Riley's Tale On The Opposite Gender: Epilogue

Riley's Tale On The Opposite Gender: Epilogue

Seven years later

As I walked out of the room I heard the crinkling of paper. I looked down and saw a piece of folded up loose leaf paper. It looked old, maybe a few years old. I wondered what it was doing in my room as I picked it up.

Things to do before I die

1.Make a hand mold with someone

2. Go bungee jumping

3. Ride in a hot air balloon

4. Go rock climbing

5. Have my first shot of alcohol

6. Get a tattoo

7. Spend a night under the stars

8. Go on a road trip

9. Dance in the rain

10. Have an epic kiss in public

I covered my mouth with my hand in surprise. I couldn't believe it was still here. I would've thought I'd thrown it out by now. Yet here it was, faded, but still readable.

"Riley babe, are you okay?" I looked up and realized as I saw the love of my life through clouded eyes that I was crying. I wiped my tears and laughed. He looked at me like I was crazy. He should've realized by now that I was.

I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. "Nothing's wrong Sage. I just saw something from a long time ago."

He cocked an eyebrow at me and smirked. "Oh really now..." I widened my eyes. "Sage...what are you-" He attacked me with wave after wave of tickles. I fell down onto the floor. "Sage! Stop it!" I said in a breathy voice. "We're getting too old to be doing this." He stopped and rolled down to lie down next to me. He turned over and snatched the paper off of the ground. So that's what this was all about.

"You know, sometimes you can be a cunning, sneaky, little son of a-" He cut me off by covering my mouth. I mumbled a string of curses underneath his hand. He smiled at something behind me.

"Mommy, Daddy, why are you on the ground?" I smacked my forehead. I need to learn how to not curse in front of my four year old daughter. Sage chuckled. He so obviously found pleasure in me making a fool of myself. Some husband he was.

I stood up and grabbed the little girl with brown hair and blue eyes. I rubbed my nose against hers and said, "Elliot! Are you excited?!"

She nodded her head up and down and smiled at me with her dimples. "I can't wait to see Auntie Avery again! She told me she would give me Barbie when I see her again!" I sighed. As much as I couldn't wait to see my friends in Vancouver again, sometimes (okay, all the time) they spoiled Elliot too much.

Usually I see them at least a twice a year but this time, we were going back for good. What happened was after I had come back from Vancouver about seven years ago, my grandfather had died. After the funeral my family had gone back to Toronto. At first, all I could think about were the Freeman's then everyone and everything else in Vancouver but I eventually stopped thinking about it all.

A few months later I was a recreational sports center. There, I met this one guy who kept using cheesy pickup lines to ask me out. Finally, (It was somewhere around "Have you been eating Campbell's soup? Because you're looking mmm mmm good.") I gave up and finally talked to him. That one guy was Sage and from then on we've been together, eventually getting married and having Elliot.

We would've stayed in Toronto where we were but Sage had gotten a promotion to be the head of a department where he works. To do so he had to go to Vancouver. We thought about first just Sage going because he knew I had bad memories there but I decided we all had to go there.

I turned to Sage who was currently reading my Things to do before I die list. Still looking down he said, "You know you've done basically everything on here."

I walked over to him, switching our daughter for the list. "That's where you're wrong." I told him. "I haven't spent a night under the stars. I don't consider camping or sleeping in a car either if that's what you're thinking."

He smirked. I felt my knees go weak for a second but I kept my focus. "I guess I know what we're doing tonight before we go."

"What?" He grinned as he spun Elliot around then pulled me in and kissed me. Ignoring Elliot's disgusted Ewww he said, "The best family-night-before-moving-to-a-new-place you'll ever have!"

~

"Sage, I can't see where I'm going."

"I know babe. That's why I'm here." I bumped into something. "Oh shoot!" he said. "I'm sorry." I considered kicking him in the shin.

"What can we even do? Everything is already who knows how many miles away in a moving truck? There's nothing here other than our carry-on's and we're supposed to be sleeping at a hotel tonight."

He turned me around and uncovered my eyes so I could look at him. "I made do Riley. It's what we're good at." He gave me a small smile. It reminded of all the nightmares we've gone through together. Things like this help me remember that I'm not the only one with problems.

I turned around to face the backyard. There were three knock-off looking blankets and a takeout Chinese bag. Sage wrapped his arms around me and whispered quietly, "I know it's not the best but-" I rolled my eyes. "I love it Sage. I love it." I looked up at him and we smiled at each other.

The rest of the night wasn't that interesting, just eating takeout and playing with Elliot, but it was amazing to me. I was just anxious about going back to Vancouver. I fell asleep gazing up at the stars, thinking back to the one boy who I almost stayed there for.

~

"Mommy! Look at the puppy!" Elliot pointed at the shop window where there were litters of puppies playing around. We had gotten in this morning and after taking a quick nap Elliot decided she wanted to take a stroll down the streets around where we lived. There were lots of shops and vendors around. Not too much city and just the right amount of town. It was perfect to me and a great deal considering there were lots of people who came around every day.

Sage and I held on to Elliot's hands and swung her back and forth. She screamed and giggled with joy as we did so. I looked away for one split second to see what street we were on when I met someone's eyes. He had tousled brown hair and a smirk that fell from surprise when he saw me. He was holding on to a woman's hand next to him, curvy and red-headed but cute. They looked happy together.

Before we passed each other we stopped, reading each other's minds. "Riley." He nodded at me. I smiled and nodded back. "Mason." We smiled at each other, sensing the past was behind us. I turned and kept on walking. "Who was that?" Sage asked with a smile on his face. I loved how he didn't assume anything before asking. I looked up at him. "He's just somebody that I used to know."

It's not that I had anything left against Mason. It's just that we had moved on with our lives and we were fine with what had happened. We survived and we thrived. That's all we could ask for. What we had was memories and I knew we were both perfectly fine with that. We were happy and really, that's all that mattered.

The End