no one said it would be easy

Epilogue

twenty years later...

Izzie

„Basil... Basil... Where is the goddamn basil", I whisper to myself, going through every single cabin in the kitchen just to see someone put it on the ledge. I get over to the window to gather a few leaves to put on the lasagna I just made. Nobody really eats them, but they look good on food and make it look like I know what I'm doing when I'm actually not.

I put the leaves on the melted cheese on top of the lasagna and they do make it look a lot better.

Strong arms wrap around my waist, pulling me closer to her warm body. Casey starts slowly swinging our hips to the beat of the music, playing on the radio.

"Looks so good, babe", she says, kissing every inch of visible skin on my neck and shoulder, leaving sparkling goosebumps on her path. „The lasagna, too" she breathes into my ear.

I start chuckling and push my butt into her body, making her take a step back. "Stop that, I'm busy right now", I say turning around and giving her a quick peck on the lips.

She puts on a dog-like face and pouts her lips, begging for more attention. I put my hands around her neck and get very close to her ear:
„I've got a surprise for you, but you'll have to wait until tonight."

Casey bites her lips and looks me up and down: "Why not now?", she asks.

"Because the kids are still awake. Would you get them by the way? Dinner is ready", I ask her, kissing her one last time before turning back to the food.

"Oh, Dinner will sure be ready tonight", she winks at me and goes upstairs to get the kids and I laugh about the joke she made.

I start setting the table with plates, forks and knives, when I see one of the pictures on our wall is crooked. That was probably Louis, he and Casey run around too much in this house. I fix the frame and want to get back to setting the table, but my gaze rests on the people on the picture.

It's our wedding picture. Casey and I looked so good that day, especially Casey in her beige jumpsuit. All the Gardner's looked so fantastic that day. Sam wore the most beautiful smoking I've ever seen and Paige's light blue dress fit her perfectly. Even their son Jason was wearing a smoking and I swear he stole our show. To my left are my brothers and sisters... and then my mom. It was a long and though road for her to finally accept my life choices, but thanks to a lot of patience and Elsa we finally found a way to one another again. She still thinks a man by my side would make me much happier and more successful, but I know she's wrong. I know nobody's able to make me happier than Casey and our children.

My eyes lower to my right ring finger and I start twisting the wedding ring with my other hand. It's like she just proposed yesterday. The memory of her proposal is so vivid to me. How she pulled out the ring box at the lake, when we came home for a visit, and asked me "Will you marry me?" and because I thought she was kidding, I boxed her arm so hard she got a little bruise.

Sometimes I forget we've been married for 10 years now. Our love's still so fresh and exciting. Sure, daily life and kids are making it hard for us to take some private time, but it's going well and it seems like it'll never end. 

I move over to the next picture frame and I instantly start laughing. It was taken at Casey and mine's first party at college. God, we were so young back then. Casey's hair was longer, she tried to grow it out, but soon realized it doesn't suit her. The picture show's us mid jumping into a pool while each of us is holding a red cup, with a fluid spilling out it. I need to suppress a gag, thinking about the smell of vodka. This night ruined the drink for me and I probably never ever drink that shit again.

College years were very hard for us. I managed to get into a college nearby, but it just wasn't close enough to see her every weekend. Sometimes 3 months went by without us seeing each other. Those really were the worst times of our relationship. Casey was always on the run, taking part in competitions all the time and I was busy with designing clothes for fashion school.

But it was worth the wait. 20 years later and we're living in a nice house near our families, we're married, have two kids and are super successful in what we're doing.

But the most important part of our lives are our kids: Louis and Mia. The boy is 8 years old and his younger sister 6. They are some real sweethearts and make us more and more proud with every day.

Louis wants to be a track star just like his mother and Mia wants to be a designer like me. They don't fully understand how stressful our jobs can be, but it's so cute they want to be like us when they grow up.

I hear little feet walking down the stairs and then Casey's stomps. When will this woman learn to walk down the stairs normally? 

I quickly finish setting the table as Casey and the children take a seat. They start chattering and joking around, while Casey is taking the basil off the lasagna, putting it on her nose, making both of the kids laugh. Even though I hate it when they play with food, I can't help myself and chuckle a bit.

This is the dork I married, training our kids to be dorks too.

I take the basil off her nose and put it aside. We lock eyes for a long moment and we look at each other, like we've just had our first kiss.

Yeah, it's been a tough road, but no one said it would be easy.

We made it this far. And I can't imagine heaven being any better than this.

THE END