Come As You Are (Twisted Bard)

Epilogue

Vee

Three months later

After a couple of months of planning, we opened the doors on Illyria’s 1970s prom party to an enthusiastic crowd. Tickets had sold out in a couple of hours, and this party promised to be splashed across social media. Not that Illyria was in desperate need of cash anymore. When all had been said and done, the club’s financial situation hadn’t been as dire as Aaron’s fake numbers suggested, and Olivia decided to move forward with the party as a thank you to the community and the staff for their support.

Privately, it was also a celebration for Olivia, Sebastian, and me. We’d officially moved in together the week before; officially, because neither Bast nor I spent much time at his place anymore, but we’d been too busy to pack it up until now.

I joined Toby and Sebastian behind the bar as Illyria’s newest bartender having successfully passed my mixology course a few weeks ago. Olivia had offered me the lead dancer position after Andrew quit, but I told her I would much prefer working with Sebastian than continuing to dance, and the thought of dealing with all the drama from the go-go boys just wasn’t for me. Sebastian had agreed with my decision in a heartbeat, thrilled to have me safely out of the reach of drunk customers.

The evening went smoothly. Our guests were having a great time, I only got flustered a couple of times behind the bar when someone asked for a drink not even Sebastian nor Toby had ever heard of, and Olivia as stunning as ever in a tight, black dress and killer red heels. Sometimes, I couldn’t believe I got to go home with her and Sebastian every night and work with them most days. Bastian the Bastard was well and truly retired, and the only ones who seemed to mourn for him were a handful of twinks. This was my life now, and I loved it. I’d found a home at Illyria and a family to call my own.

The biggest surprise of the evening came when Mal showed up in a vintage, pastel blue tux with Maria on his arm. She blushed when he presented her with a corsage, but then laid a kiss on him that had all of us standing with our mouths open. It seemed that Maria’s game had transformed into a way for her and Mal to flirt. He’d figured out pretty quickly that Olivia wasn’t leaving him those memos, and Maria realized he was enjoying her sartorial suggestions. One thing led to another, and…there they were. Together.

At midnight, Olivia got up on the DJ platform and formally thanked everyone for coming to Illyria’s party. She talked about her brother and how he had started the club, then entrusted it to her after his death.

“I want to thank you all for making Illyria one of the best clubs in the Castro!” she said, and the crowd cheered. “And I want to thank my amazing staff for sticking with me, supporting me, and helping me through some of the most difficult moments of my life.” As she spoke, she turned her head and nodded to each of the employees, but when she got to Sebastian and me, she smiled. “And special thanks to Sebastian and Vee, without whom none of this would have been possible. I love you both, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.”

There were more cheers and a few wolf whistles, and Olivia was about to step down when Mal jumped up beside her and held his hand out for the microphone. Olivia handed it to him with a puzzled look on her face. Behind the bar, Sebastian and I were equally as curious what he was up to.

“You know,” Mal started, “every prom crowns a king and a queen. How do you feel if we continue that tradition?” His suggestion was met with enthusiastic cheers. “At Illyria, our hearts belong to Olivia, so I nominate her as our prom queen. What do you think?” The applause was thunderous as the DJ handed Mal a golden crown, and he place it on Olivia’s head. “But now we have a problem. Who is going to be Olivia’s king?”

Calls of “Sebastian” and others for “Vee” rang out, and Mal smiled slyly. The crowd went nuts when the DJ handed him two crowns, and he called Bast and me up to the stage for our coronation. After placing the crowns on our heads, Mal insisted we have our traditional royal dance. Which is how Olivia, Sebastian, and I ended up in the middle of Illyria’s dance floor, the lights glinting off our bejeweled crowns as we embraced and swayed to the music.

For my part, I couldn’t stop smiling. I was in love with the two most amazing people I’d ever met, working at the best club, and had the kind of life I’d only ever dreamed of before coming to San Francisco.

“I love you,” I said to both Sebastian and Olivia, then allowed them to pull me in for an embrace as they told me they loved me, too.

The music played on, and for the rest of that evening and many more to come, so did we.

The End