we’re weird, right?”
I turn him to face me. “You know I love our kind of weird?”
“You know I love you?”
“I know. You’re kinda perfect for me.”
“A ten out of ten?” he asks.
I roll my eyes and nod. “Yes, Matt, you’re my ten out of ten.”
He chuckles and pulls me to him, holding me close and resting his forehead on mine. “And you, Alex, will always be, undeniably, one hundred percent perfection.”
Epilogue
MATT
Six Years Later
It’s our first wedding anniversary today, and as I look back at the picture of me holding Alex next to Nate and Ria at our double wedding, I remember it fondly. It was such a huge day. It seemed like such an incredible idea for us to have a joint wedding, since we wanted it around the same time, and we are such good friends. Well, family. Apparently, it isn’t highly unusual for twins to have joint weddings, so we thought it was a cool idea. The girls loved the suggestion, since they could get ready together and share the day as best friends.
Alex is in the bathroom, and I sit on the bed, waiting for her to pee, yet again. I smirk, shaking my head as I hear the flush, and she steps out of the bathroom, sighing like she’s annoyed at the world.
“You okay, babe?” I ask, and she nods.
“Yeah, just sick of peeing. I didn’t think it would start this early,” she says.
I stand and walk over to her, planting a kiss on her forehead. “I love you no matter how many times you need to pee.”
She dramatically rolls her eyes and sighs. “Thanks, but that doesn’t help my bladder.”
I kiss her again and lead her toward the door. “C’mon, let’s go, we’re gonna be late.”
“Do we have to go?” she asks, and I furrow my brows and stop, looking into her eyes.
“Babe, it’s gonna be fine. I’m gonna be with you the whole time, I promise.”
She groans and picks up her bag, and then we head for the door. Before we leave, I wave to the stick insects on the way out, and she chuckles at me as we head down the flight of stairs to the waiting car. Scott and Dwayne are there. I’m taking no chances at the moment because even though the apartment has security at the front and no one else lives in the building anymore, with Recoil shooting to epic stardom—due to the release of our latest album and the tour we just completed—we are hot property right now.
The album did exceptionally well thanks to the help we had from Alex, who seems to have some great musical ideas. The way she twists things and morphs them from what we would typically do, then tweaks them slightly, giving us an edgier new sound, well, it sent us from good to great overnight. Recoil needed her as much as I did, so as well as working at the gallery, she helps us at the office.
Alex is a fantastic asset.
