Epilogue- Our Story Doesn't End With Goodbye
Emma's Point of View
“Oh my god!” Claire squeals like a little girl.
“They’re so cute!” I coo, right beside her. We’re standing on the balcony of our fancy Hawaiian hotel room. We are pretty high up since we splurged on an expensive room, so we’re on the twelfth floor and we have this amazing balcony. I’m standing right next to my best friend with our arms interlocked as we stand there, squealing and jumping in excitement, because there were dolphins splashing around out in the ocean, under the beautiful sunset.
We have been in Hawaii for only about eight hours, since we’d gotten here earlier today, and most of the day has been adjusting to the beautiful landscape and unpacking since we’ll be here for a week- all of spring break- and we had a lot to unpack. We finished unpacking, though, about an hour ago with the help of our boyfriends, and then had dinner before coming out there to this cool balcony to watch the adorable dolphins.
“We need to get the guys out here,” Claire says quickly.
“Yeah, they need to see this,” I agree with a nod but neither one of us are willing to move from our spot with our amazing view of the dolphins, but they’re swimming farther and farther away from the shore, so it’s getting harder to see them. We would try to yell for Jace and Jonathan, but they’re not in hearing range, I don’t think. We left them at the pool after dinner, and the pool is outside, obviously not on the twelfth floor.
We have this spring break vacation every year, we get all of our friends together and pick somewhere nice to spend spring break. Most of the time, Melody, Harper, Mason, Luke, and Chace come with us too, but Melody goes to this really fancy art school in Arizona and since the year’s almost over and we’re all about to graduate later in the spring, she’s really stressed about perfecting her portfolio, and since Luke didn’t want to leave her alone in Arizona, he stayed with her there. They’re obviously still together, and they’re pretty happy from what she tells me over the phone when we talk, which is pretty often but not as much now, since she’s so incredibly busy with her portfolio. Harper and Mason, who are finally together after years of yearning for each other. I think Mason got drunk one night a few months ago, which gave him the courage to confess his feelings for Harper, which she obviously reciprocated and so now they’re together. If they didn’t go to school in California, I would have drove to her just to have a girl talk because I was so utterly happy for her. Anyway, they didn’t come this year because they’re studying for exams that are coming up.
I don’t know how Jonathan and Claire made it possible for both of them to get here to Hawaii without worrying about finals, but I know that both me and Jace took an easy course load this semester, so I’m not too worried about my finals.
“Can you see them anymore?” Claire asks quickly, scanning desperately for the dolphins even though I’m pretty sure that they’re completely invisible now.
“Nope,” I sigh sadly, slumping down a little bit since the excitement of seeing wild dolphins is gone. “C’mon, let’s get inside now. They’ll probably be back soon.”
Claire makes a whining sound because she’s so disappointed about not seeing the dolphins and then we both walk towards the sliding glass door to get into the small living room area of our two bedroom suite. I can already tell that for the most part of this vacation, I’ll be spending most of my time with Claire and Jace will spend most of his time with Jonathan and Chace (who is going to show up tomorrow) because, other than summers, this is literally the only other time that we get to see our friends. I mean, I absolutely love Jace, I really do, but I see him all year round and I never get to see Claire.
“Just do it, Jace, she isn’t-“ Jonathan stops talking when me and Claire walk into the room and both Jace and Jonathan look over at us.
“What are you talking about?” Claire wonders curiously.
Jonathan shrugs but Jace is just frozen there, looking kind of freaked out. “Nothing,” Jonathan replies to his girlfriend’s question smoothly.
“How much of that did you hear?” Jace asks, looking at me for an answer.
“Nothing,” I assure him with a laugh. “Are you sharing secrets or something?”
He shakes his head so quickly that I know he’s lying. “Nope, let’s go to bed though, you look pretty tired.”
“I’m not tired,” I giggle. “We just saw dolphins.”
“Yeah, you guys totally missed it,” Claire pipes, taking Jonathan’s hand in hers and leading him towards the door that lead to their room from the living room. “But we’ll go to bed now, so I can squeeze information out of him. Goodnight, lovelies!” Claire chimes as they both disappear behind the door.
“Why are you being weird?” I wonder as Jace loops his arm around my waist and leads me towards our bedroom, which is across the living room from Claire and Jonathan’s. When Chace gets here tomorrow, he’ll have to sleep on the pull out couch, which he probably won’t be happy about but oh well.
“I’m not being weird,” Jace insists with an awkward laugh.
“You are,” I inform him with another light giggle as we walk into our room together and I shut the door behind me.
“Maybe you’re just tired,” He suggests lamely. “We’ve had a big day.”
“That doesn’t mean that you’re not being weird,” I counter with a suspicious look shot towards my wonderful boyfriend. After graduating high school, we both obviously had to quit the Seaside Café. Well, he had to literally quit but because I never actually worked there, I just stopped going. And after going to Notre Dame, I had confessed to all of my friends about my Friday night activities and singing at the Seaside, and they were seriously shocked, but not really mad or anything, which was good. After a few months of demanding that I sing for them, they gave up on that, realizing that the only time they’d ever hear me sing was when I sang for Jace’s birthday. It would be a rather long commute from Notre Dame to The Seaside Café, which is where we are going to school now. Sure, Michael wasn’t particularly keen on me going almost all the way across the country for school, but he knows that Notre Dame is an amazing school and I actually got accepted, so he didn’t really argue with the decision. For the first two years of going to the university, we had dorms so I had a roommate and he had a guy roommate, obviously. My roommate freshman year was really weird and like, was really into penguins. I mean, sure penguins are cute, but like, her half of the dorm was covered in posters and stuffed animals and fun facts and just anything penguin-related, she had it. It was a mixture of disturbing, creepy, and a tiny bit adorable. My sophomore year roommate though, was kind of cool, and a lot more normal than Penguin Penelope, which is what everyone that knew her called her. McKenna was my sophomore year roommate, and she’s still probably my closest female friend on campus, so that’s good. But for junior and senior year, Jace and I got an apartment together so that’s really nice, and it’s where we live now, in that apartment.
“That’s exactly what it means, Em,” Jace chuckles, wrapping his arms around me from behind so that my back is pressed against his chest. “So let’s go to sleep and then we can go check out the pool tomorrow.”
“Whatever you say, weirdo,” I giggle, wiggling out of his arms to go down the hall to brush my teeth and whatnot. Jace follows me and we both brush our teeth at the sink. Once we get back into our room, I get dressed in my pajamas which is just a pair of panties and one of Jace’s shirts while Jace just strips down to his boxers, which is what he sleeps in. I mean, I know that we’ve been together for a little over four years now, but that doesn’t make his incredible body any less incredible or any less amazing to just stare at sometimes, which is what I’m doing as I’m sitting up in the cloud-like hotel bed while he checks his phone and texts somebody who is either Jonathan or Chace or maybe his mom, since he talks to her a lot, which is good. She and Alec broke up though, a while back, like when we just started classes as freshman is when Jace’s mom called him to tell him that they broke up. Jace was slightly disappointed though, since he actually had started to like that Alec guy, and she’s dated a few guys since him, but she’s not like, into anything serious right now, I don’t think.
He’s not on speaking terms with his dad either. I mean, sometimes they’ll have civilized talks but soon, those talks will turn into screaming matches and it’s just no fun for anybody, which means that they don’t happen often. My dad is still in jail, though, but I think he’s been out a few times. I don’t know, I just try not to associate with him or Charley because they’re both just so stressful to deal with.
“Why are you just staring at me like that?” Jace wonders, putting his iPhone on the large dresser that now holds my stuff and some of Jace’s stuff.
“Because you have a hot bod,” I giggle as he walks towards me and instead of getting on the other side of the bed like a normal human being, he just topples over on top of me and kisses my nose.
“And I’m the weird one?” He wonders, pulling the covers back so that he can join me under the soft fabric and then we’re cuddling in the warmth of this really nice hotel bed.
“Yep, you’re very weird,” I agree teasingly. “But seriously, we need to go parasailing while we’re here. And don’t you think it would be cool to see like, a real volcano? With lava and everything.”
“I’m not keen on being swallowed by flaming liquid, no.” Jace laughs, his arms wrapped tightly around my mid-section.
I roll my eyes at my silly boyfriend and look up at him. “They’re not explosive, dummy. I did my research, and it’s totally safe. Obviously, they wouldn’t let us near it if it is going to erupt.”
“Because they know exactly what the lava is thinking?” Jace wonders with raised eyebrows.
I nod and giggle, because he just makes me so giggly, “Yep, I’m sure they do. Please? I’ll go with Claire though, if you’re really that scared.”
He scoffs and kisses my neck, just below my ear. “I’m not scared, Emma.”
“Scared,” I whisper.
“No, I’m not-“
“Scared!” I squeal with a huge grin on my face.
Jace starts tickling me not long after that and after I plead for mercy, he releases his evil grip on me and then we make out for a little bit before we both decide that we should go to sleep.
__________
When I wake up the next morning, I look over at Jace and realize that he’s still sleeping, which is normal because he is such a late sleeper and I always wake up before him. I kiss his temple before rolling out of bed and going into the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair. I listen for Claire or Jonathan though, just in case they’re up, which I doubt, because I don’t have pants on and I don’t want either of them to see me without pants on, mainly Jonathan though. Luckily, I’m a really early riser so nobody is awake yet and I get to the bathroom and back into the bedroom without being spotted.
I’m about to grab some clothes so that I can shower when I hear my phone going off somewhere in the room. Jace had put my phone away, though, when we were unpacking yesterday, and I don’t know where it is, so I try to follow the sound of the ring but it sounds like it’s reverberating in the walls so it’s hard to track. I start with the nightstand on my side of the bed and it’s not there, so I hurry over to Jace’s side of the bed to that nightstand and begin to shuffle through there but I don’t see my phone in there either. I’m about to close the drawer when my hand brushes against something velvety.
My curiosity gets the better of me, because I’m such a curious person, and I grab for the velvet and gasp when I see that it’s a small jewelry box, like a box that you put fancy jewelry in. At first, I think that it’s a pair of nice earrings or something that Jace plans on surprising me with later in the week, so I decide to pretend like I never saw the box because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. But I think that it’s kind of ridiculous that he has gotten me a pair of earrings, since he got me a pair for my birthday and he’s not one for a reoccurring gift. Besides the fact that it’s no special holiday or anything and I don’t need a new pair of earrings. I mean, it could be a necklace, but the box is too small for that and he’s never given me a ring before, so I don’t know why he’d do that. Then again, maybe I’m being too self-centered. It might not be intended for me at all. It could be for his mom or for himself, like a watch or something- I really tiny watch.
“Don’t open that,” Jace’s abrupt voice makes me jump a little bit and I look over to see him sitting up in the bed right beside me with a frantic look on his face. By now, my phone’s stopped ringing, but I figure that I’ll just call the person back, whoever it was that just called me.
“I wasn’t snooping,” I say quickly. “I was just looking for my phone.”
“That’s fine,” He assures me. “Just don’t open it.”
“Okay then,” I say slowly, putting it back and closing the drawer. “Do you know where my phone is, weirdo?”
He lets out a long sigh of relief and I giggle because he’s really into this being a surprise as to what’s in that box. Maybe they’re topaz or something, because I really like topaz. “It’s in your bag, by the dresser.”
“Okie dokie,” I chirp, grabbing my bag off of the floor beside the dresser and pulling out my phone to see that Michael was the one that called me. “After I call Michael back, let’s go to the beach and find someplace to eat breakfast, I’m starving.”
He nods, seemingly confused and that’s probably because I dropped the issue with the jewelry box so easily, but if he wants to surprise me then I’ll let him do that, because I love surprises. “Um, yeah, sure.”
So we both take showers and I get dressed in a bikini with a sundress over top of it while Jace wears swim trunks and a t-shirt. Jonathan and Claire are still sleeping by the time we’re ready to go so we leave them there and then walk along the beach before finding a cute little pancake place along the ocean. It’s kind of busy, but we only have to wait about ten minutes before getting a table.
“You know I don’t need a new pair of earrings, right?”
“What?” He wonders in confusion.
“That jewelry box,” I remind him. “You just got me a new pair, you know.”
“Oh!” He exclaims, clearly remembering the incident earlier that morning. “Um, right, I guess it was- erm, an impulse thing?”
“You bought expensive earrings on an impulse?” I wonder.
“How do you know it’s expensive?” He asks me.
“It?” I echo.
“They,” Jace says quickly. “I meant they.”
“Right,” I say slowly, suspiciously. “Well, the box was really well-made. I know my jewelry, Jace.”
“Of course,” He sighs with a small smile. “Well, I guess it wasn’t really impulse then.”
“See? This is what I mean when I say that you’re being weird,” I giggle.
He chuckles and shakes his head, stabbing into his pancakes. “I’m not being weird.”
I nod. “You are. But seriously, what’s the occasion? I’m still ogling over that other diamond pair and this kind of jewelry is just too expensive for me to keep accepting. It’s just an annual thing or like, every other year kind of thing, because I’m not going to just let you keep buying me expensive stuff. I’m not like, a gold digger or anything.”
“I know you’re not a gold digger, Em,” He reassures me.
“Whatever you say,” I sing, nibbling on my delicious bacon and dropping the subject there to talk about volcanoes again.
We get back to the hotel room an hour later and Jonathan and Claire are still not up yet, so Jace and I decide to go swimming in the ocean just outside of the hotel.
Jace leaves the room to go to the bathroom and to call Chace, who should be arriving around lunch time, in a few hours. I begin to look for my sunglasses before I remember that I saw them in the same drawer as I found the little box in, so I go over there to the drawer and grab my sunglasses, but the box is just sitting there, staring me in the face and taunting me to open it. I don’t want to, but I’m just such a curious person that I can’t leave it alone again.
I look at the door and Jace doesn’t come in so I turn back around, biting my lip in indecision because I want to open it but again, I also don’t want to, to preserve the surprise. I let out a long, exaggerated sigh of disappointment, because I’m so disappointed in myself for not being able to stop myself from opening it, and then grab the box from where it was carefully placed in the nightstand drawer. I flick it open without even letting myself question it further and I suddenly feel like I’m going to pass out or something because I’m not looking at a pair of earrings or a necklace or a small watch, but it’s a ring. It’s a beautiful topaz/diamond ring and it’s gorgeous. It’s probably the most beautiful ring that I’d ever seen in my life.
“Emma,” I hear Jace groan from behind me and I let out a loud squeal, shutting the box and putting it back in the nightstand quickly before spinning around to face Jace.
“I was just looking for my sunglasses,” I blurt quickly.
“But I saw you with the-“
“We better get to the beach before they close it,” I mutter, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the bedroom towards the front door of the hotel room.
“They’re not going to close the beach, Em,” Jace insists, but he lets me pull him through the hotel and then the lobby and out to the beach side.
“Do you want to go swimming?” I ask him, hoping that he’ll forget about me being a snoop and not get mad.
He frowns in confusion before opening his mouth to speak, “You saw what was in the box, right?”
I nod, looking down into the sand where my feet were buried. “Yeah, and it’s-“
“It’s not for you,” He says quickly, with an apologetic frown.
I stop talking and pucker my lips in disappointment because that ring was just so beautiful. “Oh…” I mumble softly.
“I’m sorry, Em,” He sighs. “But Jonathan didn’t want Claire to find it in their stuff and I didn’t tell you because you’d tell Claire. Maybe not on purpose, but you really can’t keep a secret.”
“Wait… that doesn’t make any sense,” I mutter, recalling the fact that Claire isn’t even much of a fan of topaz.
“Well, Jonathan’s going to, um, he’s going to propose,” Jace mutters softly. “You can’t tell Claire though, he’ll kill me.”
“AHH!” I scream really loudly, my hands flying up to slap against my gaping mouth. My knees feel really weak underneath of me but I don’t like, collapse or anything. Jace basically just proposed to me, even though he doesn’t know it yet, I can put the pieces together. “That- that is an engagement ring?”
He nods with a curious look on his face. “Yeah… Em, why are you crying?”
I feel the happy tears running down my face and we’re getting a lot of strange looks from other people on the beach around us because of my unnecessary screaming, but I just don’t care. “You- That- But Claire- I- You-“
“Me…” Jace urges me to actually make a coherent sentence.
“Jace Parker, that was a topaz ring and Claire hardly even likes topaz, she likes both Ruby and Diamond, but not topaz and Jonathan knows that- he got her a ruby necklace before so he knows that she wouldn’t want topaz, but you- you know that I love topaz so it’s not for Claire and you just said that it’s an en-engagement ring so you- That- I- You-“ I try to finish my sentence but I can’t because I’m so overwhelmed by the news that I’ve figured out.
Jace opens his mouth to respond but then closes it again. He opens it once more before deciding on what to say but then decides against it and closes his mouth again. He seems to give up on something and lets out a long, heavy sigh before finally opening his mouth with actual words coming out. “You are a lot easier to trick when you’re adorably gullible, you know,” He mutters softly.
“Did I ruin the surprise?” I wonder, wiping the excited tears from my face.
He laughs shakily and nods. “Yes, Emma, you ruined the surprise.”
“I’m so incredibly sorry,” I say quickly.
“It’s okay, Em,” He smiles nervously and my heart flutters lightly because he’s smiling at me and that’s just such a wonderful feeling, feeling him smile at me like that.
“But- But you still gotta ask, right?” I ask, hoping that I didn’t completely ruin him actually proposing to me.
“Can I at least go get the ring first?” Jace wonders softly.
I shake my head no because I don’t want to wait. I just want him to ask so that I can blubber and say yes and blubber some more and then I can go see the ring again. People were still watching us from around the beach though, which was weird, but I really didn’t care, honestly.
“Okay,” He clears his throat and then continues but I’m already crying softly with happy tears drenching my cheeks. “Well, I had this huge thing planned out, with like, a yacht and a small band and then there was this buffet of all of your favorite foods and a fancy waiter and your favorite songs and it was going to be really amazing, and then we were going to dance for a little while and then we were going to eat and then dance again and then go up to the deck and romantically look out into the ocean and the sunset and the moon and it’d be really cool and then there’s where I was going to actually, you know, do this, so just kinda imagine that we’re on a yacht by ourselves and one of your favorite songs is playing and we’re alone on this cool yacht, okay?” I can’t respond, so he continues. “Right,” And then he clears his throat again, nervously, before grabbing one of my hands in his and getting down on one knee, which is when the waterworks really start going and I cup my mouth in my free hand so that I don’t just like, start bawling or something, and my heart is racing more than I’d ever felt it race before. “Emma Jacobs, you are the most beautiful, talented, wonderful, kind-hearted, gullible, honest, caring, just all around gorgeous person that I have ever, ever met and I really could not imagine a better person to spend the rest of my life with, because you’re seriously not at all perfect, but you’re perfect to me and really, if you were perfect, that’d just be boring, and I love all of your imperfections, and I can’t wait to find more imperfections inside of you that I hope you’ll let me discover as we move on with our lives. Together. And I already asked Michael and after almost an hour of practically begging for his approval, he was okay with this. So, I mean, you already know what I’m going to ask, but Emma Jacobs,” I hear somebody screaming giddily and I don’t know if it’s me or somebody else, but I don’t really care because I’m just so intent on Jace right now. “Emma Jacobs,” He repeats in a choked voice. “Will you marry me?”
I nod vigorously and then giggle a soft “Well, duh.”
Jace shoots to his feet and wraps me in his arms while the people on the beach around us begin to cheer enthusiastically. I hug him closely to me and cry happily into his shoulder because he loves me as much as I love him and he’s mine forever and I’m his forever and we are forever. Our story doesn’t end with “goodbye”, and there’s nothing more perfect than that. I just cry and hug him for a moment before I stop crying and we’re just standing there, holding each other incredibly tightly.
“I love you so much,” He mutters into the crook of my neck.
“I love you so much back, Jace Parker,” I whisper softly, muffling the words in his shoulder.
The screaming from earlier returns and I can tell that it’s Claire now, so I look up but I don’t let go of Jace, and see that she’s standing pretty far away from us, but close enough to hear what Jace had said, but Jonathan was holding her back so that she couldn’t like, interrupt my and Jace’s perfect moment in time.
I ignore her for a little while longer before pulling away from Jace and then pressing my lips to Jace’s, still ignoring Claire, but I’m sure she’ll understand. We kiss heavily for a really long time, but it’s nothing too heated because I’m still firmly against PDA, but I mean, we just got engaged, so I obviously have to kiss him.
Jace Parker is my fiancé. I am engaged. To Jace Parker. Mrs. Parker. Emma Parker. They all sound so wonderful and marvelous and… perfect and right.
“Can we still go on the yacht?” I wonder breathlessly, pulling out of the kiss reluctantly.
Jace chuckles and then pecks my lips again before nodding. “Yeah, we can still go on the yacht, it’s already reserved and everything.”
“I love you,” I repeat.
He grins and kisses the corner of my mouth. “I love you too, Emma. So, so much.”
It’s kinda crazy to think that I was pretty much terrified of Jace for almost all of high school and I thought all of those ridiculous things about him and his friends. The fact that I thought that he killed kittens and then ate their bones for breakfast is actually just so ridiculous, because Jace is so nice and caring and just the best person ever. We really blame everything on that one place, for bringing us together and making me realize how amazing Jace Parker really is, behind all of the stupid high school rumors. If it weren’t for that café, I wonder if we’d ever have really gotten to know each other and the thought of never being with Jace is awful because I literally cannot imagine my life without Jace Parker, and I owe all of that to The Seaside Café.