𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫...
~~𝐊𝐨𝐥 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡~~
The sound of our alarm clock blaring wakes me up. I hear the click signaling it has been turned off. The sheets move and I groan. I pull Maya close, stopping her from getting out of bed.
She laughs. "Kol, I have to go." I wrap my arms around her tighter. She turns to face me and kisses me on the forehead. "I love you and I'll miss you. But, I will see you in a few hours. I have to get Angela and Kat. We're trying on our gowns."
Angela gave birth to a baby girl named Katerina Florence. Angela's life was falling apart, but she held it together for her daughter. Two years later with enough money, she got a small apartment and Maya moved in with me.
"After graduation, I'm all yours," she reassures me. I squeezed her tighter. "Sweetheart, you're already all mines. But I'll hold you to that. Go get ready."
She leans down and pecks my lips before rising out of bed. Around 45 minutes later, the bed bends and plump lips graze my cheek. "I'll see you later, baby."
I offer her a sleepy mumble in response, and she laughs. When I hear the door close and lock, I jump out of bed and head for the shower. In 30 minutes, I'm ready and I leave our apartment.
I saw Amanda's car pull up and I slid in the passenger's seat. "You ready, little brother?"
I nod and she drives off. Twenty minutes later, we pulled up to Pandora and saw Anthony in his Inside-Out Burger employee uniform at the front of the store.
"What the fuck took you guys so long? My break is almost over," Anthony grits when we leave the car.
"Relax, little brother," I say, rolling my eyes. "We're here."
I open the door for my brother and sister and follow closely behind them. I take in the jewelry of the dignified store.
"Ah!" Amanda exclaims. "This is so pretty. I should send a picture to Xavier."
Xavier has been Amanda's boyfriend for the past year. After that whole fiasco with Jeremy, she stopped dating for a while. Then Xavier came around and completely took her by surprise. Ever since then, they've been happily dating.
"Ooh, this chain is kind of fire. It would look good on me, wouldn't it?" Anthony says, facing me and our sister. He holds up the chain to his neck.
"Anthony, your Inside-Out-Burger check can't even cover an earring in this place," Amanda retorts and I laugh. Anthony gives us both the middle finger and puts the necklace back.
I walk to the nearest worker. A woman with dyed blonde hair. "Well, hello there," she purrs. "How can I help you?"
Her eyes take me in, and I know immediately that she wants to help me differently. "I'm looking for an engagement ring for my girlfriend," I say, and she pouts. She grumbles something like "the good ones are always taken" and heads over to the ring showcase.
Amanda pops up next to me while Anthony keeps window-shopping. "These are engagement ring selections. Feel free to look and let me know which ring you'd like."
My eyes scattered across the rings. "Oh, that one is cute," Amanda says, pointing to a diamond ring in the corner. It looked old-timey. Something from the late nineties. "That's not Maya," I say.
Amanda looks around before pointing to another ring. "What about this one?" I shake my head. "That looks like something her mother would wear. Definitely not Maya."
Amanda goes through every ring on the display case, and I don't like any of them. "I thought you said Pandora was the best," I say, irritation rising in me.
"Pandora is the best," Amanda says. Clearly not if I can't find a decent ring for my girl.
"Excuse me, sir?" Amanda and I turn around to see the blonde worker holding a large, velvet box. "If you're having trouble picking out of our display, I could offer you to look at our more private collection, though it is heavily expensive."
"Show me the box," I said. The worker opens the box and immediately I know what I want. I picked it up out of the box.
"Oh, that one. That's beautiful," Amanda says.
"It's Maya. Of course, it's going to be beautiful," I breathe.
~~𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐚 𝐒𝐭. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧~~
The last person graduating walks across the stage and we all throw our hats up in the air. I hear a ruckus of cheers and claps.
Angela runs over to me and scoops me up in a big hug. "We did it!" she screams, happiness oozing out of her. "We're officially done with college."
"Well, I am," I point out. "Law school is ahead for you, correct?" She smiles and rolls her eyes. "Whoopie, more loans." I loop my arm with hers and walk over to where Kol and our family are sitting.
Angela takes Kat in her hands. "Hi, baby. Did you see Mommy up there? Yes, yes you did. She's finally graduated."
I smile at Kat looping her arms around Ang. Angela was an amazing mother to her daughter. When Kat was born, she tried to reach out to Leo again and got an email from him to leave him alone. Since then, she's been raising Kat alone, the best she can.
My mom stands in front of me before wrapping me in a hug. "Congratulations on your achievement, Maya." When she pulls back, she hands me a velvet rectangle. I open it and see a diamond necklace with an M hanging from the chain.
"Your father got me the same kind of necklace after he asked me to be his girlfriend. Except mine had an A. I thought it would be fitting. I know how much he would've loved to be here today," she says. She looks over to Kol who is slowly walking up to us. She kisses my cheek and struts over to where Angela and Kat are.
Kol comes up wearing a silly grin and a bouquet of pink roses. There's a gift bag in his hand. I take the roses and peck his lips. "I love the flowers."
"I love you in this gown," he whispers, bringing me close together. My arms wrap around his neck, and I kiss the hell out of him. "Open the gift bag."
He holds the flowers for me while I look through the bag. There's a paper book. I take it out and each page is filled with gift cards. To Amazon, Sephora, clothing stores, and restaurants. "It's this thing I saw online, and I thought I'd try it," he explains.
The next thing out of the bag is a graduating teddy bear. I smile and play with its cap. "It's kind of cheesy," Kol smiles, his cheeks flushing red. "But cheesy is good."
There's a card filled with heartfelt words from Kol and $300. The next thing I pick up makes me shove it back in the box. "Kol!" I say, looking around to make sure nobody saw us.
It was a black lingerie set. "If you wear it for me tonight, you'll get a special surprise," he whispers in my ear then places a soft kiss on the skin.
My cheeks go hot as I turn my head to kiss Kol on the lips. "Thank you for the gifts," I mumble.
"There's still one more. Way at the bottom," he responds. I check the bottom of the bag. "You're joking!" I say, statically. "Plane tickets to Singapore? Are you joking right now?"
He kisses my temple. "I remember when we watched Crazy Rich Asians for the first time last year, and you became obsessed. Hinting that we should go."
"Yeah, but you waited until I was way out of my phase. Very cruel of you," I say, playfully and bring him closer to me.
"Give me an hour at home and then come back. I have a surprise for you." He plants a kiss on my nose and walks away.
When he leaves, Angela comes over to me with Kat. "I saw that l-i-n-g-e-r-i-e before you put it away. Planning to have a special night?"
"Angela, the baby is two. You can say lingerie," I laugh. Angela hurries and covers both of Kat's ears.
"No, I said fuck when I stubbed my toe last week and she repeated the word for over two hours," she complains, and I laugh. She moves her hands from Kat's ears. She boops Kat's nose and Kat laughs.
"Kol says he has a surprise for me," I answer her previous question. "The l-i-n-g-e-r-i-e is for tonight."
"Keep it up, Maya and you'll have another one of these," she squeals and holds Kat up in the air.
Six months ago, Kol and I had a pregnancy scare. My period was almost three weeks late and at that time, Kol and I just started going raw.
"Yeah, no, I've been on birth control since. And we only go raw on special occasions," I inform her.
"Like graduation," she sing-songs, bumping hips with me.
I laughed and we both headed to Angela's car. I hung out with Ang and Kat for the next hour and then she drove me home.
"Pretty boy, is my surprise ready yet?" I enter the apartment, but my mouth is quickly shut.
Soft music plays in the background. I take in the white, red, and pink roses across the floor. When I walk into the living room, I see Kol standing there in a suit and tie. "What are you doing?" I ask, my voice barely an echo. "This is going to take so long to clean up."
"Come here, sweetheart." It was like I was a piece of metal, and he was a magnet. "Kol, what are you doing?"
When I stand in front of him, he takes my hands and places a soft kiss on both. Then he sinks onto one knee, and I gasp.
"Maya Anneliese St. Martin, the day I bumped into you at the club, it was like my entire world changed. You took everything in me and twisted it into your web. You took my breath and made it yours. You took my mind and made it yours. And most importantly, you took my heart and connected it to you. I love you with mind, soul, and body. There has not been a moment since I've known you that I could imagine my life without you."
Tears spring down my face as Kol takes out a ring box. "I want to go through everything with you. Vacation, life, new experiences, kids, and most importantly marriage. There's nothing in the world that I want more than you to be my wife, so with that, I ask...Maya, will you marry me?"
Almost immediately I nod. "Yes, yes, yes, of course I will."
Kol looks up at me. "Really?" I nod, happily. "Yes! Of course, I will! I love you so much."
Kol opens the box to reveal a ring with diamonds studded down the sides. Two hearts intertwined with a diamond in the middle. It was gorgeous. I began crying even more.
He slid the ring on my finger and lifted me in the air. My lips crashed onto his and I felt the oxygen slowly leaving my body.
"I love you, soon-to-be husband," I whisper.
"I love you more, soon-to-be wife."
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HEY EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!
Can I just say how grateful I am for 2.4K reads? I can't believe that many people tune into this story.
I hope you guys enjoyed this epilogue. I wanted to add one last smut scene, but I've been working on this all week, and I've been exhausted.
I will add bonus chapters (including smut), so don't worry, this isn't the last you've heard of Maya and Kol.
Now that My Greatest Escape is over, I'll move on to the next in this story which is My Greatest Forever - Angela and Leo's story.
I know the hidden pregnancy trope is well-hated, but I just wanted to try it.
When I am halfway through my other story, Vehement (Tantalizing #1), I will release more information about Angela's story.
Please let me know if you see any mistakes.
Don't forget to vote, comment, and share this story with all your Wattpad-loving friends!
I LOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUU GUYYYYYYYYYYYYYSSSSSSSSS!