Epilogue: Jody

Epilogue – Jody

One Year Later

Every year.

I did this every freaking year. Three days before Christmas and I still had a ton of gifts buy. What was I thinking?

At least this year I wasn’t doing it alone.

“Do you have your defense spray?” Aldyn asked.

I tapped my front pocket where the small canister fit snugly. “Yup. Do you have the anti-security measures?” I asked.

He held up a small tablet. It was supposed to be able to disengage force fields. It wasn’t exactly legal. But it wasn’t illegal either. And given our experience, I wasn’t taking another chance.

“Knife? he asked.

“Oh yeah.”

“Shopping list?” I asked.

“All of the teachers are on a list. Plus the gifts you’re giving for your class. We can do this. No getting held hostage this year.”

“No getting held hostage,” I agreed. I leaned in and gave him a kiss. We laced our fingers together and headed for the entrance of the store.

It had been quite the year. From our first night together followed by that magnificent first day together. And every day since then. It wasn’t that we never fought, or never disagreed. It wasn’t perfect.

But it was pretty damn close.

I had never been so happy in my life. I didn’t know if I could be happier.

Aldyn and I fit like I had never known I could fit with another person. I no longer was wondering what could be. What kind of relationship I might one day be able to fool someone into embarking on with me.

Now I had a guy who saw me for who I was. Who wanted me for who I was. Who loved me for who I was.

Yes, sometimes he left his towels on the bathroom floor. And sometimes he didn’t fill up the dishwasher. But those were just minor issues. Something ultimately I didn’t care about too much. The dishes got cleaned eventually.

I didn’t know why we were heading back into the same store after everything that had happened last year. Maybe it was foolish. Maybe we were being nostalgic.

What we weren’t was taking any chances.

There had been an investigation into how Evil Santa had held us hostage and the technology he had used. But the police hadn’t managed to find out much. I guess that was what happened when your captor got sucked into a tentacle dimension.

The portal device was a piece of technology that we didn’t have on Earth. I didn’t know whose hands it ended up in.

I hope it didn’t get used for evil.

But most days we didn’t think about Evil Santa.

We went on with our lives. We figured out who we were together and what we wanted from the future.

And it was good.

And this holiday season, I was happy to be celebrating our first anniversary. The first of many to come.

“I love you,” I told Aldyn with a kiss.

He smiled as we pulled apart and then kissed my forehead. “You are my denya.”