Ocean's Storm

Epilogue: Six Years Later

"Ansel, can you please go out to the store to pick up the cake?!" I shout from the kitchen, trying my best to multitask while watching my dirty blonde haired, grey eyed, two-year-old playing on the living room floor.

"I thought you picked the cake up yesterday," Ansel states, picking Charlotte Charlotte up off of the floor and walking over to the kitchen with her on his hip.

"Ansel, baby, our daughter turns two only once," I point the spatula in my hand at him.

"Storm, you are overthinking this again," Ansel says calmly.

The doorbell rings just in time to save him from my wrath and I put down my spatula. I give Ansel a dirty look and plaster on a fake smile the moment I get to the front door. Smoothing out my dress, I open the front door only to meet the all too familiar blue eyes I have grown accustomed to seeing every day.

"You're finally home!" Wrapping my arms around his waist, I exclaim happily.

"Francesca, I was only gone ten minutes," Ocean laughs, leaning down to kiss the top of my head.

Approximately four months after we graduated from high school, Ocean and I broke up. He went back home to Australia for two years, despite the fact he told me that he had no plans of ever going back. But, his plans changed after he went back through his old memory box- said he needed to have one last chance at closure. Long distance was not what I wanted to do, so he let me go just like that. Yes, he did offer me the chance to go and explore Australia with him, but I turned him down.

Ocean went on to date a girl from his hometown and I went on to date Spencer. Don't judge me for my decision. There was no longer any high school drama to be made and Spencer had grown quite a bit throughout the year. To say that dating Spencer was a terrible idea would be a wrong assumption. We both, along with Ansel, had ended up moving to Texas, but Spencer was attending a university an hour away from the one that I was attending with Ansel- Baylor.

My relationship with Spencer only lasted a year and a half- the news of Ocean potentially coming back is what made me break up with Spencer. There was no indication of if Ocean was single, but I was hopeful to still get back together and start over. The chatter became reality when we had crossed paths at Baylor- Spencer told him where he could find me.

                 Ocean and I had dated for a total of  two years before tying the knot. Spencer was Ocean's best man- their relationship became even stronger over the years and they both having matching Australia tattoos on the inside of their forearm. Being the bigger person, I asked Capri to be my maid of honor. She kindly declined by slamming her front door in my face and locking it. So, I asked Bria to be my maid of honor, instead. We had both gotten closer and kept in contact since parting ways in high school.

                On the same night Ocean had decided to propose, we decided to both get a tattoo to commemorate the day. This was my first tattoo and Ocean's second. I got a small infinity sign with a wave in the middle on the right side- to represent Ocean and a nod to our conversation about the number eight and infinity- on my left hip. Ocean had gotten a small version of the hurricane symbol I had spray painted onto his shirt tattooed onto the right side of his hip.

               "Hellooooo," Ansel drawls out. "Your daughter missed you more than your wife."

                Pulling away from Ocean, I turn around to look at Ansel with my hands on my hips. "You are just mad because you have always had a secret man crush on my husband."

                  "Hold your child," Ansel hands Charlotte to Ocean and Ocean takes her away from him without any hesitation. "If I do recall, you did not want to label whatever you two were back in high school. After high school, you move right onto that other Carpenter. Now, you go waltzing back to this crab and get married."