escape to paradise • camila cabello & you story

Epilogue

Here we are. The epilogue. Enjoy.

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My fingertips glided along the keyboard of my laptop, the screen's brightness illuminating my somewhat dark, home office. I had been working on this article for a few days now and I couldn't bring myself to pull away all this afternoon. It was like the creativity in me was asking to be broken out of its cage and scattered into words. I sighed, typing in a period to finalize a sentence. "There," I say in relief, releasing a puff of relief. As I slumped in my seat, my tired eyes skimming the written words, faint shuffling was heard behind me. A pair of arms wrapped around my shoulders, the softest lips pressed against my cheek.

"You finished?" a voice rasped. I nodded, turning around in my swivel chair to face the brunette I had fallen in love with in high school.

"Man, reports suck..." I said.

Camila laughed and moved to straddle my lap, her legs dangling on either side of my body as her arms loosely wrapped around my neck. Her fingers trickled up and down the base of my neck, eliciting a satisfied hum from me.

"You did it though, baby. That's all that matters. C'mon, how about we take a break from all this adult stuff and take a stroll?" Camila suggested, tilting her head off to the side while awaiting for a response. I simply nodded and watched as she removed herself from me, taking ahold of my hands as she yanked me to my feet. Closing the lid of my laptop, I decided to call it a night. There was no need to pay attention to work at this hour, especially if I've been at it nearly all week.

After graduating Stanford and doing a little extra work, I succeeded in receiving my master's degree. I finally pursued my dream to becoming a veterinarian– an eligible, 24-year old animal doctor... aspiring to be just like my aunt. Camila (who's now 22-years old in case you were wondering) supported me throughout the process, chasing after her own ambitions while doing so. We shared a mutual relationship– loving each other like nobody could, caring and being there whenever we needed it. She was honestly the love of my life.

Camila's arms looped with one of mine, her sweater-cladded torso pressed closely to my side as we quietly took in the sun that was setting behind the trees and the clouds. We lived in this moderately-sized condo in Miami, being that Camila wanted to be close to her family. The Cabello's moved back to Florida after we graduated. Unfortunately, it was across the nation from where my home was– Hawaii. Although I was a bit apprehensive with being so far away, I knew I'd do anything for the younger girl. My aunt was slightly saddened that I was going to be much farther than we anticipated, but went on and told me to do what felt right to me. I promised her that in the time that I had to myself, I'd update her on my struggles and success through the phone. In return, we'd spend hours on end about our thoughts, like we always used to do back when I was in high school. My aunt was one of my top priorities, and there's no doubt that I love her with every bit of me.

She's been telling me how she's kept up with maintaining her vet clinic, bringing about unfortunate news when she noticed she had small tremors in her hands. Apparently, she couldn't trust herself to work properly on an animal when she had the fear of possibly hurting it instead. Her time was mainly spent with working at the front, consulting with patients and still acting as the doctor they could trust in. She decided to give the responsibility of being a surgeon over to the hands of somebody that was capable, to some experienced guy. Good looking was what she categorized him as... Oh boy.

I always ask the older woman how she's been, and her usual answer would be, "I'm alive and breathing, so I don't have anything to complain about. I'm good, I'm happy." Part of me was in so much relief to hear those words, but I always had this nagging feeling that she was probably just putting up a show. She's told me a couple of times about how she's afraid of becoming older and becoming unable to perform the tasks she does on a daily. If it's affected work already, how much time would it take until it makes life at home different? It genuinely hurt my heart to know that she was so alone over there. Every opportunity I had, usually the holidays, gave me a chance to go visit her. I recall the last Christmas we spent together, I took my two favorite ladies to Italy because, why not? Camila and my aunt were hip to hip for the majority of the trip, not that it bothered me because I was grateful that they got along so well.