Epilogue
~Cannon: Age 23~
"How was that?" I asked once Annalise and I finished singing the song. I found out not that long ago that Annalise was actually an amazing singer. I mean, seriously. My wife had an amazing voice and I didn't even know.
Kevin thought that it would be cool for us to sing a song together for my album, so we did.
"Uh, that was....good," Zander Millington said. He was outside of the recording booth, doing all that technical stuff. "How about you run it again?"
"Really?" I asked. "I think it was fine."
"It really was," Zander said. "But during the chorus, you got kind of pitchy."
"What? No I didn't," I said.
"You kind of did," Zander said.
"I'm sorry, but who's the performer here?" I asked. "Oh, right. Me."
"I'm sorry, but who's the son of the owner of this record label?" Zander asked. "Oh, right. Me."
"I will punch you, little boy," I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Oh, I'm so scared," Zander said sarcastically. "I'm just suggesting that you do the song one more time. That's it."
"How about you sing it?" I asked. "Oh, right, you don't sing."
Zander sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You asked me to help you with this song. I'm trying to help, but you're not listening. The chorus was pitchy and I'm just asking that you sing it one more time. Just one."
I opened my mouth to object, but Annalise beat me to it. "We'll do it, okay?"
"But...."
"Cannon, just leave Zander alone," Annalise said. "I'm trusting him on this."
"Thank you," Zander said. "See? Your wife is nicer than you."
"Funny," I said, glaring at him. "Fine, we'll sing the song one more time." I hated this little kid. Zander was sweet and everything, but nobody questioned me.
We sang the song one more time. When we finished, I looked at Zander. "Well?" I asked.
"Was that so hard?" Zander asked. "That was great. Okay, we're done for the day. I'll lock up."
"Thank goodness," I muttered as Annalise and I took off the headphones and hung them up.
"Thanks for the help, Zander," Annalise said once we were out of the recording booth.
"No problem," Zander said. "See you guys later."
I intertwined my hand in Annalise's as we walked out of the recording studio and to the car. When we got home, I immediately went to the living room and sat on the couch as Annalise went upstairs. She came back downstairs caring what looked like a picture.
Annalise sat down beside me. "I want to show you something," she said.
"What is it?" I asked.
She handed me the thing in her hand and I took it. It was definitely a picture, but I had no idea why she was showing this to me. "See that?" she asked, pointing to it. "That's our baby."
I looked at Annalise. "Our....our baby? You're pregnant?"
Annalise nodded with a smile. "Yeah. I am."
"So we're going to be parents?" I asked. "I'm going to be a dad? You're going to be a mom?"
"Yes," Annalise said with a smile.
"Yes!" I exclaimed before pulling her into a hug. "I can't believe we're going to have a baby!"
Annalise laughed and hugged me back. "I know. It's weird, but amazing."
I pulled away and gave her a smile. "We're going to be the best parents ever. I guarantee it."
"Yeah," Annalise said softly and I couldn't help but notice the hint of sadness in her voice.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Annalise sighed. "It's just....I haven't seen my parents since I moved out when I was sixteen. I've heard from them, but they didn't even show up for the wedding. I thought they would have come through, but they didn't. And now, having a baby....It feels weird not having them in my life."
I stood up from the couch and pulled her up with me. "Then we will go visit them," I said.
"Now?" she asked.
"There's no time like the present," I said. "Look, I know they're not really fond of me, but I know they still love you. And if they do, then they should support any decision you made."
Annalise stared at me for a bit before nodding. "Okay, we'll go. And I kind of wanted to tell them about the baby in person anyway."
I gave her a smile and kissed her cheek before intertwining her hand in mine and leading her out of our house. We walked to the car and I drove to her parents' house. When we got there, Annalise took a deep breath before we got out of the car.
We walked to the door and Annalise hesitated before finally knocking on the door. After a few moments, the door opened, revealing her mother, Delphene. "Annalise," she said, looking quite shocked. "And Kenny. I see you still have your lip piercing."
If I wasn't married to Annalise and wanted to get along with her parents, I would have said, 'And I see you're still judgmental,' but I didn't. For Annalise's sake.
So I settled with a simple, "Yup."
Delphene looked at her daughter. "What are you doing here?"
"I thought we could talk," Annalise said.
"And you brought him?" she asked.
"He's my husband, Mom," Annalise said. "Besides, it was his idea to come."
"Oh, so you didn't even want to come?" Delphene asked.
"No, I didn't mean it like that," Annalise said. "Of course I wanted to, but....You guys aren't even making an effort to fix our relationship. You didn't even show up to our wedding."
"How could I when you were marrying him?" Delphene asked. "You know I don't support his kind."
Ouch. And here I thought Annalise's parents were going to put that behind them.
"Our kind?" I asked. "We're humans too. Just because we have different orientations, it doesn't mean we're a whole other species. And shouldn't you be happy that I married someone of the opposite sex?"
"Not when it's my daughter," Delphene said.
"You know what, Mom?" Annalise asked. "We came here to make things better. We came here, hoping to tell you something, and hoping you would be happy for us. But I guess not. After all, if you don't accept my husband, then I doubt you would accept any child that has his blood."
Delphene stared at Annalise with furrowed eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm pregnant, Mom," Annalise said. "And I came here to tell you that, hoping that you would finally accept the fact that Cannon and I are married. We started dating six years ago, and you still haven't accepted it yet. He has never once hurt me since we've been together. Actually, he hasn't hurt me since before we started dating."
"You're pregnant?" Delphene asked.
"Yes, I am," Annalise said. "So congratulations on soon becoming a grandmother, but I guess if you won't accept my husband, then you won't be able to accept our baby."
"Annalise...."
"Don't try to change things just because I'm pregnant," Annalise said. "If you really loved me, you would have been fine with who I chose to spend my life with. So, goodbye. I guess I'll see you. Or not."
Delphene didn't even say anything as she closed the door. Annalise sighed and I rubbed her back. "It's okay," I said.
"You're right," she said. "If my mom won't fix our relationship herself, then I shouldn't try. But thank you, for getting me to come here. Even though it didn't go how I planned, I feel better."
I gave her a smile and we started going to the car before one pulled into the driveway. Annalise's father, Doug, stepped out. "Annalise?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"
"We came to visit," she said. "But...."
"Your mother?" Doug asked and Annalise nodded. Doug sighed. "I do miss you, Annalise. How are things?"
"Good," Annalise said. "Cannon and I....we're expecting."
Doug broke out into a huge grin. "Congratulations. How far along are you?"
"Twelve weeks," Annalise sighed, which made me raise my eyebrows.
"Twelve weeks?" I asked. "And you told me today?"
"I love you."
"That does nothing," I said.
Annalise just rolled her eyes and looked at her dad. "He or she is a healthy baby so far. I'm really excited."
"And I'm excited for you," Doug said. "I'm so happy you found a great husband."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "But....I thought you didn't want me with her."
"Well, I'll admit that I didn't like the idea at first because of your sexual orientation," Doug said. "But, recently, I thought about it. Even though I don't agree with it, it doesn't mean I should hate others because of it. They're choices doesn't affect my life in any way and if people want to date someone of the same sex, who I'm I to stop them? I may think it's wrong, but I also think people should make their own choice."
Even though me being attracted to both male and female wasn't really a choice, I really appreciated that Doug came to accept the fact that there are people out there who like people of the same sex.
Besides, I haven't been attracted to anybody else besides Annalise since I started dating her. I wasn't even attracted to Hunter anymore. I still think he was hot, but I wasn't attracted to him.
He was just very attractive.
"Thanks for thinking that, Dad," Annalise said. "Really. I appreciate it and I know Cannon does too." I nodded. "We should be going home, but it was nice talking to you.
"If you ever want to talk, call me whenever," Doug said.
Annalise smiled and gave her dad a hug. "Thank you," she said softly. "I love you, Dad."
"I love you too, Annalise," Doug said. When they pulled away, he looked at me. "Continue treating Annalise the same way you have been doing."
I nodded. "I will."
Doug gave the both of us a smile before heading inside. Annalise looked extremely happy then. "At least my dad has changed," Annalise said.
"Yeah," I said. "And since he did, maybe he'll influence your mom to do the same."
"Yeah, maybe," she said.
We got into the car and drove home. As soon as we stepped inside, my cell phone rang. Confused as to why Kevin was calling me, I answered it. "Hello?"
"Cannon, turn on the radio," he said. "Our station."
"Okay?" I said, sounding a bit confused. I went to the living room and turned on the radio, going to the station that the record label controlled. On it was a male singer I hadn't heard before, but whoever it was had talent. A lot of talent.
"You hear that?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah," I said. "It's amazing. Who is this?"
"We don't know," Kevin said. "I forgot some paperwork in my office so I went to retrieve it. While I was leaving, I made sure everything was locked up, but one of the booths still had the recording light on. I went in and this song was left there. Whoever this is has amazing talent and we went to find him."
"He will definitely add something to the music industry," I said. "Especially if he won't that song."
"My thoughts exactly," Kevin said. "I'm hoping it playing on the radio will make him come forward. We're just going to have to wait and see."
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Waiting for the Right One is officially over! And yay for Cannalise being married and expecting their first child! I'm so happy for them!
I want to thank all of you for reading this story, as well as voting and commenting on it. It was supposed to be even shorter than thirty chapters since I legit came up with the story one night while I was trying to sleep. I just imagined Cannon falling for one of his fans and voila! Annalise was born. cx
I love you all so much! I really want to write the spin-off, but I really have to work on Troubled One again. Once either Troubled One, Surviving the Life of Dax, or Surviving On My Own Terms finishes, I'll work on it and you can see Cannon again.
Speaking of the spin-off, how many of you like Zander so far, even though he was in here for a short bit? He really is a sweetheart, but it's hard for him to get along with Cannon since they both think they know so much about music. Zander gets along much more with Hunter since Zander was the first person to ever ask Hunter for an autograph.
I will update this book once I start the spin-off, which I think I'm calling Accidental Fame. I have it saved as a draft and I think that's what I put as the title. cx So keep this in your libraries, or archive it, if you don't mind it sitting there for two-three months.
<3