74. Chapter

Confession: My life looks so different one year later.

I looked around my empty apartment. The last year here had been nothing short of the best year of my life. Although, to be fair, I spent just as much time here as I had at Cohen's place.

A knock sounded on the door, and Henrietta, the property manager and a new friend, came inside with her clipboard. "I can't believe you've already been here a year. It seems like yesterday I was showing you around."

I grinned. "I know exactly what you mean."

She sniffed and said, "I'm happy for you, but I'm going to be sad not to see you every day!"

"Trust me, I'm going to miss you and the office coffee maker very much. But we'll see each other next week at the housewarming, and we'll get drinks with Mara this weekend. It will be great."

She nodded, glancing back at her clipboard. "Let's get you checked out. You and Cohen have a lot of work to do." Going down the list, she walked around the apartment, checking the fixtures, that everything looked like it did when I'd first moved in.

When we finished with the walk-through, I gave her my keys and a hug. "I'll see you soon, Hen."

"You sure will," she said.

I walked down the three flights of stairs, realizing that was the only thing I wouldn't miss about this place. It had been an incredible home, but I couldn't wait to move in with Cohen and Ollie.

A house had gone on the market a couple months ago, on the same street as Mara's, and the three of us had quickly fallen in love with its charm, as well as its location. It might have been a little soon for us to buy a home together—we weren't even engaged—but Cohen and I both knew what we were to each other. There was no point in waiting.

I got in my car and drove toward my new home. (I still couldn't believe I was buying a house!) It appeared in my windshield, along with Cohen's car parked in the driveway. An overwhelming sense of peace consumed me.

This was right. I was exactly where I was meant to be.

I got out and went inside, ready to continue unpacking and decorating with the love of my life. But I found something else instead.

The living room was already unpacked, but Ralphie's cage sat on the coffee table. "What are you doing here?" I asked him. I thought Cohen and I had agreed to keep him on the corner table on the weekends.

I went to pick up his cage to move him, but then I noticed a card leaning against the cage. It said. Welcome home.

I smiled at the words in Cohen's scrawl. At the meaning of the word home and how long it had taken me to find it.

I tucked the card carefully back in the envelope, planning to save it in a scrapbook. I wanted to remember everything about today.

But when I looked up, I saw Cohen kneeling in the arch between the living room and the dining area and Ollie standing behind him. Cohen held a red velvet box in his hands.

"Cohen," I breathed, shaking my head. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be.

He smiled up at me as I walked toward him. "Birdie Melrose. This has been the best year of my life. I've never been to an aviary more than we've been. And I've certainly never encountered so much glitter." He chuckled. "But I've also never laughed so often, and I've never felt as loved as I do by you."

I folded my hands over my heart. I loved him so much it could have beat right out of my chest and landed in his palm.

"Will you and Ralphie do me the honor of being my happily ever after?"

Ollie kneeled next to him. "Will you be a part of our family?"

Tears fell down my cheeks, and I looked from Cohen to Ralphie to Ollie, smiling wider than I ever had. "Absolutely."

He slipped the ring onto my finger and took me in his arms.

We were finally, finally home.