Eyes full of stars | ✔️

Chapter 40: Epilogue

2 months later.

"Okay, don't panic" I said to myself.

It was 4.55 pm, Toby would have walked through the front door in five minutes and I was very nervous.

To distract myself, I had spent the afternoon unboxing our stuff and trying to straighten up our new apartment. I had almost finished our bedroom and the kitchen, all the rest was still a mess, although we had moved in there three weeks earlier. Felicity had been there with me all morning, but then she had left to meet up with her boyfriend Harold. Sherlock couldn't care less of my panic, his new toys - gifts from his new daddy - were entertaining him quite enough.

Now I was sitting on our bed, my legs crossed, and I was torturing my fingernails.

At 4.59, I heard the sound of the door unlocking and opening.

"Hello!" Toby's voice came.

I took a deep breath and got up. "Hi!" I said, entering the kitchen, that was the nearest room to the front door.

Toby took off his jacket, put it on a chair with his shoulder bag and smiled at me. "Hey" he said. I went into his arms, my heart pounding, and he kissed me. "How are you?"

"Mmm... I'm fine" I replied, my hands on his shoulders. "You?"

"Exhausted, this library project is a nightmare" he admitted, detaching from me. He opened the refrigerator and poured some orange juice in a glass for himself. "But, hey, the bosses are very satisfied with our work, so..." He smiled to highlight how much this job was important and satisfying for him too.

"Cool" I smiled back with pride. "Felicity was here this morning" I went on, in an indifferent tone.

"Oh" Toby said, surprised, taking a sip of juice. "Is she okay? I haven't heard from her in ages."

"She is just spending with Harold all the time she can. He will be back in the US in a couple of days, you know."

Toby nodded. "Yeah, long-distance relationships are hard" he commented. He sighed and opened the refrigerator again. "So, what are we eating for dinner?"

"Toby" I breathed, my heart in my throat. "I'm pregnant."

The refrigerator door slowly closed. He looked at me for the longest time in silence, his eyes wide open.

"When?" he gasped.

He didn't specify the question, maybe because of the shock, but I knew he meant "when did it happen?".

I shrugged. "Our first time" I said, speaking like one of Cinderella's mice. "I had interrupted my birth control pills when I broke up with Sebastian, because, you know... I thought that I would have never seen a man again after you rejected me. And I forgot..." I cleared my throat. "I found it out this morning. I took a test with Felicity. Well... I took six, actually. So, I'm sure."

Silence fell again and I was really about to panic.

"He's going to dump me" my inner voice said. I closed my eyes tight. "He's SO going to dump me!"

When I reopened my eyes I saw Toby reaching to his shoulder bag and taking something out of it. He fast walked towards me and bent one knee on the floor in front of me. He was holding a small black box and he opened it to show the beautiful ring that was inside.

My heart sank.

"Marry me, Lily" he said, his eyes full of stars.

Emotions were overwhelming me but something made me blink.

I crossed my arms on my chest. "Toby, I won't marry you because I'm pregnant" I solemnly said. "This is not Downton Abbey!"

He took a deep breath and stood up. "Lily, I have an engagement ring in my hand" he replied in a reasonable tone. If he was going to talk to me like that throughout my pregnancy because of the hormones, I would have killed him! "I bought it before knowing that you are pregnant, so... think about it."