Strip Tease

Epiloge

August 19th, 2020 (5 years later)

"Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu." Everyone chorused off key around Rigel. His face scrunched in thought and then finally, he blew out the five candles on his Spiderman cake. A round of applause erupted from everyone that was standing in the back yard of Oliver's house.

"What did you wish for little man?" Paul squatted down by Rigel and placed an arm around his shoulders. "You can tell me; I promise it will be our secret."

"Uncle Paul! you know I can't say it or it won't come true!" He yelled at Paul but was still grinning over at him. Lucy leaned down on Rigel's other side and whispered into his ear. Rigel whipped around to look at her in shock, but soon his face morphed into a devious smile. In a matter of seconds, Rigel's hand was filled with blue and red frosting and being shoved into Paul's face. Everyone that witnessed this was doubled over in laughter while Paul just sat with a stunned expression on his face. When he did finally snap out of it he turned his glare to Lucy.

"You think that's funny? Come here. Gimme a kiss." He stood tall and squared his shoulder, then lunged for her. She squealed and took off down to the other side of the yard.

"Mommy can I have cake now?" Rigel squealed and tugged on my jeans pulling my attention away from Lucy and Paul. He was examining the frosting that covered his fingers, contemplating whether he should lick it off or not.

"Don't you think you've had enough sweets today? I don't think you want cake that badly." I teased. Obviously at my comment he made an extremely unhappy face.

"No." He pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "If you don't give me cake I'll just go ask daddy. He will say yes."

"Did mommy say no?" A deep voice asked from behind the two of us, making Rigel jump. I knew he was there though. I could smell his intoxicating cologne.

"Daddy! You're so pretty." Rigel batted his eye lashes at him and gave him his best angel eyes.

"Nice try buddy but that only works on girls." He ruffled Rigel's bright red locks and stood tall beside me. "Besides she was joking. Just give me a second to cut it, I have something important to take care of." He winked.

"Are you and mommy going to kiss?" Rigel's face was full of disgust.

"You betcha." All of a sudden I was being pulled into Oliver's arms and dipped down low enough for my head to be level with Rigel's. Oliver planted a lip crushing kiss on me making my lips tingle.

"Gross!" We heard a few people chorus around us. Oliver chuckled as my cheeks became bright red.

"What? You could take your clothes off for other people, but kissing me is where you draw the line and get embarrassed?" He whispered, making sure none of the kids would hear him. Over the years my immunization to PDA has worn off. Since quitting Temptations I slowly became more and more aware of people around me. It was a blessing and a curse.

Oliver pulled me up so I was standing up right again. "I know you got the girl bro but there's no reason to rub it in." I instantly recognized the voice as Orion. I sprang from Oliver's arms and jumped into Orion's.

"Hey! Oh god I'm so glad you came! How have you been? How is the travel?"

"Mommy, who is this?"

"Is this him?" Orion whispered. Then rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. "Never mind, of course it is."

I nodded my head discreetly and spun around to face Rigel who was now in Oliver's arms. Orion had asked that I tell Rigel  he was a family friend and we would tell him the truth when he was older. Orion had already told me after what he put all of us through he didn't think it would be good for him to be around us for a while. Of course, I disagreed saying it was his child and he was welcome to come by when he wanted to but I respected his choice.

"Baby, this is Orion. He is a really good friend of Mommy and Daddy. Even Uncle Paul and Auntie Lucy."

"Orion..." Rigel gasped dramatically. "Like Orion's belt!? I'm named after that contibation!"

"Constellation." Oliver whispered.

"Constellation!" Rigel screeched again, correctly this time.

"Well the I guess you have a pretty cool name then." Orion grinned and it matched Rigel's to a tee.

Almost as if they were related...

"Do you want some cake?" Rigel offered politely.

"Sure I would love some."

"I'll go cut it, c'mon Ri." Oliver called and Rigel followed after him.

"So how have you been? You've been gone awhile this time. You're parents kept asking when you were coming back."

"Yeah, I was in India. That whole finding yourself bit isn't half bad. How has parenting been going? Oh and congrats on your graduation. Sorry I missed it." He smiled sheepishly.

"That's alright. Parenting has been good. He is a smart little cookie. Takes after his father in that way." I nudged his shoulder with mine as we watched Rigel 'help' Keith cut the cake. "He really likes to build things. Destroy them too, but mostly build." We laughed and it felt nice to have it like old times. "You're father lets him come with him on Job sites whenever he goes out, which he loves. Already, he tells me he can't wait to work for Miller Co one day."

"Little does he know..." He drawls and we both smile knowingly.

"Hey what's up man? Long time." Paul came up from behind the two of us, putting a hand on Orion's shoulder and kissing my cheek. "Great party, Princess. Really feeling the dinosaurs."

"Thanks." I grin.

"So, how was... Indonesia? India?"

"India and it was good. Never thought a place could be so quiet and so loud at the same time." He laughed. "How is Amelia?"

"She is good, running around here somewhere." Paul searched around for his daughter in the crowd of people, then nodded to where Lucy was standing, holding a giggling Amelia upside down. "Parenting is rad." He sighed with a smile on his face.

"I'll drink to that." I grinned and tapped my beer bottle against his.

"What about you, any ladies in your life?" Paul asked. Oliver came back over handing each of us a slice of cake. I kissed his cheek and looked back to Orion. Lucy joined us, picking bites off of her husband's cake.

"None right now, but I haven't been looking. I don't think I will be for a while. I have more important things to worry about." He looked over to where Ri and Amelia were swinging on the swing set in the corner.

"Well don't go giving up on love. Just because you needed to find yourself doesn't mean you can't find someone else too." I teased.

"You guys do make it look pretty great." He sipped from his beer with a smile on his face.

And just like that, everything from the last five years, all of the hatred, the drama, the history, the resentment... It was gone. We had our old group of friends back together. The past didn't matter anymore, not to any of us.

This was the beginning of anything we wanted.

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I really hope you enjoyed this book, it is the first book that i have actually completed and I am pretty fucking proud to say that I have. If you liked it please share or comment or let me know in your own beautiful way! Thank you to all of the readers that have been there since the beginning, I love you!

Also be sure to check out Run Away With Me my newest book on Wattpad! It's been in the works for awhile and I've finally decided to put some real effort into it! I am trying to upload 3-5 chapters every Friday/every other Friday and stick to a schedule. It's been awhile since I actually wrote a full length book so bare with me while I get back into the swing of it!