Lie Until You Laugh

47- Epilogue

“This is so big,” I breathe, looking around the room that I just walked into, eyeing the walls with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. “I thought this was an apartment.”

“It is an apartment,” Penn laughs, walking into the room behind me with his hands on my shoulders. “Do you like it?”

“Yeah, but it’s… Penn, it’s huge,” I inform my boyfriend, continuing to eye the large living room space that I just walked into. Our TV and couch and all of our stuff is already moved in and set up thanks to Penn’s dad giving me a graduation present, which was hiring a huge team of movers to move all of our stuff into the apartment for us. The Shaw family has a way of overdoing graduation presents because Penn’s present to me was this apartment and it’s incredibly large, looking over the city. A new city. Seattle. I mean, I know that graduating college is a really huge accomplishment but this huge (and probably super expensive) apartment overlooking all of downtown Seattle is just insane.

“Well, there’s two bedrooms and one of them has a master bathroom but then there’s another bathroom down that hallway. And the kitchen takes up a lot of space because it’s pretty huge and considering how much you love food, I thought that’d be a nice addition.”

“Two bedrooms?” I echo, turning around to look at him and since he was so close to me, our faces are pretty close together now. “Why do we need two bedrooms?”

Penn gives me a look with one raised eyebrow and then wraps his arms around my waist. “Well, we’re going to be living here for a while, probably, and… I don’t know. I know we haven’t talked about it very much at all but maybe in a few years or something, we could consider starting a family or something.”

“Oh,” I say, finally understanding what the second bedroom is for and then I grin, stepping into my tippy toes to press my lips to his. “That sounds amazing.”

“Really?” He wonders. “I figured that you’d be hesitant considering your father and everything.”

“I’m not,” I assure him. “You’d be an amazing dad. You’re parents aren’t exactly stellar either- you know we won’t be like them though, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” He nods, kissing me again. “We’ll be great parents.”

“Totally,” I giggle. “But, I mean, not for a while. I’m starting at the Academy next week and I have to establish my career for at least a few years before I can take off enough time to have a baby.”

“I know,” Penn agrees. “We’re not ready yet but it’s just something to think about farther down the road. Anyway, there’s also a gym downstairs that’s exclusive to residents here and in the gym there’s a dance studio. Well, people use it for like, yoga classes and stuff but when they’re not using it, you can go down there and practice stuff. I may have splurged a little on this apartment and got the one with an office so that I can work.”

“You can’t just put a desk in this huge living room or something?” I wonder with a small laugh, waving my arm around to show him how large the living room is.

“Well, I could have done that,” He agrees, pressing his lips to mine again but this time, he doesn’t fully pull them away. “But you’re very distracting, you know.”

“I’m not that distracting, you’re just easily distracted,” I defend with another small giggle, wrapping my arms around his neck to pull my lips to his again. “Did those movers unpack everything?”

Penn nods, grabbing my hand gently in his to lead me through the large yet oddly cozy living room down the hallway. Penn had flown up here a few times to help the movers to make sure that everything was perfect but he didn’t bring me with him because I was finishing up my exams and he also wanted it to be a surprise. He shows me where the hallway bathroom is and then he shows me that there’s also a hallway closet.