Epilogue OneKami
Two years later…
I opened my eyes, and the soft rumbling sound brought me a feeling of infinite peace. I wasn’t sure at first if I’d be able to handle this lifestyle. But after almost a year of living on the road, every day was full of joy and a thousand wonderful surprises.
We had fun outfitting the bus. Yes, the camper ended up being too small for us, so we bought a bus, the classic yellow bus all of us used to ride to school in.
We had to save a long time, and it took tons of work. I sold one of my best paintings to help Thiago pay for it. It was worth it. We turned it into our home, and a beautiful home it was. It was no mansion, of course, but we were together, and that was all we needed. He took care of the design and the grunt work; I focused on making it nice. And a year after starting our relationship over, we said goodbye to everyone we knew and set off on our adventure. I painted wherever we went, and Thiago worked on his start-up. He was in the early stages still, but he’d found three investors for a luxury RV rental project, and he was excited about the idea. If it took off, we’d stop having to pinch pennies so much, but we weren’t in a rush: We were happy, we weren’t lackinganything, and I loved waking up somewhere different every day. We went to art fairs where I tried to sell my work, and between that and Thiago’s job, we made ends meet.
I woke up, propped my head up, and looked to the front of the bus. He was sitting at the wheel with a cup of coffee in the cup holder and his eyes on the road, leading…where?
I didn’t know. I liked him surprising me with our next destination. I got out of bed, put on my bunny rabbit slippers, and smiled as I saw the breakfast he had prepared for me on the table. He always made breakfast, and he always arranged the eggs and avocado on my toast so they looked like a face. I grabbed my plate and my coffee and sat next to him. The road stretched on into infinity before us, and he looked over at me with excitement in his eyes.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said, turning for a kiss on the lips.
“Where are we headed?” I asked.
He laughed. He never told me. But I always asked.
“You’ll see. You’re going to love it.”
I stared at him in silence. I couldn’t help it. The way we loved each other was…I don’t know how to explain it, really, but our love was bountiful. I felt as if my heart would burst with love every time he looked at me. I knew that he felt exactly the same about me.
How sweet, right? It’s sweet when love is mutual, when it’s healthy and respectful, when it’s brave, passionate, and fun. Fun, especially. With time, I learned that Thiago had that in common with Taylor. Hewasfun, even if he’d hidden that part of himself for a long time.
Thiago was that guy who cracks jokes with a straight face, making him all that much more hilarious. And he loved me above all else, and he treated me like a queen.
It was hard at first to wipe the slate clean and start over. We argued a lot, then we’d patch things up in the worst possible way—or the best, depending on how you look at it: through sex.
A point came when we had to sit down and let out everything that was inside of us. It was a hard day, but it marked a before and after. We yelled at each other and cried, but then we consoled each other, and since then—since then, we’ve been rolling along fine. Literally, now that we’re living on the road.
We barely saw Taylor that first year. We knew all he had accomplished, of course, because we talked on the phone, and I was happy to hear he was living his dream. He never had problems finding a date, but it made Thiago and me sad to realize that he still hadn’t managed to fall in love. We felt guilty—me, especially.
We reached our destination: the Grand Canyon. But I was surprised when we parked the bus and Thiago told me we wouldn’t be sleeping there. That was strange, because we always tried to save as much as possible, but at the same time, I wasn’t going to say no to the fancy hotel where he had reserved two nights without telling me.
Our room had stunning views of the desert. As I was unpacking, looking for my toiletry bag before hopping in the shower, he went out to the balcony. To smoke, of course. He still needed his cane once in a while, but for the most part, he no longer used it. He’d gotten strong again, after his body had been so ravaged by the coma, and it turned me on and made me feel protected at the same time.
He leaned on the railing and enjoyed the view. But for me, just then, there was no sight better than him. I dropped what I was doing and went out there, standing beside him. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, kissing me on the head.
We stood there admiring the landscape, then he asked me something strange: “Are you happy with me?”
Before answering, I looked into those precious green eyes. “What about you? Are you happy with me?”
He grinned and asked, “Are you ever going to stop answering my questions with another question?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s just one of my things.”
“Kam, you’ve made me the happiest man in the world. Do you have any idea how many times I told myself I’d never get along with anyone? How many times I believed in my heart of hearts that no one could love me?”
I shook my head, but before I could respond, he kissed me and continued: “You have no idea. You have no idea how you make me feel—how much I love you. I love you so much it hurts sometimes. It hurts because it makes me feel weak. Not in a bad sense, but still, weak. My life, my heart, they’re in your hands, Kam. You could break me into a million pieces just like that, and that used to terrify me, but at the same time, you were the one person who managed to reach me when I was practically dead. Do you realize how crazy that is?”
“It’s just a reflection of how much I love you,” I said.
He cupped my face and brought his lips to mine slowly. “Forever, right?” he asked.
I smiled. “Forever and beyond.”
“What’s beyond forever?” he asked.
