Tangled (Untangled epilogue)
An epilogue to the short story of the project Same Walk, Different Shoes
Have you ever written a story that breaks your heart? This one wouldn’t let me be, until I had given the two characters some kind of a closure. If you enjoyed the story as it was, and don’t want to spoil the existing experience, just ignore this epilogue.
Read the original story "Untangled" here
I wrote two versions of the epilogue (I had my reasons), the sweet one and the dark one. The sweet one is free, however the dark one is paywalled. You have been warned! If you’d decide to support me by becoming a paid subscriber, I have a couple of fun dark romances under a paywall for you to enjoy!
Tangled (Untangled epilogue)
He just sat there by the bar. It had been more than ten years since she last saw him. Andy blinked intensely. How could he just sit there, sipping his coffee, small talking to the bartender? Smiling carelessly. In Andy’s head he was still trapped where she left him - in the dandelion meadow. Staring at the black stream. Probably crying. He cried a lot for a guy. Andy frowned. Maybe she was being silly. It probably wasn’t Rob. Just some look-alike, a random guy…. oh no! He looked her way. Their eyes locked with mutual understanding of who they were. Too late to deny it. Rob’s smile faded, while Andy’s lips pursed in a nervous grin.
Too late, walking away would’ve been even more embarrassing.
“Hi! Wow, Rob, it’s really you? How long has it been? Ten years?” Andy heard her own voice but didn’t recognize it. Who was this annoying woman with the squeaky voice?!
“Yep, ten years, Andy,” Rob replied smiling coldly. They gave each other an awkward half-hug.
Though he used a different cologne now, something about his scent was so familiar. Memories of many nights tangled together inhaling the same scent ran through Andy’s head like a lightning strike. The silent pause lingered.
Rob gestured at the bar stool next his.
“So…” Andy chirped. That was so not like her - to stutter or chirp. “What you’ve been up to?”
“Nothin’ much. Just here on business,” Rob replied not even looking at her. He had changed so much and still he was the same. Despite the wide, manly frame dressed in the crisp-white T-shirt and blue jeans, his green eyes were still the same.
“I like your beard,” Andy said.
“I hate your short hair,” Rob replied with his face full of ridicule.
Andy burst out in a nervous laughter.
“I figured you’d hate it. You always loved my long hair. I hated it.”
“I remember. So, you got what you wanted.”
Andy flinched internally; his remark hit her heart like a bullet. But then she realized he meant her hair.
“Oh, yeah, the hair! The hair. I always was a Tomboy.”
Andy ordered a beer. Rob drank his coffee. The silence was almost painful. Ten years ago, they could talk about anything, but now…
“I have to use the bathroom.” Rob got up and walked away without looking at her.
He was gone for a long while. Andy drank her beer. Cracked silly jokes with the bartender. By the time she’d almost finished her drink, Rob finally came back.
He appeared almost surprised Andy was still there.
“You wanted to ditch me, huh?” She joked.
“Um… yeah,” he said with a short laugh. Obviously, that really was his intention. He was hoping she’d leave. Andy gulped the last of her beer.
It stung. She never thought Rob could not-want her. She was the one who dumped him again and again.
Another blunt silence.
“Okay, I have to go. Nice seeing ya’! Bye!” He got up and left. Just like that! Andy tried hard to convince herself it’s normal. They’ve just grown apart. It’s been ten years. Yeah. It’s probably better this way.
“Fuck it!” Andy grunted, left the money for her beer, and hurried after him.
She ran up to Rob at the parking lot by the bar. The dark, wet asphalt shone in the orange streetlights like a dirty diamond. A couple of lonely car silhouettes waited for their drivers, scattered across the dimly lit parking lot.
“Wait!” Andy called him. She had no idea what to say, though so much was left unsaid between them.
“What do you want, Andy? I don’t want to talk!”
“That’s funny! You were always the one who wanted to talk.”
“Well, not anymore!”
Rob tried to open the car door, but Andy stood in the way.
“Please, move Andy!”
Before she knew it, Andy grabbed his hands and tangled her fingers between his.
“Why don’t you want to talk to me?!”
“Move, Andy!”
“Not until you answer!”
“Because I still love you, damn it!” Rob yelled in her face. Andy felt his hands clutching hers so hard it almost hurt. Next thing she knew they were kissing. No, not just kissing. They were devouring each other’s lips violently. Damn, it felt good! Kissing her boyfriend Aiden had never felt so intense. Rob grabbed her thighs and pushed Andy into the side of the car. Whoa, she gasped internally, surprised at how turned on that made her feel. Aiden was a typical Beta-male. Andy had to take initiative most of the time. Rob’s assertiveness balanced on the age of brutality, but she found it surprisingly hot.
“Get a room!” A couple of guys from the bar passed by, laughing at them.
“A room. We need a room,” Andy murmured. Rob didn’t even look at her while he drove, but his every move, his aggressive driving reflected his impatience. Andy felt the same. They stopped at the first roadside motel they saw. Andy wrapped her fingers between his while they ran into the building. One quick glance he gave her - and she saw everything in his eyes; longing, despair, loneliness, desire, madness, love… he had loved her all these long years. Quietly, patiently, desperately, without any hope to see her again. Now he held on to her without asking questions, like a drowning man holding onto his lifeboat in the middle of a stormy ocean. The motel was hideous, even though he got them the best room. Their kisses turned into a whirlwind of clothes flying all around them. He pushed her into the mattress. Andy had never realized how much she missed his body loving her. Everything just fell into place. So familiar yet double the heat. Their pleasure bordered with pain; ten years of unfulfilled longing had left their mark. Andy never knew how hungry she had been for his touch, until now. They were starving to feel each other; Andy’s core welcomed him in impatiently, she moaned while he kept his silence. Even that she found hot, his masculine restraint, though his every move reassured her of the desperate longing he felt for her. Their rhythm was flawless. Rob’s hands worked like sculptor’s tools, he created Andy anew, he gave her a shape that she had long forgotten existed. Every minute felt right, and the strength he used to push into her, added just a touch of spice. A level up from their teen years.
Andy moaned her pleasure out into the night, finally Rob caved and groaned low. The calm after the storm their bodies created was filled with his lips whispering, I love you, in her ear again and again, and again… Andy couldn’t relax, she held him tight. If he’d walk away now, it would’ve been the perfect revenge, a thought suddenly struck her mind. Because she dumped him all those years ago, after they spent the night together.
Rob got up as soon as Andy loosened her grip.
“ ’Ama hit the shower,” he murmured under his nose.
“Wait… um… please, stay!”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea. You know me…” he gave a bitter chuckle, “always tryin’ to do the right thing. This was as wrong as it gets. I know you have somebody.”
“Um… me and Aidan. We… we agreed on an open relationship. It’s what I always wanted. To be free…”
“I’m not going to be your side boyfriend!” Rob said spitefully and marched into the shower, slamming the door. Andy followed. Lucky for her the lousy motel lock wasn’t working, after a couple hesitant minutes she pulled the door, and it gave in. Rob was standing in the shower, covering his face, he turned toward her startled.
“It’s not like that! I… it never felt right. Me and Aidan. The open relationship. I never wanted to admit it. I thought it’s what I wanted, but it’s not.”
“What do you want, Andy?”
“You,” she almost cried out, “I was looking for Aidan in the bar tonight. To break up with him. It was his own date night. I had to see… but he wasn’t there. I never pray, but I stood there praying - please, God, I don’t know what to do with my life! Please, give me a sign, just this once! And then I saw you sitting by the bar.”
She stood in front of Rob naked, baring her soul, slowly stepping into the warm shower. Andy had never exposed herself to anybody so openly, tearing her feelings open on display.
She saw a shift in Rob’s eyes. From the cold, prideful man he had become emerged the loving boy she once knew. He embraced her, a sigh of relief escaped his lungs, a dark storm cloud above them turned into a warm summer rain, washing everything clean, binding them with strands of silver. They made love again, Rob pushed Andy against the bleak, out-dated bathroom tiles gently, the warm shower turned each touch into silk sliding down the other’s skin.
Those letters they never sent to each other were revived, they became wedding vows a year after their encounter at the bar. They had always been tangled by love; Andy just hadn’t realized the worth of the precious threads connecting them. She broke up with Aidan the next day after she met Rob.
Sure, she and Rob still fought time after time, but it only added a touch of heat to their everyday life. They re-arranged, they adjusted, they found a way to be together. It wasn’t all easy, but it was good. Andy knew it was right, when she walked to Rob down that isle, and saw tears of joy and gratitude in his eyes.
The last words of her vows were: “I had to grow to find you again.”
Rob replied: “I had to wait to find you again.”
The engravings on their wedding rings read “Tangled forever, Andy and Robbie.”
This version is nearly the same as the previous one, except for the ending. The ending is key. It shows the story from a different perspective. Also the last scenes are a bit spicier.