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Tears prickle my eyes. My mom walks down the hall. Kris, Klaus, and Nick hug her. I can tell she’s flustered by it, but she has a huge smile.
“We’ve never seen you happier, honey.” My mom adds. “And that’s all we want.”
I swallow hard. Have I misunderstood my parents this entire time? Was my dad mad at me for leaving them for so long, not for choosing a different life than them?
I pull them both into a deep hug. It’s the most physical contact we’ve had in years, and it suddenly feels possible that the broken piece between us could one day be stitched back together. “Thank you,” I whisper as I loosen my embrace around both their necks.
“Now go have a nice New Year’s celebration,” my mom shoos me away. “Me and your dad need our alone time too, you know.”
I laugh out loud. “Ew!”
Kris throws his arm around me. “Come on, wifey. Anything you need, we’ll get you a new one. Let’s not wait another second to get the celebration started.”
And I know that’s the tame version of Kris commanding me to get in the car right fucking now so we can put our mouths all over each other.
And while I take his commands gladly, I also take my own now.
“I’ll be down in a second. I need my camera to capture the celebrations.” And that’s my tamest way of saying that I need to get my camera so I can have new material to touch myself to when we’re far away from each other again.
When we file into the car, I take a long breath in relief to be away from my parents and back in the presence of my dream men.
“You must really like me if you’re willing to spend New Year’s Eve in suburban Wisconsin,” I laugh.
“Wifey, I think it should be pretty obvious by now that we really, really like you.” Klaus runs his hands up my neck and gives me a long, deep kiss in the backseat. Kris is driving the rental car and Nick is navigating.
“You need to do your thing right now, and we understand that,” Nick turns around to look at me. “But on holidays, you’re ours. We will come find you wherever in the world you are.”
“Is that a promise?” I lean forward and run my hands through his hair. He nods as our eyes stay locked.
“And what about birthdays?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Non-national holidays?”
“Absolutely.”
“Half-birthdays?”
“Half, whole, one-quarter. If you’re there, we will be too.”
I laugh and give Nick a deep kiss. In my heart, I know where this crazy thing we have is going. Maybe not right away, but eventually, it’s going to feel like every day is a holiday because we’re going to be spending our days together. Some things you know to your very core, and for me, I know this.
EPILOGUE - NICK
Two Years Later
Nick
I pace around the airport gate nervously.
“You’re sure this is the right gate?” I ask Klaus for the hundredth time.
“Nick, get it together, man.” He shakes his head at me.
I get antsy when I’m nervous. We were supposed to only have three posters waiting for Holly when she exits the plane on her layover in Charles de Gaulle Airport. A posterboard for each of us with four very important words. Instead, I’ve been madly scribbling away on the extra posterboards I brought and recruiting passersby to hold them up alongside us. The more people I’m puling into our plan, the more nervous I am.
Holly has no idea we’re here. She’s on her way back to our home in Texas from a trip photographing a new hotel in Morocco. It was a quick trip and she’s expecting to get home to us as soon as possible. Little does she know we have other plans. We landed here about an hour ago and never exited the airport. We’ve been preparing to surprise her.
