You can Bet on Me

~Epilogue~

Maddison
I stood outside the wonderful little corner bakery, smiling, barely able to contain the happy tears that were building up behind my eyes. It had always been my dream to own one of my own, and now, I finally had one. Well, soon enough.

"Do you want to do the honours, love?" Michael's arms were around my waist in seconds, pressing a light kiss to my forehead and admiring the shop with me.
"Yes, I would love that." I smiled back. Michael's smile widened and he handed me some silver scissors that he had been holding. I beamed and reached out to cut the beautiful red ribbon in front of the glass door. There was a small crowd of relatives and family members and distant cousins that I didn't know I even had, all waiting to go inside my bakery. The fact that some of them had flown here all the way from America made my heart warm – I really did have a lovely, supportive family. There were also many people from Michael's side of the family – his parents, of which I had both grown close to, his aunt, his uncle, and his three little cousins.
"I pronounce Sugarcube Corner Bakery..." I said, being mockingly dramatic. I cut the ribbon just as I practically yelled, "open!"
Michael pushed open the doors and we stumbled inside as Mum and Papa went around to look. They hadn't seen it yet – I had made sure it was a surprise. Even if they were extremely busy, I was super touched that they had both taken the time off work to see my bakery open – they had even taken a week's leave from work to help me around the bakery before we hire workers. Even though most arrangements had been sorted out already, there was still the matter of hiring workers. I had no clue who would want to work at such a new bakery, especially since new businesses like this were almost bound to fail quickly. The many family members of both me and Michael immediately went inside and sat down in booths, smiling and talking.
I had visited the bakery over twenty times since Michael had bought it for me as a birthday gift when I turned twenty-one, and now, it's been almost a year since then. I've figured out how everything works, and I had anticipated its opening since the moment I laid eyes on the beautiful, cosy little corner bakery, and now, it had finally happened.
"The help has arrived!" I heard a yell sound and my eyes snapped to the door, where Cassie, Vivienne, and Hailey were all standing, an entertained sparkle in their eyes. Cassie did her classic cheerleader sashay right up to me and said, "we have come, oh best friend in the universe."
"Well, I didn't know you guys were coming." I smiled as Vivienne and Hailey came over as well.
"That's the point," Hailey smiled victoriously. "And now that we're here, we're going to help you."
"But I expect to be paid!" Vivienne said. Hailey turned to glare at her and she shrugged, "what? I was joking! Well, kind of. I do expect to get paid – I won't do all this work for free, you know. Manual labour is difficult!"
"You're talking as if this is a weightlifting job rather than just baking," teased Cassie, gently slapping Vivienne's shoulder.
"Whatever, Viv. You can get paid or whatever – I'm just glad you're here!" I squealed.
We spent the next hour baking and serving an assortment of pastries to the relatives we had in the bakery, and all I can say is that I'm fucking glad that I had help. Some people walking down the street saw our bakery and came in, and I'm proud to say that business is booming. I received compliments of the food or simply how nice the bakery looks from everyone I served food to, and I felt as though my head would explode with the pride.
But at the same time, it was exhausted serving so many customers, and just the five of us – me, Vivienne, Cassie, Hailey, and Michael – was definitely not enough. Mum and Papa had to take care of Abagail, Addison, Sammy, Danielle, and Eleanor for most of the time and had no experience in cooking. Cassie also wasn't a great help in baking, so she had settled as a waiter, but Hailey and Vivienne quickly picked up on how to bake stuff once I taught them. They had always been quick learners like I had, and Cassie was simply the popular, outgoing, extroverted one of us. Michael had been terrible at baking – he exploded the flour, absolutely crushed the eggs instead of cracking them, and many more.
"Do you want to help Cassie as a waiter?" I asked, cleaning up the third egg mess that he had created and chucking the dirty paper towel in the bin.
"No," Michael replied. "I know I suck at baking – that's all your talent, but I don't want to be away from you."
I blushed and Michael smirked at my blush. He leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips, holding me by the waist. We pulled apart slightly and I grinned wildly at him, then kissed him again but more passionately.
"Woah, woah, woah! Strictly no PDA in the kitchen!" a loud voice made me jump apart from Michael, but his arm firmly around my waist stopped me from getting too far. I looked over and saw Vivienne, feigning disgust as she desperately covered her eyes, yelling, "ew! Ew! Just get a room, won't you?"
I laughed. "You'll know what it feels like to fall in love eventually, Viv. It's amazing, trust me."
"As amazing as you felt in high school when you realised Michael had made a bet on you?" Vivienne raised a brow, crossing her arms as she looked at me.
"Absolutely," I grinned, purposefully kissing Michael again. Vivienne shrieked and ran out of the kitchen.
"I'll leave you two lovebirds alone! You guys can handle the puff pastries, I'm going to get away from the romanticness and not get infected with the PDA disease," Vivienne yelled as she ran out of the kitchen. I laughed and pulled away from Michael, just as the oven alarm rang. As I crouched down in front of the oven with a pair of oven mitts, Michael came over to me and said, "so, how do you feel, babe?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, setting the tray of hot pastries on the bench to cool down before we served it to customers. I removed my oven mitts and placed them down beside the tray, looking to Michael as I leaned against the benchtop.
"How does it feel to finally reach your dream?" Michael explained, looking at me with a warm smile.
"Amazing. Absolutely amazing – I can hardly believe that it's happening," I admitted honestly, meeting Michael's smile with one of my own. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason," Michael shrugged, but I knew that there was definitely a reason. His eyes said it all. He tried to reach past me and grab one of the pastries, but I blocked him and looked up into his eyes.
"You would think that you should know this by now, but I know when you're lying, Michael Peterson." I narrowed my eyes. "What are you hiding?"
"I... think I know what my dream is," he admitted, and my narrowed eyes broke out into a wide grin.
"That's fantastic! Tell me!" I insisted, taking a step towards me.
"Later," he said.
"Not later – it's been years, Michael. I know you, I trust you, and I love you more than anything. So why won't you tell me?" I pouted.
"And I know you do, but I can't tell you now. That would ruin the surprise," Michael smiled mischievously and grabbed a pastry, put it on a plate, and walked off to serve it before I could ask. I frowned at his retreating figure, before letting out a sigh and grabbing a pastry as well. Ten more served pastries later, it was late noon and there were only a few people left in the bakery. I stood next to Michael, his arm around my waist and my head resting comfortably on his warm shoulder, staring at the beautiful little bakery.
"Geez! Who knew working as a waiter could be so hard," I knew instantly from the whiny voice talking that it was Cassie. She approached us from behind and came to stand next to me.
"I'm sure it is," I said, sarcasm dripping from my town as I rolled my eyes.
Vivienne and Hailey both had just finished serving their last customers, and sat down at the chairs next to the counter.
"Maddy!" I looked down just as Sammy came and hugged my legs. He was older now, but still just a toddler and as short as ever. I smiled and scooped him up into my arms as Eleanor came running at me too.
"Maddy, the pastries were so good!" she beamed. "You better make them at home next time. Or could you make one for me to bring to school? Derek—" she stopped talking and I narrowed my eyes.
"Ellie, who the hell is Derek?" I frowned.
"No one," Eleanor blurted, far too quickly.
"A boy better not be dating my baby sister," I snapped. Eleanor rolled her eyes and said exasperatingly, "I'm not a baby."
"I know, but you'll always be my baby sister," I said, keeping a straight face. "And don't try to change the topic. Who. Is. Derek?"
"My... boyfriend." She sighed. I loosened myself from Michael grasp to put both my hands on Eleanor's shoulders.
"Oh my fucking god!" I almost screamed.
"Language, Maddy." Papa said in the background. I ignored him and kept eye-contact with Eleanor.
"You better let me meet him, and he better not be some gangster or anything." I said sternly.
"Yeah, yeah, sure mum." Eleanor rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"Hey Mum?" Eleanor's mention of Mum reminded me. "I thought you would have gone home by now. Doesn't Sammy need to go to bed?"
"I don't!" insisted Sammy.
"Yes, he does, and that was my original plan, but Michael asked me to stay for a little longer. He mentioned... some sort of surprise for you?" Mum said, sounding just as clueless about Michael's little 'surprise' as I was.
"Michael? Are you going to tell me or what?" I said, turning to him and raising a brow.
"Fine. I was thinking some time a little later at home, but now would be perfect." Michael took a deep breath. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box. I gasped.
"M-Michael? I-Is that—" I couldn't bring myself to finish as Michael got down on one knee.
"Maddison, you know how I mentioned that I think I know what my dream is?" I nodded breathlessly.
"Well, I realised that my only dream is to marry my one and only love. The person who makes me smile when I don't feel like smiling. The person who's laughter is like sunlight through a cloudy day. You, Maddison. I love you, and now I'm asking you to spend all eternity with me – Maddison Reed, my sunshine, will you marry me?" Michael said.
I nodded violently. "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes! Michael, yes! I'll marry you!"
Michael smiled brightly and took my right hand. He put the ring on my ring finger and I gasped at its beauty – it was a beautiful diamond ring with a gold band and wonderfully intricate patterns. Once it was on my finger, I ran forward and kissed Michael as the rest of the people in the bakery clapped, but I barely took notice of anything else around me. My world was right in front of me, kissing me, and now, I was going to marry him.
I love Michael. I love him more than anything else. He is my everything, and I would say yes a thousand times over. I would get my heart broken a million times; I would let him bet on my heart a billion times, just to marry the wonderful man in front of me, because I'll admit it – I fucking love Michael Peterson.
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I know the Epilogue is a little longer (okay, a lot) than what I usually do, but it signals the end of You can Bet on Me!

To whoever's read this far, thanks so much for reading my book and if you like this story, please VOTE or COMMENT!

:)