The Make-Up Artist

Epilogue: Home

A few months later...

The sun is bright in the early afternoon L.A. day when you approach your favorite bench to sit and have your lunch like you do on several occasions. You've been working at the television studio a few blocks down for a couple of months now, after taking time to rest your hand at the doctor's insistence (and your mother's) since you returned home. It's pretty much as good as new now, except for a few slight twinges you get here and there, usually from overuse. You had seen the doctor about a week after getting back to get a second opinion, to which you were annoyed that he shared with the doctor in England, and also to get your chest checked out. You were a bit nervous, to say the least, about the results of the x-rays, but in the end the diagnosis turned out to be esophageal spasms, which the doctor had informed you could have been brought on by stress. He had prescribed you medicine and a few breathing exercises to practice when you feel anxious, which has helped immensely, and you haven't thought much about the debilitating chest pain since.

You ended up contacting Lisa soon after your return, and had congratulated her on her upcoming wedding that just took place last month. You had insisted you were happy for her and Anthony, but were not yet ready to attend their wedding. She had understood, and you are happy that things were left on good terms. The two of you are not yet speaking, but you are open to that changing in the future. Luckily, you'd been able to move out of the apartment you had shared together and had found a place not far from work, and with the help of your parents and the compensation from the studio back in England, you are able to afford.

You and Richard talk by text pretty regularly, which has been nice. He contacted you soon after you returned home and after jokingly forgiving you for leaving without saying goodbye in person, he told you he would continue to check in with you and keep you informed on how the Rocketman promotional train is going. He's excited for the premiere coming up in a few months and has mentioned several times that he would love for you to attend, but you've always brushed him off, stating you will be too busy with work. You know that's not the whole reason, but you don't see the point of going into that. Richard doesn't mention Taron, and you don't ask about him. You figure he will tell you if there's something you need to know. It occurred to you once that maybe he was keeping tabs on you at Taron's request, but you had dismissed the thought quickly, deciding that Taron is probably much too busy to be doing something like that.

Soon after moving into your new apartment, you had stumbled upon the job working at the television studio. You are on the make-up team for a new tv show that will be airing sometime in the fall, and they were so impressed by the fact that you had worked on Rocketman that you were practically hired on the spot. You didn't even have to request a referral from Lizzie which was a relief. The hours are much better than they were back in England and the stress level is way lower. The people have all been friendly, kind and professional; and you look forward to going to work every day. You've even been out to have drinks with them a few times and are happy to have found a job where there is little to no drama.

You find it difficult to think about Taron. You made the mistake once, soon after returning home, of going down the "You-Tube rabbit hole" of his past interviews and appearances and it proved much too painful to bear. You had wallowed in self-pity for two days after that, and you vowed to never do it again. Even though you left him on good terms, you try and not allow yourself to go back to that time in England with him, for fear of it being too difficult. You know in time it will become easier, but for now, it's just better this way. As promised, he hasn't contacted you and in some way, it's almost as if it was all a dream. Sometimes you take the necklace he gave you out of your jewelry box, or go to the back of your closet and pull his jacket out, just to remind you that it did in fact happen. You dream about him sometimes, and when you wake up, it takes you a moment to realize that you are back home and he's not there with you. However, you do still feel like you made the right choice, knowing that even though your worlds are somewhat connected, your lives are too different to try and make anything work in the long run.