Epilogue

Five Years Later. . .

“Why’d you apply for the job if you didn’t have the qualifications?” I asked the young writer sitting across from me. She was young and starving for a chance to intern at Bite It. She also wasn’t anything special. She went to college locally, came from a simple, humble home and didn’t have much writing experience outside of school. And yet she applied here. I picked her for an interview just to ask her why.

“I know I don’t have the qualifications-”

“Yeah, I just said that.” I said sipping my QT white hot chocolate. I was making good money but still chose to live modestly. Starbucks expensive ass wasn’t getting my money.

“But I’m a hard worker-”

“A lot of people are. It doesn’t mean you’ll still be given a chance not in this world.”

The young possible intern took a shaky breath and breathed out, “I don’t have much experience but i'm a fast learner. If you give me a chance I swear you wont regret it. I can write and I might not be the best writer but that only means I have room to grow and learn-”

“And make errors. Errors i'll have to fix and I don't like fixing errors.”

The girl flicked a loose braid out of her face, “What do I have to say to convince you to take a chance on me?”

“Not say. Do.” I said looking the girl up and down. “How are you with kids?”

“Kids ma’am?”

“You know little people that need food and water or they’ll die.”

“I had a goldfish that I kept alive for over a year.” She answered me with a worried expression.

“Fish are hard to keep alive.”

New York City- the city of loud noises and people that bumped into you without a care in the world. God, I was glad I was no longer living there. I stayed there for four years. I got accepted to the SoNYT and then applied to NYU and got my bachelor degree in Journalism. I was also working part-time as a writer and editor at Bite It. It was I who suggested that we look into hiring interns for the Summer. China would be the first intern at Bite It. If she completed today's task successfully.

I moved back to Georgia and got a five bedroom house with the money I had saved up. I was even able to help my siblings get their own places when they were ready to move out on their own. I was now in a happy place with them and finally at peace with leaving things in the past. It’s what my grandma would have wanted after all. I was no longer receiving money payments from my clients. I haven’t been for five years now and was making good money as head writer/editor at Bite It. It also helped that my partner was financially stable as well. She had just graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a bachelor degree and already had her own shop at Southlake Mall.

Life was good and it couldn’t be any better. I pulled into my parking garage and got out the groceries for tonight's dinner. My phone rang as I laid out the salmon, shrimp, asparagus and potatoes. “Hello?” I said into my Galaxy.

“Yeah, he’s over there? Good. I’ll pick him up from school Monday. Thanks for watching him. Love you too. Thanks. Call me if there’s any problems.”

I put a pot of boiling water on the stove and added a dash of salt. I left the food out as I went to bathe. I added chamomile bergamot to my whirlpool bathtub and relaxed as the jets blew out water against my back. I thought about the article I needed to write later on and then let it escape from my mind. No work today Mi’a I said to myself.

My pusky Gizmo ran into my room as I lotioned up with some bath and body aromatherapy products. The potatoes were almost done so I threw the salmon, shrimp and asparagus onto a pan lathering them with butter and old bay seasoning. I loved seafood. I turned on the television to nothing in particular. Gizmo was running around my legs barking and I asked him, “Bathroom? Do you have to go to the bathroom?”

I walked through the living room and opened the door connecting to the backyard. It was a fenced yard and so I closed the door and let Gizmo run around. He came running back a few minutes later when our neighbors started their lawn mower. They were nice enough people. I think the wife was cheating though. She always made her meals ahead of time and stayed out late. She claimed it was for work. I wiggled my nose to one side and then the other. I might have been twenty-four now but my senses were nowhere dull. This hound could still smell a scandal a mile away.

“Are you watching our neighbors again? You said you’d stop.”

“You know you're going to thank me if I ever find a serial killer and were the only family that survives because I knew he or she was a serial killer.” I reply back turning around to greet her.

At twenty-two, she still made me smile and laugh. She was also still childish and annoying at times but you can't have it all. “Your home early.”

“It is our anniversary. Where is Julian?”

“Your dad or our son.”

“Our son, silly.”

“My new intern picked him up and brought him to my sisters.” I said to Lillian. “She’s very eager to please.”

“Isn’t her job to write not to pick up our son?”

“I said she’s eager to please. Dinner should be ready in ten.”

Lillian went to the back and I checked on the food. I know what you're thinking, how'd this happen? Wasn’t she just mad a few pages ago at her for being a lying, deceiving asshole? Well let me just say this my sister has forgiven her boyfriends for far worse. No, it took some time but after I left Georgia and went to New York Lillian continued to fix her relationships with both of her dads. Her mom and dad still aren't cool but they're civil and that's what matters. The Andersons forgave me although I secretly think Mrs.Anderson still hates me. Oh well. You can’t please everyone. The twins are twelve now and love to come over and hang out with their nephew, Julian.

No, we didn't name him that. It’s a part of the reason why we adopted him. He had the same name as Lillian’s dad and he was a sweet, smart and sensitive kid that we fell in love with. Julian was three and super smart and loved science. He was always asking me questions about the weather and how things grew. We adopted him last year and he naturally referred to us as mom and mama. That’s where the money from Lillian’s mom went toward, adopting Juilian and helping us get our house.

“Dinner ready?” Lillian asked. She wore a silky, pink bathrobe and her pink, bunny slippers.

I laid our plates on the floor by the fireplace. Electronic of course. “Yup, hungry?”

“Famished. I swear I'm happy business is so good but it is a lot.”

“Better a lot than a little bit.” I replied, digging my fork into my salmon.

“Very true.” Lillian said as she bit into an asparagus. She smiled and ate it happily. “So good babe.”

“I know.” I said leaning over to her. She meant me in the middle with a kiss. “Am I good?” I asked her. I moved her soft, brown hair to the side. It was still wet from her shower.

“You're amazing. Now stop spying on our neighbors.”

“Ugh, it's not spying. It's watching.”  I explained.

“People watch birds not people.”

“People watch people.”

Lillian sighed into her potatoes, “Yeah, weird people and I want to meet this intern.”

“Why?”

“Young, eager to please, and a female. Yeah, ima have to meet her.” Lillian said shaking her head up and down.

“Jealous?”

“Should I be?”

“No, you know why?”

“No? Why?”

I reached behind me pulling out a blue package, “You’re my oreo.”

Yes, I got everything I wanted and so much more in the end. So when they ask you do the ends justify the means there is only one answer. Only if I still get what I want.