“They did not live happily ever after. That's not called ‘living’. They lived, fought, broke, cried, got hurt, apologized, learned, smiled, laughed, loved, respected, supported,shared,and most importantly, they took many many many...guitar lessons.”

- meh.

I am in my office, working on my emails when I hear a commotion outside, probably at the front desk.

“No, you can’t come in,” I hear Sarah, my assistant, say.

I don’t hear what the other person says. Sarah is under strict orders not to let anybody in my office after 4 pm. That is when I finish and organize all my remaining work of the day.

“But you can’t,” Sarah says, frustrated. I call her.

“What’s going on?” I ask her, amused.

“Somebody is trying to get in, Gwen. He won’t listen to me,” Sarah says. I can almost see her tapping her foot in frustration.

“You know the rules,” I remind her. “Good luck!”

Sarah groans as I cut the call. I go back to my emails. It is currently 4:45. I do not have much work left. I have ten more emails to check today. After that, I will be done.

“Heard you don’t have time for me?” I glance up upon hearing that voice.

That voice is more familiar to me than my own.

I raise my eyebrows. “Rules are rules.”

There stands Mr. Oliver Carlson in all his glory, wearing a hoodie, a pair of jeans, and his Jordans. His hair is curly and unruly as always, at this office hour. He is the only person with the audacity to stand inside my office in that attire.

I have tried. I have tried to tell him not to dress up like the next Mark Zuckerberg, but as if he will listen to me. Oliver will never understand how good he looks in formal clothes.

“Oh really,” Oliver says.

“I told you not to—” Sarah walks in right behind him, with her hands in her hips.

She is probably thinking she is at risk of losing her job.

“Yes?” Oliver turns back and glares at Sarah.

Sarah shuts up and looks at me for further instruction. Outside, I am looking grave and emotionless (something I picked up from Oliver, which does me a huge favor sometimes) but on the inside I am laughing.

“As he has already sneaked in—” I start.

“I didn’t sneak in, Mrs. Carlson. I have important work to talk about,” Oliver interjects.

I look at Sarah. “You can go now.”

“Yes. What are you standing there for? Go now,” Oliver says, narrowing his eyes at Sarah.

Sarah nods at me but narrows her eyes at Oliver. Then she leaves.

Oliver turns to me and leans forward, placing his hands on my desk and says, “So, what’s keeping you so busy, Mrs. Carlson, that you can’t even see me?”

“I told you already, Mr. Carlson, I don’t take visitors at this hour,” I answer as I finish up writing another email.

“Aha,” Oliver moves one of the visitor’s chairs and sits down. Then he places a file on the desk. “Not even if it’s about work?”

I take the file and check the report for our new project.

“That one will be sent,” I close the file after skimming over it. It looks great.

I look at Oliver and nod. He nods back.

Oliver is the head of the innovation department of Bradbury- Carlson Ltd. He is the BoB, as in the brain of the brain of our company. Oliver and his co-workers in his department are the brains of this office, as they come up with new ideas.

I have heard they call me ‘angry woman’ behind my back, but that might be Oliver’s doing.

Oliver has managed to keep his reputation of not smiling, not talking, not engaging with anyone else in the office. Although, once I heard him laugh with his people while walking by his lab. As soon as I peeked inside, they stopped.

Sometimes I hate the fact I’m the CEO, or that I’m nicknamed ‘angry woman.’ I am just trying to keep everything under control. That’s not easy work.

I have been successful so far, other than Oliver’s department. The thing about that department is that no matter how hard I try, I can’t discipline them. They will arrive and leave the office whenever they please. Once I found a guy walking in at 11 am in a pair of sleepers. I had to scold him just so he didn’t make other people demoralized. And then he, with a low voice, told me that he’s allowed to wear sleepers and also come in whenever he pleases because Mr. Oliver Carlson allows so.

Son of a—

“So, dear wifey, when will we be heading home?” Oliver asks, leaning forward.

I roll my eyes. I have six more emails to check. Here, look at Oliver, already done with his work and now messing with me. This happens most of the time. And then there might be days when he doesn’t even set foot in the office.

I have seen the opposite too, when he won’t leave the lab because God knows when he gets another amazing idea. He also has a lab at home in the basement, where he vanishes sometimes.

“It will take time,” I let Oliver know as my eyes catch on the golden ring on his finger.

My heart skips a beat.

It has been a year since we got married. So yeah, I don’t blame my heart when it skips a beat every time I see the ring and realize, yeah, it’s true. We are married.

“Hmm,” Oliver mumbles, lost in his thoughts.

I write another one of my emails, answering a question from an employee.

I feel someone’s leg brushing with mine.

It has to be Oliver. He’s sitting across from me. He’s the only other person in this room, other than some ghosts that may be under my desk.

I don’t pay attention and keep typing.

I feel another brush and look up. Oliver is doing something on his phone.

A few moments of typing later, I feel his legs moving. Oliver has his legs crossed behind mine.

Old habits die hard.

I feel my cheek heat up a little. Oliver doing what he’s doing now has never brought something good.

Or may I say, it has never brought something bad.

At school, things were child-like. We used to sneak behind aisles in the library or the back of the school. At college, oh well. Now?

You may not ask. I like to keep things behind closed doors in our bedroom.

Oliver Carlson has ideas. He doesn’t only invent new robots or devices. He likes to innovate and come up with other kinds of stuff as well. Use your imagination here.

When it comes to ideas, I am not one to lose.

So, things are rather more interesting than you may think.

I type as I feel my ears burning, remembering a thing or two. I hear Oliver tapping his fingers.

Jason named it the code, once he cracked it. It was embarrassing for me. For Oliver? He doesn’t care.

I glare at him. Oliver stops.

When I start to type again, Oliver starts tapping his copyrighted famous code.

“Mr. Carlson, we are in the office. This is a workplace. Now you may please,” I state as I go back to my computer again.

I do have some rules. We have never done anything in the office.

And then Oliver stretches his shoulders and runs a hand through his hair.

He’s so gone today. I am going to kill him.

“What did I tell you?” I ask, glancing at him and find him staring at me, as if he hasn’t seen me before.

“Oliver,” I warn.

I am his wife for God’s sake. What hasn’t he seen already? Besides, he has been seeing this same face for twelve years.

“Yeah,” Oliver replies. He has the drunk look on his face.

I look away and breathe in. My body is heating up.

“We are in the office,” I say to him.

“Yeah, I realized that,” Oliver says. “I also realized something else.”

“What?” I ask while typing another email. One more email left to answer, then I will be done.

“You have a nice desk,” Oliver replies.

No. Nope. Not happening. Not on my desk.

“Yes, and I like to keep it clean,” I answer, glaring at him.

Oliver shakes his head as if he understood. He looks around and then he says, “There’s a disinfect. And I can see a cloth for wiping too. Good.”

I will kill this guy. I don’t care that he’s my husband.

I finish my email hurriedly and shut down my computer. If I’m fast enough, I might be able to take this down to his car. It’s his car. So, that saves my desk.

“Let’s go, I’m done,” I say.

“Great,” Oliver stands up and he comes around.

“Oliver,” I warn as he places both his palms on my chair’s arms, caging me in.

“Yes,” Oliver answers, leaning forward.

“No, no, no, no, no,” I start. “Not happ—”

And yeah, that’s the story of my life.

I made Oliver wipe down the desk. Yes, I made sure of that.

*****

After Mr. Carlson broke the rules, I am now home lying my head on his lap in our bedroom. He is reading a book while absentmindedly running his fingers through my hair. We already had dinner.

Despite everything we went through, I am so grateful that we ended up together. It wasn’t a smooth sail, it wasn’t a fairy tale. There were heartbreaks, tears, fights, yelling, and so much love that brought us here. When I look back, I wonder how it was even possible.

After Oliver and I graduated high school, we realized that we were not going to the same college. I found my passion in senior year. I had a change of mind and got interested in my parents’ business. I thought of starting a business on my own and I needed a degree.

Oliver with his passion for robots was set out to have a degree in electrical engineering. And until the last moment, we didn’t realize we have applied to different colleges and we were going to be miles away from each other.

There were fights and tears, and neither of us were willing to leave our own dreams, but neither of us were willing to let each other go. So, the dread of a long-distance relationship loomed over us. It was four years of constant pain to go through. But it was worth every smile I saw on Oliver’s face when I crashed in his condo unannounced.

After getting my bachelor’s degree, I changed my college and applied for one that was closer to Oliver’s. That’s when we had another milestone in front of us, to actually live together.

No matter how much you love the person, you don’t understand a few things unless you start living with them under one roof. For example, Oliver never ever cleans his room, and I hate it. We had to adjust and ditch our own rules so we could make some rules together.

As time went by, we realized with our degrees that we could have our own business, where Oliver gets to do what he wants and I get to do what I want. He can work with technologies and I can run the business.

We were so happy to finally find a way to integrate our lives that we didn’t think hard about many things. We took loans from my parents, from his dad (yep), and Jason and Owen both owned a few percent of our shares. We started our business.

Then we faced a huge loss. It could have been our inexperience. There could have been so many factors that we didn’t know about. We were on the brink of bankruptcy, and we had no path open in front of us other than giving it up.

I remember one evening we were in a restaurant. I was calculating how much money we owed to our parents and friends. The sum was enough to make me feel like I wanted to give up right there and then. I was looking at Oliver with teary eyes.

The money was not the only thing I was thinking about. It was our relationship. Everything was going down, and Oliver and I were going down too.

There was no way we were going to survive that.

I was about to break into tears and Oliver was staring at me. I saw his face getting hard, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he did something I would have never imagined he would do.

He knelt down in front of me. He said, “If you love me, then you know I am never going to give up on you, even if that means we are living on the streets. It seems like we are going to. But since you love me, you are stuck with me, so you’ll have to deal with it.”

He said how I am absolutely not allowed to leave him alone, and he said how he would never let me go. So, he, there and then, popped the question. Oliver Carlson asked me to marry him.

I was crying so hard it took me a few tries to say yes, and you should have seen Oliver’s face. I almost gave him a heart attack.

I also jumped on him and we ended up on the restaurant floor, but the people didn’t mind. They cheered for us.

And you want to know what he put on my finger that night? Tissue paper. Because he didn’t have a ring, and we were not in a place to afford a ring.

We took our time working and slowly making progress. Mom and Dad helped us again, and Oliver’s dad did too, although Oliver said it’s because he was jealous of my parents. Sam also contributed a little, and with everyone’s help, two years later we finally came to a place when we were able to buy our own house, pay our employees, and Oliver Carlson could buy me a diamond ring.

I carried the piece of tissue paper with me till then as a little reminder.

Just kidding.

The wedding was small but quite eventful. I had no maid of honor, so my dear brother thought it would be a nice idea to be one. He was my man of honor. He only did that so he could mingle with the ladies. No, his relationship from college didn’t last and his words were, “You gotta have a heartbreak to be a great musician.”

Also, Owen and Jason had a month-long fight on who was going to be the best man. Oliver didn’t want to decide. He left it on them to decide. My husband is a smart man.

Later, both of them split the wedding day in half and both of them were the best man. They again had a fight during the speech. It was quite a scene.

Also, nobody missed the dance of the man of honor and the best man, which was Sam and Owen dancing.

Sam lives in California now, where he has signed a contract with a dealer. We see him once or twice a year. He is basically a nomad, although he does have a flat.

As we talked about his dad the night he asked me to be his girlfriend, Oliver also stood up to him and told him to leave Owen alone. There was a huge fight that went on for two months when Oliver and Owen didn’t meet their dad. Dave Carlson finally gave up and agreed. He also got to know about Oliver’s talent (thanks or no thanks to Owen) with robots. He gave Oliver a big fund so he could keep working. Now Dave is training April, so she can be the CEO of Carlson Ltd and as far as I know, April loves it.

Owen and Jason surprisingly started a business together, which is a bar, no surprise there, and they have to change their assistants every few months because apparently, they can’t stop hitting on them.

Seems like I have to step into their office and teach them how to be professional.

Then I remember what Oliver did in the office today, and I look at him. He is still so into his book he doesn’t notice me.

I move and change my position so I’m snuggling into him. Oliver wraps his arms around me.

“I’m happy,” I say.

Oliver pauses. He glances at me. Then he closes his book and places it on the bedside drawers. He pulls me towards him, so I’m facing him.

“What made you happy?” he asks.

I bury my face in his neck. “I don’t know. Everything, I guess.”

Oliver hugs me tight and kisses me on my forehead. “I’m happy too.”

I believe him. I always will.

I wonder what would have happened if I’d stopped fighting one day. I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t keep pushing, didn’t believe that I could do this. What if I believed in my thoughts and stopped? What if I kept floating and never came down on the ground?

I would have never known this beautiful man. I would have never gotten this far.

I know one thing though. We don’t really know what life has in store for us. We can guess, but we never know, not really.

So all I know is I will keep fighting. We all just have to. It is the only choice.

The only choice is to go on and fight your demons every single day, even when they want to swallow you up whole, even when you know your back is against the wall. There is a reason why everything happens. And our only choice is to believe in ourselves and fight.

I had been floating, but then I found my ground.

You may be floating. One day, you will find your ground too.

*****