Page 70 of Christmas Coffee

EPILOGUE

~ Celyn ~

The wedding was three months ago. Nova and I went to town hall and eloped. Tinselly was there, and Quin. Then we spent a little money on a honeymoon and lay around on a beach for a week. I loved her in every way possible and she still wanted more, wanted me. She’s insatiable and completely perfect.

When we got back to the real world it was clear that we needed to act quickly to keep my apartment. I offered to sell it, but she wouldn’t let me. Nova wanted that decision to come later, not under duress. I showed her the cash from selling the McLaren and told her it was all we had until everything was sorted out with Bardenbey. It’s possible that when it’s over, there will be nothing left.

“You married a man with very little to his name.” I felt like a shit doing that to her, but Nova just cocks her head at me.

“I was sleeping in my car. You have a lot, we just need to use it wisely and we will. We’re in a nosedive right now, but we can pull out of it.” Nova is the optimist, and kept her promise.

We went back to the Hottie Hut and strategized how to handle it year round. Our offer had to be big enough to make the owner want to rent it to us instead of opening the ice shack in the summer. We found agreeable terms that wouldn’t cripple me and Nova—and that’s where we’ve been working all day, every day.

Nova makes a monthly drink and puts a picture in the window. The night she visited the tree guy, she saved his ass and helped him sell trees in exchange for the one she brought me. She worked the lot that night and he sold out. As thanks, he gave us his picnic tables, which also helped tremendously. Now we have several places to sit, right outside the hut. Nova landed a few banks and brings the tellers their coffee every morning, which increased cash flow quite a bit. People are crazy when it comes to their coffee and she made it possible for a lot of people to try it easily. I would have never thought of bringing it to them.

Days are long and I’ve never been so tired in my life, but I’ve never been so happy either. Every night we drive home, and talk about the day and what we can do to make tomorrow better. By the time we walk in the door of our apartment, she’s back to being Nova—my sexy goddess.

One night, Nova lies in my arms, her body slick with sweat, and she looks up at me. “I think we can do it.”

“Do what?” I’m so sated that I can’t do anything but sport a lazy smile.

“Expand.” She rolls onto her stomach and crosses her ankles before pulling them toward her perfect naked ass. “If we opened more shacks, we could manage them, instead of working them. It’d pull in a lot more revenue and it wouldn’t matter if it takes years to see what happens with Bardenbey. It gives us more options. If Bardenbey survives, then we can sell the shacks and go there. In the meantime, it would give us more stability. What do you think?”

I rub my hand over my head and tuck my wrist behind my neck, letting my eyes rove over her naked curves. “You can see it? How all the moving parts have to fit together to work, can’t you?”

She nods and smiles at me before leaning over and brushing a strand of hair away from my eyes. “Yes, I can, but it’d be a risk. We can keep things the way they are and we’d be okay, Celyn. I was just thinking that having more shacks would allow more flexibility and if one hut did poorly, then another could shoulder it. It creates a buffer that we don’t have right now. It’s up to you.”

I lean in and kiss her temple. “If you think it works, I trust you. Let’s do it.”

As days slip into months, Nova makes it work. I’m good working with concrete notions and numbers, but Nova can pull ideas out of the air and make them materialize. It’s uncanny how long shots work for her. We open a second hut and learn from those mistakes before opening a third. By the time the holiday season rolls around, we own seven Hottie Huts scattered across Long Island. So much has changed in a year. We no longer work the machines or stay in the shack serving customers all day. Nova and I have an office in Commack and our workweeks are no longer one hundred hours long. Those days have finally passed, which means I can spend every night tangled together with my wife, enjoying her body and getting high on her happiness.

On Christmas Eve, we set out for Tinselly’s house. The normal festivities were relocated now that Tinselly knows why Nova avoids her mother’s home. Tinselly never told her Mom, she just said it’d be so much easier with the boys if we went to them. Mom and Gran didn’t refuse.

Nova sits quietly in the passenger seat, probably worried about her family being over the top—they always are. I reach for her, take her hand. “It’ll be all right. We have so much to be grateful for, stop worrying.”

Nova bobs her head and squeezes my hand. “I’m not worried.”

“Yes, you are. You’ve been quiet for days. Are you feeling better?” She was sick a few days ago, caught a stomach bug and stayed in bed most of the day.

“Yeah, I’m good.” She looks over at me, smiling. “I’m looking forward to Tinselly’s stuffing, and I won’t even mind Gran’s crazy questions.”

When we’re all seated at the beautifully decorated table and the usual conversation ensues, Nova doesn’t balk. Instead, she keeps her head down and picks at her food like she’s not hungry. I lean over and whisper, “Are you feeling okay?” Worry creases my brow as I try to catch her eye.

Gran notices and snaps the other conversations to a halt when she says, “No secrets, it’s Christmas! If you knocked her up, it’s time to fess up, Celyn.”

I’m mid-sip on a glass of wine and choke. Tinselly mouths apologies and grabs me another napkin, but she freezes in place when I turn to Nova. Our eyes meet and the dots connect—she’s been tired, sick to her stomach, and unusually quiet. I smile at her, knowingly. “Really?” She nods with a soft smile. “Are you sure?”

She beams at me brightly, trying to repress a smile and happy tears. “Yes.”

I jump up so quickly that I knock over my chair. I scoop up Nova in my arms and spin her once before pressing a kiss to her lips. “Oh my God! Do you know what this means?” I laugh, and feel the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire fucking life. My chest is going to explode with pure joy.

The twins frown, as Gran cackles, pointing at Nova. “Ha! I knew it!”

Mom hasn’t followed and is sitting next to Tinselly, who is still frozen between the table and the counter, holding an extra napkin in the air. Mom looks up at her, “I missed something. What’s going on?”

Tinselly sits down hard in her seat and watches me kiss my wife. “They’re going to have a baby.”

The toddler twins cheer in unison. “Hooray! More friends!”

I don’t want to put her down. I want to hold her like this forever, but I place her back in her chair and kiss her cheek. Then I lift a glass of wine, and everyone stills. “To the most amazing woman that I’ve ever met. A year ago tonight, I thought I’d lost everything. I sat alone, broken and beaten when she showed up with a Christmas tree and cinderblock and changed my life. Nova is my other half, my soul mate, the piece of me that was missing. I thought I couldn’t possibly be any happier than I was on the way here, but I was wrong. To my beautiful bride and mother to be. Merry Christmas, Hot Girl.”

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