“You are too,” they say at the same time and, right now, everything’s all right with the world.
Love—sometimes it really solves everything.
Natalie
Epilogue
“I have some big news for you two!” Sloane says as he walks inside the apartment, a bottle of expensive champagne tucked under his elbow.
I’m in the kitchen with Drake, taking care of dinner, and Sloane comes up behind us and smacks both of our asses at the same time. “I said I have big news,” he repeats, placing the bottle of champagne on the counter and grinning.
“Well? Out with it then!”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Dirty ‘Lil Angels just broke one hundred million dollars in revenue,” he says, barely able to contain his excitement. He grabs the bottle and pushes the cork out with a flick from his thumb, and it flies straight into the ceiling and then ricochets down to my feet.
“One hundred million?” I repeat, trying to do the math inside my head. That’s a lot of sales, especially for a company as young as mine. Well, I shouldn’t be this surprised; after all, my prototype was a complete success. But, still, one hundred million? I never expected to make that much money.
It’s been one year since launch, and a lot happened since then.
To start with, Mom is in jail. Federal charges of extortion and intent to defame were levied against her literally within hours after our press conference. We didn’t find out because…well, we were fucking. Remember?
She’s out of our lives forever.
Let’s talk about fun things.
About the companyI rented the whole floor of a building and set up a real Dirty ‘Lil Angels headquarters. I have almost two hundred people working for me now, and I figure I’ll have to open a new office somewhere in Europe soon. And perhaps another in Asia.
It’s crazy, I know, but that’s not even the best part. You see, we got married. Not in the States, of course, they’d never allow three people to love each other. That’d just be indecent. Yeah, right.
So, we did what we had to do. We flew to one of these crazy countries in Asia where everything goes, and held a private ceremony at the beach—close friends only. So, yeah, it’s not like the US government will ever recognize we’re married, but I couldn’t care less about it.
To be honest, I didn’t even care that much about getting married. But both Sloane and Drake wanted to walk up the altar arm-in-arm with me and, now that we did, I couldn’t be any happier. It was just a ceremony but, in a sense, it cemented what the three of us felt. And, besides, the ceremony was amazing.
After we returned state side, we all sold off our apartments and bought a bigger one at One57, the building where Sloane lived. Our apartment is so big that I sometimes lose myself in here—all right, all right, I’m exaggerating. But at three thousand square feet, I have to brag about it, don’t I? I m
ean, nine rooms? I feel like a princess.
“Let’s drink!” Sloane cries out, grabbing three glasses from the cupboard and lining them up on the counter. He fills them up, grabs one and then pushes another toward me. I just look down at the glass, hesitant, and then push it back to Sloane.
“I can’t,” I tell him, a smile creeping up on my lips. I guess now’s the time to let them know. Now, don’t look at me like that; I just found out this afternoon, and I’ve been thinking about how I should tell them. In the end, though, I guess I don’t need to be fancy about it, despite all of our money, we’re simple people, and that simplicity makes us happy.
“What? We’re celebrating! You have to drink,” Drake protests, downing his glass with one single gulp. And then his eyes widen. He takes one step back, looking at me as if I suddenly caught fire. “Holy shit.”
“What? What is it?” Sloane asks, looking from me to Drake with a confused expression on his face. Smiling, I place my hand on top of my belly.
“We’re having a baby,” I whisper, and Sloane grows so pale I think he might pass out.
“A baby? Like, you mean… You’re pregnant?” he mutters, his eyes widening as much as Sloane’s. “Gimme that,” he says, reaching for my abandoned glass and emptying it on the sink. Despite his bad boy persona, Sloane sure as hell can be the kindest man. “No more drinking for you.”
“And more for us,” Drake says excitedly, pouring himself another glass and laughing. “A baby! Jesus, can you imagine it? We’re going to be parents!”
“Parents,” Sloane whispers, more to himself than to us, allowing everything to sink in. I figure he never saw himself as a father, but the silly smile he has on his face right now tells me that he’s as happy as I am.
I smile inwardly, happiness flooding through me as I take in their reaction. I was a bit worried, you see? But that was me being silly. I was worried that they’d asked the dreaded ‘who’s the father?’, but I should’ve known better: they couldn’t care less about who’s the father. And, as far as they are concerned, they're absolutely right about that; they’re both the fathers of this child, and I know they’re both going to love him the same.
“Oh,” I cry out as Sloane sweeps me off my feet and picks me up from the floor. Carrying me in his arms, he walks out of the kitchen and then looks back at Drake over his shoulder.