Connections | ✔️

Epilogue

Valerie P.O.V.

I gazed around my beautifully decorated store, reminiscing the months of planning it took for my dream to come alive during and after my last semester of college. From finding the boutique space to launching the online website, all the work was materialised here, in real life.

After roughly two and a half years of being open for business, my little boutique was going extremely well. We stocked all sorts of different clothing brands as well as my own specially designed pieces. I had customers coming in to the shop and loving the things they wore.

That's all I ever wanted.

For people to feel good when they wore my designs, to spread and share that positivity.

It was awesome to see the power of transformation. I loved being my plain old self, but I loved getting all dressed up for myself too. It was like how people liked makeup- in a sense. It was like expressing your creativity, and expressing some self-empowerment, but through the way you styled yourself. That's the beauty of living- it's okay to wear sweats and old t-shirts on a friday night and do nothing, but it was also okay to dress up fiercely and go out. You could do both, but it would still be you either way.

Apart from the boutique, I also did a few styling jobs on the side, especially for my friends when the opportunity came up. For now though, I was loving running my own business. I also collaborated with Carter sometimes to help him with new ideas for his ever-evolving merch company.

I bid goodbye to some of my employees to start heading home for the evening. I had to make sure I came home on time tonight. I rolled up to the beautiful house Carter and I were currently renting together in L.A. for the past two years and wandered upstairs. After over a year of dating, we wanted to move in together. I was worried it would change our relationship, but it didn't- not in any bad ways at all.

Luckily for me, I had a few decent hours to get ready- play some music and relax, and put in a little more effort to doll myself up. We have both been so busy lately, he scheduled a date night for us later this evening to ensure we spent quality time together. He's such an incredible boyfriend.

As well as being my incredible boyfriend, Carter was still a huge influencer, and posted amazing content online. He had even progressed to investing in small businesses alongside his own. Our lifestyle we had built was amazing, we got work done but we could also spend precious time hanging out with friends and family whenever we liked, especially since we collaborated often.

I finally trusted in the life process, and let things fall into place for me. It hadn't always been easy, but I learnt to tackle the issues as it came along in a healthy manner, and learnt to talk about my problems and ask for help whenever I needed it.

"Hey baby, you home?" Carter called out, as I heard his footsteps echo along the hallway.

"Yeah! I'm in here," I called back from the bedroom as I finished slipping on a dress for tonight.

"Hi gorgeous," he stood behind me, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"Hey," I turned my head to peck his cheek. "How was your day?"

"Mhm good," he murmured, placing a kiss on my temple. "Better now, though. How was yours?"

I smiled whole-heartedly at his sweetness, I have never been more in love. "Yeah it was good, the sales ran high today. We also have this amazing new label we've been dealing with to stock in the store as well."

"That sounds good Val, I'm so proud of you," he grinned.

"Thankyou. I couldn't have done it without you." I spun around fully to wrap my arms around his neck. "I love you."