Hey! Long time, no activity! I just started college, so I've been super busy. I know I promised everybody a sequel to Silent Music a long time ago, and it didn't work out. However, I did write this little one shot for you, and I'm also working on a prequel to Silent Music that's going much better than the sequel was. I'm thinking about uploading the first chapter of it soon. Leave me a review if you're interested in that! Enjoy!

I always knew that because of my deafness, I wouldn't have the same opportunities as a hearing person. I've always know how difficult it can be for deaf people to find a decent job in the hearing world because there are so many misconceptions about us. But I always thought if I went to school and got a degree, I would have a decent chance. But I was wrong. Even after earning a bachelor's degree in American Sign Language and a master's in education, I never achieved my dream of becoming a high school ASL teacher. Instead, I found myself living in a low-income housing unit in Arleta, California, working as a maid. I felt like a loser. A disappointment.

I felt like a failure.

My sister Trina was twenty-eight, a year older than me. After going to school and getting a bachelor's degree in theatre, she was living in Manhattan working as a professional actress, performing on Broadway. She was living her dream, and I was a housekeeper. Not because she was more able or more talented than me. Because she was able to hear, and I wasn't.

As cliché as it sounds, fame had quickly gone to Trina's head. She was ashamed of me now; we hadn't interacted in any way since my college graduation. She left me alone to scrape together money every month to pay the rent and buy food. She also let the responsibility of taking care of our mother—who had started to show signs of early onset Alzheimer's—fall entirely on my shoulders. I couldn't afford to put her in a nursing home, so she lived with me in my tiny studio apartment. It was almost impossible to work a full time, physically exhausting job and take care of my mother, but I kept reminding myself about everything my mom sacrificed for me. She worked as a pediatric nurse for many years. She made a fair amount of money, but we certainly weren't rich. She had just enough to give us a comfortable lifestyle. But when I was in first grade, the kids at the public school Trina and I were both attending started to bully me because of my deafness. It became so severe, she made the decision to send me to a private school for deaf kids, and later Hollywood Arts when my piano skills were discovered. She worked long hours to take care of me. I was willing to do the same for her.

Everywhere I looked, I saw the success that I deserved, but couldn't attain. The best example would be André Harris, my boyfriend while I was at Hollywood Arts. We had to separate after high school; I went to DC and he went to Boston. Even though we promised to maintain our relationship, after a few months, he seemed to forget about me. He stopped answering my emails and responding to my texts. I was heartbroken. I loved him and couldn't understand how he could forget about me. I got my answer years later.

André had made it in the music business before he graduated from college. Now he was a household name; everyone knew who he was. His music was all over the radio and he was touring the nation every other month. I always knew that André was going to be successful musician, but for some foolish reason, I thought he might bring me along for the ride. But he was just a high school boyfriend, and I was just a misplaced deaf girl he decided to befriend. I didn't know why I had expected him to maintain our relationship through college, much less life. It was a foolish idea. But, as pathetic as it makes me, I still miss him every day.

Some people might wonder why I'm not violently fighting to get my dream job and start living the life I should be living. The answer isn't a simple one. Before I got out of college, anyone who knew me would have expected me to work for and achieve anything I want. But I guess after being rejected for over sixty teaching positions, I've just given up hope. I've resigned myself to the fact that my deafness will hold me back. It's always going to keep me from fulfilling my dreams.

It's always going to keep me from having a happy life.

XXX

Waking up every day knowing what I have to look forward to makes getting out of bed difficult. I know that I'm going to be verbally battered by my boss (or, as I like to call him, my slave driver). I know how difficult and tiring the work is going to be. I know I'm going to come home to see my mother in a state that could range from happy to angry to confused to completely blank. I know that there will be an eviction warning in my mailbox since I haven't paid my weekly rent in three weeks. If I didn't have it all in by the end of the month, I'd have to find a new place to live. Then there's finding money to buy food for the week, pay the bills, find someone to check in on my mom…

I exhaled, wondering how much more of this I could take, before I rolled off the couch and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day, passing by my mother sleeping in my bed. It just seemed right that she take the bed and I take the couch. It meant for the occasional sleepless and frequent uncomfortable night, but she needed it.

After I brushed my teeth and hair in the bathroom and had dressed in my wretched uniform—a sunflower yellow polo and kelly-green pants—I put in my hearing aids. I looked in the mirror and sighed; I didn't like what I saw. I saw a weary woman who was slowly being eaten away.

I moved back to the main room and walked over to the kitchenette. I searched the refrigerator for something to eat, but alas, it was bare. Hoping I would be able to snag a yogurt or something from one of my coworkers, I left my sleeping mother alone in the apartment and headed downstairs to my rickety car. It was a ten minute drive from my apartment to the maid service headquarters. When I walked in, I saw that other than the receptionist, the only other employee who had arrived was Caroline. I got along with Caroline better than I did with any of the other employees. She made sure that all of the other women faced me when they talked, and she understood that just because I was deaf didn't mean that I was any less capable. She even told me once that I was vastly underemployed. I had to agree.

"Good morning, Tori," she greeted me, accompanying her words with clumsy sign language. She had asked me to teach her a few words, so we always had a little mini-lesson during lunch breaks.

"Hi, Caroline," I said. "You didn't happen to see any spare food around here, did you?"

"I've got an extra bagel. You want it?"

"Would you mind? I need to go to the grocery store," I said.

"I know what that means," Caroline said as she passed me her bagel. "Mia keeps complaining that we don't have chicken or beef every night like her friends do. I don't know how to tell her that I can't afford meat." Caroline was a single mother of an eight year old daughter. Mia had been identified as a gifted child a few months before, and her school had recommended that she be placed in the gifted program and have intellectually stimulating experiences outside of school, like music lessons. Caroline was able to put her in the gifted program since it was free, but she couldn't afford to give Mia the violin lessons that she desperately wanted. I knew that Caroline was devastated that she couldn't give Mia everything she needed to grow to her full potential, but she did the best she could. We all did.

After Caroline and I had stood in the back room chatting for a few minutes, the rest of the women started to enter the building. At eight o'clock, our dictator, Ted, entered the room. Caroline tapped my shoulder to let me know that I needed to turn around so I could read his lips.

"Good morning, ladies," Ted said. "Here are the group assignments for the day." When he started to read off the names, one of the other girls' heads got in my line of sight, so I didn't know what he said. When everyone started to walk away, I asked Caroline who I was with.

"You're with me, Jenna, Lucy, and Meg," she told me. "We're cleaning some rich guy's mansion in Beverly Hills."

"But that's half an hour away," I said.

Caroline shrugged. "Apparently he was attracted to the slogan."

I rolled my eyes. "Right." Merry Maids' slogan was "We clean on our hands and knees!" The unfortunate thing was that it was more than a slogan. We were actually expected to clean the floor on our hands and knees. We even kept knee pads in the vans for that purpose. Rich people loved that part of our services, which is why we got jobs as far as forty-five minutes away.

Caroline and I headed out back to the van where Jenna, Lucy, and Meg were waiting for us. Since Lucy was in the driver's seat, I knew that she was the team leader for the day. The rest of us filed into the van and started the thirty minute drive. The other girls talked on the way, but I wasn't able to be a part of the conversation since I couldn't see their lips. I stared out the window and watched the world passing by.

When we pulled into the driveway of the house we were supposed to be cleaning, I was dumbfounded. I had cleaned a lot of rich people's houses, but I had never seen a house as large or extravagant as this one. It was gorgeous; I hoped whoever lived here knew how lucky they were.

Lucy assigned us all jobs. Jenna was going to do the bathrooms, Meg was doing the living room, Caroline was doing the bedrooms, Lucy was doing the basement, and I was assigned the kitchen. I sighed. That meant I would have to get down on my hands and knees to clean the floor. The kitchen is the worst job. But I grabbed my bucket full of supplies and set to work.

I was temporarily stunned when I walked in and saw how large and beautiful the house was. I didn't even want to think about how much it cost. I would probably be set for life if I had the amount of money that these people paid for the house. When I saw Lucy waving her hands in the air to get my attention and pointing to the kitchen, I got the message: get to work. I trudged into the magnificent kitchen and started to clean, beginning with the sink.

The whole point of our job was to clean a house as quickly as possible so we could move on to the next one, though with a house this large, it could take a few hours, even with the five of us working at once. I breezed through wiping down the counters and cleaning the table before I got on my hands and knees and began to scrub every inch of the floor clean.

After I had been scrubbing for forty-five minutes, I had worked up a sweat. My hair was sticking to the back of my neck, and I had to stop every few minutes to wipe sweat from my hairline. I was almost finished; I just had to do the corner by the stove. While I was scrub, scrub, scrubbing away, I felt someone tap my shoulder. When I looked up, I gasped at who I saw.

André Harris.

"What are you doing?" he asked me.

"André…" I breathed. I didn't know what else to say. I hadn't seen him ten years. I never imagined that we would reunite like this, or that we would reunite at all.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm André Harris. Let's not get hung up on it, alright?" André said. He clearly didn't recognize me. "Stand up, would you?" I obediently did as he said. "Do you want some water?" We weren't supposed to eat or drink anything while we were in a home, but I was too shocked to do anything other than nod. André grabbed a glass from a cabinet and filled it with water from the sink I had just shined.

"Here you go," he said as he held it out to me. I took it from him, but I didn't drink it. "What's your name?"

"You don't know?" I said.

"Should I?"

"You have a beautiful house," I told him after a moment, evading his response. I wanted to see if he could figure out who I was by himself.

"Thanks. Took a lot of work to get it," he said.

"I'm sure," I said.

"Are you deaf?" he asked me.

"How did you know?"

"I knew a deaf girl while I was in high school. She talked a lot like you do."

I nodded. "Do you remember her name?"

"Tori," André said with a faint smile. "So what's your name?"

"Really? You really don't know?" I asked him.

"No, I really don't," André said, giving me a strange look. He clearly thought I was crazy. How would he know a lowly cleaning lady?

"We've met before," I told him. "I never thought you would forget me."

"Are you sure we've met before?" André asked. "I've only met one deaf person."

"Maybe I am that deaf person," I said. "Maybe I'm Tori."

André smiled. "No way. Stop joking."

"The first time we kissed was after you saved me from Ryder and his minions at Nozu," I blurted out. André's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped open.

"T…Tori?" he asked, his face twisted in confusion.

I gave him a small smile. "It's good to see you."

"Tori…what are you doing?" André asked. "Why are you on your hands and knees cleaning my kitchen? What happened to you?!"

I shrugged. "Life throws curveballs."

"But…Someone's calling you," André said. I turned around and saw Caroline.

"We're all done. Going to the next house," she told me. "Let's go."

I turned to André. "I…I have to go. But…would you want to get together sometime?"

"Yeah. Right now," André said.

"I can't right now. I can't risk losing my job," I told him. André lifted his eyes away from me and over to Caroline.

"This is my girlfriend from high school. I haven't seen her in ten years. We really need to catch up. You can get her out of work for the day, can't you?"

Caroline nodded. "I'll cover for you, Tori."

"Caroline—"

"Stop. You always say you never get any attention from anyone. This guy wants to talk to you. So go talk to him. Don't worry about Ted. I'll make sure he doesn't know," Caroline said.

"Thank you, Caroline. I'll give you a little something for Mia's violin lesson fund," I promised her.

"No problem," Caroline said before she left the house with the other girls. I looked back at André.

"When was the last time you had a proper meal?" André asked me.

"That's a good question," I said.

"Come on. Let's get you some lunch. My treat," André said. "I need to know how this all came to be." He took my hand and escorted me to his garage. I gasped when I saw his car; he had a shiny, cherry red Maserati that probably cost more than four years' salary. He got in the driver's seat and I got in the passenger's. He drove us to a high-class Italian restaurant that I could never even dream of going to called Il Pastaio. He walked me inside and we were seated immediately.

"Order whatever you want," André told me.

"You know you don't have to do this. We could have just gone to Starbucks or something," I said.

"But I wanted to take you here," André said. "I remember you love Italian food."

"That's true, but—"

"Great, let's order," André said. He ordered pumpkin tortellini and I ordered angel hair pasta with tomatoes, garlic, and basil, the cheapest thing on the menu. After the waitress had taken our order, André and I started to talk.

"So…what happened?" André asked me. "What curveball did life throw at you that ended with you being a cleaning lady? Did you have to drop out of college?"

I shook my head. "I earned my master's degree three years ago."

"Then why aren't you following your dream? What was it…A teacher! You wanted to teach ASL to high school kids. Why aren't you doing that?" André asked.

I looked down at the table, focused on the rings the water glass was leaving on the crisp white tablecloth. "It turns out that there isn't a big market for deaf teachers. There isn't a big market for deaf people at all, really." André knocked on the table to get my attention. I looked up and met his brown eyes that I had dreamed about for ages.

"No one would hire you because you're deaf?" André asked. I nodded in response. He looked so astonished. He was so naïve. "But you're amazing. You're so smart. You have a master's degree! Why wouldn't anyone hire you? It's not like you're trying to teach Spanish or something. You're trying to teach American Sign Language, your first language! Why wouldn't they trust you to teach kids?"

"Because the world is really stupid when it comes to people like me," I told him. "I interviewed everywhere. But they all assumed that I wouldn't be able to handle a classroom or that I wouldn't be able to understand what was going on in meetings. It was all nonsense; they just didn't want to hire a deaf person, but of course they can't say that. I spent three years of my life searching for a teaching job. And no one knows this, but…I was actually offered a job."

"Why didn't you take it?" André asked.

"It was in DC," I said. "I was planning on staying there after I finished grad school at Gallaudet. I liked the city and, of course, it was the only place where I got my dream job. But I had to move back to California to take care of my mom when she got sick."

André's face became somber. "Your mom is sick?"

"Early onset Alzheimer's," I told him. "I can't afford to put her in a nursing home, so she lives with me. It's a little cramped in my one room apartment, but it's the way it is."

"You live in a one room apartment with your mom who has Alzheimer's?" André asked.

"Currently. I hope it stays that way," I said. "I'm behind on rent. Keep getting eviction warnings."

"If you ever need a place to stay, you're welcome to stay with me for as long as you want," André told me.

"Thank you," I said, a little embarrassed. "So my life didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to, but yours certainly did. You're world famous. I always knew that would happen."

"Yeah. Life is treating me pretty well," André said.

"Good. I'm glad," I said with a weary smile. "You know…it kind of hurt when you stopped answering my emails. It really hurt. I loved…" I looked down at my worn out tennis shoes. "I still love you. I never forgot about you. I never dated another boy. I tried while I was at Gallaudet. You would think it would be easier for me to date a deaf boy, and practically, it was. But I couldn't stop thinking about you. And of course, I know all about the girls you've dated over the past few years. It's all I can see at the checkout line of the grocery store. They're all beautiful and successful and hearing, and I'm a deaf housekeeper. I don't even come close to comparing."

"Tori. You will always compare," André told me. "Yes, I dated other girls after we lost touch, but you popped into my mind every once in awhile. I wished that I had your address or your phone number because I really wanted to find you and do what we're doing right now. I never forgot about you, Tori. I could never forget about you."

"Really?" I asked with a small smile. "I'm unforgettable even to a world famous rock god who could have any girl he wanted?"

André nodded. "And maybe I could have any girl I want, but I don't want every girl. I've been looking for the past ten years for someone I thought I could spend the rest of my life with, but no one's felt right to me. I've dated beautiful girls, but they didn't have any substance. There aren't a lot of girls out there—especially in Los Angeles—who have anything more to them than their looks. I want a brainy girl."

I smiled a little. "I want anyone who will take a pathetic, deaf housekeeper."

"Don't do that, Tori," André told me with a stern expression. "You're not pathetic. You're wonderful. You're so smart, despite what all of those schools you interviewed at made you believe. You're talented. You're as beautiful today as you were in high school. You're the perfect girl."

"Except for one thing."

"What's that?"

"I can't hear."

"Since when has that bothered you?" André asked. "In high school, you liked being deaf. You were proud of it. You were comfortable with who you were, which was one of the things I liked most about you. But now you think that because you're deaf, you're worthless? What gives?"

"I guess…I'm just starting to believe what everyone around me keeps telling me," I said sadly. "All of my coworkers ignore me and treat me as if I'm less than them. My mom gets so frustrated and angry with me all the time because she keeps forgetting that I'm deaf. I've had sixty different schools tell me that I'm not good enough to work there because I can't hear." I shrugged. "After hearing the same thing from so many different sources, it becomes very easy to believe."

"That's bullshit," André said. "You're just as capable as a hearing person. I never thought I would have to tell you that. You were always telling other people."

"Things change," I said simply.

"They certainly do," André agreed. We spent the next few minutes looking at each other. He was so handsome. It was hard to pull my eyes away. I had missed getting lost in his eyes. I had missed his hugs, his kisses, every little thing down to his smell. I just missed feeling like someone loved me.

"What are you thinking about?" André asked me.

"How much I miss feeling loved," I told him honestly. "The last time I felt like someone loved me was the last time I saw you."

"Really?" André asked. I nodded. "What about Trina?"

"Screw Trina," I said bitterly. "She's living in a penthouse in Manhattan. She doesn't even care that I'm taking care of our mother all by myself living in near poverty. She doesn't love me."

"Your mom?"

"My mom doesn't even know who I am half the time," I said. "The last time I felt loved, that I felt truly happy, was when you and I were dating."

"I've felt loved since we were dating, but not in the right way, if that makes any sense," André said. "What I mean is, I know that girls have loved me. But none of them loved me for the right reasons. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to meet a girl who loves me for me. You were the last person who loved me for all the right reasons."

We were quiet for a few more minutes, just looking around the restaurant, occasionally stealing glances at each other and hoping that the other didn't notice.

"Maybe this is destiny, Tori," André said suddenly.

"Destiny?" I asked.

"We lost each other after we went to college," André began. "If you had become a teacher in DC, we never would have found each other. Maybe this was supposed to happen. Maybe you were supposed to be a cleaning lady just so one day we could find each other again." He placed his hand over mine. "I lost you once, Tori. I'm not going to lose you again."

I smiled. "I'm glad you feel the same way I do."

"You really never stopped loving me?" André asked.

I shook my head. "Not for a minute."

"I never stopped loving you, either," André confessed. "This is fate, Tori. We're meant to be together."

"I don't know if I believe in fate and destiny," I said. "All I know is that I'm glad I found you, and I'm glad you still have feelings for me, because I certainly still have feelings for you."

"Do you…Would you want to go out on a date?" André asked me.

A smile spread over my lips. "I thought you would never ask."

XXX

Over the next eight months, André and I had become a couple again. After the fifth month, we decided to move in together; I even brought my mom along. It became clear to André that I didn't really know how to take care of her, so he offered to pay to put her in a nursing home. I cried, I was so grateful. André truly was the most generous person I had ever met.

Since André hadn't signed a single word since high school, he had forgotten almost all of his ASL. Communication was difficult at times; it was easy for me to get tired of reading lips. Sometimes I came home after work so exhausted, I wasn't capable of reading his lips, so André had to write things down to communicate with me. It was frustrating and tiring, but it was worth it. I started giving him sign language lessons every day again. He was picking up the language even faster than he did before. I knew that in just a short time, we would be able to communicate easily.

During the second week of the eighth month we were dating, André and I decided to make the fifteen minute trip to Santa Monica for the evening so we could watch the sunset on the beach. I always loved to see the breathtaking orange, red, and pink watercolor spread across the sky. André parked his shiny, red, lightning fast car near the boardwalk. I took off my sandals so I could feel the sand squish between my toes as we walked down to the beach, halfway between the boardwalk and the ocean. We stood on the beach together holding hands. I was in bliss.

"I have something I want to tell you, Tori," André said, using English and sign language so he could practice constantly.

"What's that?" I asked curiously.

"I just want you to know that I love you beyond compare," André told me.

I smiled. "I know you do. I love you, too."

"I know you do," André said. He looked at the dusky sky. The watercolors hadn't completely blended together yet, but it was still a beautiful sight. "So…I was going to do this as soon as the sun went down. But I really can't wait much longer, and this damn thing doesn't really fit in my pocket."

"What damn thing?" I asked.

A small smile spread over André's lips. "I know in your heart, you're a bit of an old fashioned girl." He got down on his knee, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a blue box with a white bow tied around it: a Tiffany's box. I gasped and placed my hand over my mouth. I knew what was coming next. "You see, uh…I've come to a place where I just can't imagine life without you. And I…Let me just say…I love you more than anything else. So…Victoria Maria Vega…will you marry me?"

"Are…Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked.

"Of course I'm sure. Why would you even ask that?"

"It's just…I'm deaf," I said.

"You should know by now that I don't care about that," André said. "I love every single part of you, and your deafness is a part of you. Don't worry about that." He opened the blue box, slid out the black velvet ring box, and opened it, revealing the most beautiful diamond ring I had ever seen. "Eight months ago, I told you that I wanted a brainy girl who had substance. You're that girl. You are the girl I've been looking for my whole life. So please say yes? Please?"

With my shaking right hand, I gingerly removed the ring from the box, afraid it would disintegrate if I touched it, and slid it onto my left ring finger.

"It's so beautiful," I told him, then let out a deep breath. "Well…I guess if you don't have any better sense than to ask me, I guess I better marry you. Because I think you're the guy I've been looking for, too."

"Are you saying yes?" André asked with a smile.

I nodded, grinning. "I'm saying yes." I threw my arms around his neck, and he wrapped his around my waist.

It was the happiest moment of my life.

XXX

After eight months of what seemed like endless planning, our wedding day had arrived. It's difficult for anyone to plan a wedding, but it's even more complicated when the bride and her guests are deaf and the groom and his guests are hearing. Thankfully or sadly, depending on how you want to look at it, I didn't have many people to invite. I invited my best friend from Davila, Sam, about ten of my other deaf friends that I'd met in various place, and Caroline. André's guest list was a great deal longer than mine. He had his family, his manager, everyone he worked with at the record company, and pretty much every singer he had ever collaborated with. I wanted to keep the wedding small, so we capped it off at seventy people, only twelve of which I invited. But that was fine with me. I was excited to meet all of André's friends, especially his parents, since I had never met them before and wouldn't until the day of the wedding. I was already nervous about getting married, but the thought of meeting my in-laws made my heart flutter even more.

Two hours before the wedding, Caroline did my hair and makeup in my bathroom while Sam and I talked. We'd emailed each other regularly, but we hadn't seen each other in a long time.

"I can't believe you're getting married," Sam said while Caroline was curling my hair. "I really can't believe you're getting married to a hearing guy."

"Hearing and deaf can coexist," I said.

"I know, I know. It just doesn't happen that often. I think you and André beat some very long odds. You should be proud of that."

"I am." I pulled at a loose string on my bathrobe for a moment before I looked back up at Sam. "You're okay with this, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I think curls look good on you."

"No, not that. Are you okay with me getting married?"

"Of course I am, Tori," Sam told me. "But…I always kind of thought that you would be meeting me at the end of the aisle."

"I always thought that, too," I told him. "I really, truly thought we would get married someday. I had a huge crush on you when we were in middle school."

"That's the problem with having a best friend of the opposite sex," Sam said. "Everyone says that boys and girls can just be friends, and they can, but they can't stop themselves from developing feelings for each other." Sam smiled. "In all honesty, I think I would rather be your best friend than your husband. Let some other unfortunate soul get stuck with you."

I playfully slapped Sam's arm. "Very funny." I felt Caroline tap my shoulder. I turned around and saw her unplugging the curling iron.

"You're all done," she told me. "Take a look." I faced forward again towards the mirror and gasped. I had never felt pretty before, not really. Not like I did then. My makeup was perfect and my chocolate brown hair was expertly curled.

"You look beautiful, Tori," Sam told me. "André's gonna die when he sees you."

"I hope he likes it. I look great, but I look so different. Not like the girl he fell in love with."

"You look even better," Sam said. "Trust me. He'll love it."

"Come on. Let's get you in your dress," Caroline said. She and I went into the bedroom Michael and I shared and removed my wedding dress from the case it was hanging on from the top of my door. I let the robe slide off and stepped into the dress, letting Caroline zip it up behind me. It was a modest white dress made of satin with a lace overlay and lace straps. After I put on my white heels, Caroline directed me towards the full-length mirror so I could look at myself. I gasped again when I saw myself. I looked more than beautiful. I looked like a bride.

"What do you think?" Caroline asked.

"I look so pretty," I said. "Thank you so much, Caroline."

Caroline smiled. "You're welcome, Tori. I miss seeing you at work." André had convinced me to quit my job after we got engaged. It wasn't that hard for him to do. I hated my job and didn't have to feel guilty for living off of his money if we were married.

"We can still hang out. Come over whenever you want. Mia, too," I told her.

"Mia would love to swim in that pool of yours," Caroline said.

I smiled. "It still seems so strange. To think that I have a pool. Before I didn't even have a bedroom."

Caroline laughed. "It is a bit of a Cinderella-like twist, isn't it? Just don't let it go to your head, okay?"

"Never. I'm going to get another job. I don't want it to seem like I'm marrying André for his money, and I don't know what I would do if I had to sit in that big house all day with nothing to do."

"What kind of job are you going to look for?" Caroline asked me.

"I'm going to be a teacher," I told her definitively. "I'm going to teach ASL to high school students. I'm going to do it."

Caroline smiled. I had told her that that had always been my dream when we met. "I know you will, Tori. Time to put that master's degree to use, isn't it?"

"Definitely," I agreed. I felt vibrations shoot through the ground and saw the door shaking a little. Sam was knocking. I opened the door for him. His eyes grew wide when he saw me.

"Holy shit," he said. I laughed. "You look so…so…"

"Go on. I know you're capable of words," I said.

"André is one lucky, LUCKY dude," Sam said.

"You think so?" I asked. Sam nodded.

"Sam and I have to get dressed, and then it'll be wedding time," Caroline said. I left her alone in my bedroom so she could change and Sam went into the bathroom. After a few minutes, they came out. Sam was wearing a rented tux, and Caroline was wearing an inexpensive, pink cotton sundress, appropriate for our beach wedding.

"You ready?" Caroline asked me. I nodded. The three of us went downstairs, got into Sam's car, and drove to beach in Santa Monica where André had proposed. There were chairs set up and all of our guests were seated. I saw André and the officiant standing in front of everyone. André was wearing a tux and wringing his hands nervously. I smiled; he was so sweet. Caroline and Sam went to take their seats. I got out of the car and walked by myself to the boardwalk. I descended down the wooden steps and saw the wedding. My wedding. I started to walk down the aisle, paying rapt attention to André's reaction. He looked so happy, which made me happy. When I reached him at the end of the aisle, I saw a tear slide down his cheek. I smiled and wiped it away for him. He gave me a big hug before the wedding began.

This was the moment I had been waiting for my whole life. I found a way to reach my full potential and achieve my dreams. I had found the love of my life.

It was my happily ever after.