EPILOGUE
—Three Years Later—
Rhea turned around the corner into the dairy aisle, browsing the shelves as she did so. Almost immediately, she bumped her shopping cart right into the rear end of someone, coming to a startled halt herself. The person she'd unwillingly assaulted turned around with a bottle of milk in hand and looked at her.
"Oh, hi there," he said, giving her a slow grin.
"Hi," she said chirpily. She took a step back from him and gave him an inspecting once-over. "Wait, I know you, don't I?"
His reply was almost instantaneous. "I think I'd remember you, gorgeous."
Unfazed, she cocked her head to the side, tapping a finger at her chin and scrutinizing the guy before her. "No, I'm pretty sure we went to high school together. I also think you're in one of my classes now. You're...Caleb?"
"The one and only." He squinted at her for a moment before saying, "Your name is escaping me though."
She snorted at his reply and elbowed him in the side. "Quit being a jerk. Did you get the milk?"
"Yeah. Low-fat, right?" he asked, holding the bottle in his hand up for her inspection.
She gasped. "Babe, no. you know I hate low-fat milk." She shook her head before saying, "You're horrible at this."
"I guess you should have known better than to move in with me," he said, exchanging the low-fat for whole milk. "I was kidding by the way; I know you don't like low-fat. Besides, when have I ever brought back the wrong thing from the grocery store? Give me some credit here."
She shrugged. "Well, we've been living together for a week, so I guess we'll see."
After they finished up their shopping and loaded the groceries in the truck of Rhea's car—she got her license the summer before she left for college and her father was so elated he bought her a brand new Toyota—she handed her keys to Caleb and got into the passenger seat. Her thoughts on driving hadn't changed that much and she preferred riding shotgun by miles.
She leaned back, closed her eyes and started thinking about all the moments that had led her to this one—grocery shopping with her boyfriend of three years for the first time.
After that night on Valentine's Day, it immediately became obvious Caleb took Rhea's request of being wooed by him very seriously when she showed up at school the next day and found her locker filled to the brim with Hershey's. The next day, there was a bouquet of daisies in their place. After that, it was a Pride and Prejudice DVD. This went on for an entire week until Rhea told him to stop throwing his money around.
He did, but the presents kept on coming in the form of handwritten notes and the occasional homemade baked goods, courtesy of his mother—he tried his hand at them for the first time around but they swore to never speak of that incident again almost immediately.
He kept his word in other aspects too, kissing her at any chance he got, for instance. Rhea could have sworn she didn't remember kisses ever feeling that good. They kissed until both their lips were bruised, until it felt to Rhea like every single one of her limbs were made of Jell-O and that she wouldn't make it a day without his kisses. Every time they kissed, it was a completely different experience that managed to throw Rhea off even after months of it. One day, it'd be urgent and passionate; they'd be tugging each other impossibly closer, trying to see how far they could take it without crossing the lines they weren't ready to cross. But then the next, it'd be sensual and almost lazy and they'd sit together in the backseat of Caleb's car kissing—nothing more, nothing less—until he had to take her home for her curfew.
They spent the rest of their senior year taking things slow, testing the waters. When he decided that he'd be going to college after all, Rhea helped him with his college applications—they drafted several of them together. Later, when she found out on their second year of college that he'd only actually sent the one for the college Rhea had got into with early admission, she swore she could have strangled him for being so careless, only if she weren't too busy smothering him with kisses.
College was an entirely different experience for them to take on, and they had their fair share of difficulties adapting. Insisting that they get the full experience, Rhea signed the both of them up for separate dorms on their freshman year. Now that was interesting, to say the least. She ended up sharing a room with a particularly annoying girl, who seemed to have no concept of privacy or personal space. On her second year, she got a room all to herself but it was still not the best of conditions.
Caleb was only marginally luckier than her, rooming with a guy he could at least tolerate, though he could be obnoxious and overbearing at times, too—especially with the inappropriate comments he made whenever Rhea came to visit.
Finally, on their third year, Caleb convinced her to get an apartment together, saying they'd both had enough of the so-called "college experience". Rhea was too sick of the dorm life to argue for long and so began their apartment hunt.
Rhea's parents offered to help out, and it took lots of convincing and coercing on Rhea's part to get Caleb to agree—he was still too proud for his own good when it came to money. He was entitled, of course; Rhea knew how hard it had been on him when he'd had to depend on his father for money. With the help of her parents though, they managed to find an apartment that was both close to campus and not falling apart at the seams.
And that is how they ended up in her car, driving home after going grocery shopping for the apartment they shared for the very first time.
Turning slightly towards her boyfriend and resting her cheek against the seat, she let herself inspect his profile, as she'd done a thousand times. In the three years that passed since the first time she watched him from the passenger side, his features changed so subtly, she wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been paying great attention to memorizing every slope and angle of his face. His cheekbones became more prominent, and so did his jawline. He let his beard grow into a nice scruff, which Rhea secretly loved. He cut his hair slightly closer to his head, though she could still run her fingers through the wisps that fell to his temples whenever she wanted to. When she'd first fallen for him, she had thought he couldn't have been more handsome to her—she was wrong.
Later that night, Rhea lay in Caleb's arms with her back partly resting against his chest, relishing the way her bare skin felt against his. She was still slightly out of breath due to the strenuous activities they'd partaken in merely moments ago. Being with Caleb on such an intimate level never seized to take her breath away. Her damp hair stuck to her forehead and she moved to sweep it back, but Caleb beat her to it. He tucked her hair behind her ear and twirled a strand around his fingers, tracing idle circles on her stomach with his free hand.
Just a year ago, she would have felt self-conscious about lying in bed with him without any clothes on, and tried to cover herself up with the sheets or put on one of his t-shirts, but now she felt entirely at peace.
A moment later, Caleb tugged at the strand of hair he'd been playing with and cleared his throat before saying, "So, babe..."
His hesitant tone instantly got her attention and she slightly sat up, settling against his chest once more. "Hmm?" she asked, her voice coming out drowsy.
"You said something about magic before you...y'know. And well, I'd like to take it as a compliment to my particular set of skills, but it's not the first time you've said that during... so I was wondering..." One of his hands left her body and she could just about see it rubbing at the back of his ear—his nervous tell.
A smile stretched across her lips at his words, though it was concealed from his eyes. A moment later, she schooled her features into one of casualness and drawled, "Fishing for a compliment there?"
"No—"
Her amusement was evident in her voice this time as she said, "Trying to ask me if I'm secretly a member of an ancient tribe of witches?"
"Jesus, no." He shook his head. "You can be so difficult sometimes. Forget I asked."
She let out an airy laugh, then took his hand resting on her stomach in her own and placed a kiss inside his palm.
She thought about telling him then, like she did every single day. Countless times, the words had found their way to the tip of her tongue, just to be swallowed back down because she feared it might be too soon. Maybe it was too soon, but on whose standards? It wasn't like there was a timetable to falling in love, she'd know. She'd fallen for Caleb so hard and so fast, it was like diving off a cliff—she was at the bottom before she'd fully realized she was even falling. The same certainly applied to Caleb. Theirs had never been a slow burning candle; it was an all-consuming fire—barely a flicker one moment, roaring the next. Besides, three years in, their relationship felt as solid as it could be, and in that moment, it felt right to finally tell him.
So she took a deep breath and turned around to face him—but not before she reached for the sheets and cocooned herself in them. She was comfortable with being naked in front of him, but this was barely a conversation to be had in the nude.
"So, I'm going to tell you something, but you need to promise you won't freak out."
"The last time you said that, you'd crashed your car into a tree, so you know I can't make any promises."
"Babe," she whined, "I'm serious."
"So am I." When she shot him an unimpressed look, he relented—as he always did—and said, "Fine, I won't freak out. Will you please tell me?"
She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders before the words started to tumble out of her lips in a way that bordered on incoherent. "So there's this thing about my family—When I was little my parents told me these stories...about how they met. At least, at the time I thought they were just stories but they were real, and I know it's quite hard to believe but I hope you'll just hear me out, and..."
"Rhea," Caleb said, placing one hand on each of her shoulders and giving her a steady look, "Breathe."
She looked back at him and took a second to do as he said, breathing in and out, in and out.
When he was satisfied with the result, he gave her shoulders a light squeeze and said, "Okay, let's start again. There were stories..."
"Yes, stories... um, like I said, they're about how my parents met. More specifically, it's about what happened before they met. You see, my mother started to get these...um, visions, before she met my father. They were random bits of snippets through his eyes, and um, exactly a week later, she met him." She paused briefly to gauge his reaction but didn't see any hint of bewilderment on his face as she'd expected—he seemed calm, if not a bit intrigued. So she took another deep breath and continued, "This is, like, a family thing for us. And I had them too...before I met you."
"What exactly do they mean?" he asked, his voice sounding steady and calm.
"It means that... Well, my parents say it means the person you see is supposed to be your soulmate. And I know it sounds too much like some made-up fairytale, but it's been happening for generations, and it has actually happened to me, so..."
"I see," he said, holding her gaze with an earnest look in his eyes.
"I see?" she echoed, feeling bewildered. "That's all? You're not going to freak out?"
A slow smile took over his features at her words. "Rhea..." he said, "I admit what you're telling me is a bit unusual, but I believe you. Besides, I didn't need you to tell me you and I are meant to be. Trust me, I feel it every day,"—he took her hand and placed it on his chest, right above his heart—"right here. I already know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You're telling me I have magical family heritage backing me up? All the better."
She was rendered speechless by his words, so she did the only thing she could think of—she threw herself at him, wrapped her arms around his neck and captured his lips in a searing kiss.
He was caught off guard, so he slumped against the headboard some more under her weight, but he hardly seemed to complain. His arms banded across her waist, just to start to wander only moments later. One of his hands stroked the length of her spine up and down as the other moved to tangle in her now waist-long hair, as he gave his best in response to her kiss.
This was among Rhea's favorite types of kisses. The kind that didn't necessarily lead to anything, but the kind that just was. Their lips moved in perfectly practiced synch as they poured all the love they felt for each other into the kiss.
Their movements were slow and languid, almost lazy, and after a few minutes they came to a complete halt with their lips just resting against each other's—no movement, no kiss; just flesh against flesh. A moment later, she broke the contact to rest her forehead against his, and sighed contently, her breath falling against his lips.
"I love you so much," she whispered. "Did you know that?"
"I'm going to marry you one day," he replied. His voice was so low that she felt the words across her skin rather than heard them. "Did you know that?"
She let out a soft chuckle.
"Trust me," she said. "I've known for a while."
***
A/N: So, I guess this is it. Once again, thanks for the amazing experience, my loves.
I'll put this out there now: there will not be a sequel, so please don't hound me for one, okay? I am, however, working on a spinoff about Xander, but I don't know when that will be posted.
Lastly, would you guys be interested in a one shot competition? I'll host one if around 20 people respond with "yes" to this line.
I love you all.
May we meet again,
-Safiye.