Lovely readers, this is the LAST chapter and the END of Lost Love :O I thought there would be more, but this finishes it off perfectly IMO. I really hope you like it and would love to know what you think of everything :) thanks for all of your supportive comments and votes And dedicated to the lovely Tessa for her keen eye for the small details throughout :) xx
EPILOGUE:
I don’t know what it is about boys, but my boyfriend steals the covers like no man’s business. Groaning, I yank the duvet back my way and begin to have a tug of war in bed at the grand time of 8am.
‘Give it to me, Oscar!’ I yell at him.
‘Too early for sex,’ he mumbles half asleep, but I narrow my eyes at him, pulling the cover back over to me forcefully.
‘I just want the duvet, don’t flatter yourself.’
To my surprise, Ozzy brings me into being his little spoon and links his legs between mine and his arm around my waist. We manage to get a little more sleep before we really have to get up. It’s my graduation today; while Ozzy had his a month ago, passing with a first in Mathematics which amuses me to no end. I passed with a first as well and things have been going well since we finished university, namely 40 day trip around Europe with one another and enjoying our time as graduates.
I get up first, leaving Ozzy in bed and head down the hallway in my house to shower and get ready for today. I know my mum will want to take hundreds of pictures of us today and as the whole family are coming, I need to look as nice as I can.
I head back to the room and begin to blow dry my hair, knowing this will wake him up. Reluctantly, he gets up to go and shower as I continue my prep. There’s then a knock at the door and Elle walks in, smiling at me.
‘What are you wearing today? I don’t want us to match,' she says, scanning my room for my outfit.
I point to the floral Ted Baker dress I’ve chosen to which she nods before complimenting it. Seeing as so many people are coming to watch me today, I had to put in several hours as a Student Ambassador to earn the extra seats, we’re driving in separate cars.
My parents are driving Ozzy and me, while Calvin, Elle’s boyfriend is driving her. Sadly, things between Theo and Elle didn’t work out. They were together for just over nine months before the sparks fizzled out, but five months later, she met Calvin and has been with him ever since. He’s a really nice guy and is a year older than her going into his second year at university as Elle prepares for her first year this September. Their universities are in the same town, completely coincidental, she tells us, which will make their relationship easier to maintain.
She trots back off to her bedroom as Ozzy comes back in, with a thick white towel slung around his waist, all dewy and wet. I can’t help myself but watch little droplets of water trickle down the planes of his body.
‘Your house is chaotic this morning. I practically had to wrestle your dad for the shower this morning.’
I smirk at that and look over at him. ‘Come on. We need to leave soon.’
After getting dressed and curling my hair, I’m finally ready to go, but I have to catch my breath as I see Ozzy appear at my door looking incredibly handsome in his suit and tie, with his hair curled too. I lean up to kiss his lips, but he frowns. ‘No, I don’t want bright pink lips, thanks.’
‘Kiss me,’ I plead, and finally, he obliges but only kissing the edge of my lips as a compromise. He smirks down at me before we head downstairs to see that everybody else is ready. My parents are dressed smartly in semi-matching outfits, with Mum wearing a green fascinator in her hair.
‘Oh you look beautiful, Imogen,’ my Dad tells me.
‘Thanks,’ Ozzy teases, winking at him. ‘Immy isn’t so bad either’
I roll my eyes at him and slip my brand new pair of Dune nude shoes on to accentuate my blue toe nails, which are sat by the front door as everyone else gets ready to head to university. Calvin comes out of the living room, with Elle snuggled beneath his arm. He sends me a smile and grabs his keys from the side as he makes his way to his car. Calvin and Ozzy have formed a bond between them as they’ve been spending a bit of time together on double dates, which is extremely fun for me.
An hour and a bit later, we’ve parked and are making our way to the cathedral in the centre of town for my graduation. I have to dash off to get my robe and hat in a separate area, whilst the rest of my family takes their seats as part of the congregation in the cathedral.
I spot Blake and Beth adjusting one another’s gowns, when Blake spots me and waves me over. I’m smothered in hugs as I get to them and she grins. She is glowing today, looking dazzling in a bright red dress with black heels, as Beth is in an ethereal green knee length dress.
‘You look beautiful,’ Blake asserts, touching at my curls.
‘As do you,’ I say enthusiastically. ‘Is the boyfriend here?’
She rolls her eyes at me. Ozzy and I have been ribbing Sam and Blake ever since they finally a week ago conceded to trying to have a relationships rather than just always returning to sleeping with one another. From the sounds of things, they are getting along rather smoothly with the relationship status, but Blake insists that’s purely due to the end of term highs and the after sex glow they seem to have. Ozzy and I have been discussing this for ages and it is far more than just sex, the way Sam always has one eye on his phone when Blake is out at her societies or the way Blake always gets this wide smile when she sees Sam walking down the path to our house after a lesson.
I’m then cut off from finding out more about Sam as I see Emma walk into the building with her group of friends, dressed in their blue gowns with their short dresses beneath. As much as I wanted no contact with the girl, that was impossible as I was put in one of my modules with her. While I didn’t hear her talk about her incident with Ozzy, I sure heard about it through some friends who began asking me if it was true. It’s all in the past now, however. While Emma is lonely and single, trying to snag a good guy like Ozzy whenever she has the chance to bring is up, I am happy and content in my relationship and couldn’t ask for anything more. Well, apart from yanking her fake hair extensions out as revenge, but it’s far better to move on than dwell on that indiscretion.
My friendship with Leon sadly disintegrated. If I saw him walking passed, I would say hello and ask how he was, but it never went further than that. It would be foolish to assume that a friendship could be salvaged after an unplanned break up and getting back together with Ozzy. From his Facebook status, he’s in a relationship with a really pretty girl who does music as well and I’m really happy for him. He’s truly smiling in those pictures with her in just the same way that I look at Ozzy and how he looks at me.
We make our way to the cathedral and we find our seats next to one another. We’re relatively close to the front which means we can hear every word of the ceremony, which I’m grateful for as there is nothing more annoying than enduring a muffled hour or so of someone talking but not hearing a word of it.
The ceremony isn’t as dull as I anticipated it would be. The highlight is of course hearing my name and going up to collect my certificate. I look out to the audience and see my family beaming so proudly of me. I don’t think they believed I would get here after that accident over two years ago.
After the ceremony, I go with Blake and Beth for our obligatory photos around the cathedral gardens, throwing our caps in the air and having photos in our gowns, before I go and find my family. I spot my tousled haired boyfriend and family a mile off and head over to them, with squeals and cheers from them all. Ozzy wraps me in a hug and kisses my forehead and says softly, ‘I’m really proud of you. You’ve worked so hard for this.’
I smile up at him, before noting my mum snapping pictures on her fancy camera. He pulls away gentlemanly and rubs my lower back protectively as we take glasses of champagne and little canapés. We’ve never been treated so well at uni before, so I’m definitely going to make the most of it for the final time. We had our graduation ball two weeks ago and it was a glittering success. Different societies had different events going on within the ball crowning their King and Queen and Ozzy won Sexiest Grad King for the football society, to which he can’t stop gloating about.
We walk around the gardens for a little more before heading off for lunch where my parents had booked a table for the six of us. All coupled up and practically all grown up with Elle about to head to uni. My parents specifically asked for a circular table to stop us coupling off into conversations, which I’m more than happy about. Much of the conversations teeters on thinking about the future. I shoot my lover glances as Mum grills him about a few things. Unperturbed, he plays the charming role and leaves my mum with satisfying answers, even if I am definitely going to grill him again on them later.
That evening, we’re sitting on the swinging love seat chair, with a blanket draped over our legs as we swing back and forth when Ozzy says, ‘You know you’ve got that job in London as a junior stylist that you start next week?’
I nod, wondering where he’s going with this. We’ve both got a lot of things to think about actually. When I saw the job opportunity and got outstanding refrences from my tutors and internships, I couldn’t turn it down, even though that would potentially mean doing long distance with him again.
‘Well, I applied for a job as a trainee research consultant for British Airways. It’s base is in London.’ I continue to stare at him, when he beams. ‘I got the job.’
‘Oh my God, wow, that’s brilliant! Well done, Oz! I can’t believe you kept that quiet!’
He smiles. ‘Well today was your day and I only found out yesterday. Anyway, that brings me to my next point, I’ve obviously got to move down here from Leeds, and I don’t mind if you’re not ready, but I would love it if you would flat hunt with me?’
I nod. ‘Yeah sure I’ll come and help you.’
He frowns at me. ‘You’re not following me. I want to flat hunt with you because I want you to live with me, but this time on our own.’
My mouth parts and it’s as if all the world stills around me as he tells me this. ‘Really? You want to live with me? Like a proper grown up couple running our own place?’
He laughs at that. ‘Yeah. At 22, I am ready to move out and start my life, and that involves you, Immy. So what do you say? Do you want to start flat hunting with me?’
‘How long until you start your job?’
‘Three weeks, so I’ve got to step up the search. Are you ready for the next step?’
I bite my bottom lip and laugh. ‘God, moving in with a boy am I ready for that?’ I then nod and bring his lips to mine. ‘Yes, of course I would love to move in with you.’
We kiss for a few more minutes, before I make my way onto his lap to snuggle with him as I ask, ‘Does this mean you’ll eventually want to marry me?’
He looks down at me and smirks. ‘If there’s no better offers.’
I narrow my eyes at his teasing and stick my middle finger up at him. ‘I take that as a yes then.’
‘Of course. And it won’t be eventually, I won’t make you wait that long. I want a hot wife on my wedding day.’
‘Before I get old and saggy?’ I tease. He looks down at my boobs and nuzzles into my neck, letting his hands cop a feel.
‘I may even still love you then as Mrs. Hawthorpe.’
‘And then after marriage, are we gonna make some babies?’
He grins at this. ‘I think that might be more exciting than getting married, but I think we should travel a bit more before I make you bloom.’
I smile at that phrase as his hand rests on my stomach, probably imagining a baby growing inside of me. ‘And can we get some cats too?’
He shakes his head. ‘It’s me or the cats.’
I pout at this. ‘We need to have an animal as our first baby.’
‘Nope, we don’t need anything but one another,’ he insists and I pretend to gag.
‘You’re so cheesy sometimes,’ I scold him affectionately.
On that note, Elle walks out into the garden with Calvin dawdling behind her when she smiles, obviously having the same idea as us swinging on the love seat.
‘Come on, let the young lovers have their time,’ I tease, winking at my sister and pulling Ozzy up with a huge haul. I keep teasing him that he’s put on weight, which he rejects and tells me its pure muscle.
As we walk through the kitchen, a huge craving for brownies overtakes me and I give him the look to tell him that. We’ve made one rule, among a few others such as put the bloody toilet seat down, that I am never, ever allowed to stand on work surfaces again and that Oz has to lay everything out for baking if we ever want to make stuff.
‘You know the drill. Pull up a chair,’ he insists, going around my kitchen as if it is his own as he comments. ‘In our flat, I want one of those cool backwards clocks that confuses the hell out of you.’
I smile at him thinking about the future. ‘I’d like the colour scheme of mint for the kitchen.’
He nods, handing me the scales. ‘And for the bedroom, a mirror on the ceiling.’
I laugh out loud at that comment. ‘You’re so dirty. We may not have as much sex, you know. It might become routine.’
‘If it ever becomes routine, I’m whisking you away for a dirty weekend and all will be well. This is us, Immy. We’re in it for the long run. Does that scare you?’
I look at him and tilt my head. ‘Scare me? Absolutely not. It excites me more than words can express.’ I beckon him over and he dips his head down to kiss me, allowing me to link my fingers around his neck and gently play with the loose tendrils of hair.
‘As much as I love having your lips on mine,’ I tell him as he slips his tongue into my mouth, ‘I would love the taste of brownies too, sooo...’ I trail off, and he just rolls his eyes with a grin on his face.
‘Can we join you?’ Elle asks coming back in the kitchen, with slightly bruised lips and a proud looking Calvin standing behind her with her arms around her waist.
And so that is how we spend my graduation night, baking with my boyfriend, sister and her boyfriend before each taking a plate full of brownies up to bed with Baileys in lieu of milk, before we each shut our bedroom doors. Wiggling his eyebrows up and down mischievously, he picks up a brownie and catches me off guard as he shoves one gooey, oozing chocolate brownie onto my face and chest, laughing hysterically as he does so.
‘WHAT was that for?!’ I squeal, reaching my hand up to brush it away, but he catches my wrist and shakes his head and whispers close to my ear. ‘Let’s have some fun with the brownies.’
As Ozzy lies me back on my bed and moves on top of me, he hovers above my face, before dipping down and licking off the chocolatey goodness. ‘I’m going to turn this into a food fight now,’ I mention to him, leaning over to the plate of brownies and taking one, before throwing little bits at him. I wiggle out from underneath him and stand across the crisp white bed from him and gleam in excitement.
‘This is war, Immy,’ he insists through laughter, grabbing another one and crumbling it in his hand and ducking below my bed for cover.
And that is how our night ends and how the rest of our life will begin; Ozzy and I having a brownie food fight, filled with raucous laughter, sexy chemistry and our deep, infinite love filling our hearts.
THE END!!