Hi there! You doing good? You doing okay? You doing great? That's good!
Firstly, thank you guys so much for 3k+ reads! This is the final week of CFH, and I am super grateful for this and for all of you. Thank you so much, guys. This wouldn't be possible without you.
Next, thanks for RSVP-ing to be included in the epilogue! If you haven't RSVP'd in the previous chapter's author's note, well hey! You have all the time to do that before Saturday midnight (Philippine Standard Time). It's nothing crazy, but it'll be something nice hopefully. <3
Anyway, let's get started with Courtney's POV and see ya!
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Earlier that day
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"Hey!" I say into the phone. "Merry Christmas, dude! How are you doing?"
"Pretty great, but I should be the one asking you that," Ian tells me, chuckling. "I tried making one of those hot chocolate bombs you can see on Tiktok? Pretty good, not gonna lie. Took me a bit of time though."
"I'll try that out, send me a link on how to do it," I reply, laughing. "Well, uh, I'm doing great. The whole leave has gotten me feel better."
"I was gonna argue that you didn't have to do it, but since your therapist prescribed it, I can't argue with that," he remarks. "I'm glad you're feeling much better, Courtney. Everyone else is so curious with how you're doing. Especially Shayne. God, he would just come into the office at random hours to see if I'm calling you. He has no idea I do the calls at home. Hey, maybe you could, you know, give him a call?"
I stare out the window, sighing. "I don't know, Ian," I mumble. "Maybe it isn't the time yet. I could call him after Christmas, you know."
"He's worried about you," he tells me. "Imagine, you two finish a business together, and then suddenly you disappear without a long enough explanation. Sure, he understands because he's pretty freaking close to becoming a psychologist, but before everything you two have ever been, you were friends."
"I know, I know, but I don't wanna interrupt him right now," I reply. "It's Christmas, dude. Everyone's supposed to be happy and jolly and cool. I don't wanna ruin that for him."
"You two not talking is already doing that," Ian says. "One way or another, you'll have to talk to him, because if you don't, well... that's just ending a chapter on a bad note. And I know you, Courtney. You and Shayne have something special that can't be easily replicated. At the end of the day, you're still the two of you. Just two inseparable magnets... with incredible romantic tension."
"Thanks for not using the word sexual."
"I still honestly can't believe you two weren't actually in a relationship," he replies, chuckling. "After seeing the whole documentation Tommy made, I didn't know how else to prove you guys wrong."
I look at a picture of CFH in my room. Damien took this picture after that Tuesday when we attended seven events in a day. The four of us were seated on the sidewalk, with Tommy holding a binder of events, Spencer eating a box of chicken nuggets, me laughing at the camera, and Shayne looking right at me, smirking with a brow raised. Not smirking. Just... smiling. Like he always does that made me fall in love with him. "Me too, Ian," I tell him. "Me too."
When Ian hangs up after a while of talking, I take a deep breath and look at my bags packed for Christmas. I was gonna stay over at my dad's place, as I always do every Christmas, but New Year's was a flight to Utah. Even though I felt more relieved thanks to a month-long leave, I knew that Ian was right. I had already talked to Tommy, Spencer, and Damien, telling them not to say a word of our conversation to Shayne. But I needed to talk to him, and I was the one making excuses.
My brother eventually arrives, and we drive to Dad's, where I'm greeted warmly by everyone else. They're all occupied with cooking up tonight's dinner, wrapping last-minute gifts, and having a good time. I was the one feeling like shit, and I just wanted to be happy because I'm with my family.
"Now, what are you doing over here?" Dad asks me as I stand in front of our family picture wall. Most of these pictures are pictures of us without Mom, but of course, he kept some pictures with her up. "I'm glad you're home, but you look all sad and stressed out. You should have gone here when your leave started."
"As much as I wanted to, I had to fix up papers for the business closing," I answer, chuckling. "Uh, Dad, I just gotta ask you something. I know Mom isn't your soulmate, because you guys got divorced and that stuff, but..."
"How did I know it was love?" he says, standing next to me and looking at the pictures as well. "Well, I remember that there was one night I took your mother out for a diner date in the middle of the night. She flunked an exam of some sort, I couldn't remember. We sat in that diner, and she was crying about how that exam meant to her. And I watched her cry, listened to her, paid for her milkshake and fries."
"And...?"
"That was it," he explains, nodding slowly. "Our love was never anything spontaneous or grand. It was pretty ordinary, now that I recall it. But even if things are ordinary, it doesn't mean they're nothing special. What your Mom and I shared in those years was special. It just so happened that we fell out of it, but even though that happened... we still happened too. She knew I loved her, I knew she loved me, and at that diner, that was all we needed to know. Love is never about knowing everything, but it's about getting everything you need. Just like grocery shopping."
I give him a smile as he gives me a hug. I tell him, "I'm just scared, really scared that I lose this one, because he's everything I know I need to know. And I already know him. Even you know him."
"Oh. We're talking about Shayne."
"Come on, he's a great guy. It doesn't show on his Instagram. On his behalf, I apologize for the bananas."
"I actually love the banana posts, they make no sense," he assures me, chuckling. "Well, even though this household knows him already, he has a lot of work to do to make sure he gets a Miller Christmas sweater."
I give Shayne a call right after that, but he was on a flight back to Colorado. He told me that he was gonna call me back, and I waited. I waited and waited until everyone else was occupied with new things, such as cleaning up after dinner, gift-giving, and choosing some cheesy Netflix Christmas special to watch. It was kind of heart-warming to watch my siblings do different things from one second to another. Even though this day has felt especially the longest, it's still pretty surprising how life is so short, yet everyone around me is spending every second wisely. I think back to the time we got surged by requests, wondering how many baby showers and housewarming parties we had to attend in only California. And there were 49 other states, 195 other countries, seven other planets, and a countless number of galaxies.
So many things are happening everywhere, and when Shayne called me back, it felt like that was the only thing happening in my universe. Time stopped, maybe.
"Hey, what's up, Courtney?" he says. "So sorry I got back to you just now. I kinda thought that you were having dinner too."
"We were, yeah," I reply, scratching the back of my head as I sit on the front porch in my sweater. "Lucky you, you're in Colorado. California's still pretty hot right now, it's a little unfair."
"For the record, California's always been pretty hot," he tells me, chuckling. "We had dinner too, by the way. Well, uh, I don't know why I said that. I just kinda, uh..."
"Why are you so nervous?" I ask him, laughing. "Look, I just wanted to talk about how we... did everything. It's been ten months since everything began actually, and to be honest, I miss it. Not in a way that I'd go back to it, but the memories. Those weekend evenings we can never get back."
He remarks, "Shit happens, but that was some good shit. I'm just glad that you called."
"I was scared to call you actually," I tell him. "I called everyone else already, greeted them a merry Christmas."
"Wow. The audacity."
"Hey, you're the one who was on a flight," I retort, chuckling. "But yeah, uh... I'm just glad you called me back. I honestly thought that we were gonna drift apart after CFH. It wasn't very likely of us to do that, but it was possible."
"Yeah, it was," he replies, sighing. "I'm sorry for how I reacted back then, when we shut the site down. As much as I wanted to stay calm, everything just happened too quickly, and I didn't have time to process it. But I didn't really think that you had to process that too. I was kinda selfish on my part."
"And I was too emotional to make a logical decision," I say, smiling sadly at the neighbor's Christmas decorations. "We could have closed everything better, ya know. I was actually thinking if we could do that. Have one last interview to clear everything. Sure, everyone's probably over it, but it'd be nice to have it all cleared one last time. I talked to Tommy about it, and he's choosing the best place offering an interview with us. I told him to do it after Christmas though, but he was psyched."
"Yeah, and it would be good Smosh promotion too," he adds, laughing. "I think that's a great idea. We could do it in February, one year since we opened the business, if that's alright with you."
"I think that'd be perfect," I remark, smiling. "So, uh... it's getting pretty late, and my siblings are calling me to watch this Netflix Christmas film with them. I'm not interested at all, but it's Christmas, and Netflix and Christmas are... a good couple. For hire."
Shayne says, "Good one, but... yeah, it's cool. I know you're busy and all that."
"Why? What's up?" I ask, standing up and heading to my car to get something. "I can opt out of that movie night if you need me to keep you company all the way from California."
"No, it's fine."
"Shayne."
"Courtney."
"Oh, come on, man," I reply. "You're 30 years old. 'Bout time you stopped playing games with me... except on Smosh Games, that's our job there."
I hear him take a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right," he replies. "27 T. Roosevelt Street, Santa Monica, CA. Merry Christmas, Courtney."
"What?" I mumble, stopping in my footsteps. "What do you mean by... Shayne? Shayne? Did you just hang up on me?"
From: Supreme Courtney
WHAT THE HELL
From: Supreme Courtney
I had no idea what you said can you repeat it
From: Shayne "The Rock" Bottom
You're making me lose my whole mysterious ending
From: Shayne "The Rock" Bottom
27 T. Roosevelt Street, Santa Monica, CA. Key's taped under the windowsill. When you leave, put it back there.
From: Supreme Courtney
I swear to God Shayne if this is a Christmas haunted house or something I will smack your ass when I get back to the office
From: Shayne "The Rock" Bottom
I'm not kinky but OK
I get back into our house, picking up my coat as I apologize to everyone else for having to bail on movie night. Thankfully, they were cool with it, they must have listened to the entire call through the door. I get in my car and drive all the way to the address Shayne sent me, slightly nervous that it was some sort of prank. But when I stop in front of a house with a few lights on outside, I realize that it's just a random Californian house. Nothing dangerous hopefully, so I take my keys in my fingers as I take the key from the windowsill. I open the door to see a bunch of boxes everywhere, and they were all personal belongings. Familiar ones, and I knew it when I saw a couple of similarly looking paintings resting against the living room wall.
Shayne bought a house.
I sit on the floor, chuckling at it all. Too many picture frames spread out on the coffee table, with an uninstalled TV set next to his PS4. The furniture was pretty great for someone who barely thinks about seating arrangements and decoration during events. I go to the bedrooms, seeing four of them and feeling confused. I go to the yard, feeling the damp grass. There was a bit of rain this afternoon, and it was still dewy in here. I go to the master bedroom, and I only see stacks of suits piled on the bed. I put them in his wardrobe. He's worn these already, I know. I put more stuff into their places, leaving everything else I didn't know in a single room. I hang up the paintings, I get the TV configured, I water the houseplants. I put a picture frame of the four of us on the wall, and he has the same sidewalk picture as I have.
"You really bought a house after getting the five of us to convene daily in my small apartment?" I mumble as I look at him in the picture. "You're so stupid. So... stupid, man."
I told him to stop playing games. Turns out he was way past that. He's already onto something else, and that's something great. And when he led me here, it could only mean one thing; he wanted me to be a part of it.
I was more than willing to do so.
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