“Are you kidding?” I say, wanting to laugh. “Of course we’ll move in with you.”
“Not in my apartment building, I mean in the actual apartment. You’d be sharing it with me.”
“Well, you’d be sharing it with me. And a five-year-old.”
“But that’s a yes?”
I break out into a stupid grin. “That’s a yes.”
He kisses me, fast and deep and beautifully. Then we make our way upstairs to my soon-to-be-ex apartment.
By luck – or bad babysitting skills – Ava is still awake, playing a game with Kayla.
“Bram!” she says surprised, and runs over to him. He picks her up and gives her a big bear hug.
“What are you doing up, little one? It’s past your bedtime.” He eyes Kayla. “Have you been giving Aunt Kayla trouble?”
I smile at the way he’s such a natural around her. He puts her back down on the ground and she looks at him shyly.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she says.
“She wouldn’t sleep,” Kayla fills in.
Bram grins at them both and then crouches down to Ava’s level. “Listen, Ava. I have an important big girl question for you. Are you ready for it?”
She nods, mouth grim and looking overly serious. “I’m ready.”
“How would you like to move in with me? Your mom will be there too.”
Her eyes widen and she breaks into a smile. She glances up my way.
“Is this true?”
“Yes, angel. If you say that we can, we can both live with Bram.”
“What do you say?” Bram asks.
Ava actually looks like she’s going to cry. She throws her little arms around Bram’s neck and says, muffled, “Yes.”
My heart, my soul, my ovaries are all simultaneously combusting.
This man.
This damn man.
I hear a sniffle from beside me and Kayla is actually crying. Kayla who never cries.
“Kayla,” I say, in mock surprise. “You’re not soulless after all.”
She glares at me and angrily wipes a tear away. “I’m just happy that you guys are finally leaving.” But then she huffs off to the kitchen yelling, “This calls for champagne!” over her shoulder.
It calls for a lot of things.
But most of all, it calls for me to count my blessings. Because standing here, surrounded by the people I love most, I realize I have a ton of them.
“Bram,” Ava says, pulling on his sleeve. “When we move in, can I have a trampoline?”
I roll my eyes. She’s been asking for one for as long as she’s learned how to pronounce it properly.
“We’ll see,” Bram says good-naturedly.
“Can I have a pony too? Mommy won’t let me have a pony.”
He looks at me and smiles. “We’ll have to see about that one, too. I think your mum is going to be calling a lot of the shots.”
She pauses, thinking.
Then. “Bram, can I have a bugosaur?”
“I don’t even know what that is.”
I laugh. “Ava, if you want, you can have a bugosaur.”
“Yay!” she cries out and then runs to our bedroom. Thank God for fictional creatures.
Kayla brings over the champagne and we each take a flute. We raise them in the air for a toast.
“To new beginnings,” Kayla says. “And getting my apartment back.”
“To love,” I say. “And not giving up on it.”
“To Nicola’s arse,” Bram says, “and the fact that I’ll see more of it.”
I roll my eyes but I clink to that anyway.
We finish our drinks and then it’s time for Bram to go home. I stand outside in the hall with him, exchanging one long, sweet kiss, his hands wrapped around my waist, my fingers in his thick, soft hair.
“Tomorrow,” he says, murmuring into my neck, “you’ll come live with me.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll be all yours.”
And the day after that.
And the day after that.
I’ll be his forever.
EPILOGUE
Nicola
Six Months Later
“Bram-a-lama-ding-dong!” Ava yells at the top of her lungs.
Matthew can’t help but join in. “Bram-a-lama-ding-dong!”
The two of them run ahead while Taylor yells at them to “come back, where do you think you are, Disneyland?”
Because of course, yes, we are in Disneyland. We try and go every time we make the trip down to visit Taylor, Irving and Matthew.
“Don’t you find it wrong that the kids keep using the word dong?” Bram whispers to me, as we make our way through the crowds.
I giggle. “You’re a pervert.”
“I’m serious. And you’re on Team Perv too, missy.”
It’s Christmas time and Disneyland is in full swing with the decorations and festivities and the SoCal sunshine is such a welcome respite to all of San Francisco’s grey. The more we visit Matthew and crew, the more I get attached to the area. I may not want to live in San Bernardino, but anywhere on the coast would be just fine, and no more expensive than SF.
But Bram’s making some real progress with his building, so we’re probably staying put in the city for the time being. Thanks to the backing of Lachlan, his rugby-playing cousin and wannabe tycoon, and his temporary wooing of a local heiress, they were able to start up a non-profit and have money rolling in to not only pay off the mortgage and provide housing to those in need, but also the potential to open another development.
Now, Lachlan is back in Scotland and he took Kayla back with him. It’s a long and crazy story of how they got together— and one I didn’t see coming—but it seems that Kayla finally met her match in that macho Scot. I just keep thinking she’ll arrive back home in tears, wanting to talk to me and Steph about her drama but so far so good.
Obviously I moved out of Kayla’s apartment, so at least I know she wasn’t fleeing the country on account of me. Ava and I are happily living with Bram while my old place is rented out at a low-rate to someone who really needs it.
And now, now things are finally back on track. They feel right. It’s all coming together. As cheesy as this is to say, and yeah, maybe it’s a bit presumptuous too, we’re starting to feel like a family. When I’m not at home, Bram usually is, so we take turns caring for Ava. She hasn’t had an incident since and has been really good. I know her disease is something we’ll always have to watch out for and monitor, at least until she gets old enough to do it herself.
I’ve gone back to just working nights at the Lion. I did the assistant manager thing for long enough but the more I worked, the less time I had to take my designs to the next level. Bram saw my frustration and said that if I made it my goal to concentrate 100% on my clothing line, that I could quit the bar and he’d take care of me. Naturally my pride didn’t like that very much, so we compromised. I still work there as a bartender but I only do nights three times a week. The rest of the time, I’m working on my career.
I think my next leap is happening soon. It involves me renting a space in a warehouse for a week, but Stephanie guaranteed that if I could get a line of t-shirts out, she’d carry them in her online store and help me find other distributors as well.
It’s all baby steps for us, but it’s happening.
In due time, as Bram would say.
Bram would also say, it’s Bramtastic.
“You guys are the slowest couple I’ve ever met,” Taylor yells at us, waving for us to get our legs moving and hurry up. We’re walking down the fake Hollywood street in California Adventure and Ava and Matthew have spotted Mike and Sully from Disney’s Monster’s Inc. walking around. Though there are two years between Ava and Matthew, they get along great and their one love in common is dinosaurs (well, actually now it’s monsters, which is why they’re going apeshit for the poor hot people trapped in the costumes).