Epilogue

The rest of my Kansas City friends managed to make it out to New York for my final weekend there. After hearing Dan and I gush about the city whenever we would talk to them, they figured they had best use the free place to stay while it was available. It was such a great time that my friends made every attempt to talk Dan and I into joining them for their subsequent trips. We both refused them on all occasions for two reasons.

For the first reason, it is not as though there is nothing to do or see. It is not as though we didn’t both love being there. Both of us hearken back to memories of that place with wistful gleams in our eye as we recall the places we were and the things we did and those two remarkable people we met. However, the fact of the matter is, if either of us were there, we’d spend the entire time peering through crowds and looking at faces and wondering about passers-by in an assuredly vain effort to find two people neither of us can forget. Because, when Dan and I talk about New York, the topic always comes around to Lori and Andrew and just how much we enjoyed their company.

As for the second reason why I never return to New York, I guess that reason is best described by my last hours in Manhattan.

#

As Dan carried the last of my boxes down to the moving van, I took one last look around my old apartment. It was like leaving a good friend. After a year together, my apartment had a few more scuffs on the walls, a few scrapes on the floor and a bedroom door that didn’t seem to close right. Likewise, I suppose I had a few more wear marks for being a year older and a little wiser than I was when I had moved in.

Moving out had been much easier due to having several assistants helping me pack the truck before they headed off for their flight home. I took one last look around for anything I might have forgotten and I made sure I had turned off everything that needed turning off before locking the door behind me for the final time. As I descended the stairs, I paused partway down to look back up to Lori and Andrew’s apartment.

Dan interrupted my reverie with "Thinking about them, aren’t you?"

"Hm?" I replied. I had not heard him walk up. "Oh. Yes."

"She’s visiting Andrew now, isn’t she?"

"For another three weeks."

"She’s a remarkable girl, that Lori."

"I agree."

"I’m going to miss her," Dan admitted.

"Me too."

"It’s a shame when people like that leave your life."

"Well, I can still call her and write her. I hope I can keep in contact with both of them."

"Mm. I don’t."

This surprised me. "Why not?" I asked.

"Because of happy endings."

"I don’t follow."

Dan explained. "Lori and Andrew are people. People fight, people make up, people break up. Maybe Lori and Andrew will get back together. Maybe Lori and Andrew won’t. Maybe Andrew’s changed and the new version wants to end the whole Lori story. Maybe Lori will be better off without him. Maybe she’ll come back here and marry Ray, you never know. Nothing is ever perfect and ‘Happily ever after’ is a concept that’s usually left to fairy tales. But as long as I don’t know how it all turns out, ‘Happily ever after’ is exactly what they’ll be. That’s the funny thing about endings, Tom: the best ones are the ones we don’t know."

All I could do was nod. Because he was right.

Lori and Andrew. They’re out there somewhere. They’re together. And they’re happy.