When We Happened

EPILOGUE

Epilogue I

An Ongpauco New Year

It's my favorite time of the year!

For the past three years, you'd think Christmas would be my favorite time of the year—but I realized that New Year's Eve beats it just a smidge.

Why?

For someone who has 'Gifts' as her love language, I live for gift-giving. My family and friends can attest that I am an elite gift-giver. So it's huge for me to pick another holiday as my most favorite. But New Year's Eve is just so symbolic.

It's like turning to a new page, a new chapter in your life—or a whole new book altogether. It represents endings and new beginnings.

A host of endless possibilities.

A clean slate.

Plus, it doesn't hurt that we're hosting it in our apartment this year! On the first New Year's Eve, we celebrated at Kade and Louisse's, and then last year was at River and Jamie's new place. Each year, the two couples went all-out with the food, decorations, and themes!

In our first NYE party at Kade's, L wanted to have a Disco-themed party, while at River's, we had an 80s-themed party since Jamie is a lover of all things pop culture. For our NYE party, Storm and I decided to have a winter wonderland-themed party.

So everything is really bright and merry in our apartment right now.

But I love that Storm has been hands-on in the party preparations, so I'm not really stressed about it. My boyfriend says he just wants me to enjoy my vacation before I get back to work again in Dubai next month.

After three years of dating, you'd think we would eventually get sick without setup. But surprisingly, it works great for us still. We understand each other's career and work schedules. Hindi na kami ganon ka-sensitive, hindi tulad noong unang taon na nag-di-date kami.

We understand each other. We're both workaholic people who thrive on our achievements and our partners, as well. We're each other's support system and even if we're thousand miles apart most of the time, we always show up for each other.

All the time.

"Wow," I gasped seeing the party decorations in our living room area. Everything is covered in white snow, wispy tree branches, and fairy lights!

"Babe, you really went all out, huh?" I said to him as I wrapped my arms around him from the back.

He looked back at me and smiled. "I hired a party coordinator and catering service last minute."

"If you're telling me this now para hindi ako magalit, don't worry," I said, chuckling. "Hindi ako magagalit. Ayoko rin namang sobra kang mapagod."

Storm dropped a kiss on my forehead. "I still did a lot of things, I just got overwhelmed last week."

I moved away from him and gave him an annoyed look. "Bakit hindi ka nagsabi sa akin? I could've helped, wala namang kaso 'yun sa akin."

He grabbed my face with both hands and flashed me his annoying confident smile. "Diba I told you I don't want you to worry. I also want this to be perfect since this is our last year in this apartment."

Storm and I decided to move out to a larger space so we're moving out next year. We think it's time na at tsaka, excited na kaming maging kapitbahay sina Jamie at River, pati na ang mga bata.

"I'm just saying, hindi ka na sana stressed last week if only you'd told me you're having a hard time."

"It's fine, baby," he said as he dropped a kiss on my lips. "Everything's perfect now."