Ecstasy

A Dive into Happiness

"Celebrate endings--for they precede new beginnings."

- Excerpt by anonymous

"This is beautiful!" Hannah exclaims. We're standing in front of Anna's new house and she isn't wrong. This house is definitely an upgrade from her old one.

Cai and Lorenzo are busy bringing in furniture while Anna and I are walking around the house.

"I would love to plant flowers here," she states and it makes me smile. I look at the backyard where I see Cassidy playing. Lorenzo really went all out when he did not need to. I was even surprised when I first saw it.

He surprised everyone with a backyard playset and a tree house. He probably did it because it was Cassidy's dream to have one. Enzo made her dream reality.

When we had told Cassidy that they're moving she was sad, so was Briana, but now she's happy, having the time of her life, playing in the backyard.

Plus, she also was happy that her mom could play with her even more.

"This is too much," she mumbles, causing me to laugh.

Enzo really overdid himself. Building the backyard playset and tree house was not enough. He bought entirely new furniture for Anna. He let her choose whatever furniture she wanted and he bought it with nothing in return.

All of her stuff is new now. He also bought extra toys for Cassidy.

"You know what I mean," she says and I give her a smile.

"Yeah, he did go overboard," I confess and Hannah playfully shoves me.

"You're lucky that you snagged a rich man. If only," she sighs and I look at her. It's obvious she's imagining something.

"Go get one," I tell her and she gives me a look. We both end up laughing together.

The only sad thing about Anna moving is that she went from Los Angeles to San Diego. From Lorenzo's house, that's about a two hour drive. However, she didn't care though.

Just being in this neighborhood, able to play with Cassidy on a normal schedule is enough to make her happy. If she's happy then I'm most definitely happy.

She doesn't have to worry about whether she's going to get robbed. In this one, there is a whole neighborhood watch. She might get side-eyed because she's 20 with a five-year-old child but... I think people here can get past that... right?

Enzo made sure that the neighborhood watch is up-to-date and they actually watch around to make sure everything is fine.

It's a very safe place to live in and letting Cassidy and Anna live here brings a smile to my face.

Anna is really going to start over and the life she's been struggling to deal with ever since she was 16 is going to be over and she'll really live, happily, instead of trying hard to make ends meet.

Cai ended up leaving early because he had other stuff to do and I helped Anna by getting Cassidy ready for bed and getting comfortable in the house.

I already said good-night to Anna and so I close the door to the house and walk out to the car where Enzo is, leaning against it, smoking a cigarette.

He glances over at me and when he does, he throws the cig on the road, stomping it out with the heel of his shoe.

I walk up to him, happily. He reciprocates with a smile as well.