Epilogue

Epilogue
FOUR YEARS LATER
The cab stopped in front of our apartment building, and for a few seconds, neither Elias nor I moved.

We had just returned from our two-week honeymoon in Paris.

Paris was beautiful. We had walked along the Seine, visited museums and galleries, eaten at little restaurants, taken countless photographs, and spent slow mornings in bed because we had nowhere else to be.

Now we were home.

We got married a month ago. Every member of both our families had been there.

Everyone who mattered to us had gathered to celebrate.

Everyone except my grandfather. He had gone to be with the Lord two years earlier at the age of ninety-two.

I still missed him.

I wished he could have seen me standing beside Elias on our wedding day. I knew he would have been proud.

Elias opened the trunk and pulled out one of our suitcases.

I grabbed the other.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry that?"

"I've got it."

"You said that yesterday and almost dropped it."

I looked at him.

"I was tired."

"You were trying to carry three bags."

"Exactly."

He laughed.

We walked into the building and stepped into the elevator.

Elias pressed the button for the fifth floor.

As the doors closed, I looked at him.

He looked tired from the flight.

I probably did too.

But he was smiling.

I couldn't stop smiling either.

Four years.

Four years since we had left college.

Four years since we had stood together wondering what life outside university would look like.

We had moved to New York immediately after graduation.

I had been lucky enough to get accepted into New York University for my master program.

It hadn't been easy. The workload had been demanding, and there were nights when I wondered whether I had taken on too much.

But I finished my master's degree a year ago.

My grades had been excellent, and shortly after graduation, I received a position at the university in the Business Administration department.

I still remembered staring at the offer letter when I first received it.

Then I called Elias.

He answered immediately.

I hadn't even managed to say hello before he heard the excitement in my voice.

He screamed.

Actually screamed.

I still teased him about it.

Elias had kept to his dream too.

He worked at one of the biggest galleries in New York for three years.

He learned everything he could.

Gallery management.

Exhibitions.

Artist relationships.

Sales.

Networking.

Then, last year, he finally did what he had talked about since college.

He opened his own gallery.

I still remembered standing beside him on opening night.

He had looked around the room at his own paintings hanging on the walls.

People had walked through the doors to see his work and the work of artists he represented.

He looked at me afterward with tears in his eyes.

"We actually did it."

I hugged him.

"You did it."

He shook his head.

"We did."

The elevator stopped.

The doors opened.

We stepped onto the fifth floor.

Our apartment was at the end of the hallway.

It wasn't enormous.

It wasn't some luxurious penthouse overlooking Manhattan.

But compared with the tiny apartment we had shared in college, it felt like another world.

We had a proper bedroom, a comfortable living room, a decent kitchen, a small workspace for me, and a separate studio area where Elias could work without turning the entire living room into an art room.

It was ours.

That mattered more than its size.

I unlocked the door.

Before I could turn the handle, Elias stepped behind me.

"Wait."

I turned.

"What?"

He smiled.

"Welcome back home, darling."

Then he wrapped his arms around me.

I laughed softly and hugged him back.

"I can't believe we're finally married."

"Me too."

I held him tighter.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

I closed my eyes.

His arms around me felt familiar.

Safe.

After everything, this was still the person I wanted to come home to.

We eventually pulled apart.

Elias looked at me.

"You missed me."

"I did."

"You were gone for two weeks with me."

"That doesn't mean I couldn't miss you."

He laughed.

"That makes no sense."

"It makes perfect sense."

He kissed my forehead.

"Come on. Let's get inside before you start saying stranger things."

I opened the door.

We carried our luggage inside and left it near the bedroom.

The apartment looked exactly as we'd left it.

Our wedding photograph stood on the shelf in the living room.

We had taken it after the ceremony.

Both of us were dressed formally, standing shoulder to shoulder and smiling at the camera.

I walked over and picked it up.

Elias came beside me.

"You keep staring at that picture."

"I like it."

"So do I."

I looked at him.

"We're really married."

He smiled.

"Yes."

I laughed.

"I still feel like we're playing house."

"Four years after college and one month after our wedding?"

"Sometimes."

He took the photograph from me and placed it back on the shelf.

Then he turned toward me.

"You remember our college apartment?"

"Of course."

"The little kitchen?"

"Yes."

"The couch?"

"The one we called our love couch?"

He laughed.

"That couch."

I smiled.

"We thought that apartment was everything."

"It was everything."

I nodded.

"It was."

We had grown up there.

We had argued there.

We had forgiven each other there.

We had cooked together, studied together, celebrated successes, survived disappointments, and learned how to love each other while we were still trying to understand who we were becoming.

And somehow, all those years later, we were still doing it.

Only now I had a master's degree.

Elias owned a gallery.

We lived in New York.

Our families had grown closer.

And Grandpa was still part of our story, even though he wasn't here to see this chapter.

I walked toward Elias.

He opened his arms.

I stepped into them.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I love you too."

He kissed me.

I closed my eyes and held him.

The future still had plenty of unknowns.

There would be difficult days.

New decisions.

New responsibilities.

New dreams.

But I had learned something during the years since college.

I didn't need to know exactly what the future would look like.

I only needed to know who I wanted beside me when I got there.

And I already knew.

Elias is home.