Epilogue

   

"L ILY? SWEETHEART, WAKE up."

"Mmmm… vacation."

"Come on, honey. Let’s go watch the sun come up."

The blonde head burrowed against the pillow, willing the persistent voice away.

"Sweetheart, you promised."

Lily groaned. "Not fair…" Anna had extracted the promise during a critical moment in their lovemaking last night.

"Come on, Lily. It’s our last day here," she pleaded.

Very reluctantly, Lily pushed herself up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Anna was there with baggy shorts and a pullover shirt. "I hope you appreciate how difficult this is for me, Amazon."

"I do, Pygmy. I appreciate everything about you." She helped Lily get the shirt over her head. "Ready?"

Lily fell back on the bed, but Anna grabbed her wrists and pulled her to a wobbly standing position. "Okay, okay." The sleepy woman fell in behind her lover, shuffling her feet as they walked to the door.

"Do you want your sandals?"

Lily shook her head. She had resigned herself to open one eye slightly so as not to trip over anything. She closed it to a mere slit when they stepped into the brightly lit hallway. Anna led them down the hall to the stairway, and two flights down they emerged onto a path that ran directly to the beach.

The sky was getting its first light, sunrise only about 15 minutes away. When they reached the end of the path, Anna dragged a lounge chair to a secluded spot just beyond the palms that lined the beach. Leaning against the back, she opened her legs for her lover to lie back against her. Lily did so immediately, and closed her eyes in slumber as Anna wrapped her long arms around her middle.

"Lily? Do you know what today is?"

It was still mostly dark, which meant to Lily that it wasn’t day at all. "Is this a trick question?"

"No. I’ll give you a hint. It’s February 6^th. Do you remember what happened on February 6^th?"

Against her will, Lily was slowly waking up. "The earthquake," she said somberly.

"That’s right. Three years ago today," Anna reminded her.

Lily smiled softly and squeezed her lover’s hands. "And the day we met."

Anna pulled a hand free to retrieve something from her pocket. "It’s a very special day to me, sweetheart. I want us to remember it always."

Lily felt something sliding against the ring finger on her left hand. As she opened her eyes, the sight nearly stole her breath. In the glint of the sunrise, she saw the Cartier tri-colored twist that adorned her finger. Of course, she didn’t know it was a Cartier; only that it was the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. And Anna Kaklis had just put it there!

"Lily, I want you to wear this so that you’ll always remember the promises I’m about to make." Anna sat up straight and leaned over the smaller woman’s shoulder. "Lily Stuart, I promise to be there for you always, whatever you may need. I promise to put my love for you in front of everything else in my life. And I promise that my heart will always be your home."

Lily’s unbelieving smile took up her whole face. Anna Kaklis had just committed to her forever.

"And I promise not to let even the most appealing automotive designs distract me from your blinding beauty."

Lily laughed with delight. Anna always had to be Anna.

"And I promise to never, ever tell my father the story about you and the doggie door."

Now fully awake, the grinning blonde pulled her feet up and turned around in the chair to face her partner. Scooting closer, she draped her legs off the sides of the chair so that she was now straddling Anna’s lap. "You have no idea what this means to me." Suddenly serious, she looked directly into the smiling blue eyes, now sparkling as the sun peeked slowly over the horizon. "Anna, until this very moment, Mom was the only one who ever said she’d always be there for me. I can’t tell you how much I treasure what you’ve promised me today."

Anna answered with a deep kiss that for her sealed their future.

"Will you wear a ring from me?" Lily asked hopefully. Anna seldom wore jewelry other than earrings and her Rolex wristwatch.

"I would love to wear your ring."

"What kind of ring would you want?"

"I’ll wear whatever you like. It’s a gift from you; it should say you."

Some people thought matching rings were kind of hokey, but Lily had always dreamed of a shared symbol. "How would you feel about wearing one just like this one?"

"I think that would be perfect. In fact, I sort of hoped you’d say that. Now I won’t have to take this one back." Anna reached again into her pocket, extracting an identical twisted band and placing it in her partner’s hand.

"You are sooooo good."

Yeah, I know.

Lily held the ring alongside her own, confirming that they were exactly the same. "I haven’t practiced any words, but I know what I’ve dreamed of saying to you since the first time I realized I was in love with you."

Taking Anna’s left hand in her own trembling hands, she slipped the band onto the long slender finger. "Anna Kaklis, I promise to love you always, and to support you in everything you do. I promise to accept all of you, and to work through everything that life throws at us, just to be with you. I promise to do my best to never let you down." Both women understood that coded reference to Lily’s struggle with alcohol.

Anna looked at their hands together. We’re married.

"And I promise to change the oil every 3,000 miles, no matter what."

Anna chuckled. She had asked for that.

"And you know that picture I took of you in the bathtub when Chester jumped in? I promise not to put that one on our Christmas cards."

  *  *  *

 

Binders Books now occupied space on the brand new single level east wing of the Endicott Mall. At 12:02 p.m., Skye Steinberg announced to her customers that it was time to step out of the store and into the concourse. Having seen the posters throughout the mall today, everyone expected this pause in their shopping day.

The mall’s public address system was wired to a receiver at the nearby Presbyterian Church, where at 12:04 the church’s colossal bell rang 27 times, once each for every person who lost their life at the mall three years ago in the Culver City Quake.

A moment of silence followed as Skye remembered the beautiful dark-haired woman who had visited their store that day. Anna was her name, she learned, and she had stopped by the mall a month ago to say hello and check out the new store. She was with a blonde woman, whom she introduced as the only other trapped survivor of that day’s devastation. The two women were clearly in love.

Seven thousand miles away in Fiji, the two survivors shared a lounge chair as they silently watched the beach come to life. The year behind them had been personally devastating, especially for Lily, but somehow they had found their way home. Today, their hearts had opened wide for the comfort and security only a lifetime commitment could bring.

THE END