Chapter 41
Epilogue
CHARLOTTE
Two years had passed since we tossed our high school graduation caps into the air. Now, we were on the brink of our junior year in college. I chose the University of California in Irvine, drawn by their impressive e-sports program.
It was a bummer when I found out I couldn’t compete—being a professional gamer and all—but I still wanted to be there. I could help train the team, sort of like a coach.
TJ, Tracy, Nep, and Plut decided to join me, lending their skills to the team as well. We all agreed to stick together in college, given our team’s hectic schedule with professional tournaments and promotional work for our sponsors.
Tracy simply wanted to be where the rest of us were.
Our sponsors bought a house for the four of us, but they didn’t mind Tracy staying too. So, all five of us lived under one roof.
My parents were initially hesitant, but they eventually agreed. They knew I didn’t want to live with strangers and figured being with the guys would keep me safe and help with my anxiety. They were right on both counts.
Tracy and Plut were still an item, and even Nep had a steady girlfriend now. She was nice, but just as wild as he was. I was grateful his room was the farthest from mine.
Tracy and I had rooms on the opposite side of the house from the guys.
However, TJ spent most nights with me, given Nep’s amplified volume in person compared to online.
We still hadn’t gone all the way, but we’d explored a lot of other things.
Waking up next to him each morning was something I cherished. I wasn’t
sure if it was possible, but I felt like my love for him grew every day.
Last night, TJ came into my room around eleven, grumbling about how loud Nep’s girlfriend was. I just chuckled, like most nights, and scooted over so he could climb into bed beside me.
I woke up this morning enveloped in warmth, my hair being gently tousled. I slowly opened my eyes to find myself still lying on TJ, one of his arms wrapped around my waist, the other playing with my hair.
“Good morning, love. How did you sleep?” he asked.
“Mmm,” I mumbled, earning a chuckle from him.
“I’ll take that as a yes, you slept well,” he said.
I was really enjoying lying on TJ, so I just snuggled closer into him, my hand tracing patterns on his chest.
“Baby, as much as I love you being here, you might not want to wiggle around as much,” he told me, his voice tinged with a hint of discomfort.
“Oh no, am I hurting you?” I asked, wiggling a bit more to try to move away from wherever I was causing him pain.
“Baby, you aren’t hurting me. You’re just… Well, you’re not wearing a bra, and you’re giving quite the show as you wiggle. Plus, your legs are, um, rubbing against me.”
“Huh? My leg is on top of you; of course it’s rubbing against you,” I said.
“Sweetie, I love your innocence, but that’s not what I meant,” he told me, making me blush bright red when I finally understood what he was implying.
“Oops,” I said, making him chuckle and lean over to give me a quick kiss.
That quick kiss turned into a longer one, which turned into an even longer one. He kissed me passionately, gently biting my lower lip, causing me to gasp, which allowed him to deepen the kiss. He finally pulled away from the kiss, and I gasped for air.
Despite ending the kiss, he didn’t move away from me. He began to slowly kiss my cheeks, then my jaw, and slowly down to my neck. The lower he moved, the more his sweet kisses turned into open-mouthed, fiery ones. I quietly moaned as he moved the strap of my tank top to the side, slowly kissing down my shoulder.
“TJ,” I said breathlessly as he came back up and captured my lips again.
“I love you so much,” he told me before continuing the assault on my mouth. As he kissed me, I felt his hand moving under my shirt and up my stomach. By this point, I couldn’t have told him to stop even if I’d wanted to—which I didn’t.
We continued making out for another ten minutes before TJ pulled away.
“I have to stop now, or I won’t be able to,” he confessed.
“What if I don’t want you to stop?” I asked quietly.
This made him capture my lips in another passionate kiss before pulling away again.
“I love you, but we have to get dressed. We’re supposed to be at the e- sports arena soon to meet with the team for this year.”
“Why do you always have to be so practical?” I pouted.
He just chuckled at me as he walked to the attached bathroom to shower. He had a bathroom attached to his room, but almost all of his stuff was in here—not that I minded. Once he was done showering, I took my own shower and then got dressed.
Given we were meeting with the e-sports team, I put on my Mars tank top, necklace, and some blue jeans. I noticed TJ had on a Jupiter shirt, and he always wore the necklace from me.
“Morning, guys,” I said as I walked into the kitchen to make breakfast.
“Good morning, hot stuff,” Nep said, winking.
“Dude, you have a girlfriend now. Back off mine,” TJ told him.
“Nope, it’s too fun to rile you up,” he told TJ.
After we had finished breakfast, we all caught a bus to campus and walked to the building where the team met. Tracy came with us since school hadn’t started yet and she didn’t have anything better to do.
Once we walked in, TJ went over to talk with Stan, the captain for this year. Nep and Plut were walking around and checking the equipment in the room, while Tracy and I stood off to the side, talking.
I was great at helping plan their strategies and could show them what to do, but I still had issues talking to people.
Don’t get me wrong, I could talk to a few of the guys on the team if it was about the game, but I wasn’t really on a social level with them.
“Dang, check out the hotties,” I heard a guy say as he walked into the room. I didn’t recognize him. He seemed to be an upperclassman but had to be new to the team.
“Do chicks think they can play video games now? They do realize this is a competitive team. We aren’t playing easy, girlie games with colorful animals,” a second guy said rudely.
Okay, I knew who I wouldn’t be helping on the team.
After hearing that, Tracy must have decided to put a stop to it.
“Frank, baby, can you come here for a minute?” Tracy called, and Plut
quickly walked over.
“What’s up, babe?” he asked her.
“I just missed you,” she said, pulling him into a passionate kiss.
“Okay, you can go back to work now. Love you, sweetie.”
“Shoot, that’s Pluto she’s kissing! We better watch what we say about them,” the second guy said. I looked at Tracy with big eyes, trying not to
crack up laughing.
“Who’s Pluto?” the first asked.
“One of the players from The Romans. You know, the top-ranked team in the nation. I heard that all four of them attend this university and help with the e-sports team. I think that’s why we have so many good players coming here now. Everyone wants to be trained by the best,” the second
replied.
Finally, some respect.
“Well, if that one is dating Pluto, maybe the other hottie is single. Be right back,” the first one said as he walked toward me and Tracy.
“Hey there, beautiful, what brings you here?”
Close up, he was fairly attractive, but his attitude reminded me of Nep —except not as endearing.
I looked at Tracy in panic, which I thought the guy took as me being shy about talking to him because of his looks.
“Dude, you should back off. She’s dating my brother,” Tracy said, trying to get the guy to leave.
“Well, I don’t see him here, and what he doesn’t know can’t hurt,” the guy replied.
“TJ!” Tracy yelled, since he was across the room with Stan still.
TJ looked up and saw the panic on my face. He instantly came over, followed by Stan. Of all the people here, Stan was probably the one I could talk to the most—since he was the one we were around the most.
“What’s up, Trace?” TJ said while casually putting his arm around my waist.
“This guy thinks he’s here to pick up females instead of play,” she said casually.
“You were hitting on my sister?” TJ asked as Plut walked up, looking unhappy.
“No way, man. I’d never hit on Pluto’s girl.”
“He was hitting on Charlotte,” Tracy said.
Plut, Nep, and Stan all cracked up laughing as TJ glared at the guy.
“So, you won’t hit on Pluto’s girl, but you’ll hit on Jupiter’s? Are you more afraid of offending one of the top team members or their captain?”
Stan asked.
“You’re Jupiter, the captain of The Romans?” the guy said in shock.
“Sure am,” TJ said with a cocky smirk.
“Well, it’s not my fault. Your girlfriends have no place being here for our practice,” the guy said, but that only made the guys laugh harder—even TJ this time.
“Hmm, let’s see about that,” TJ declared before loudly addressing the rest of the room.
“Everyone, listen up, new guy here thinks that Mars has no right to be here since she’s a girl. Let’s take a vote. Who wants her to leave? Could be a good idea. I’m sure she’d have much more time to focus on our team’s strategies if she wasn’t developing them for you guys.”
The room erupted in loud protests. I actually felt a little sorry for the guy.
“There you have it. I guess they don’t want to lose the reason they won last season. I suggest you learn who you’re addressing and talking about before you put your foot in your mouth next time,” TJ said before grabbing my hand and walking to the front of the room to begin practice.
It seemed like we had similar issues at the start of each year—guys joining because video games were fun and not realizing who I was.
I didn’t really let it bother me since they always shaped up pretty quickly once they realized. Honestly, it was pretty humorous.
After practice was over, TJ told me he was taking me out for a date tonight and instructed me to go home and get dressed while he and the guys went to practice for their intramural football team.
I thought TJ wanted to play football in college and was good enough, but being a professional gamer somehow translated to professional athlete, which meant he couldn’t play college football.
I was definitely not any kind of athlete, so the concept just seemed weird, but that was the rule. Since none of the guys could join the team, all three played intramural instead. Thanks to their athleticism, I thought their intramural team was actually better than the school’s real team, which cracked me up.
When we got home, Tracy invaded my room and said she was under orders to get me ready. I tried to reject her offer, since I didn’t need to be super fancy for TJ. It wasn’t like it was our first date. She said he would appreciate me making an effort.
I hoped he didn’t think I didn’t care about him, given my normal lack of effort. To be honest, she had made me a bit worried, so I agreed to let her do whatever she wanted to me.
By the time she was done, I was wearing a dark-purple high-low empire waist dress. She put my hair into an elegant loose French twist, with wispy strands framing my face. The only jewelry I had on was my Mars necklace and my charm bracelet.
TJ had given me a few more charms over the years, so now it also had a heart-shaped charm, a little wand that looked like it was from Watchtower, the first game we played together, and the logo of our college.
Tracy had me finish off the outfit with some black strappy high heels.
She skipped the makeup, knowing I really didn’t like it.
Once we finished, we walked into the living room to see that TJ had already come back from practice and was dressed in a pair of black slacks and a deep-blue, long-sleeved, button-up shirt. He looked amazing.
“Wow, baby. You never cease to stun me and take my breath away,” TJ said, looking at me.
“DANG!” Nep commented, always one to spoil the moment. Naturally, I ignored him.
“You look wonderful,” I told TJ, going to him and giving him a kiss.
“You ready?” he asked, to which I just nodded.
TJ drove toward the beach, but not toward any of the restaurants or places I recognized, so I was a little confused about where we were going.
After a while, he pulled into a small roadside rest stop and got out of the car before coming around and opening the door for me. He went into the back and grabbed a bag. Then he took my hand and led me down a sidewalk that seemed to lead into a grassy area that we couldn’t see past.
Eventually, the sidewalk turned, and I was able to see a small section of beach that was enclosed completely by rock walls on all sides, so it was like a tiny, hidden private beach.
I gasped at the beauty in front of me and asked how TJ had found this place. He explained that a friend had told him about it, and that no one came here—so we would be all alone. He then took my hand and led me farther down the sidewalk toward the beach.
Once we got to the sand, I took one step and instantly sank. TJ looked over to me and cracked up laughing, noticing my spiky heels. He told me to wait where I was and walked out to the beach, where he pulled a blanket from his bag and laid it out. He then came back and picked me up, carrying me over and delicately sitting me down on the blanket.
“Did Tracy know where you were taking me?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just trying to figure out why she insisted on these shoes. Heels and beaches don’t mix,” I said with a laugh.
“They don’t, but you do look stunning in them,” he said, making me smile brightly.
As I sat looking at the view from our own private little beach, TJ pulled a picnic out of the bag he was carrying. He had chocolate-covered strawberries, club sandwiches, and chocolate mousse for dessert. He had even brought wine to drink with it.
He was so romantic; the whole evening was so romantic.
We ate while talking about everything going on, including what we had planned in two years, after we graduated.
Obviously, we would continue our professional gaming careers, but we were both looking at longer-term goals also. He wanted to coach at some level, which was just perfect for him.
I was studying to be a biochemical engineer. This would allow me to use my brains to help people, without having to talk much. I would mainly be working with pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines.
Once we’d polished off our meal, we let go of future plans and simply basked in the present.
I nestled between TJ’s legs, leaning into his embrace as his arms circled my waist. We lounged like that, savoring the joy of our togetherness, while the sunset painted the horizon over the ocean in a myriad of colors.
As the sun began to dip, we agreed it was time to head home. I rose to my feet, shoes in hand, and stole one last glance at the mesmerizing ocean before we departed.
When I swiveled back around, I saw that TJ had tidied up everything except the blanket. That was when I noticed he was down on one knee, gazing up at me, a tiny box in his hand.
“Charlotte, you’ve been my best friend since we were ten. I’ve loved you like family since then, and as a woman from the moment I first saw you. I might not always be flawless, but I believe I’ll always be flawless for you, just as you’ll always be flawless for me. I can’t envision a single moment of my life without you. Will you grant me the greatest honor and become my wife?”
I was dumbstruck, lost in the eyes of the man I loved.
All I could do was nod slowly, tears streaming down my cheeks. TJ rose, a broad smile on his face, and took my hand. He gently slid the stunning ring onto my finger before pulling me into a fervent kiss. I kissed him back eagerly, letting my actions express the depth of my love for him.
That kiss swiftly escalated into more as TJ and I made love for the first time under the starlit sky, the soft lullaby of the ocean waves our soundtrack. It was the most magical night of my life, setting the tone for a lifetime of bliss that lay ahead.
