Happenstance

epilogue

Several months later...

"H, are you sure this is fine?" asks Maca for the fifth time tonight. Or I think it's the fifth time. It could be the first or the tenth. I can't be sure.

"Of courseeeee!" I sing happily but she only looks worried. "This is part of the whole concept. If one of us isn't drunk it couldn't be Drunk Shakespeare, could it?" she laughs nervously and I give her my thumbs up to show her everything is perfectly fine.

For the summer I've been taking part of this new thing As You Like It decided to try. Every Tuesday night we have Drunk Shakespeare where we perform some scene from some play with the only condition that one of the actors has to be drunk and the rest have to deal with it and keep going. It's extremely funny most of the time and it gives a new twist to Shakespearean plays. Someone saw it somewhere, I don't remember who or where, but they decided to try it and I of course joined. Maca has also joined a few times, although she's never been the drunk one. Archie was last week and I almost peed myself laughing because he is the crying type.

Since that Sunday when Maca and I finally meet in person we've been together and I'm as happy as the first day when we got together. Since then we saw each other almost every day, even if it was for five minutes to grab a coffee before she started her classes or something. Now she's a graduate and she's working full time with our theatre company until she starts her Master's in creative writing. I'm totally rooting for her, I know she'll accomplish great things.

"Don't trip and kill yourself, okay?"

"Exactly," my sister Grace supports. When did she get here? Why is she here? I look at her with narrowed eyes. "You don't want to leave her a widow before I get the priest to get you two married."

"Grace!" I whine but Maca only laughs, shaking her head.

At some point she learnt of Grace's jokes and teasing and became another victim. It happened when Maca's friends came to visit. That day we decided that every time Moni is in town I'll send Grace to another country.

"Oh hush, you just make sure to survive tonight and I'll take care of the wedding."

I don't get to say another word because I'm called to go onstage, so I give Maca a hug and kiss her forehead before running backstage, tripping three times, falling once but still making it in once piece. Today I play Sebastian from Twelfth Night and at first I manage to say my lines, even if I'm barely standing and everything is moving. But then I'm forced to drink more alcohol and when I'm back on stage I get distracted.

I see Maca in the audience.

"Hey! Maca! Look at me, I'm here! I'm doing it! Macaaaaa!" I cry out and she covers her mouth, her eyes wide in horror, I think. "Macaaaaa! Look at me. I'm Sebastian." I pose trying to look great but I lose my footing and I end up falling. "Oops. I'm all right, though. Maca, I'm fine! Look, she's my girlfriend," I tell Antonio. "I'm sorry, Antonio, but I don't love you the same way. I love her. She's my girlfriend," I say pointing back at Maca. She looks so lovely there, blushing like that. "Her name is Macarena. Like the song!" I cheer before standing up and dancing... or trying to dance to that popular and catchy old song. "Something like that," I mumble and then I laugh out loud and wave energetically at Maca. The other actors are trying to get me back in the scene but everything moves and I don't know why they are doing that. We should all just sit and watch Maca being lovely.

Man, I'm so lucky to be with her. I think I saved the country in my past life.

"Macaaaa!" I cry one more time. "I love you, you know that?"

She laughs and looks everywhere, blushing even more and she looks just so beautiful. "I know," she replies and I notice how the girl next to her, I think it's Steph, elbows her to push her to say something else. "I love you too, H."

"Yay!" I clap too excitedly. "She loves me, did you hear that, Antonio? She loves me!" I actually giggle. "My post-it girl loves me!"

I throw my arms in the air in one fast motion but I lose my balance and I end up falling backwards. That's the moment I pass out. When I wake up again I have the most horrendous headache of history, but I'm in my flat and Maca is by my side with a glass of water and some paracetamol. I take that and I still need a few minutes before sitting and facing her.

"Was it too terrible?" I ask because for now everything is a blurry memory.

"Oh, don't worry," she replies and I start to smile. "Grace recorded it all. How you danced La Macarena and confessed your love to me until the moment you passed out on stage," she tells me and my horror makes my headache worse. She laughs out loud before taking the glass from my hands.

"I'm sorry," I say, feeling so embarrassed for doing all that.

"It's okay. It was kinda cute," she smiles at me. "Just make sure you're never the drunk actor again."

"Never again," I promise. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

She smiles at me again before leaning in a kissing my lips shortly. "Just in case you don't remember, I said I love you, too."

I smile widely before grabbing her in my arms and pulling her to lie with me on my bed. She struggles a bit but then gives up and just cuddles next to me. I kiss the top of her head without wiping the smile out of my lips. I look ahead and I see my wall with all the post-its we exchanged and many pictures we've taken together. I look at what is our wall and my smile widens as I hug her tighter. I still can't believe everything started with a post-it and now here we are, together, doing different things every time we get a chance like joining Drunk Shakespeare and finding new places in our own city that we didn't know existed. We do all those things together now and on our way we always leave a post-it behind, hoping to get a smile from a stranger. Turns out, these can be actually quite powerful and meaningful when you fill them with the right words. Great things can come out from a simple piece of sticky note. These built the bridge between Maca and I until we finally reached each other and here we are now, and here we'll stay because I'm still not letting her go and I never will. She'll forever be my post-it girl.

The End

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And that is how this story finishes! However, please, do read the acknowledgement to know more about extra content for this.

Last dedication to the protagonist of the story, my friend @MacaintheTARDIS

Bel, xx