Epilogue

William shoved the flowers in my hands and I noticed that his were shaking. He tried to smile but it seemed forced and nervous. Michael fell into the background and let us have a much privacy as possible.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, my arms crossed and the damp sponge wetting my shirt. “Don’t you have to go visit some more people in the hospital?” I couldn’t stop the anger that dripped from my words.

“Oh, you know about that?”

“Yeah I know about that.” I busied myself with cleaning off the counters in the café. I was acutely aware of William staring at me but I wouldn’t give him the benefit of letting him speak to me. For a week I spent my time thinking about what I was going to say to William if I had the chance to but now all of those thoughts disappeared. I couldn’t form any sort of coherent sentence now that he was standing in front of me looking as cute as the first time I laid eyes on him. “So what are you here for?”

“I came here to talk to you, to see maybe if we can patch things up.”

“You want to patch things up? After you ditch me for my friend, you want to patch things up? Tell me William, would you have ever told me about visiting Becky?”

“Mackenzie please don’t be like this. I’m sorry okay. I’m sorry I ditched you and I’m sorry that you felt like you weren’t important to me. You are the most important person in my life and I guess I took for granted that you already knew that. I love you Mackenzie, and I don’t want to lose you.”

“That’s fine William.” I told him. “But I still want an answer. Would you have ever told me about Becky or would you have just kept it a secret.”

“I would have told you eventually.” I rolled my eyes, not believing him for one second. Once a liar, always a liar.

“So what did you want to show her? Hmm? What was so important that you had to ditch me to show her something?” I was waiting for William to respond when Michael grabbed my arm and pulled me into the back. I stumbled and nearly fell onto the dirty floor but Michael caught me with ease. “What the hell are you doing? Why did you drag me in here?” I demanded to know.

“Okay you told me that you wanted to get back together with William, right?”

“Yeah I guess I told you that.”

“And you plan to do that by yelling at him?” Michael questioned. I let out a sigh and my shoulders drooped. Suddenly all the anger and frustration seeped out of me and all I felt was tired. “Come on Mackenzie, stop being so stubborn and just talk to the boy. Really talk to him, don’t yell at him. You might be surprised at the things you find out if you just give him a chance.”

“Fine.” We went back out in the front of the café in time to see Tori showing William how to work the phone so that someone could make an announcement. What is going on? I wondered. Tori pressed the button and then handed the phone to William who looked redder than I had ever seen him be.

“This is what I had to show Becky.” William said before he started talking into the phone. “Attention Borders customers. I would like to make an announcement. My name is William and I am completely in love with the barista named Mackenzie. She is the world to me and I don’t know what I would do without her. Now without further ado,” William turned to me. “I would like to ask Mackenzie if she would do me the honor of marrying me.” My eyes widened and I put a hand to my mouth. Now William started talking to me and me only, like the overhead speaking didn’t exist. “I know you and I have gone through a lot of shit and we have a lot of problems to work through but I am willing to work through them as long as I have you by my side. So Mackenzie, will you please marry me?”