Dear Universe, ✔

Epilogue Part 3.

At a loss for words, I stand there and stare at him. I haven't seen him in a week, and while seven days isn't really that long, his appearance has changed drastically in those seven days. I can tell he hasn't slept and I can see that he's just as miserable as I am. 

I turn to close the door behind me, but Ian mistakes it for me leaving.

 "Annie." The break in his voice breaks me and I finally understand what his mom was trying to tell me - he would never give up. When I turn back to him there's tears threatening to fall from his tired eyes. 

I step closer to him and he stands completely still, his eyes glued to mine as I get close enough to raise my hand and place it on his face. He leans into my touch and we both let out the breath we've been holding since I walked into the room - or maybe since I left a week ago. "I thought you gave up on me." 

His eyes flash to mine and he stares at me so intently, so fiercely that it sends a chill down my spine. My hand falls from his face as he moves his own hands to both sides of my face and he leans in so close that our noses are almost touching. "Annie, I could never give up on you. Giving up on you is like giving up on myself, you're part of me, Annie, and when you were gone so was a part of me."

"You stopped calling and coming by..." 

"Because I know you. I know you're stubborn as hell and you weren't going to pick up the phone or let me in, not when you already had it in your mind that what you were doing was for the best. I had to ambush you." 

It's true, he does know me. He knows me better than I know myself, and he's right when he says I wouldn't have changed my mind. I was so convinced that I was doing the right thing, that he was better off without me. I would have done anything to give him what he deserves, even if it meant hurting myself in the process. I'd done it before - for different reasons, but just like then, I regretted my decision and came running back once I came to my senses. 

"So you planned this? The whole coming to get Emma's phone thing?"

"Emma helped. She said my gloomy mood wasn't welcome at her wedding, but Colby needs his best man, so we can't leave this room until we have our shit figured out. Their words, not mine." There's a ghost of a smile on his lips, but it's gone just as quickly as it came. 

"Sounds like something they would say." I mumble as I pull back from his touch. I don't miss the hurt look in his eyes as I walk over to the desk in the middle of the room and lean against it. 

He turns to face me, his eyes scanning my body and finally resting on my face. I can see him studying me, trying to figure out what's going on inside my head - something he's always been so good at. "What happened, Annie? Why did you leave me?"

I drop my eyes to the ground and think back to the day I packed my bags and left our apartment - left him. "I don't know, Ian. It was like I suddenly realized I wasn't good enough for you, and that you deserve better. I want better for you, I want you to have everything you deserve and that just doesn't feel like me. I don't deserve you."

I hear him come closer and then I see his black dress shoes directly in front of mine as I continue to stare at the floor. Just like his mother did hours before, Ian tilts my head up with his finger and brings my eyes to his. "Annie, no offense, but that's the stupidest thing I have ever heard." 

I open my mouth to argue, but he cuts me off, "How could you not see that you're the best thing for me? That you're everything to me and that I couldn't possibly want or need anyone or anything else. If anything, I'm the one that doesn't deserve you. You're too good for me, you're so far out of my league that I've asked myself every day for the past six years what I did to get so lucky?" His fingers lightly trail a path from my jawline to my lips and I can feel myself crying again. 

Emma is going to kill me for ruining my make up. 

"I'm sorry, Ian. I'm sorry I left you and ignored you. I'm sorry I mess this up so much, and that I'm such a head case." 

"Don't say that. Don't call yourself a head case or ever think that there's something wrong with you or bad about you just because of your depression, Annie. I love you, all of you. You don't have to apologize, I just want you to talk to me about this stuff instead of running from me." He gives me a smile, a real smile this time, "Because let's face it, you're stuck with me. I'm not going anywhere. You should know that by now." 

He closes the short distance between us and kisses my head as I wrap my arms around him and inhale the familiar scent I've been missing so badly the past week. 

"I love you. You're way too good to me, Ian Thomas." 

I can feel him smiling against my head as he hugs me back. I pull away from our embrace and his mouth instantly finds mine. The kiss is deep and full of nothing but love - it feels like coming home. 

"Speaking of last names..." He reaches into his pocket as his lips leave mine, and I watch him curiously. "You still want mine, right?" He asks as he pulls my engagement ring out of his pocket and hold it out to me, a boyish smile on his face. 

"Only if you still want me to have it." 

"I told you, I want forever, Annie." He slips the ring back onto my finger, where it will never come off again. He kisses me again and I completely forget where we are until there's a knock at the door. 

"Do you have your shit figured out yet?" Colby's voice booms through the door. 

"Don't curse, we're in a church." Fieldan scolds him.

"I bet they're in there doing something they shouldn't be doing in a church." Colby says and Ian and I burst out in laughter at Fieldan's disgusted reply. 

Ian looks from the door to me, "Well? Do we have our shit figured out?"

"We do." 

"Then let's go get that idiot married." He reaches for my hand, his fingers running over my ring as we walk towards the door to meet our friends. 

The End.