Chapter theme song: "A Thousand Years": Christina Perri

Epilogue

"I would like to take this time out to congratulate our newest partner, Gerald Johansson." My boss, Kenneth Clark announced with a hearty smile. My colleagues proudly applauded as I was ushered to the front of the room. "Not only is he a fine outstanding gentleman with a 97% success rate, top state's attorney, as well as an esteemed author of several books, he is the youngest associate to be made partner at Clark, Williams, and Joyner. Give him another round of applause ladies and gentlemen."

I posed for the camera, widely grinning as I shook various hands and taking many photo ops. The celebration was in my honor and I finally had made it. I looked over to my family, waving at my daughter, Alica, before giving a small peck on the cheek to my mother.

"Congratulations, son!" she beamed, getting misty eyed. "I am so proud of you. You make me so happy."

"Thank you, mother."

Jaime-O crept up behind me, shuffling my non-existent fro for old-time sake before engulfing me into a tight squeeze. "Good job, little bro. You out here doing the damn thing."

I playfully punched him in his side. "You know it's not a big deal."

"Oh yes it is." He retorted. "Dad would have been extremely proud of you." My mother nodded.

"He was here this afternoon." I paused, smiling. "I felt his presence. He let it be known he could not miss this day worth anything."

"Someone in the family has to make it big."

I smiled. "Thanks, bro. You are doing pretty well for yourself too; got your own mechanic shop and a family on the way."

"True, but you, little brother, are a future politician, man. You are out here making big changes. We need a legacy amongst the Johansson men."

I chuckled. "Seems we both have that already." I signaled towards our respective families.

Jaime-O turned to his longtime girlfriend, Juanita, and rubbed her pregnant stomach with a slight smile. "Yeah…funny how we are both fathers man."

"I know." I spoke genuinely, turning to watch Alicia rush towards my pant leg. I quickly picked her up to give her a quick peck on the cheek and a 'squishy' hug. She wrapped her arms around my neck, smiling. "We are family men, now."

"Congratulations, daddy!"

"Thank you, baby. I'm glad Mommy took off work to bring you to daddy's ceremony."

"Mommy said it was a big day for you and that we had to be there."

I kissed my daughter again, quietly adjusting one of her ponytails. I turned to face Chandra, kissing her on the cheek before handing Alicia back over to her. "Thank you for coming."

She blushed, moving a stray braid from her face, nodding. "I had to allow our daughter to see her father in one of the most pivotal highlights in his career."

I turned to both my mother and Jaime-O to ask them for a moment alone with Chandra; them obliging, minus the corny thumb up Jaime-O gave me before he and Juanita hit the refreshment table. Both Chandra's family and my family wanted to see us get back together- especially my family. We met back in law school a year after I left Tokyo. I was still bruised and scorned from my incident with Phoebe that I almost did not recognize the signs that Chandra was flirting with me half the time. After a few months of playing the game cat and mouse, she asked me out for a lunch date and- after debating with myself on determining if I was ready or not- reluctantly took her up on her offer. To my surprise, I had a great time and really enjoyed myself. Before my date with Chandra, I had not genuinely laughed in over a year. I did my absolute best to steer clear of women and relationships altogether. Chandra was the only exception I had made in my self-imposed year of solitude and allowed myself to get into. After a few dates, intimate encounters, and shacking up after eight months of dating, we gave it a try for a genuine relationship and produced a lovely daughter nine months later, Alicia.

"Well, I appreciate you for coming. I know you did not have to." I glanced at my watch, "Do you need me to drive you back to your firm or did Candace drop you off?"

"Candace dropped me off and is waiting outside." She spoke lowly, turning to divert her gaze away from mine towards some middle-aged woman's shoes. "I just wanted to drop off Alicia."

I gave her a small kiss on her forehead, gripping her shaky palms in an effort to soothe her. "You alright?" she nodded.

"Just trying to come to terms with everything is all." She forced a small smile. "Don't worry about me. I'm a tough girl, can tie my own sandals and everything."

I chuckled lowly, kissing her again. "I'll see you this evening for dinner."

I watched her grab her purse and leave, feeling my chest tighten slowly. I kept asking myself if I was making a big mistake and allowing a prime opportunity to slip away from me because of my conflicting emotions. Chandra was a wonderful woman and an exceptional mother to our baby girl. Alicia needed her family and not some separated home; but what could I do? Chandra was already moved out and picking up the pieces to her life while I did the same. Was our mutual separation justified because of my reasoning? Or was I living in a fantasy land that I would never amount to going into?

I excused myself from my own party to follow Chandra down the hall. She was already at the elevators before I tried calling out to her. She turned to face me but a familiar voice startled me from behind. I turned to see Arnold and a pregnant Helga, holding a bouquet of red roses and a bottle of the finest champagne. Arnold and I did our signature handshake while I kindly embraced Helga and pecked her on the cheek. I turned back to face Chandra but she had already left.

"Congratulations on making partner, hair boy."

"Thank you, Helga. I was not expecting to see you all until this evening at dinner."

Arnold nonchalantly shrugged. "You know I could not miss my best-friend's ceremony on making partner." He smiled. "What's next on your agenda?"

"I already filed to run for state representative of my district so I guess I will start campaigning in the morning."

"Do you ever sleep?"

Helga nudged Arnold, rolling her eyes. "I know you aren't criticizing anyone ol' football head. Or should I say, head resident Shortman."

Arnold kissed Helga lightly. "You know I would cut my hours for you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, save it bucko!"

I laughed, gently shaking my head. "You two have not changed I see. How long has it been since you both married?"

"Seven years next month." Arnold beamed proudly, gently squeezing Helga's hand, "It was nowhere close to being easy but it was well worth the headache."

I remained quiet for a moment, reflecting on Chandra. If I had not been so stupid, I could have been happily married to her three years ago to the day. "And the baby?"

Helga looked down at her stomach, sighing loudly. "I am ready to pop at any given moment. I'm just so ready to start having sex again. Ol' football head won't even touch me in fear of hurting our son."

I laughed heartily at the crimson hue seeping through Arnold's cheeks. Helga was still as brash as she had ever been. "Well, please, enjoy the refreshments in the conference room. I have to excuse myself for a moment."

"From your own party?" Arnold asked, I nodded. "Oh, ok. Which reminds me, you have another gift from both me and Helga downstairs in the garage."

I failed to hide my excitement. "You didn't…"

Arnold shrugged, winking. "You have to go see for yourself."

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I raced down the stairs and hoped on the first available elevator that led towards the garage. Arnold and I had a bet going that whoever accomplished their dreams first would be given their dream car from either of us. Arnold wanted to be head resident at Hart Hospital by twenty-eight and I wanted to be partner of my firm around the same time. Needless to say, that with both of our ambition, drive, motivation, and a little friendly competition we managed to succeed around the same time so decided to call it a tie. I purchased Arnold his dream car of a Dodge challenger late summer of this year and placed hints-numerous of hints actually- that I wanted a classic Mustang GT. I already had my work car and an everyday car that I drove Alicia around in, a Mercedes and a Toyota Corolla respectively, but a car that was solely for my enjoyment and pleasure was not in the works just as of yet.

I approached my coveted parking spot and saw that next to my Mercedes was, in fact, my Mustang GT in my favorite color, red. Placed on the hood was an extra large yellow satin bow with, surprisingly, someone waiting in the passenger seat. My mouth gaped wide as I attempted to collect myself as I watched the door slowly ease open to reveal the love of my life, Phoebe Heyerdahl.

I remained quiet, simply stunned for a few minutes before I registered anything that had just happened within the last five minutes. I don't know how I went from being ecstatic about getting a brand new car from my best friend to growing irate at the sight of the woman that had me arrested-twice.

She swallowed, brushing a few curls behind her ear. I took a moment to look her over. She was even more beautiful than I remembered. She cut her hair since the last time I saw her into a cute pixie cut, gained more plentiful curves, fuller breasts, and was maybe an inch or two taller. She adjusted her rectangular glasses, smiling. "H-hello, Gerald."

"Phoebe." I spoke flatly.

"How are you? How have you been?"

I stuffed my hands into my suit jacket pocket, kicking imaginary rocks to hide my nerves. "Well and yourself?"

"Same." There was a small pause. "Congratulations."

I immediately looked up. "Huh?"

"Congratulations." She repeated. "On making partner of your firm. Helga told me a few weeks back you were selected and I wanted to stop by to show my support if that was alright."

"It's fine and thank you."

Neither one of us spoke for a few minutes, searching for the right words to say to each other. Occasionally either she or I would try and speak but would immediately second guess it. I watched her fumble with her purse nervously before clearing her throat a couple of times.

"…I guess I'll get back home then."

"Do you need me to drive you to the airport?"

She shook her head. "No, I live in West Haven now, only fifteen minutes away. Plus my car is parked outside."

West Haven? Wait… "But I thought…"

"I was still living in Tokyo?" she finished. "No, I moved back to the states three years ago after Haruhi turned six and my divorce with Kato was finalized."

That last part caught me off guard. "Divorce? But I thought you were planning to work things out with him? What happened to that?"

She shrugged. "It's complicated." She dismissed, earning a small stare. "But I just thought I come by and wish you congratulations. I know you don't want to be bothered with me so I figured I cause less trouble than needed."

I watched her begin to walk away before I reached out and grabbed her wrist. I don't know what possessed me to touch her so suddenly, but I immediately apologized, embarrassed. I did not know what had come over me. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

Another pause. "How is Haruhi?"

"She is fine." Phoebe smiled. "She turned ten last week."

"Wow." I chuckled, feeling old. I still remembered her when she was still a toddler hyped up on cotton candy. "Time flies."

She nodded in agreement. "I feel so old."

"Tell me about it." We shared a small laugh before the awkward tension emerged again. I decided to stop avoiding the purple elephant in the room. "Why did you come and see me, Phoebe?"

"To wish you best wishes in your career." She blushed, caught off guard by my sudden shift in tone.

"Is that all?"

She grew silent. "And…I wanted to see you…I needed to see you."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to apologize for everything." She choked, fighting back tears. "I know our last time together was not exactly picturesque but for what it's worth I thought about you every day since then. Not a day has gone by where I don't think about how you may be doing and if you were happy. I felt like me allowing you to leave was one of my biggest regrets that I will have to live with for the rest of my life; but I'm ok with that as long as you are happy."

I was stunned. Phoebe actually thought about me? For seven years I thought she hated me and never wanted to hear or see me again. I admit, for the first three years of us being apart I did not want anything to do with Phoebe out of anger and frustration. I was angry I wasted so much time chasing after Phoebe only to allow her to slip through the cracks of my fingers again and frustrated because it was nothing I could possibly do about the situation; she was in love with someone else. I apologized as many times as it took but still made little to no progress in getting back to how things were before college. What stung the most was knowing that all my efforts went to waste and I left in handcuffs, with a criminal record, and without the only woman I loved more than life itself.

"Phoebe…"I breathed. "Where is all this coming from?"

"I have wanted to tell you this for years, Gerald. I tried calling, texting, emailing, everything. You changed your number and deactivated the only email account I knew you had. I even tried writing you letter but they always came back as return to sender. I figured I just take the hint and let you be."

"Phoebe…"

She sniffled, trying to hide her sudden flow of small tears. "I know you are married and have a child so believe me, I am not trying to ruin a happy marriage and barge into your life unexpectedly. I just wanted to finally let you know that I have never stopped loving you all these years and if it means anything, I will never love anyone as much as I love you."

I watched as Phoebe grabbed a small dab of tissues from her purse as she began to walk towards the exit of the parking garage. I watched in silence as the heels of her pumps clacked against the cool, cement floor beneath her as she moved further and further into the distance. I called out to her, she stopping in mid-stride.

"Who told you I was married?"

She turned to face me. "Helga told me you had a daughter and was in a long term relationship with some woman, Chandra. I figured that after over five years of dating, you would have popped the question by now." She paused, fighting back emotion. "I know you."

"I did pop the question, Phoebe. "

She grew quiet again, turning her back towards me. "Well I hope you are happy Gerald, really I am. Congratulations again."

"I never married Chandra, Phoebe." She stopped, standing deathly still. "I called off our engagement because I could never find myself every marrying any other woman aside from you."

I heard her gasp loudly. I slowly made my way towards her motionless figure, turning her around to face me. She had tears streaming down her face, her left hand clenching her blouse over her heart. She tried to look away but I would not let her. Instead, I followed my first instinct and kissed her. She did not pull back, instead she gave him; wrapping her arms around my neck to pull me in closer. Her tongue began an intimate dance with mine as I backed her into wall; gripping her thighs as I lifted her off her feet. She wrapped her legs around me, electing a sudden moan. I began to nip at her neck, inhaling the sweet scent of her perfume and personal fragrance that intoxicated me into going dumb. I felt myself stiffen, blood rushing everywhere than where it should have been. This needed to stop.

I pulled away in agony, swearing lightly. I set Phoebe back on the ground before I took a moment to collect myself. Not only where there cameras everywhere, I had just realized I was groping my ex in the heat of the moment in my firm's parking structure. I turned to face Phoebe, face flushed as she fixed her blouse. Apparently I ripped off a few of her buttons; exposing her black lace bra. I sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

She blushed deeper. "I also apologize, Gerald, I did not stop the kiss." Another thick veil of silence. I watched her grab her forgotten purse from against a parked car's hood, removing a tube of lipstick to pepper her lips with. She cleaned her glasses and straightened her pencil skirt that I nearly transformed into a muddle of fabric against her waist. "I better get going. You are missing your own party."

"Wait." I shouted, earning a crestfallen glare. I rubbed my chin hair before making another move, standing in front of her. "What made you divorce Kato?"

She looked at me for a short while before answering. "I realized I never really loved him, but only wanted to stay with him to make our relationship work for Haruhi." She paused to take in a short breath. "My heart has always, and will always, belonged to you. I was just so taken aback when you came to Japan that I was not sure on what to do. I didn't even have a chance to fully heal from our breakup before I was coaxed into a relationship with Kato from our parents."

"And the baby?"

Another veil of silence. She breathed. "It was my mistake to force a miscarriage. I was pregnant with our baby and at the time, in a dark place, in a horrid marriage, and having an affair as a married woman. I already had one child, I was not ready for another. It was selfish of me and I am so sorry for what I did, Gerald."

I remained quiet, listening to Phoebe begin to weep in front of me. The gentleman inside of me wanted to console her, hold her and let her know that everything would be alright. But the beast inside of me that was still angry and resentful of her kept me at a distance. "Phoebe, I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything." She sniffled, still sobbing. "I know I came seven years too late and trust me when I say that I wanted to come to the states a lot sooner. I hear you have a daughter and you finally found someone that makes you happy. I really did not come to tear that away from you."

"So what did you come for?"

"For closure." She whispered, touching my cheek. "I never stopped loving you and after our encounter in Tokyo, I always had a slither of hope that there was still hope for us. I figured you may find someone else to replace me, but I always held on to knowing that your heart belonged to me and mine does to you."

I grabbed Phoebe's hands, kissing them lightly. I allowed small tears to weld in the corner of my eyes , my chest becoming too tight to fully bear in my constricting suit. I never thought for a second that I would ever see Phoebe Heyerdahl again, let alone have her come to the states to chase me and profess her undying love for me. I was speechless, almost too emotionally driven to really formulate a single thought. My mind was telling me to peacefully end this never-ending game of cat and mouse between us for a chance for us to finally move on from each other. So much time has passed, third parties are now involved, and there are families to consider. But my heart and soul only wanted to embrace her then and there into a loving kiss, telling her that my feelings for her have went unaltered for the past seven years. The only reason Chandra and I separated was because she found out I was not entirely over my ex, Phoebe. Chandra had a place in my heart that Phoebe indefinitely owned, but with a daughter and my newfound love and feelings for her, she deserved a lot more than a spur of the moment decision.

I looked up at Phoebe, eyes glazed with tears as I kissed her away. I whispered something in her ear, being her pillar of support as she collapsed into my arms telling me she felt the same. Throwing caution to the wind, I guided her over to my new car, removing the bow Arnold had poorly tied on the hood before I grabbed the keys out of the glove compartment. I instructed for Phoebe to get in before I came to my senses. She asked me if I was alright with leaving my own party but I politely shrugged it off as I back out the parking space. I dug around in my pocket for a moment to retrieve my music player. I asked Phoebe to attach it to the stereo and find a particular song. I searched for the knob that let the top down of my mustang as I put it in gear. That familiar song from my daughter's favorite movie began to play; a song that I really grew to love as it spoke to my soul.

I have loved you for a thousand years.

I grabbed Phoebe's hand, beginning to drive off anywhere. We knew in our hearts that it was past our prime and that it was time we moved on from each other. We had our respective lives that we needed to live and dragging our romance on any longer would hurt the ones we loved the more than it would if we remained apart. But for today…today only…I was hers and she was mine. I leaned over for a final kiss, thumbing away a single tear cascading down her flushed cheeks. I have loved her for a thousand years and I will love her for a thousand more.

A/N: I kind of got misty eyed writing this. Damn. *sniffle* Well, this is the end. I figured why drag this on longer than it needs to so after a lot of consideration and re-reading pink elephants, I figured it was time for a soft and sweet conclusion. I know it's not what you all hoped for and expected, but, again, this is supposed to be based on real-life. I honestly wanted to put them back together but it felt super fake so I didn't. *sigh* Don't fret kittens, I have another Gerald and Phoebe story in the works. I appreciate you all for your support and readership. You all are fabulous. Hanna, freaktrains, Patakifan, Morgan Taylor, Sarissa, Neptune, and Black Rob especially for being loyal readers and fans. See you all soon and thank you for enjoying my twisted, dark fantasies.

SensuallyPassionate.