Somewhere Else pt.9 - Epilogue
[Summary: All of the what ifs of Drake & Riley meeting somewhere else, in any other way.]
Part 9 to Somewhere Else
Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8
“If we’d met somewhere else…anywhere else. At a club in New York or in an airport, or at a party…If you hadn’t been our waitress that night, and I hadn’t been sitting next to Liam…Do you think all of this…do you think it could’ve been different…between us?
“Just another glamorous New York Saturday night of hauling trash to the dumpster…” Riley huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face as she heaved the black trash bag into the dumpster and dusted her hands off.
“It could be worse,” Daniel said, wrinkling his nose at the stench. “There could be – Rats! Riley, help!”
Riley looked down at the mice her old co-worker/friend/new co-worker (once again) was shrieking over with a raised eyebrow and amused smile. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of this adorable little mouse family,” she said, squatting down to get a closer look. “They’re trying to get by, just like us.”
“Hey! Riley, Daniel, quit slacking off over there!”
The two turned just in time to see their manager poke his head through the back door of the restaurant they started working at a little over a month ago. The bar Riley had closed down but her old boss had been able to put in a good word for Riley at her new workplace, and Riley - being the smooth-talker she was – managed to put a good word in for her friend Daniel, who had just lost his job working at the Broadway Theater.
Riley scowled. “You told us to take out the garbage.”
“And now I’m telling you to wait on the bachelor party that just rolled in. Chop chop!” the manager snapped, clapping his hands to further his point. Before Riley could retort, he slipped back inside the building and the heavy metal door fell shut behind him.
“No, not a bachelor party!” Daniel groaned, falling back against wall. “Riley, you know I have that date tonight!”
“Oh, no,” Riley shook her head. “Nuh-uh. You are not going to make me take on a bachelor party all by myself.”
“Please,” Daniel pleaded, putting his palms together. “I’ve got a date tonight, and I’ll never make it out of here in time! Besides, you owe me! Remember the night I snuck you and your friend into the theater? What was his name again?”
Riley glanced down, digging the toe of her shoe into the ground. “Drake.”
“Right, Drake,” he nodded. “What ever happened with him?”
Riley shrugged, and looked away, her eyes roamed down the alleyway, up the red brick building beyond, and to the starless sky above. She knew they didn’t have time to linger outside, but her mind had already wandered far away at the very mention of that familiar name…
“Riley?” Drake turned, blinking at her in disbelief. Over the top of her head, he could see the last car of the train they’d been on – the train she was supposed to still be on - disappear from the subway station.
“Don’t go,” she told him, shaking her head and clutching tightly to his hand with both of hers.
“Riley …” he repeated, but this time her name felt heavy on his lips. The skin around his eyes tightened and a crease formed between his brows as he opened his mouth to say more, already beginning to shake his head.
“I know. I know you can’t, but I’m just…” Riley shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing down her pride. She felt ridiculous, begging him to stay when she knew from the start what she was getting herself into. “I’m know you can’t but I’m asking you to anyway because the truth is, I’m not ready to say goodbye.”
He let out a mirthless laugh, his eyes showing an emotion on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as joy. He cupped her cheek with his other hand, thumb brushing over her skin with tenderness he himself didn’t know he could even possess for another person. “I thought we weren’t going to say goodbyes, Cole.”
“But that’s what it is, isn’t it?” Riley questioned, bitterness tainting her voice. She gritted her teeth and jutted her chin in the direction he had to go. “You’ll leave and get on that airplane and I’ll never see you again. If that’s not a situation that means goodbye, then I don’t know that is.”
He had nothing to say to that. Drake had never been one to lie just to save someone else’s feelings. Once he left, whatever this was between them…it would cease to exist. Distance made certain of that. He’d made that very point multiple times throughout the night, but for once, he had no satisfaction from being right.
“This is why you didn’t want to do this,” Riley muttered, her eyes falling to the floor. Drake felt her grip on his hand loosen in defeat, but her words rang out with the opposite effect for him.
Before she could let go, Drake pulled her closer and tilted her head up so her eyes met his again. When he spoke, his voice had a new sense of urgency that demanded her attention. “Do you regret it?”
Surprise briefly flickered across her face at his sudden shift in demeanor. In the back of his head, he felt a little gratification for being able to surprise her for a change. Drake watched as the shock transformed into a sort of stubborn determination only Riley could ever have. He recognized it in the steely look in her eyes and the firm set of her jaw.
“No,” she said, a-matter-of-factly. “Of course not.”
“Good,” Drake nodded, slipping his hand from hers to tangle his fingers in her hair as it fell over her shoulder. “Neither do I.”
Riley studied his the solemnness of his face and the careful but fierce way he looked at her. When he looked at her like that, when he allowed himself a genuine smile despite himself, or when he held her close like this… it made her feel wanted. It made her own heart fill with longing. As she looked at Drake, her chest tightened with the realization that no one had ever given her a feeling like that before. Despite herself, she worried that no one else might ever do that in the same way again.
“You still have to go, don’t you?” she whispered, her hands balling themselves into the front of his shirt to bring him even closer. Drake rested his forehead against hers and nodded.
“Riley…” he began. The beginning of a goodbye.
“I know,” she said, swallowing the lump in her throat as she released her hands from the wrinkled fabric of his shirt, only to throw her arms around his neck. Riley clung to him tightly, hiding her face in the crook of his neck. Drake’s arms constricted around her, holding Riley with the same desperation she held onto him.
All of his life, Drake put up walls and precautions that would protect him from such intense emotions—emotions that could make him weak. Weakness and vulnerability was dangerous in the court and back home. He wouldn’t dare show anything of the sort. But now, in a crowded subway station all the way in New York, he left himself open. Open to this spitfire of an American woman and the heartbreak he knew she’d bring him. She’d stripped him of his armor and now he was vulnerable.
But somehow, he was okay with that.
Even in their tight embrace, they managed to separate just enough for their eyes to meet and their noses to brush before they collided again.
In that moment, Drake fully understood the meaning of bittersweet. He hated their circumstances, and the cards they’d been dealt. He hated that he’d come so close to finding happiness for himself, he might even admit that he really did find it, only to have to give it up for his unyielding devotion and loyalty to another who needed his support.
But this moment… he wouldn’t trade it for the world. Even if it was a goodbye, he had the most incredible woman in his arms and he’d found heaven in her kiss. As her lips tenderly moved with his and his heart hammered away in his chest, he decided that he had never found anything sweeter.
Shakespeare had it right, he thought. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
When their inevitable disunion came, a sudden thought bloomed in Riley’s mind that she’d forgotten all about once Drake found her on the subway.
“Wait,” she told him, one arm still around his neck as she rifled through her purse for what she needed. Once she found it, she took his hand and pressed it into his palm. “It’s ridiculous, but…”
Drake looked up at her, as she slowly slipped her hand from his and left only the item behind. She was giving him something? He had nothing to offer in return and the realization filled him with shame, but before he could express this to her, she shook her head – as if she knew what he was thinking – and stepped back.
“It’s hardly anything,” Riley shrugged and he opened his hand.
It was the napkin. Wrinkled, coffee stained, and still smudged with ink it read: Kismet. 8 PM.
Drake laughed, caught off guard by the sentiment of such a simple thing. “You shouldn’t have.”
“Yeah, well,” Riley grinned, tucking her hair behind her ear. “What can I say? I’m a generous soul.”
Drake couldn’t help but smile down at the napkin and began to turn it over, but Riley’s smaller hands stopped him. He looked up at her questioningly.
“I…” she began, eyes falling to the napkin. “I wrote something on it. Before you found me on the subway. Just…wait until you get on the plane to read it, okay?”
Drake looked down at the napkin with a newfound importance and he desperately yearned to know what words Riley had left behind for him. But he’d wait if she wanted him to. He wished he could do more for her.
“Alright,” he nodded, carefully folding it up and tucking it safely in his pocket.
“Alright,” Riley repeated softly.
A loaded silence filled the space between them. Time had long since been up and they couldn’t ignore the ever-looming Goodbye.
“Riley …” Drake began, running his hand through his hair. “These last fifteen hours or whatever…They’ve been some of the happiest in my life. Everything you’ve done… I can’t believe you did all of that and I can’t believe that I was lucky enough to have found you.”
“Maybe it wasn’t luck,” she mused, somewhat teasing but also half believing. From the very start, Riley had a feeling that she’d known Drake from somewhere, maybe even from another life. And if that were true - that they’d known each other in a different life- why shouldn’t they be brought together again in this one? “Maybe it’s fate.”
Drake chuckled and for a second, Riley thought he might brush her off because fairy tales are for kids. But instead, he only nodded and looked at her in such a way that it made her heart pound so strongly, she thought it might beat out of her chest. He was looking at her as if he’d been searching for something all his life and now, he’d finally found it in her. It simultaneously filled her with unmatched joy and unfathomable sorrow.
“Maybe,” he agreed.
“Drake…” Riley said softly, unspoken words on her lips.
“I know.”
It was time.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at a glass of whiskey the same after all this,” she teased, but her joke fell flat as her voice grew hoarse.
“Yeah, well, now I won’t be able to eat any of that fancy finger food without craving cronuts or Sloppy Joes,” Drake give her a small smile. “I’m a changed man, Cole.”
She returned his smile with one of her own. “I’m sure you’ll manage.”
“I know you will.”
Another silence fell between them, a clear sign of their reluctance to separate.
Drake closed the gap between them, pressing his lips to Riley’s forehead. A small sign of affection that somehow meant the world. He murmured against her skin. “If things were different…”
Squeezing her eyes shut and willing the tears that had begun to burn behind her eyes back, Riley wrapped her arms around his waist and rest her head against his chest. As his arms gently enveloped her, she nodded. “If things were different.”
They stayed like this for a few moments longer – a few moments they could not afford – until Drake pulled away.
“Goodbye, Riley,” he told her, voice soft as he began to back away.
Riley took a deep breath and forced herself to stay rooted to where she stood. “Goodbye, Drake.”
“Uhh, Riley? Earth to Riley?”
“Huh, what?” Riley shook her head, blinking to snap out of her reverie. Daniel was staring at her, concern etched onto his features as his other hand rest on the door handle.
“I asked whatever happened to that guy one guy. Drake,” he said, opening the door to let her through first. “You kind of zoned out on me there.”
“Oh… right,” Riley cleared her throat as she re-entered the bar. “Yeah, um, well he went back home. I haven’t seen him since.”
“Shame. You looked happy that night.” Daniel shrugged, patting Riley’s shoulder. Riley almost scoffed. If only he knew. “Anyways, I have to head out soon. Will you please take the bachelor party?
“Ugh, fine. Fine,” Riley relented, putting her palm against her forehead. A bachelor party. Just great. She had a feeling it was going to be a long night. “The tip better be good.”
“Oh, thank you!” he cheered. “You’re the best!”
“Are you two still talking?” the manager snapped, glaring daggers. “I’ve seated them already. Now get over there before I dock your pay!”
“Right, sorry,” Riley muttered, wheeling about to head in the opposite direction. She glanced at Daniel over her shoulder and mouthed, Go, I’ve got this.
“Waitress, there you are!”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Riley made her way towards a booth seating three men, all finely dressed. The one in the tailored suit, who called her over was fussing over a loose string on one of the buttons of his coat while the brunette next to him grinned ear to ear and waved to her. Riley chuckled and returned the gesture as her eyes fell on the third, undeniably handsome man with a kind smile and an almost regal air about him. They didn’t look like too much trouble.
“Hello, gentlemen,” Riley greeted them, pulling a notepad and pencil from her apron pocket. “I’ll be taking care of you this evening.”
The beaming brunette called for steaks for the table and the man in the suit ordered a medium-rare fillet mignon with béarnaise sauce. Riley had to bite her lip to stifle her laughter. Steaks and fillet mignon at a bar like this? Clearly, these men weren’t from around here. Their accents – wait, their accents…
A sudden tingling feeling formed in her hands as hope bubbled up inside her chest. Could it be? Were these men Cordonian?
“Um,” Riley cleared her throat, forcing herself to abandon such ridiculous thoughts. There was no way… “The closest thing we have to filet mignon is the deluxe burger.”
“Four deluxe burgers it is,” the quieter, princely man declared with a cordial smile.
Riley raised an eyebrow. “Four…?”
The suit’s face fell. “Dare I ask for your wine list?”
“Tariq, you don’t drink wine at a bachelor party,” a voice behind Riley suddenly spoke up and she felt her heart stop. That voice… “We’ll be fine with a bottle of whiskey.”
She’d know that voice anywhere. And the whiskey…
The fourth man stepped around Riley and slid into the booth, a familiar image with dark hair, a white T-shirt, and a denim button up. Without glancing up, he pulled his phone from his pocket and set it face down on the table, as if he needed it within reach to distract himself from the other men of his party.
Riley could hardly breathe. “Whiskey, huh?”
At the sound of her voice, Drake looked up.
Explaining how they met to the others – sparing quite a few details – Drake and Riley realized just how unrealistic the whole thing really seemed. A fairytale, a twist of fate – however it was that Riley put it… well, it seemed pretty fitting. But despite how improbable their story was, the other men of the bachelor party found it absolutely delightful and praised Riley for rousing more smiles out of Drake in one night than he usually allowed in an entire month. In fact, the others loved the story – and Riley – so much, they insisted that she come along with them to a club called Kismet.
“It was Drake’s idea,” Maxwell Beaumont, the same one Drake had told her about months ago, revealed. “He was the only one of us who knew anything about the city. Now we know why.”
Riley snorted, sneaking a bashful glance at Drake. “Kismet? You suggested Kismet?”
They had yet to talk privately and Riley had so many things to say, but she still didn’t know if she could bring herself to say them. It had been months since they’d parted, after all.
“Heh.” He shrugged, the corner of his mouth quirking up as he swirled his whiskey around. “Sentimental value.”
Riley felt her cheeks heat.
“Well,” she said, turning away from him. “Forget Kismet. There’s this gorgeous little cove by a beach just outside the city that we could go to instead. It’s my special spot, but I suppose I could make an exception.”
Drake stilled. The cove. The beach, the subway – everything after the bar, they’d left out. It was an unspoken agreement between them.
“Cole…”
“A beach?” Liam – Prince Liam, as Riley already knew him to be even though he had yet to tell her – questioned. Based on what Drake had told her of him months ago and what she’d gotten to know about him since they’d officially met, Riley had taken a liking to Liam. She understood why Drake was so devoted to him. “That actually sounds perfect. Lead the way!”
“Sure! Let me finish up here and I’ll meet you out front,” Riley told them as she adjusted her apron and then turned to check on the other tables.
She felt the weight of Drake’s stare as she went.
“So those are your nobles,” Riley smiled slightly as she came up behind Drake and joined him where he sat on the cliff side, overlooking the dark ocean. The other men were busy frolicking in the waves – even Tariq with his expensive suit – and although he joined them for a short while, Drake eventually slipped away to get some peace of mind. Riley followed.
“They can be a bit of a handful,” Drake said, glancing over at her with an apologetic smile. “Thanks for taking us all out.”
“Oh, they’re not so bad,” she shrugged, letting her feet dangle over the edge as she gazed out at the horizon. The stars weren’t as visible as the night they visited together months ago, but it was still breathtaking. “So the bachelor party…it’s for Liam, isn’t it? How’s he taking it all?”
“Well, Liam is Liam. So naturally, he’s taking it very well. Still a horrible situation, but…” he sighed, running his hands through his hair. “I want him to get some happiness out of it.”
“From what you’ve told me, he definitely deserves it,” Riley agreed, her fingers playing with the ends of her hair as she spoke. “Shame he’s getting married though. He’s so handsome.”
Without looking, Riley could see the incredulous look on Drake’s face.
She looked over at him, a sly smile on her face. “Kidding. Can you really imagine me with a prince?”
“Ha ha.” Drake rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Imagine that. You as a suitor. Cordonian nobles wouldn’t know what hit ‘em.”
“Maybe you should pull some string and get me in the running,” she teased, nudging his shoulder.
“Like hell, Cole,” he scoffed. “My goal is to keep you as far from that crowd as possible.”
“Ah, and bringing me out to party with them is just the way to do it,” Riley grinned nodded towards the cove where the others could still be heard whooping and hollering.
“Maybe I’m not doing the best job,” Drake admitted, looking over at Riley with a faint smile. A few moments passed before he cleared his throat, eyes clouded, and looked at the horizon again.“Look, Cole…”
“Yeah?” Riley felt her lungs restrict at the shift in his tone. This was it, after all these months, they could finally talk.
Drake took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak before hesitating. He swallowed a lump in his throat and glanced down at his hands clasped in his lap. For a second, Riley thought about taking on of them in her own.
“Remember when we came here?” he asked finally.
“Of course,” Riley nodded, somewhat disappointed by his flat question.
“And the bonfire?”
“Uh-huh.”
“The stars?”
“All of it, Drake,” Riley said firmly, stopping him from asking any more detail-based questions.
“And everything I said.” Drake finished. It wasn’t a question. He was looking at her again, face solemn and eyes unreadable.
“If things were different…” Riley whispered, trailing off as if going any further would be overstepping the boundary between what they were and what they are now – whatever that was.
“You said…“ Drake’s brows drew together and his eyes grew conflicted. “You said if things were different, then maybe things between us – “
“I meant it,” Riley cut him off. “If we had more time…”
He looked away, fingers tangling the long, thin blades of grass that tapered off at the edge. Months ago, Drake had once told her he didn’t believe fairytales. But after everything…maybe he’d been beginning to hope. “Cole…?”
She looked at him questioningly, leaning in to see his face better. “What if this is our different?”
Riley’s eyes widened and she sucked in a breath. “Drake… you mean…?”
“Hell, I don’t know, Cole,” he muttered, shaking his head as if that would help clear it. “How is it possible that we met like this again? When we walked into that bar, I never would have guessed you’d be there.” He sighed, mumbling under his breath, “You have no idea how glad I am that you were…”
“What are you trying to say?” Riley asked after a weighted silence had stretched on between them, moving closer and taking his hand.
“It’s been months, Cole. I haven’t stopped thinking about you and that night since. I’m pretty sure Liam’s sick of hearing me talk about it, too,” he admitted in a rush, as if speaking any slower would make him lose his courage. Sharing feelings was never easy for Drake to do, but the moment he saw Riley tonight, he resolved that if he only had tonight with her, he wouldn’t waste it to be careful. “I just have to know if you still feel the same.”
She stared at him, heart hammering in her chest as she tried to process everything he just said. He thought about her? All this time? Which meant he still felt the same?
Not trusting herself to form a coherent sentence, Riley just shook her head and surged forward and fit her lips against his. She felt him seize up for a split second before coming to life, just as he did the first time they kissed. He cradled her against him, moving them first away from the cliff’s edge and then pulling her into his lap.
Neither of them knew how long they stayed like that, sitting and – after a while – laying in each other’s embrace, but eventually, Riley broke away. Breathless and beaming, she pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. “Does that answer your question?”
“I think so,” Drake grinned, cupping Riley’s cheek. His hair was mussed up – all thanks to Riley’s doing – his cheeks were rosy with blush, and his eyes were alight with joy, Riley wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him so happy. “But I wouldn’t mind if you’d say it out loud.”
Riley giggled, reaching up to smooth some hair off of his forehead. “I still feel the same.”
“You still feel the same,” Drake repeated, as making sure it was still true.
“Yes, I still feel the same,” she nodded, kissing the corner of his mouth – right where the hint of a smile would form first whenever she could coax it out of him.
“I didn’t think this would ever be more than a fantasy,” he murmured, resting his forehead against hers.
“Are you saying that you’ve thought about this before?” Riley teased.
“More than I’d like to admit,” Drake breathed out before capturing her lips again in a long, deep kiss. “But what are we going to do about this?”
Riley shrugged, not quite ready to face the heavy reality of their situation. Now, she was ridiculously happy, in a state of euphoria, and she didn’t want this moment to end. “We can figure that out tomorrow morning.”
Drake’s heart sputtered to a stop in his chest, cheeks flushing. “Cole…”
Riley responded with a sweet kiss on his cheek, smiling against his skin. “I’m happy you’re back, Drake.”
He tightened his arms around her waist, burying his face in the crook of her neck. “Things will be different this time, Riley.”
I promise.
One Year Later
The sheer curtains billow lazily in the early morning breeze, the first hints of daylight just beginning to filter into the room. Drake watches with sleepy eyes and a yawn on his lips as the sunlight creeps its way across the room and onto the bed before falling gently on the sleeping woman next to him. He reaches out, tenderly trailing his fingertips over her skin as it softly glows golden before pressing his lips to the small freckles on her bare shoulder.
Riley’s eyelids flutter slightly, but she still doesn’t wake. Drake doesn’t mind it at all. He enjoys moments like these, when he wakes before her and gets to see what the rest of the world doesn’t. There had once been a period in which Drake often wondered what it’d be like to wake up with Riley next to him, to hold her hand when he wanted to, to have more than a handful of hours with her. And now, all of that is his reality.
He wouldn’t trade it for the world.
After reuniting in New York during Liam’s bachelor party, Drake had made an effort to visit Riley more (Liam was more than willing to help with travel expenses) and she’d even visited Cordonia once. But once was all it took for her to fall in love with the small country. Drake had taken her around to all of his favorite places, showed her around the palace, and together, they mocked and observed the nobles at dinner when no one else was watching. Her single visit to Cordonia – and a little bit of convincing from Drake – had been enough to make up Riley’s mind about moving not even a month later.
Now it had been about three months since Riley had moved in with Drake, and the last three months were easily some of the happiest of his entire life. Sure, the nobles talked, but Riley quickly proved herself more than capable of holding her own and Drake, Liam, and even Maxwell were there to have her back.
After Savannah had left, Cordonia felt as if it were simply a place in which he had to live in. He had no attachment to country, save for a few exceptional people. But now that Riley was here with him, Cordonia was actually starting to feel like home again.
Three small words fall from his lips as he leans down to sweep her hair off her shoulder and place another kiss in the crook of his neck before slipping out of the covers, dressing somewhat decently, and leaving the room. He returns from the palace kitchen a few minutes later, coffee for him in one hand and tea in the other, hot and with a spoonful of honey, just the way Riley likes it.
He’s learned a lot about her in the few months they’ve lived together.
She’s a side sleeper and always seems to take to the left side of the bed when she passes out as he showers, but shares the middle with him when he takes her into his arms.
She doesn’t flail around in her sleep, but tosses her legs over his thigh and curls into his side with her head on his chest, one hand tucked beneath her chin while the other rests over his. He usually likes to hold her in the night, but when the nightmares are bad and Savannah’s name slips from his lips, he always finds solace in her arms.
She prefers pancakes over waffles and likes a mountain of whipped cream and strawberries to accompany them.
She holds his hand under the table to ground him at dinner when someone brings up his family and when she whispers that she loves him in private corners of the palace, he feels warm again.
It is now a second nature for him, to hold her.
Drake sets their mugs down on their night stand, right next to an old and coffee stained napkin, smudged with ink. On the front, a location and time was hastily scrawled location and time, but on the inside was a note.
He’s read the note hundreds of times and remembers it word for word, but he picks it up and unfolds it anyway to read…
Drake,
You’re gruff and stubborn and sometimes you’re the most infuriating person I’ve ever met.
But on the beach, you asked me if we met somewhere else, if we’d had enough time…would things be different?
And my answer was yes, maybe everything could have been different. I hate that I believe that things still can be while you don’t. I hate that you’re afraid to care for me when I, for some reason, care a hell of a lot about you. There’s something about you that I can’t shake. When I first saw you, I could have sworn I knew you or that maybe we’ve met before. I don’t know what I believe in, but you make me wonder. Maybe we have—in another lifetime, and maybe everything is different there. Or maybe we didn’t work then either and we were still left wishing for something more. If that’s the case I imagine I would have wished for you to find me, for us to meet again under different circumstances.
So maybe this isn’t a life where things work out for us. But I ask you to come find me again. Because my answer is still yes.
Smiling softly to himself, he folds the napkin carefully and sets it back on the nightstand before climbing back into bed, slipping his arms around Riley.
The End.
