Chapter 22: The Neverending (Hi)story

"But Russia is 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, tied in a hankie, rolled in a blanket, and packed in a box full of little Styrofoam peanuts,' said Winston Churchill, or something like that." – P.J. O'Rourke

Sunlight streamed through the window of Asher's room, marking the dawn of a new day and a new chapter of my life. That was how it felt to me, anyway.

I smiled contentedly against Asher's chest, which I had evidently used as a pillow during the night. The steady beat of his heart soothed me. Still half-asleep, he mumbled something incoherent and pulled me closer. I could've stayed in his embrace forever and been perfectly happy.

When Asher's eyes finally fluttered open, he grinned lazily at me and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Mornin' gorgeous."

"You sleep well?" I asked, drawing little circles across his chest with my fingertip.

"Best sleep I've had in years. You?"

"Same. Someone sure wore me out last night."

He chuckled and reached down to cheekily squeeze my butt. "Bet I can wear you out this morning, too."

Before I could formulate an appropriately flirtatious response, a loud knock sounded at the door.

"Riley!" Nate called. "You should get up. We have econ in two hours."

My brow furrowed. "How does he know I'm here?"

Asher yawned. "We weren't exactly being quiet last night, babe."

I could feel my cheeks warming with embarrassment.

"Damn, you're cute when you blush like that," he observed. "I wish you didn't have to go to class since there's a bunch of other stuff I'd rather be doing with you."

I gave him a quick kiss. "Rain check on that. Mind if I use your shower?"

"Go for it. There are some clean towels in the bottom drawer of my dresser," he told me.

Retrieving one, I thanked him and wrapped it around myself before quietly darting across the hall to the bathroom.

Once I was sufficiently clean about fifteen minutes later, I came back into Asher's room to find him sitting on his bed and reading quietly. He had donned some basketball shorts and a t-shirt and his hair was still rumpled from sleep.

He looked absolutely delicious.

"Hey, sexy," I greeted him.

He grinned at me and placed his book face down on the comforter. "Now this is something I could definitely get used to – you in a towel, smelling like my soap, and smiling at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you wanna jump right back into bed with me and just stay there all day."

I smirked. "I mean, I do, but academic duty calls. You have any shirts I could borrow?"

"Of course, babe. Second drawer down. I'm going to hop in the shower, so help yourself."

I dug through the drawer he'd indicated as he left the room. A wide grin crept across my face when I found the perfect top for that particular moment in time. I pulled it on over the bra and jeans I'd been wearing the day before and awaited Asher's return.

When he came back into the room ten minutes or so later, I showed off the Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt he'd worn the night we met. "What do you think?"

He raked his eyes up and down my body like he wanted to devour me. "Damn, you look sexy wearing my clothes."

"I guess I'll just have to do it more often, then."

He smirked. "You do that and you might never make it to class again."

When he pulled the towel from his waist to dry his hair, I got a sense of just what he might be talking about that would keep me from class.

"Wow, just seeing me in your shirt does that?"

"Mhm," he confirmed, pulling a pair of boxers over his stiffening manhood. "That and thinking about what we did last night and knowing you're mine."

Just hearing that made me smile. I liked being his. "You're gonna have a hard time in discussion section today, then," I teased him.

He raised an eyebrow. "A hard time?"

I giggled, belatedly realizing the double entendre I'd stumbled into. "In more ways than one, it seems."

Another knock sounded at the door as Asher pulled on the rest of his clothes. "You guys almost done?" Nate asked. "I made breakfast."

When we were both decent, we went out to the kitchen to join him. I should have been more embarrassed than I was since Nate probably had a pretty good idea of what we'd been up to the previous evening, but I was honestly too happy to care.

I smiled at my friend, who had set three plates of eggs and toast out on the small table and was happily munching away at his. "Thanks, Nate. You didn't have to go to all this trouble."

He swallowed a mouthful of eggs and beamed at me. "Are you kidding? You made my freaking year by finally giving Asher a chance and stopping him from being a moody asshole all the time."

"Hey!" Asher protested, scowling.

Nate ignored him. "I figure making you some eggs is the absolute least I can do as a thank you for restoring everyone's sanity."

Asher sat down, still miffed. "I wasn't being that bad."

Nate gave him a withering look. "Dude. You were like a dementor, sucking all the joy out of the entire apartment."

I kissed Asher's cheek. "Go easy on him, Nate. He may be a dementor, but he's my dementor and I love him."

The silly grin that spread across my boyfriend's face made my heart melt.

Nate's eggs were delicious, seasoned with thyme and a few other herbs I couldn't quite pick out. The three of us ate and chatted pleasantly until I checked the time on the microwave clock.

"Hey Nate, we should probably head to class soon. I need to swing by my house to get my books."

"Sounds good," he replied, clearing our plates away. "I'll go grab my bag and we can go."

"Lunch at Trillium?" Asher asked me, an adorably hopeful look in his eyes. As if I'd ever turn him down.

I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "Of course."

He smiled. "I love you, Riley."

"I love you too, Asher."

Though he hid it well while we were still in the apartment, Nate broke out into the most gleeful smile I'd ever seen the literal second the door closed behind us.

"Haaaaalelujah!" he sang, belting out Handel in a surprisingly decent tenor voice."Haaaaalelujah!"

I rolled my eyes as he continued and decided to let him wear himself out. We were out of the building and nearly four blocks away by the time he reached the end of the movement.

"You done now?" I inquired.

"Yup," he confirmed. "So…"

I raised an eyebrow. "So?"

He gave me a wicked grin. "How is he in bed?"

I shoved him into a bush.

I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting when Asher and I walked into our discussion section that afternoon, hand in hand. Whatever it was, it wasn't the reaction I got.

"Dude!" a freshman named Mike dramatically stage-whispered to the guy sitting next to him. "I fucking called it! I told you they'd be a thing by the end of the semester. You owe me ten bucks."

Asher glared at the guy as his companion pulled a rumpled ten out of his pocket and forked it over.

I just laughed it off. I couldn't have cared less what some random idiots thought about our relationship. We were happy, and that was all that mattered.

Carrie beamed as we sat down next to her but didn't say anything, choosing instead to grab hold of my free hand and give it an excited squeeze.

If Kate noticed anything different between Asher and me when she entered the room, she kept it to herself. I did notice her briefly raise an eyebrow when her gaze drifted over our intertwined hands, but that was it. Perhaps she'd given up trying to predict our interactions by that point.

"Alright, everyone," she greeted us. "Last discussion section of the semester! We'll have some voluntary review sessions next week ahead of finals, though. I'll email around the details of when and where this evening. Now I know you're all excited for Slope Day tomorrow, but I'm hoping we can still have some meaningful discussion about Francis Fukuyama's 'End of History' article today."

There was a shuffling as members of the class got out their print-outs of the article in question. I had written copious notes and commentary in the margins of mine, and Asher chuckled when he noticed.

"You either really loved that article or really hated it," he surmised.

"Hated it," I confirmed.

He grinned. "I thought you might. I did, too."

"Be still my beating heart. We all know the best relationships are built on hating the same stuff."

"Riley," Kate called me out. "Since you and Asher seem to have a lot to say to each other about this article, why don't you kick us off and share your thoughts with the class."

"Sure," I replied, unphased by her scrutiny. "We were just discussing how much we disliked the article. Both there and in the 1992 book where he expanded on the whole 'end of history' idea, Fukuyama made a lot of assumptions that ended up being wildly wrong in a way that honestly should have been obvious at the time."

"Such as?" she prompted.

"Like the idea that countries wouldn't ever backslide from liberal democracy once they got there. I get that he was excited about the end of the Cold War and all, but his argument is just so naïve. The end of one system isn't the end of history, it's the beginning of another system."

"Like how the end of you guys fighting is the beginning of you guys banging," Mike tittered.

Asher shot him a death glare. "You got somethin' to say to my girlfriend, pal?"

That look shut the kid up rather quickly. "Nope," he mumbled, staring resolutely down at his notebook.

I ignored the fireworks. "What I mean is that the end of the bipolar system was just the start of the unipolar moment, which has had its own challenges. It didn't mean history and conflict were somehow over or just confined to disputes about economic issues."

Kate thanked me for my take on the article and moved on to hear from other students. As her attention turned away from us, Asher leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"Wanna go have our own unipolar moment after class?"

"Oh fuck yes," I murmured. "And bringing IR terminology into it is a plus."

"That's good, since I have a ballistic missile in my pocket with your name on it."

The nerdy flirting was definitely working for me. "Don't underestimate my second strike capability, mister. You don't know where my silos are."

He smirked. "Pretty sure I found them last night. Plus, I can use my soft power to charm the locations outta you."

"There's nothing soft about your power, babe."

"Dude," Carrie whispered from my other side. "I'm super happy for you guys and all, but can you please stop making everything that's gonna be on the exam all weird and sexual?"

I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle my laughter.

Asher blushed. "Sorry, Carrie."

"You guys done over there?" Kate asked, finally noticing that we hadn't been paying attention. "Can I keep teaching my class now?" A slight smile played at the corner of her lips, somewhat undercutting her irritated tone.

"Yes, ma'am, sorry," Asher apologized.

She raised an eyebrow. "I get that new… alliances are fun, and I'm hoping this one sticks, but we do have material to get through."

I smiled, appreciating what I interpreted to be her well-wishes. "Understood. Sorry."

As she resumed teaching, I slipped into a pleasant daydream and spent the rest of the class thinking about how many "unipolar moments" Asher and I might have once it was over.

As it turned out, we had three separate "unipolar moments" over the course of that evening once we'd returned to my house. We'd finally fallen asleep in each other's arms around one in the morning.

That Friday dawned warm and sunny, perfect for the festivities. Every year, the university hosted Slope Day, a celebration of the last day of classes where different musical acts performed on Libe Slope. The student body collectively celebrated it by spending the day getting completely hammered. I personally found the best approach to be maintaining a pleasant buzz throughout the day – drinking moderately and never getting so wasted that I lost control of my faculties.

"Happy Slope Day, babe," Asher greeted me, pressing a kiss to my hair.

"Happy Slope Day," I replied, rolling over to smile at him. "What's the game plan for today? Think we'll actually make it to the Slope?"

He shrugged. "I honestly don't even know who's playing this year. I'm happy to just wing it and see where the day takes us. Might want to put in an appearance at some of the band houses, though."

We pulled on some clothes and wandered out to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Heads up!"

I barely dodged the ping-pong ball that came flying past my head.

"Sorry, Riley!" Lev apologized as he bent to pick up the projectile.

I gazed at the familiar red plastic cups arrayed in triangles on our kitchen table and raised an eyebrow at him. "I know it's Slope Day and all, but isn't it a little early for beer pong?"

"It's mimosa pong," Charlie, who had pulled a chair over to the side of the kitchen to watch with Tom, corrected me. "Totally breakfast-appropriate."

Lev dunked the ping-pong ball in his water cup, aimed, and sent it sailing across the table toward Clara. It landed in one of her cups with a little orange splash.

"Nice shot," she complimented him before gulping down the beverage.

Lev gave her an exaggerated bow.

Chuckling at their antics, I grabbed some cereal and milk and poured two bowls for Asher and myself. We leaned against the wall munching our breakfast and watched the competition unfold. I couldn't help but think back to the last time I'd played that game, and I smiled at the memory.

Asher noticed and smirked. "You're thinking about that St. Patrick's Day party, too, huh?"

"Mhm," I confirmed. "Wanna play next for old times' sake?"

He shook his head. "I definitely learned my lesson about playing pong against you, Riley. Don't want to wind up doing another naked lap – they're a lot more problematic in the daylight."

"True," I laughed. "Plus, I don't think I need a drinking game to get you naked anymore."

"You definitely don't," he concurred, chuckling. "I've been wondering – what exactly made you kiss me that night? Not that I'm complaining."

I thought about it a bit. "I honestly don't know. You kinda goaded me into it, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Blame it on the alcohol."

He grinned. "Thank you, alcohol!"

I chuckled. "Did you even like me at that point?"

He considered my question. "I was definitely attracted to you. I kinda bounced back and forth between enjoying our banter and wanting to punch walls from frustration."

"Yeah, it was pretty much the same for me," I laughed.

Clara whooped in triumph as she sank a shot, leaving Lev with just two cups.

"Nice job, babe!" Charlie cheered for her.

"I've got the winner next," Tom declared.

"Prepare to die, then," Clara taunted him. "I'm on a roll."

Asher finished his cereal and put the bowl down on the counter by the sink. He seemed to be enjoying the spectacle my housemates were putting on and draped his arm around my shoulders.

"You wanna know when I fell in love with you?" he asked me softly, returning to our previous topic of conversation.

I smiled up at him. "Tell me."

His brown eyes twinkled. "When I read that midterm paper you wrote on system polarity."

I couldn't help but laugh. What a moment to pick.

"I'm serious!" he insisted. "It was super well written and it really impressed me. I knew you were smart before then, but that's when I decided you're basically a genius. There's nothing sexier than that. Then my feelings grew even more over that weekend we spent in Albany, and by the time you showed me your music history paper, I knew I was a goner."

I nuzzled my head against his chest. "You're sweet. Nate told me that writing a paper combining Cold War history and heavy metal made me, and I quote, 'your dream girl.'"

Asher grinned. "He was not wrong."

"You're such a nerd," I giggled.

"But I'm your nerd," he pointed out.

I beamed up at him. "Yeah, you are."

"Suck it, Lev!" Clara crowed as she sank a shot into his final cup. "Bow to the mimosa pong queen!"

Lev rolled his eyes. "Hail to the queen," he grumbled, raising the cup to salute her before draining it.

As Clara and Tom set up for their match, Asher cleaned up our cereal bowls. He briefly tried to convince me that we should take our showers together to "save time," but I quickly shot that idea down. My bathroom was right next to the kitchen, and there was no way we could go in there together without everyone else in the house knowing about it and potentially hearing any noises we might make. I loved my friends, but they definitely didn't need to hear me having an orgasm.

It was around noon by the time we were both showered and dressed. Our professors had made classes that day voluntary, as many tended to do on Slope Day, so we were free to spend the afternoon however we chose. We decided to pop by the various band houses, where Asher assured me there would doubtlessly be something fun going on.

Our first stop was the trombone house on State Street. Two juniors were sitting on the porch and playing what they described as "drinking chess" while a few others watched. Others were congregated in the living room, sipping beers and watching a rebroadcast of a hockey game from the previous evening. Ethan was among this group, and he raised his beer to me in greeting when we made eye contact. He was wearing the same fedora we'd used in that fateful game of Three Man all those months ago, and I couldn't help but smile when I thought about how far things had come for me since then.

In the house's dining room, even more people were crowded around the table and noisily playing an animated game of Kings. Elizabeth drew a seven from the circle of cards, and I was confused when the players started counting off rather than pointing skywards as one would in a normal game ("seven to heaven," as the rules dictated). Every time they hit a number with the word "seven" in it or a multiple of seven, that person would say "beer" and the direction of the counting would reverse.

"What the fuck?" I mumbled.

"They're playing by 'bone rules,'" Asher explained. "They're supposedly designed to get you drunk more efficiently. I think they're full of it."

"Your mom is full of it," Elizabeth retorted.

"My mom is a saint," Asher countered. "And you broke the counting pattern, so drink."

Elizabeth did so and smiled as she noticed our entwined hands. She hadn't been at the lacrosse game two days prior, so she had missed our watershed moment. "Glad you two finally got together. You debut your song at the game, Ash?"

Asher nodded.

I raised an eyebrow at Elizabeth. "You knew about it?"

She gave me a bemused look. "I mean, we've been practicing it for a few weeks now. We don't generally sight-read new music at games."

That made sense, but it hadn't occurred to me before that the song had been an ongoing project rather than something Asher pulled off on short notice when the timing was right. In retrospect, that should have been obvious.

"When did you start arranging the song?" I asked him as those at the table resumed their game.

He smiled bashfully. "Pretty much as soon as I got back from spring break."

I melted a little inside and wrapped my arms around him. "God, I love you."

"I love you, too." He pressed his lips to mine.

"Get a room!" Ethan bellowed from the living room.

Without breaking the kiss, Asher flipped him off.

We stayed at the trombone house for another couple of hours before migrating to the trumpet house. It was a bit surreal to be back at the place we'd first met as a couple. Some of Asher's fellow percussionists had come by, and he chatted with them while I grabbed a beer from the fridge and wandered into the living room. The trumpets had set up a table and were playing a variation of Quarters, attempting to bounce a coin into a cup in the center filled with some kind of mystery liquid. Carrie had been playing with them but quickly abandoned the game to come give me a hug.

"Happy Slope Day!" she chirped. "I didn't get a chance to talk about it much in class yesterday, but I'm so ridiculously happy that you and Asher finally got together."

I chuckled. "Me too."

"You guys have any fun plans for over the summer?" she asked.

"We'll actually both be down in DC, so we'll get to spend plenty of time together."

I was extremely thankful things had worked out that way. I'd applied to and been accepted for an internship at a foreign policy think tank several months prior, long before Asher and I had gotten together. I'd been over the moon when he told me he would be doing a summer program at Georgetown.

"You guys are so lucky," Carrie commented. "My boyfriend's working in one of the engineering labs here for the summer while I'll be off working as a camp counsellor back home."

"That sucks," I sympathized. "But at least you'll be making some money. Plus, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Think about how amazing it will be when you get back up here and get to see him again."

A devious grin crept across her face. "Oh, I'm already thinking about it. I'm gonna hump his brains out."

I snorted. Hearing Carrie of all people talking dirty was honestly kind of shocking, but in a hilarious way.

"What are you two talking about?" asked Asher as he joined us in the living room.

Carrie gave him her best innocent smile. "Nothing in particular. Just summer plans."

I tried to hold in my laughter and Asher raised an eyebrow at Carrie skeptically. "Uh-huh. Sure you were."

She just shrugged and kept smiling as she returned to her place at the Quarters table.

Deciding to let the matter go, Asher held out his hand for me. "C'mon, there's something I wanna go do."

"Color me intrigued," I replied, lacing my fingers with his.

He silently led me up the stairs, through the second floor hallway, and up into the attic. Everything looked much the same as it had the night we'd met – the cracked glass table mended with duct tape, the lumpy couches, and the dusty old mattresses. I felt a wave of nostalgia pass over me.

Asher gestured to one of the couches. "That was where you were sitting the first time I ever saw you."

I smiled, moving to take my old spot and looking back toward him. "I remember. You came up the stairs and stood right about where you are now. I thought you were insanely hot the second I saw you."

He beamed and came over to sit next to me, pressing a kiss to my temple. "I remember wondering who the pretty girl next to Elizabeth was and wanting to learn everything about you. When we started talking about music, I was hooked."

"You were so sweet to me that night," I recalled, resting my head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry I fucked things up between us for so long."

He cupped my chin in his hand and raised my face to meet his loving gaze. "Hey, it's okay," he assured me. "Everything ended up perfect. If we could do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing since it got us where we are now."

A happy tear rolled down my cheek and Asher gently wiped it away with his thumb. "You know that Ben Folds song 'The Luckiest'?" I asked him.

He nodded.

I smiled up at him. "It's like the lyrics say – 'now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls, brought me here.'"

He rested his forehead against mine. "I love you so much, Riley," he whispered.

"I love you too, Asher," I replied.

Asher kissed me tenderly then, his lips soft and warm. I threaded my fingers through his hair and leaned into his touch. Just as he went to deepen the kiss, a shout from the bottom of the stairs disrupted the moment.

"HEY DIPSHITS! NO FUCKING IN THE ATTIC!"

We both burst into laughter. The joy we were feeling in that moment allowed for nothing else. Once we'd regained our composure, Asher gave me a lopsided grin and once again held out his hand.

"C'mon, let's go back downstairs."

Smiling, I placed my hand in his and marveled at how wonderful my life was in that moment. I didn't know what the future would bring and had to accept that not everything was within my control. What I did know, what I was absolutely sure of, was that whatever challenges arose, I wanted to face them with Asher Ives, side by side.

The End

A/N: At long last, our story has finally come to a close and Riley and Asher have their happy ending. Once again, I want to thank everyone who's stuck with me for this long; I hope I made it worth your while. It's going to be hard for me to say goodbye to these characters since they've been with me for more than a decade at this point, to be honest.

So what's next? I've been working on a few short stories as well as a longer project (and in the future I'd like to write the next installation of the Cornell 2012 saga focused on Nate and the girl Kennedy that he mentioned a few chapters ago), but I'm not sure if I'll post them here. I'll always love FictionPress for inspiring me to explore my interest in creative writing back in the days of yore (aka the mid-00s), but sometimes it feels like no one uses the site anymore. I really miss the sense of community we had in the romance genre back in its heyday. I created an account on WattPad (Katie_the_Zim), but I don't really like the way they operate for a number of reasons and might not keep the account. I've been more active on Literotica (under the name woodstock1969, just like here) and have one short story posted there plus one pending publication. The romance community there is pretty active and the authors are supportive of one another, which I really appreciate. I'm also not opposed to posting new material here and would certainly welcome your thoughts about it.

I hope to hear from you, both here and on future stories regardless of where they're posted.

Much Love,

woodstock1969