“I know, Alicia… I love you too. You know that,” he tells me, stroking my lower back softly. With a grin, he continues: “We have a whole life of this ahead of us.”
Yes, a whole life together. Me and him, till death do us part.
Oh, how I love this man.
149
Epilogue As Told By Alicia
“So you scared?” Ashely asks me as we sit down across the street from work at Il Fornia Deep Dish.
“Scared about what, babe?” I ask Ashely, rolling my eyes as I lean back and let the waiter place our personal deep dish pizzas in front of us.
“Duh, you only got promoted today Alicia,” Ashley replies back giving me an eye roll of her own. “I mean like one year ago you basically almost lost your job.”
“Oh my God, you remember Nadia Moore?” I ask her, shuddering. “I can’t believe she stole all that money from Derek.”
Ashley takes her knife and fork and starts cutting into her deep dish pizza with gusto. She ordered the Italian Sausage and I got the pepperoni and bell peppers. It’s greasy, cheesy. And it tastes so good. But…
“By the way, babe,” Ashley says to me as she pops a piece of pizza into her mouth. “I know you’re like the youngest Vice President in the history of Carter Jeffries now, all promoted and whatnot and still in your 20s, but we can’t keep eating like this.”
Gimme a break, you know?
I mean, sure, I’m popping the pizza in my mouth, but it’s not like it was my idea to go get deep dish pizza.
“Ya babe, I’m so with you, we gotta do better eating wise, because I don’t know how many more hours of Pilates we can really do before we end up just passing out.”
Alicia laughs to herself. Is she laughing at me? Oh my God, I can’t believe it!
“What the fuck, babe?” I ask her.
“Like, I think you can eat as much greasy food as you want with all the fucking you’re getting from your billionaire boyfriend,” she teases me. “If you get him an extra 10% return will he maybe do anal?”
Ya, in case you were wondering, I’m still an anal virgin. I haven’t given it up.
But I mean, it’s not like it’s been boring sex.
Far from it. OMG. It’s like life-altering sex. It’s like we’re one person. It’s like everything I could have dreamed of.
“Seriously babe, it’s like you're like living in a romance novel or something, “ Ashley says to me and looks out the window. “I just hope that I’m as happy as you one day.”
I mean, I know that Ashley is the first to tease me and such, but something about her in this instance lets me know that she’s genuinely happy for me.
And you know, it does feel good. I’m so much better off than I was a year ago. I have a man who totally loves me. I have my career. It really does seem to be possible to have it all.
It’s been a great year. Just in case you need a quick rundown of what happened to my life over the last 12 months, let me just let you in on the key details.
So, Nadia Moore is in jail. She lost her securities license. Then she got indicted for fraud and grand larceny as well as conspiracy.
I kept working at Carter Jeffires. Ashley went to work for a fashion magazine in Times Square called Femina.
I still live in my apartment but spend most of the time with Derek. I mean, I should probably not renew my lease when it expires next month. I’d probably save some money.
Work? It’s been good, I guess. I mean, being part of the team that brought down an international con artist and thief put a lot of wind behind my sails. I’ve traded nods with the CEO because he’s recognized me.
I know, right? It’s insane. Like I’ll be walking down with my co-workers and Preston Cabot and his Managing Directors will be walking by and he’ll recognize me and nod and be like “Alicia,” and I’ll nod and say, “Hi, Mr. Cabot!”
Totally raises your street credibility among your peers.