Ellis

"So we're really going to do this?" I ask Thea gripping her hand tightly in mine as we walk into the lobby of the apartment building.

"Ellis, Ellis, Ellis, are you getting cold feet?" She asks smiling in her goofy way that always puts me in a good mood.

"When have I ever had cold feet with you?" I ask. Thea laughs and shakes her head.

"How about when you freaked out about our wedding and begged me to elope with you?" She pauses her brown eyes widening, "in Japan."

"That wasn't cold feet towards you, that was cold feet towards having a wedding. A wedding with hundreds of people and my family that doesn't really play nice," I explain.

"I know," she wraps her arms around my waist, "I guess eloping made more sense for us anyway. I'm just glad we didn't do it in Japan."

"Yeah,  Venice was a good choice."

"Can we please go inside now?" Thea asks leading me into the building, her arms still wrapped around me.

Even in the five years we've been together and the six months we've been married we still can't stop touching each other. We don't notice anymore. Our friends point it out constantly and we just smile because this is how it's always been for us.

We walk onto the elevator and watch the numbers go up to floor seven and we walk towards our new home.

"Can you believe we're back here?" Thea asks looking around the unfamiliar space bombarded with our boxes of things.

"In New York City?" I ask beginning to look through the box closest to the kitchen.

"Yeah," Thea still has this dreamy look on her face like she can't believe this is happening.

"I never thought you'd move here. I think you actually said that multiple times. The rats, the subway, the puking guys outside of bars. Do you remember this because I do," I say.

Thea laughs her obnoxious laugh that I love so much, "I don't remember any of that. I love rats and subways and don't forget how much I love riding through the city on a motorcycle."

"Ahh, yes, how could I forget that?"

Thea shrugs, "being away for so long and being in a new situation every other week has been fun but this is where it all started. I can't imagine us anywhere else and we've tried everywhere else."

"That was our plan. We went everywhere we wanted in Europe and then we went to as many states as we could here. New York is our best fit," I say.

"Michigan was a definite no," Thea says referring to our disastrous trip for me to meet her parents for the very first time. I broke my leg walking their giant golden retriever.

"I guess that wasn't really Michigan's fault," I tell her.

"Ehh, that was bad luck. We couldn't stay somewhere with bad luck. We didn't have any accidents here and we spent 30 hours together. You drove a motorcycle half asleep!" Thea says laughing again.

She walks over to me and sits right on my lap, ignoring the boxes and the mess we have to clean up, "I'm so excited to have a home with you," she kisses me.

"Me too," I say in between kisses, "we have to unpack."

"After we unpack can we get a dog?"

"What?" I ask.

"I want a dog, please!"

"Now?" I ask.

She nods eagerly, "I know you had a bad experience with Marcus but not all dogs are that crazy. We will train our guy to be a good walker. You know what? I'll just walk the dog."

"I'm not scared of dogs," I say.

"I know, you're scared of peacocks."

"Shut up," I laugh.

"Can we?"

I sigh, why can't I say no to her? "After we unpack. Thea, we need this place to look livable before we bring an animal in here."

"Of course," she nods and walks over to another box and begins unpacking. At least all of our furniture was delivered so we only need to put all of the things we accumulated on our trips away.

"We can unpack naked, if that's more exciting for you," I say winking at her from across our living room.

She laughs, "then we will never unpack and I will never get my dog."

I shrug and start taking off my shirt slowly and dancing like an idiot.

Thea is laughs so loudly she snorts when I throw the shirt towards her.

"No more, I can't handle this," she wipes a tear from her eye, still laughing.

I undo the button on my jeans and continue dancing stupidly just to hear her laugh. She is about to say something when someone knocks on the door.

She runs up to the door, looks through the peephole and opens the door wide.

Brendon stands in the doorway holding their new baby that we haven't met yet with all of our traveling.

"Oh my God, gimme," Thea says holding her arms out for the little baby.

"I don't want her seeing this," Brenden says looking at me, half naked, "we can come back."

"No, no, Ellis wanted to unpack naked. I told him it was a bad idea," she says throwing me a wink over her shoulder.

"Everleigh, you are one cute baby," she says cooing at her.

"How is Violet handling having a baby sister," I ask, buttoning my pants and finding my shirt.

"All she wants to do is hold Ever and get her bottles. It's adorable," Brenden says smiling at Thea and Ever.

"We're getting a dog," I say.

"When?" He asks.

"Now," Thea answers, "well when we finish unpacking."

Hours and a few more visitors later we are finished unpacking.

"Let's go!" Thea screams running around the apartment.

"Okay, okay," I say hoping that Thea does not find a dog she loves. I like dogs but I'm not sure if I'm ready for one yet.

Thea is speed walking through the streets, down the subway steps, and right through the turnstile.

"You're a real New Yorker now," I say mimicking a thick New York accent.

Thea laughs, "I learned from the best."

I walk, Thea runs into the animal shelter and is already on her second lap before I move on from the first cage.

Inside the cage are two tiny puppies, one yellow and one black. They are curled up sleeping with each other. I look on the tag attached to the cage and see that they are only three months old.

"Thea," I call without looking away from these puppies. I feel her wrap her arms around my waist and lean closer to the cage.

"Oh my God, these are our babies," she says kissing my cheek.

"Both?" I ask.

"Twins! We're having twins, Ellis."

She is jumping up and down causing a scene but it's okay because thats what we do. We cause scenes and laugh until we cry, and we fit so perfectly together.

"Let's go find someone to help us adopt them," I say not wanting to move away from the puppies.

Two hours later I'm heading home with hundreds of dollars worth of puppy stuff.

I walk into the apartment to see Thea and the puppies sleeping on the floor in the living room.

I sit next to Thea and she opens her eyes, "I named them Goose and Bear. Bear is the black one and Goose is yellow." Her voice is sleepy and quiet.

I can't help but laugh, "why did you name our puppies after other animals?"

"Well, I knew Peacock wouldn't work and I didn't want to take a name that we could potentially use for our baby," she pauses looking at me, "that is coming in eight months."

"What?" I ask.

"We're having a baby, Ellis. Keep up," she says pulling me into a kiss.

"Three kids?" I ask looking at the puppies.

"We can handle anything," she says kissing me again.

I believe her, we can handle this.

**
Thank you for all of the continued support on this story!!!

I love being inside Ellis' head again. He's always fun!

I hope you guys like this ❤❤

-Brooke