Epilogue: Goodbyes

I carefully place the pot with my monstera (or my Swiss Cheese plant as Anna used to call it) in the cardboard box that already contains all the other personal stuff I used to have on my desk. Then I look around the open office space and take in the sight of my now empty desk with a lump in my throat. I cannot quite believe it has come to this; that I'm leaving.

My mind keeps spinning.

Was it a mistake to sleep with my boss?

Would I do it again?

Do I regret it now that I leave this job that has meant so much to me?

The answers are; No, yes and no.

Sleeping with Charles (again) is the best thing I have done. I would do it a million times again and haven't regretted it for a split second. It does not prevent me from feeling sad though, now when everything is changing. It does not prevent me from feeling anxiety about what is to come.

There is a soft knock on the door frame. He has come out from his room and stands watching me with those gooey brown eyes that makes me weak at the knees. His handsomeness always sucks the breath out of me even if one could think I would start to get immune by now. He shoves his hands in his suit pants pockets, tilts his head to the side and looks searchingly at me.

"Are you okay Molls?" he asks softly. "I feel bad about making you leave."

"You're not making me leave, you numpty. I choose to." I smile bravely but can feel a few disobedient tears trickle down my cheeks even if my words are true.

"Everyone knows you can't keep working at a job if you have slept with the boss. In the long run it is simply awkward at best. Besides, there wouldn't be a reason to keep me with Anna gone."

"I can think of many good reasons of keeping you close to me." He takes a step closer and keeps his voice low so nobody else hears him.

"Well, there's that but I have a feeling I might distract you from the task at hand."

My tears slow and the smile takes over. He always knows how to make me feel good, no matter what made me feel down in the first place.

"But you promise to keep doing it after the business day is over?" he raises his signature a sardonic eyebrow.

"Of course. Every day... and every night."

There is a glimmer of relief in his eyes, as if this gorgeous man actually doubted I would want to continue our relationship. Hidden by the desk, he discreetly places his hand on my hip. He just lets it rest there, but it is enough to make me feel a bit flushed.

Six months in on our relationship, it is no longer a secret, but we refrain from physical displays of affection at work anyway. I want to at least keep a scrap of my former professionalism and Charles wants to stay a respected boss. A few months ago we shocked the crap out of everyone except Georgie when Charles informed very matter-of-factly at a staff meeting that we are a couple and said that if anyone had any issues with that they should bring it up with him. By now we are old gossip, but still keep a low profile.

"I'll hold you to that promise." He removes his hand and I want it back on my body, where it belongs. I will definitely stay true to my promise.

"Now, I think Anna wanted a word with you. Come by my office afterwards. There's something I want to show you before you leave."

He looks so mischievous when he says this, that I'm still preoccupied trying to figure out what it could be when I enter Anna's office.

Even if she has been back to work part-time for a few months, my heart still makes extra-beat of joy every time I see her there behind her desk, looking like she always did. A fierce business woman with a heart of gold. She has changed though, or rather she realised that her priorities in life are different than she thought they were. Anna has decided that she wants to spend more time with her family. This company is her pride, but she will let Charles keep managing it and remain more in the background herself. She will still have the final say in important decisions, so she is not giving up on her "baby" completely, but she will spend much less time working. Now she, Malcolm and the children are planning a long holiday. She calls it glam backpacking, which essentially means they will travel between a number of luxurious resorts for two months. I doubt there will be a backpack in sight, but I am very happy for her. She deserves this time with her family. They all do.

"Are you okay Molls?"

Funny that she and Charles should ask the same thing, but they and Jackie are after all the people that know me inside and out. The lump in my throat grows. Anna and I will stay friends but this is the end of us working together. She is pleased because I finally decided to take the step she has encouraged me to take for long; to start as a trainee in another firm. She claims it has been years since I exceeded the tasks in the role description for a PA and ought to get it formalized.

I used to be afraid of the change but now everything is changing anyway. She will not be here much, so she will not need me in the capacity of a PA. Charles has Georgie, who actually has stepped up to the plate lately and last but not least, it is far from ideal to date your boss. Georgie and Anna are not bothered, but I can tell that it freaks everyone else out a bit. Like they are afraid I would be spying on them for him. They forget I already knew everything that was going on in this office but I have no intention to go gossiping about it to Charles. Anyway, I think it will be a relief to many when I quit.

I did not make the decision in my own. When Anna offered Charles to make his position permanent and at the same time brought up the traineeship with me for the umpteenth time, we deliberated it together. Discussed our options, our future together like a real couple. Of course I knew we were already, after months wonderful non-fancy, uncomplicated and funny dates, long entangled nights, him asking me to move in with him when Jackie announced she would stay in Spain permanently and finally outing it officially at work. However, discussing our joint future in a grown-up, mature way, thinking of what would be best for us both, made me realise that this actually could be forever.

Him and I.

Next to having sex with him it was the best feeling ever.

"I'm okay. It's just a big step. You know it has meant the world to me working here for you. With you."

"I know, because it is the same for me. To be honest I'm not sure I would have been able to soldier on for this long if it wasn't for you. You have been so much more than my PA. I know you will be their best trainee ever at Pearson's. I told him he should be grateful to have you, not the other way around."

"I doubt it and it's a bit terrifying that you have set the expectations on me so high."

"Stop doubting yourself Molly and you can do anything. I know you even doubted you could go on holiday last year and look where it brought you! Besides, psychology experiments have shown that if people expect great things from you, people actually achieve more. I'm certain you will be brilliant."

"One could argue I was just sleeping my way to the top..."

"We both know that isn't true. You have worked harder than most people I know to get where you are and proved yourself long before Charles popped up. You and Charles, that is pure love, nothing else. You needed that in your life though, to balance your slightly workaholic and controlling side. He has been… no he is good for you. And you for him. I can see that."

"Thank you for pushing me to go on that holiday, otherwise we may never have ended up together."

She frowned her brow pensively.

"I don't know about that. Sometimes I have this silly superstitious feeling that some things are simply meant to be and will happen one way or another. Like it is fate."

This is unlike Anna and normally the pragmatic part of me would protest, but deep inside I feel the same about me and Charles. We were meant to end up together. If he had not faked being a non-English speaking Spanish guy it would have happened easier, now we reached the same destination after a little detour.

"Malcolm wanted me to ask you two to come for dinner when we return from holiday. He wants to hear your fascinating story first hand. He is not pleased with my story telling. He thinks I'm leaving out the juicy details." She rolls her eyes and laughs.

Anna isn't the only one going on holiday. I will have a few weeks off before I start the traineeship. Charles and I will go to Spain. First we plan on visiting Jackie and Manolo in Madrid. Then we will take a road trip down south eating tapas and drinking red wine and have as much sex as possible along the way, then finish off with a few days in Nerja before we fly back home. I am looking forward to it immensely. Even if we always make time for each other despite Charles' busy schedule, it will be wonderful to just enjoy each other twenty-four-seven.

She picks up her Bottega Veneta handbag.

"I'm off to a dinner date with Malcolm now. Please post a few pics on Insta so I get to see how you are enjoying yourselves Spain."

"And you do the same from the Maldives and wherever you go next on your glamorous backpacking trip."

We hug hard and long. Her body is thinner than it used to be, a testament to the fight she has endured. A wipe away a few tears again and so does she. Anna has reminded me how very precarious life is, how quickly it can change. It will take another five years of health check-ups before she is declared fully recovered from the cancer. I am happy she is doing the things she believes will make her most happy. I will do the same.

After one last hug, laughingly reminding each other that this hardly is the last time we will see one another she takes off. The familiar sound of her determined heels disappears towards the lift and it feel like it is the end of an era. First day at work that sound made me terrified straighten my back, now it makes me smile fondly. I will miss it.

The office is almost empty now, but the light in Charles' room is on and it makes me feel stupidly fuzzy inside, like a pink cotton ball. I still feel jubilant every time it hits me that he is waiting for me. That he undoubtedly is mine.

"I'm ready now. All my things are packed and I've said goodbye to Anna. For now."

"Of course it is for now. There's nothing that could keep the two of you apart. You belong together like peas and carrots. In fact, if you had to choose between me and her I'm not sure I would come out as the winner."

"Lucky that I don't have to choose then. Actually I think we are indebted to her, for employing us both and for nudging us in the right direction."

"True. And for forcing you to go on holiday." He smiles that smile that half kills me every time. The other half of me wants to jump him. "We have to invite her to our weddi..."

He bites off the sentence, almost seeming embarrassed even if I understand he just said it in jest. Not that I haven't imagined it about a hundred times or so. Our wedding. One day perhaps we will be ready for that conversation but now it is a bit previous.

"Anyway..." He gets up from the chair and run his fingers through his hair. "There was one thing I wanted to show you before we leave."

Now I'm really curious again and forget the wedding topic. What could he possibly want to show me that I haven't already seen in this office? I know it isn't a surprise goodbye party because they already threw me one last week.

Surprises are not my forte, at least not when I'm the one being surprised, but I was able to enjoy it after the first shock had faded and Anna had fed me two Moscow Mules. I wept through her speech, hugged quite a few people I never had considered hugging before and ended up singing karaoke off key before Charles kindly put me and himself in a cab and carried me to bed. I must admit I don't remember the singing clearly but he has been sure to enact my excellent performance of ABBA's 'The winner takes it all' quite a few times to make up for my partial amnesia. I would have kicked him out if the house wasn't his and if I didn't love him so much.

He takes my hand, laces his fingers with mine and looks at me with an expression which is hard to read. It is a strange but adorable combination of naughty boy and horny and nervous man. Next, he pulls me with him through the empty office, down the corridor and into... the copy room!

He shuts the door behind us and the soft click tells me he locked it too.

He moves closer and circles my waist with his large hands. My body hums in approval.

"Some dreams are too good to stay just dreams", he mumbles with lips grazing mine.

I told him of the dream and he enjoyed the story a lot, but I never thought we would act on it. Old Always-in-control-Molly never would. New Wanton-sex-goddess-Molly, feels a fire between her thighs which only he is able to extinguish.

I feel my feet dangle in the air for a brief moment when he swiftly lifts me on top of the copy machine. Then he seems to be everywhere simultaneously and this time it is very real. No dream, nope, and the way he holds me ensures that I don't fall off the machine. His demanding lips crash to mine, his tongue immediately probes deep inside when I willingly part my lips. My skirt seem to move up almost on its own accord and I couldn't care less when I hear the seam above the slit crack because it allows his hands to explore further up and that is all I want. His urgency excites me and I respond with the same. With my mouth latched his, I undo his shirt buttons fastest possible and push the shirt off his shoulders. I break the kiss for a moment to look at him. I will never tire of the sight of his well-cut chest, or of his eyes when they are dark with want and love. He doesn't allow the pause to last for long though. His hand has found the way to my damp heat and he impatiently move the lace panties aside and with his eyes still locked with mine push his fingers inside me. I moan and grab the curls at the nape of his neck, eager to pull him to me again but he resists.

"No, I want to look at you." He smiles that wicked smile which he saves only for me, in moments like this and I find I have nothing to object as he keeps touching me. I feel exposed under his intense gaze but in a way that arouses me beyond belief. I grasp around the edges of the copy machine and move my hips to meet his hand until I feel a relentless wave of roll through me. He sees it, he feels it and when I'm still trembling from it he swiftly unbuttons his pants, pushes them down, then slams into me. I wrap my legs around him and then we move as one until the poor copy machine is rocking and creaking. He smells so good. He feels so good, both outside and inside, but above all I love him to bits. Those feelings combined with the sexy forbidden sensation of getting it on in the copy room makes the pressure build up inside me a second time. We have since long forgotten the possibility that any lingering co-workers might pass by and hear us. I moan, he grunts, we scream out each other's name as we both reach the pinnacle.

We stay still like that. Spent, fulfilled and panting, without wanting to part yet. Joined but now relaxed. We stroke each other's backs with light fingertips and kiss again, gently this time. I almost feel like crying with happiness. Laughter bubbles up inside me.

"You sure knows how to see a girl off."

"I couldn't let you leave without trying out your fantasy. Mine is my desk ever since we almost… but as you are the one leaving I thought your fantasy takes precedence."

"That's very grand of you. I'm sure we can manage yours too at some point when I come to visit you at work."

"Perhaps we can."

He chuckles and this warm, glowing feeling fills me because I know he is just as happy as I am in this moment. It is a perfect moment even if I'm uncomfortably seated on a copy machine in a crammed, windowless room and my favourite skirt quite possibly is ruined, because I am with my favourite person in the world.

Almost as if he could read my mind, his smile gradually disappears and he looks at me with such serious intensity that it makes my skin prickle.

"Molly, you know that I love you…"

He pauses to tuck away a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I love you too."

I bury my fingers in his curls and prepare to kiss him but freeze when he continues.

"Will you marry me?"

"What?"

I didn't see that coming. Not here, not now on a freakin' copy machine with him between my legs. On the other hand I just thought that this moment was perfection.

He laughs, sounding slightly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry. I had this planned for dinner tonight, under slightly more romantic circumstances, but I just felt I had to ask now. That's how I feel. I just want to be with you. Always. I'd love if you want to be my wife. What do you reckon?"

I am so stunned that I remain quiet even if I know the answer.

"I promise you will get a second proper proposal, with a ring and all, if that is what worries you but I…"

"Yes. A thousand times yes."

"You want to marry me?"

His smile is the widest I have ever seen. He leans his forehead to mine.

"I want that more than anything."

That is all I manage to say for now. My emotions are in such a happy turmoil that it cannot be expressed in words, but I know he knows.

We kiss again. For a long time, until I feel that my arse is going numb.

"I think I need to move now if I shall be able to walk at all."

"I knew I'm not small but I didn't think I would render you incapable of walking. That would be a first."

"I didn't mean…" Too late I notice the amused spark in his eyes.

"I know."

He laughs and gently puts me down, then glances at the machine.

"We probably broke it. I had better buy a new one at my own expense. Perhaps we should put this one at home? I mean I quite enjoy the things it inspires to."

I elbow him in the side.

"I think it would lose its appeal if we always had free access to it."

"I think you may be right."

With his arm around my shoulders we leave the copy room behind. I know it will always hold a special place in my heart from this day on. It used to have a place in my fantasies, but I don't need those anymore as reality has exceeded them by far.

When we stand waiting for the lift, he carrying my cardboard box under one arm, holding my hand with the other, I glance back towards my empty desk one last time.

"Goodbye", I whisper and when there is a ping and the double doors open, I know that I am ready to take the leap and go.

A/N: When you least expect it… there finally is an update.

Sorry for the long wait.

The thing is, I feel I have totally lost the connection with Molly and Charles. They no longer speak to me so to say, even if it sounds crazy that they ever did. I decided to write an epilogue to complete this story and I hope you enjoyed but it does not come as easy as it used to. Sadly, I think it is the end of my writing about Molly and Charles even if I constantly write other stories.

Thank You to all of you who have followed my Our Girl stories and supported me with your kind and lovely reviews. It has meant a lot to me!

Take care and stay safe,

xxx