This epilogue is more like a prologue.

I loved the snow, but eventually I couldn't wait for spring to come back and breathe life into everything.

It was funny how every spring seemed different to me. This year wasn't as hot as last year, or the trees took longer to grow their leaves. Even though Cole and I had been living together for two years, and things between us was nothing new, every spring felt like I was falling in love all over again.

I learned that being with Cole and living with him were two completely different things. Being with him was easy, living with him sometimes got hectic. He'd moved into my apartment, leaving the studio with Melody. He still went there a lot. Mostly to paint and to keep an eye on her, even though he would never admit it.

We had personally dropped my bed off the balcony to make room for his. Something about that big brass bed surrounded by the flowers he'd painted on my walls always made me smile.

My apartment began to change, and I found myself surrounded by Cole. Like the African sculpture by the door Cole used to throw his coat over. Or how he'd leave his half empty cereal bowl beside the sink. Or the tubes of paint he'd leave around the apartment. It drove me crazy. But I loved it, even when he wasn't there, he still was.

We always fought. Sometimes about serious things, like money or where he was at two thirty in the morning. He would always shrug it off as if it didn't matter which would result in me throwing something at him. I always wondered why he never threw anything back. Other times, we would argue over stupid things like which sheets matched which pillowcases, or who ate the last pizza pop and left the empty box in the freezer. It would result in me throwing things, yet again.

But fighting was almost fun sometimes. We would go off to our separate corners of the apartment and sulk, and then we'd apologize… in bed.

My life with Cole was simple but extraordinary at the same time. There were things that were routine, like no matter how many times I told Cole to put down the toilet seat he never did. And how he would carry be to bed almost every night after I'd fallen asleep watching C.S.I.

Then there were the things he'd do that would come out of nowhere.

Once he painted all over me while I slept, completely ruining the sheets when I rolled over. I was mad, but not that mad. He even cracked an egg on my head once when I told him his omelets tasted horrible. That resulted in a food fight that cost us eighty bucks in groceries and five hours of clean up.

Yes, life was pretty swell. Except for right at the moment when I was locked outside of the apartment because I'd lost my keys. It was also pouring so hard I couldn't see.

It was almost midnight and I suspected Cole was upstairs painting, completely oblivious to the fact that I was standing downstairs as mad as a wet cat. I pushed the buzzer yet again, then saw the saggy out of order sign on the speaker.

Moaning I dropped my head against the door. I shouldn't have gone out with Bridget and Pina. They wanted to celebrate the new store we opened across town. It was fun to hang out with them, but not when there was a ragging storm outside. Fishing around in my bag I grabbed my phone and called upstairs. No one answered. If he wasn't home and I had to sit out in the rain I was going to kill him.

Shoving my phone back into my bag I went down the steps and looked up at my window. The light was on. I screamed Cole's name, but nothing could be heard through the pounding rain. Getting fed up I looked around for a rock. When I found one, I threw it at the window. I meant for it to bounce off the glass, instead it soared right through with a loud shattering sound.

I gasped. Oops.

Seconds later Cole appeared at the window and opened it. I saw him poke his head out into the rain with the rock in his hand. "I swear I'm going to come down there and shove this rock up your… Charlie?"

"Why didn't you answer the phone?" I screamed.

"I was asleep. You broke the window, this is all on you."

Grinding my teeth I glared. "I wouldn't have broke the window if you'd just answered the damn phone."

"Where are your keys?"

I bit my lip. "I lost them…"

"Your fault not mine." He said.

"Just come and open the door!"

I heard him laugh. He was actually laughing. "Wait, let's try something." He cleared his throat dramatically. "O Romeo, Romeo. Where for art thou Romeo?"

Was he serious? "Open the door!" I screamed again.

"Deny thy father and refuse thy name!" He was laughing hysterically. "Shit, I can't remember the rest… ah… Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love. And I'll no longer be a Capulet!" He finished with funny gesture. "Nailed it!"

"I'll kill you!" I told him. "I really will."

"Come on, Romeo. That was your cue." I grabbed another, larger, rock and heaved it at the window. I successfully managed to hit him right in the forehead. I heard Cole curse and stumble back into the apartment. I hadn't meant to hit him, but well I did. I hoped he wasn't lying dead in the living room.

"Fine! I'm coming." I heard him yell.

Minutes later Cole opened the door with a scowl on his face. On his forehead was a large bump. I frowned. "Oops."

"If there were a men's shelter I'd go to it."

Frowning again I leaned up to kiss the bump. "I'm sorry. Does it hurt?"

"A little." He mumbled.

"Good." I said shoving past him. "You deserved it. You know how I hate reciting Shakespeare in the rain."

Upstairs I kicked off my wet shoes and peeled off my dripping coat. I didn't exactly notice how cold I was until I realized how warm it was inside the apartment. Too tired to do anything I glided in the bedroom and plopped down on the bed.

"Charlie," Cole said from the doorway of our bedroom. "You're getting the bed all wet. We both have to sleep there you know."

I ignored him and looked up at the ceiling. Cole had put glow in the dark stars there a while ago. He even managed to correctly place them in constellations.

Suddenly I felt Cole's hand on my ankle. For a moment I thought he was going to tug me off the bed. Instead I felt his hands slowly slide up my calf and slip under my dress. "You're wearing those stockings with the lace around the top, aren't you." He said.

"There's only one way to find out." I mumbled and closed my eyes.

I felt his fingers curl under the lace and pull down slowly. "I was right." I heard him smile. He did the same with the other stocking. When he pushed my legs apart so he could kneel between them I reached out and brushed my hand over his head. "Did you have fun?" He asked as he began unbuttoning the small buttons trailing all the way down the front of my dress.

"Hmm?" I asked still with my eyes closed.

"Tonight, with Bridget and Pina?"

"Oh, yeah, sure."

He didn't say anything for a moment, and I enjoyed the way he hands felt against my damp skin. "Your brother called."

I smiled. "Did you two have fun talking about me behind my back."

"Immensely." Cole replied. "Also, he knocked up Addison."

My eyes flew open and I brought myself up on my elbows. "What?"

Cole's face was about a foot away from mine. "That's what he said."

"Are you kidding?"

"Why would I kid? I'd tell you to call him, but it's past midnight."

I felt my heart pound for him. "Oh…" I murmured. "Noah is going to have a baby."

"Actually Addison is." Cole said as he continued with the buttons.

"I'm going to be an aunt. I've never been an aunt before." I grinned.

"You don't have the antenna to be an ant."

I collapsed onto my back. "You know what I mean." I thought about Noah holding a little baby, something so small compared to him. "Babies always smell like milk." I said randomly.

Cole pressed a soft kiss to my stomach. "Is that something you want?"

"What?"

"A baby."

I didn't say anything. Cole and I had never talked about having kids. I assumed eventually we'd get around to it, like by total accident. And we would just roll with it. "You once said you didn't want kids." I said quietly.

"And you said you did." He answered. "I want one if you want one."

Smiling, I said, "I want one, but right now I just want you."

I felt Cole press his face against my stomach. His rough cheek tickled my sensitive skin. "You sure? Because I could knock you up right now." I let out a half laugh. "I imagine I'd be pretty good at it."

"I have no doubt." I laughed. "Besides we'd have to buy a new house, with a white picket fence, get a dog, maybe a cat. Get married."

At the word marriage Cole sat up straight. "Whoa, hold on. Marriage. I was just talking about procreating. You're going a little overboard. Would you really like to be legal bonded to me?"

I imagined myself in chains with Cole. Laughing I shook my head. "Hell no. But would you really want to have a child out of wedlock?" I asked faking my seriousness.

"Of course!" Cole said grinning. "My parents weren't married and look," He wiggled his fingers in front of my face. "I have all ten fingers. Besides you can always tell which kids have parents who are married. They're just not as cool as the ones without."

Laughing I pulled him forward to kiss me. "You're so full of shit."

"You love that about me."

"Mmm." I murmured and nibbled on his bottom lip.

"But seriously," He mumbled still with his lip caught between my teeth. "Do you want to get married?"

I stopped and looked at him. "What is this? Bombard Charlie with babies and marriage day?" He shrugged. "Are you proposing?" I noticed he was already kneeling in front of me.

Cole noticed and stood up quickly. "No." He said, then paused and knelt again. "Maybe. I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Look, do you want to get married?" He had this sort of scared expression on his face.

I tried not to smile. "Do you?"

"I asked you first." He said scratching his head nervously.

Wrapping my arms around his neck I pulled him close. "I don't need a priest and a legal document to tell me that I love you."

He smiled. "Yeah, me neither."

"But we could go on a honeymoon." I said grinning. "Somewhere cold. Russia maybe."

"Russia?"

"Alaska… Iceland… Wait, no, Greenland is colder right."

"Sure."

"Yeah, let's go there. We'll make love on an iceberg."

Cole rolled his eyes. "You have a fetish."

"I do not."

He just smiled. "I want to show you something."

I closed my eyes again. "Does it involve me getting up?"

"Yes."

"Can you show me tomorrow." I sighed and leaned against him. "I'm tired."

"Am I going to have to dress you again?"

"Maybe."

Cole dressed me in three minutes, meaning I looked weird and frumpy. Before we left the apartment he grabbed a potted plant sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen. He carried me right into the rain and shoved me into the ugly rusty silver car Cole and I bought about a year ago. "Cole it's midnight, where are we going? Why are we bringing a plant?"

"It's a surprise." He said taking out a tie. "Cover your eyes."

I stared at him suspiciously. "I don't like surprises."

"I know, but do it anyway."

I did as he asked and settled into the seat as started the car. "Nervous?" He asked. I just grunted.

Actually, I was nervous. Where on earth could he possible be taking me? I tried to think of every place within driving distance. I couldn't think of anything. That made me extremely nervous.

"Hey," Cole said after a few minutes. "Where do you think kissing came from? I mean, did two people one day randomly think to press their lips together to see if anything exciting happened?"

Cole did that sometimes. Just ask random questions. He usually did that when he knew I was thinking too hard. I shrugged. "I heard anthropologists are trying to determine if kissing is learned or instinctive."

"You heard this?" He asked. "Where?"

"I don't know. Around."

While he chuckled I felt the car turn around a wide corner. "But how come we don't rub elbows or lick each others faces?"

"Because that is not nearly as satisfying as kissing."

"I wouldn't mind if you wanted to lick my face every once and a while."

I scrunched up my face. "Gross. Now who has a fetish?"

---

I don't really remember falling asleep. I just remember listening to the radio, and then Cole was gently shaking me. "We're here." The rain had stopped, I noticed as Cole helped me out of the car. I still couldn't see anything. The air smelt different, a little less polluted. I couldn't hear any cars, just the sound of crickets and the cool spring air moving through the trees. I reached for the blindfold but Cole stopped me. "Not yet." He whispered close to my ear as he slowly guided me away from the car.

"How long have we been driving?" I asked hoping not to trip over anything.

"About an hour." He said.

An hour? I still couldn't place where we were. "Did you drive me out to the woods to kill me?"

"If I wanted to do that, I would have done it ages ago."

Feeling less comforted I let him guide me until he placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me in a certain direction. "Okay," He said, "Take it off."

When I untied the blindfold I had to blink a few times to adjust my eyes. When they focused I found myself standing outside a dark house, with large windows, and a wide front porch. I looked around, as if missing something. "It's a house." I said.

Cole laughed. "Jeez Charlie, I never knew you were so smart." I rolled my eyes. "Some people would call this a home."

I still didn't follow. "All right. We're not going to break in, right?"

I heard him sigh. "No. Aren't you going to ask whose house this is?"

I gasped. "Oh my God, is it someone famous? Let me guess, is it-"

"Ours." Cole said.

"Phillip Seymour Hoffman!" I stopped and turned to Cole. "What?"

"It's ours." He said again.

I looked back at the house with its large bay window, and it's blue shutters on the upstairs windows. There was a driveway going into the back where I could just make out a garage. "This isn't our house." I mumbled.

Cole held up the potted plant and walked towards the porch stairs. He placed it on the stoop and tilted it until he liked the way it looked, then he walked back to me. "Ah, it's looking more like home now."

I stood completely speechless as Cole dug around in his pocket. He took my hand and placed something in it. When I looked I found a small silver key and nearly dropped it. "Cole…"

"Look," He said pointing to a for sale sign on the front lawn, which had a large sold sign on top. "See, I bought it."

My throat felt dry. There was no way Cole bought a house. "You bought this house?"

"There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a laundry room, a basement, an attic, a dining room, and a nook."

I turned to him. "A nook?"

"Yes, we have a nook."

"What does one do with a nook?"

He shrugged. "Whatever one wants."

I turned back to the house. "I can't believe you bought a house without even mentioning to me! What if I hated it?!"

"Do you?"

"No." I felt a tear roll down my cheek. "Where the hell are we?"

"New Jersey."

"New Jersey!" I practically screamed. "We live in New Jersey?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

I ran my hand through my hair. "I don't know. Nothing I guess." I took another deep breath. "So, you're saying if I go up to that door and use this key the door will open?"

"Generally that's how it goes with keys and doors."

Balling my fists I marched straight up the steps and onto the porch. I paused only for a moment to look around, then I walked straight up to the door and pushed the key into the lock. "So far so good." Mumbled Cole. I shot him a dirty look.

"This isn't going to work, because this isn't our house." I said very matter-of-factly. When I turned the key and heard the lock snap open I lost it. I screamed as if something had just scared me. Cole, who feared for his life, leapt back. "Oh my God!" I said opening the door. "This is our fucking house!" I spun around and launched myself at Cole. Wrapping my arms around his neck I began kissing his face all over. "I love you, I love you, I love you." I let go of him and headed for inside, but Cole caught me around the waist and spun me into him.

"Hold on. Before we move in you have to agree to something?"

"What?" I asked breathlessly.

"You have to have my babies."

I grinned madly. "I think I can do that."

"And you have to wash my clothes."

"I don't think so." I laughed.

"Worth a shot."

I wrapped my arms around his neck again. "Carry me over the threshold."

"That's when you get married."

"Well, since we're not doing that you can do it now." He complied by lifting me off my feet and kissing me. "By any chance is there a bed inside?" I asked nuzzling his jaw as he stepped inside our new home.

"No," He said. "But there's a lot of hardwood floors."

"Mmm, perfect." I said just as he kicked the door closed.