Page 78 of Asphyxia
“Oh come on, I was only joking…” He chuckled, cheekily biting his lip and shaking his head. “But seriously. I do want kids, and I’m ready when you guys are.”
The most childish of the three of us already wants kids…
“I think we should table this discussion.”I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up.
My curiosity about how Madison felt about having kids got the better of me, and now Marcus was making this more uncomfortable than it had to be.
“I agree with Dean... I’m open to kids in the future. But… later…” Madison pulled away, strolling over to Marcus and pressing a light kiss to his cheek before disappearing around the corner. “I’m taking a shower, don’t do anything stupid or impulsive.” She called out with a playful giggle, and without pause, Marcus and I fought ourway down the hallway to chase her, laughing like the kids we still were at heart.
EPILOGUE 1
Madison
ONEYEARLATER.
“Oh my god, that’s the dress!” Chyler squealed with untamed excitement, rushing over to me as I exited the dressing room.
“It’s a little… tight.” I paused, turning to see myself in the full-length mirror as she tugged at the creases along the waist of my long silk dress. “Is the train necessary?”
Chyler frowned, twisting her lips as she circled, inspecting me like a hungry vulture.
“Yeah… no, you’re right, the train is a bit much. But how’s the color, at least?”
We had been dress shopping for weeks, and her indecisiveness started to agitate me the longer it took her to make a final decision.
Alexis got off easy, not being required to join us on our dress-shopping adventure today. She had already found hers for the wedding. Chyler wasn’t being as picky with Alexis’s as she was with mine.
“Chy…” I sighed, searching for a chair to take a break on. The heels she had me try with this specific dress style were strangling my feet. “This is your wedding, not mine. You pick the dress. I’ll wear whatever you tell me to.”
Chyler had chosen me to be her Maid of Honor and suggested I needed a unique gown that fit the role, something not to upstage her but glamorous enough to shine just as bright.
“I get that, but I want you to love it too. Not just for me. Besides, just wait until Marcus and Dean see you in that. They’ll probably drag you into the nearest closet before the ceremony even begins.” Her bubbly laughter was something I had come to admire over the past year.
She was always laughing now; not a single day had passed that she didn’t have a beaming smile on her face.
“Those two can most certainly be… impulsive at times.” I giggled, rolling my lips together as I reminisced.
Cherishing every heartwarming memory that now lived rent-free at the forefront of my mind.
What a difference a year could make—for everyone.
Until now, I didn’t think normal would ever exist for Chyler, Alexis, or me, that we would always just be the three unhinged badasses hunting down our next paycheck.
Who would have ever thought that the dark and twisted version of Charlie’s Angels could ever be loved unconditionally by the four golden retrievers who were initially chasing us to put us behind bars?
That we would ever settle down and be the perfect—
“It looks good on you.” Chyler’s hand wrapped around mine, and I returned my full attention to her.
“Hm?”
“The glow. I don’t remember ever seeing you as light as you are now.”
She was one to talk. Chyler radiated everything she was now feeling with Atlas, and soon the two of them would be married and living their dreams out in full glorious bloom.
I admired her so much. I was now looking up to her.
Marcus and Dean had changed everything for me.
