Chapter 28: Epilogue: Part One

The epilogue is going to be in two parts. This is already long and I have another long part t write So I decided to cut it in two. You'll also find the translation here -_- Enjoy

Travis

I turned right as I entered the second floor of our home. The soft soles of the white moccasin made no noise on the hardwood floor as I walked. Reaching for the handle, I turned it once it was in my grasp and exited one space to enter another. I padded up the stairs where I knew the love of my life would be waiting. That’s his favorite place to be, no matter the hour or the weather. It’s where he could see and hear the beach better than anywhere in our home.

When I saw him his back was turned to me but I could see his profile as clear as the day. I had to stop and grab onto the wall to catch my breath. Looking at him reminded me of the night I asked him to marry me. I hadn’t seen him for hours then I saw him talking to Mickey and I couldn’t breathe. I was going to wait to ask him to marry me, but seeing him that night and the conversation I had had earlier with my father just empowered me. I revealed to myself just how much I wanted to marry him and I didn’t want to waste another day.

vvv

“Porque no? Mama y tu se casaron cundo tenían diecisiete anos? Tu no entiendes cuanto lo amo, y quiero casarme con el. Pensé que tu sobre todos entenderías. No estoy pidiendo tu permiso, okay? Solo necesito tu apoyo, de verdad, de verdad necesito tu apoyo.”

“Why not? You and mom got married when you were seventeen? You don’t understand how much I love him and I want to marry him. I thought you of all people would understand. I’m not asking for your permission, okay? I just need your support. I really, really need your support”

“Travis, tienes toda una vida para descubrirlo”

“Travis, you have all your life to figure this out.”

“Si tus padres te hubieran dicho eso a ti cuando decidistes casarte con mama los hubieras mandado al infierno.”

“If your parents had said that to you when you wanted to marry mom you would’ve sent them straight to hell.”

“Eso es diferente.”

“That was different.”

“Como es diferente? Tu la amabas. Yo lo amo a el. Cual es la diferencia?”

“How’s it different? You loved her. I love him. What’s so different about it?”

“Porque te apresuras?”

“Why are you rushing?”

“No me estoy apresurando, papa! Cuando sientes que algo se siente bien, se siente bien y esto es lo que quiero. Lo miro y lo único que veo es a la persona con la cual quiero pasar el resto de mi vida. El es con quien quiero compartir todos mis logros. Quiero encontrar la comodidad en sus brazos, en momentos de derrota, como mi esposo, no como mi novio, ni como mi amante.”

“I’m not rushing, dad! When it feels right it just does and this is what I want. I look at him and all I see is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. He’s the one I want to share all my accomplishment with. I want to find comfort in his arms in my times of failure, as my husband, not as my boyfriend, not as my lover.”

“Tienez mi bendicion”

“You have my blessing.”

vvv

Seth

When I met Travis his aspirations were to follow in his father’s footsteps and study business and become a successful businessman. The more I learned about him the more I realized that his passion was for psychology and not business. I questioned him about it and subtly made him realize what he really wanted. The spring semester after we got back together he registered for all psychology courses. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication. I had to make a big change when Travis applied to Med School. In fact, our entire family made a big change.

First he told me where he wanted to go school but he wouldn’t go if I weren’t going with him. Of course I was going to go with him. I’d swim across the earth if it meant not spending too much time away from him. Once it was set and Travis announced it at one of the weekend family dinners we had when his parents are in town, Christian decided to transfer school and moved with us. My brother wasn’t having that either and he moved with us. Mom and Dad had said, “If the kids are moving, we’re moving.” That ladies and gentleman, is how our entire family moved from New York to San Diego, California.

Tonight in La Jolla, San Diego, California, as I stand on our rooftop patio, the gentle summer wind from the beach bared my chest to the world as it swept my thin white shirt behind me. My white trousers made with the same material as my shirt stuck to the front of my legs as the wind threw it back also. I closed my eyes and inhaled the freshness that I could never get used to.  I love waking up to Travis’ breathing accompanied by the vigorous push and pull fight between the rocks and ocean. I am a lucky man.

His scent caused me to open my eyes, a smile playing at my lips before I felt his arms wrapped around my upper body lovingly.

“Mi amor,” he said, softly next to my ears.

“Mi todo,” I said back to him.

“Am I?” He teased. I laughed but said nothing otherwise. He knew.

Travis tightened his arms around me and brought his body closer to mine as he nuzzled my neck and inhaled deeply. The feel of his affection sent a pleasant shiver down my spine. There are no words to describe this man. My heart soars and beats with joy at the mere thought of him. I’m so glad he asked me to marry him. That night was the beginning of the best moments of my life.

vvv

“I’m stealing Seth!” Michaela announced as she barged into Travis’ room. That’s normal behavior from her. Neither of us had time to respond before she was dragging me out of Travis’ bedroom.

“I have to get dressed. My—”

“Your suit and everything you’ll need is in my room. I took them from mom.” I looked her over as she dragged me to her room. Her hair was already done—a nice curly up-do. She wore a nice silver, shimmery mini dress that looked absolutely elegant on her. The only thing missing were her shoes.

“You’re already dressed why are—”

“I want to get to know you better.”

I frowned but refrain from commenting. We entered her room; she walked over to her bed and picked the pants for my tux and an undershirt before leading me to the bathroom.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, a bit awkwardly.

I had my undershirt on and had one foot in my pants when Michaela spoke. Her words had me pausing my actions as I tried to remind myself how to breathe: “I wanted to hate you. ” It was tensed for a few seconds before I heard her sigh. She was right outside of the bathroom door. “God! You should have seen him when he realized you were gone for real. It broke my heart and I promised myself that if I ever saw you that I’d make you pay for it. Honestly, I did hate you. Can you blame me? He was broken.” It got quiet after that and I resumed putting my clothes on. I knew she needed to get it off of her chest and if unloading on me will help then I’m all for it. “Are you dressed?” I wasn’t sure if I had a voice and I didn’t want to risk it so I opened the door to answer her question. “You and Travis are always together. It’s kind of annoying.”

“Random,” I teased, finding my voice and an honest smile to accompany it.

She smiled back. “A few weeks after school started for Travis, he started talking to me a lot. He was always texting me or emailing me, since I didn’t always have reception in China, I like it there by the way. I thought he had finally found someone because he was slowly going back to his old self, and I was getting my brother back. The one that always teased me and just…anyways, I overheard my parents talking about you and Travis and whatever. I put two and two together and I sent Travis a long email, a very disapproving email, by the way. Do you know what his response was?”

She looked at me expectedly. I quickly shook my head as I realized that was not rhetorical. “ ‘I love him, Mickey. I’ll always love him and I’ll always want to be with him’.” Tears swam down her blushed cheeks and I turned my face away from her. “Thanks for sticking with my brother, and for bringing him back to our family. Most importantly, thank you for loving him, and I know you do.”

“I don’t know how to love anybody else,” I admitted. “I tried before and…he’s the only person I can love and want to love.”

“Good,” she said. I heard the smile her voice as she rested her head on my shoulder. “I love you now, but, suffer no delusions. If you so much as scratch my brother’s heart, I will kill you.”

I chuckled nervously and not so subtly moved away to put my shirt on as the music began playing downstairs. Their Annual Christmas Eve Party.

“It’s going to be a big night,” I voiced.

“Yeah,” she agreed before I heard her groan. “I don’t want to wear these fucking heels. I just want to put my fucking vans on, go down stairs, steal some champagne, have a good fucking time, and not wear these motherfucking heels! If I so much as step foot out of this room without proper shoes mom will have my ass!”

“Where did you get such a potty mouth,” I had to ask.

“I don’t know. I have anger issues. Give me a break.”

I laughed and put my shoes on, and styled my hair after. Michaela was telling me all about China as she searched for a comfortable pair of pumps to wear. She didn’t find one when Christian came to tell us that the guest were arriving and we’ll need to greet them soon. Michaela made a snide comment with profanities making up the most of it. I saw a side of Christian I never knew existed.

“Michaela! Stop being a brat. The least you can do for our parents is go downstairs, smile at the guests and act like a princess. They don’t ask for anything or expect anything from us and you owe them that much.”

“Whatever,” She mumbled.

“Perdon, que dijistes?”

“Nothing.” Christian stood in the doorway as Michaela slipped on silver pair of pumps. She opened her closet door, which was a swivel door and exactly the width of her closet. We both watched as she put on a light shade of pink lipstick before tossing the rectangular object on her bed.

She grabbed my hand and the sound of her heels was the only sound heard in the lavender themed room, thanks to the halt in the music down stairs. I could practically see her glaring at Christian as she walked to the door with me trailing behind her.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Christian asked her. Michaela groaned before she kissed him on the cheek. They’re an odd bunch, I must admit. And I found great humor in that.

“Love you,” Michaela called over her shoulder and Christian responded with the same affirmation. Eventually, I started walking next to her. Every few seconds I could see from my peripheral her glancing at me. “I’m not ungrateful,” she said. The tone in her voice gave me the interpretation that she it was important that I understood that fact. “I’m just…I’m tired and I hate parties. I want to be with my family without all these people around.”

“I know.”

We got to the stairs and I curved my elbow so that she could slip her arm through mine and we went down the stairs slowly together. The stairs was a few feet away from the living room so at one point or another, multiple people saw us coming down. The very instant our feet touched the last stair people were calling for Michaela. I tried to pull away so she could go to them but they weren’t having it. Soon I was surrounded by at least five adults who were asking Michaela about school and this and that.

Michaela politely did not answer them by turning their attention on me when she said: “This is Seth, Travis’ boyfriend.” I wanted to give her a tight hug when I saw the most honest smile on her face all night when she looked at me and said: “He’ll be sticking around for a long time, might as well get used to him.”

It was pleasant talking to people without feeling awkward, judged, or like an outcast.  Eventually the familiar feeling of missing Travis became too overpowering to ignore so I slipped away from Michaela, telling her I was going to find him. I didn’t have to look for long. I went down the end of one hallway, made a right, and bumped right into him. He almost knocked me over because he was walking much faster than I was. He steadied me and everything kind of drowned out and everything kind of slowed down as we stared at each other.

Travis’ hands were holding my shoulders. I felt like I was seeing him for the first time ever in my life, and he was the most beautiful person I had ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes up on.

“Hi,” he whispered shakily. My body trembled.

“Hey,” I said back, just as shakily. My cheeks were flaming.

“I’ve been looking for you. Come here.” What’s with the Ortega siblings dragging me by the hand today?

We went down the hall and towards the home theatre where Travis spent his spare time. We entered and he put the lights on. Our eyes roamed each other, taking in every curve of our bodies and every detail of our tuxedos.

“You look gorgeous,” I managed to say.

At the same time Travis said: “You look stunning.”

My cheeks heated up again. Travis chuckled softly before using his thumb to gently stroke the right side of the soft flesh. I looked in his eyes as he cupped the side of my neck. I felt so content I didn’t know if my heart could stand it.

“Kiss me,” I told him softly. It took him a shorter time to react than the time it took me to say the words. His lips brushed mine softly. The gentleness and the passion had my stomach tightening pleasurably. The gentle caresses carried on for a few passionate seconds until we stopped and he asked me to sit with him. I sat on his lap with one of my legs hanging over the arm of one of theatre chairs.

It didn’t take long for him to start kissing on my neck. His little teases were making me shamefully randy. Given where we were and what was going on in the house, I tried desperately not to react. I even pushed him off of me. “Stop.” I tried to be serious but it was a fail.

Travis laughed. “Why? I love kissing you.”  He just had to keep kissing my neck while telling me this. “Every part of you.” He sunk his teeth in my sweet spot and I moaned his name unexpectedly. Travis stopped. He was laughing but he was trying so hard to hide it.

“What? What’s so funny?”

He laughed some more and I pouted childishly at him. “I have a secret that I have to tell you.”

“Okay?” I turned so that I was looking at him. If he’s laughing then obviously it’s not that big of a deal.

“Remember that night when we were at the condo and I told you I was suffering from a broken heart, that that’s why I moved away from home.”

“Yes?”

“I heard you.” I’m sure the confusion was written all over face. “Maybe this will jog your memory. ‘Travis Oh God! Travis, baby, don’t—” I slapped my hand over his mouth. He was still laughing! I was about to spontaneously combust from the amount of heat running through my body, and he was laughing. That ass!

“I was sleepwalking!!! You can’t judge me for something I had no control over!!”

He tried to talk but since my hand was over his mouth I understood nothing he said. When he realized I wasn’t going to move it he put his hands up in surrender and I let go. “No judgment here. I get it. I’m hot and you couldn’t help yourself.”

“I’m going back to the party,” I mumbled and got off of his lap. Am I ever going to stop blushing today?

Travis’ laugh rang behind me behind before I was falling back into his lap, thanks to him pulling me back. “I actually do have to talk to you. I have to leave for a little. I’ll be back in two hours max.”

“Where are you going?”

“I have to go pick someone up at the airport.”

“It’s 8 at night. On Christmas Eve. Why—”

“I know, baby. My parents are hosting the party so neither of them can go. Chris invited the dean of the college he’s going to. Him and his wife and kids are here, mainly because my family is donating to their medical program—Chris can’t go.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Just enjoy the party, babe. I’ll see you around 10, ‘kay?”

“I don’t have much of a choice.”

“Don’t make me feel bad. Christian will keep your company. You won’t even realize that I left. I love you.” I nodded. “I love you.”

“I heard you the first time.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Travis obviously couldn’t leave through the front door and had to leave through the back. I had the job of telling his parents that he left, not only that, I couldn’t find Christian and I was alone at the party. The amount of people talking to me didn’t make a difference. I didn’t know them. I felt no connection to them and talking about my relationship with Travis to other people was not as entertaining as the people asking me thought.

While having a conversation with a Mr. and Mrs. What’s their face, I saw Michaela snatching a bottle of champagne from the bar. I quickly excused myself and followed her down the hall. Just as she was about to put the bottle to her head in a little corner by herself I snatched it out of her hand. She threw her head against the wall and closed her eyes. A deep breath followed.

“Please don’t tell my brothers.”

“I won’t. What’s the matter? I’m here if you need someone to talk to.”

She looked me dead in the eyes and I knew how she felt before she even told me. “I’m tired and being around all these people is overwhelming.”

“I know you don’t want to disappoint your parents but you have to tell them how you’re feeling. Communication is not just about being heard but being understood. I think that’s why talk the way you do. You feel like no one understands you so you make sure they hear you. Go tell them you’re tired and you’re going to take a nap or just lie down for a few minutes.”

“Okay.” Michaela walked off and I heard: “Hey, bro.” I thought she was talking to Christian first so I turned around but she was looking at me, a small smile on her lips. “I love you.”

I smiled, feeling like I just earned the approval of the queen. “I love you too, sis.”

I saw Christian a few minutes later and just as I opened my mouth to ask where he’s been my phone was vibrating in my pocket. I only took it out to check the caller ID and had no intensions of answering it, but it was Travis so I drew the green telephone across the screen and answered.

“I have a present for you but you have to come out back to see it.”

“I thought you were going to the airport.”

“I did. Are you coming?”

“Yea.”

So I went out back and standing in his uniform was no other than Hunter Winters. I covered my face because I didn’t want them to see me crying like a baby even though the sobs rocking my body made it obvious.  My brother’s familiar hug soothed me in a comforting way but I could not stop.

This was turning out to be the best Christmas of my life.