Unchartered Curves (Cruisin’ With Curves)

Epilogue Anisa

“ H ere we are again. I can’t believe it.”

“What did you pack in here?” Duane teased, hefting his bag and mine.

“You know you don’t need pajamas, or much in the way of a bathing suit,” Gill teased, wrapping his arms around mine.

I couldn’t believe I’d been with them for a year already.

Ostensibly, they wanted to work on their second cruise book. The first one had been a bestseller for three months on Amazon. I was thrilled that they let me have influence on the character of Cassandra.

“Mikey called,” Duane said, moving towards the stairs. “He thinks they will begin casting the streaming series in a few months.”

“I can’t believe you guys still call him Mikey,” I said, moving to follow Duane up the stairs. Their agent, named Michael, was almost 30, and the men acted like he was a kid. “You guys are 38 and 40, so not that much older, you know.”

Gill snorted. “Duane is much older.”

“I keep up, Gill.” He called from inside a room. “Now this is a bed!”

They’d asked for the largest bed possible. The rest of the penthouse was the same, even down to the same butler.

“Oh!” I grinned at the sight of Duane in the middle of the bed. Then I ran to join him.

“Lobster and champagne? You guys are going all out on this trip,” I said as our waiter left in the romantic Sapphire Seas Steakhouse later that night. She’d told us that the menu was pre-planned and asked for my drink order.

“We have a lot to celebrate,” Gill said.

I shivered a little, feeling the anticipation of the evening and the trip. Also, I was likely a little cool in my purple off-the-shoulder dress.

“You cold?” Duane moved to take off his jacket and drape it over my shoulders.

“A little, but this dress was worth it.” I took a flute of champagne from Gill, who’d poured for us.

“Yes, it is. You look so beautiful,” he said.

“Here, here,” Duane agreed, clinking his glass with each of ours.

“To another adventure,” I said, and we all smiled, remembering our first night on the first cruise.

“We have another adventure in mind,” Duane said, standing up.

“Yes, we do. We hope you are ready to join us on this one,” Gill said, as he, too, stood up.

Then they both went down on one knee, and each pulled out a jewelry box.

“We love you, Anisa, and want to make this permanent.” Duane opened his box to reveal a band of emeralds, my favorite stone. They’d given me emerald earrings for my birthday a month ago.

“We love you, so much,” Gill echoed Duane, and then cleared his throat. “Please marry us.” He opened his box and had a band of diamond and emeralds in it.

“Oh!” I moved to kneel with them, putting a hand on each of their faces. “Yes.”

I kissed Gill, then Duane. After a minute, they helped me up, and put the rings on my left hand.

“We will add a third band when we get married,” Gill said.

“How would that even work?” I asked. I mean, I’d thought about what the future looked like for me and my guys, and knew it might not be traditional.

“Congratulations!” Our waiter put a steaming plate of lobster in front of me, with baby carrots, which the men knew I loved.

Then she set some chocolate strawberries in a bowl in the center, and I felt tears. I was engaged to these amazing, thoughtful men.

“We know it hasn’t been easy figuring everything out.” Gill said.

It had taken only a month after our first cruise before I knew I wanted to spend all my days with them. After I’d sold my condo, they convinced me to move in with them. I did some of the marketing for their books now and also worked remotely as a marketing specialist.

Duane and Gill taught fewer courses now, and we all enjoyed spending time in what they insisted was our mansion. I still couldn’t get used to it. But every day with them was truly a new adventure.

“I always knew I wanted to be with you guys,” I said, dabbing my eyes with my linen napkin.

“If you like, the Captain can marry us on the ocean, where laws are a little different. If not, you can marry one of us legally, and the other in our hearts, at an unofficial ceremony.”

I took another sip of champagne.

“Let’s do it tonight.”