The Coatroom ~Epilogue - A Year Later~

Stacia sat on the patio of the restaurant she had lunch at frequently. "The Lattice Inn" was her fave nook in the neighborhood. When she could get a little "me time" away from Jalil, she'd go there to eat her fave almond croissant and cinnamon latte combo. She'd bring her laptop and enjoy the breeze while surfing the net and chatting. Stacia hadn’t dated anyone for a long time after she left Omar and confronted Angelle at Gavin's. She didn’t make it her business to care what ANY of the involved parties were doing. She and Omar were civil, but that was it. When she and Gavin's marriage ended, it was based on him discovering her multiple affairs. In her heart she'd never live that down. She'd been with three of his HS friends. When he found out about Omar...Gavin lost it. If it hadn’t been bad enough that she'd been sleeping with his buddies...she'd gotten knocked up by a married man to boot. The three guys had gone about their ways leaving Stacia to deal on her own...until, she spotted X, one day. Xavier Benton had walked right up to her. She'd seen him in the distance, but was in her own world and a tad oblivious. Xavier walked up to her and began asking what was new with her. At first it was awkward...until the old familiarity came back. They met there a few more times for afternoon lunches and then the sparks flew again. They've been inseparable since and have been exclusively dating for a few months.

Omar hadn’t gotten used to Stacia dating. He was stubborn about it, but he'd always hoped sooner or later they'd reunite. He knew Stacia thought that he didn’t love her but it wasn’t that. His pride was so hurt when he realized Stacia loved Angelle more, that he didn’t do much to keep her from leaving. He even confessed his trysts with Lisa hoping to clear the air, but they backfired. Stacia wanted nothing to do with him past co-parenting. Omar even fell off the dating scene. He wouldn’t bother to deal with anyone due to his confused state. He found himself wondering on Angelle's happiness as well...but that was concluded with the sight of Gavin and Angelle at the mall one afternoon. "Hey, Angelle! You look good!" he'd said as he walked up to her in front of a lingerie store. Angelle's heart jumped. Seeing Omar had startled her. They'd somehow managed since divorcing to steer clear of one another...so this was a huge surprise. "Hi, Omar...how are you?" Omar's face lit up and he said, "Better, now that I’ve seen you...I was wondering if..." Gavin came up behind her out of the store and handed Angelle a small purse. "Here, babe...you left it at the register." Gavin noticed Omar standing there and said, "What's up man?" extending his hand for shaking. Omar walked away. Angelle shrugged it off as did Gavin and they walked away hand in hand.

Lisa had served 50hrs of community service as punishment for her assault on the coat room clerk. She'd been a hermit mostly...working and doing her service in between. She moved out of the apartment she was in and moved a town over to avoid constant confrontation. In one event, she'd seen Angelle in the mall and gotten into a fight. Fresh off of being sentenced to her service...she was prompted by her lawyer to ask Angelle's mercy in pressing charges. In the case of the one time she saw Stacia at a get together down at a local club, she was on the receiving end of Stacia's attack. She chose to let it go. Nia keyed her brand new Maxima outside the same club on a different night, even though she couldn’t prove it. The only reason she knew was because Nia had left a pair of panties tied to the antenna of the car with an embroidered "N". Nia and Lisa had been playing tit for tat since they'd last been together. Initiated by Lisa as retribution for telling Gavin all she'd done...Lisa had done little things. Sugar in Nia's tank. She broke into Nia's apartment and poured gasoline over all her clothes. Pranked her with ridiculous takeout orders to her house. Nia would retaliate with spray painting her windshield red and the word "die" written over it. It took Lisa's moving to end a lot of the harassment on both ends...so far.

Nia was engaged. She took her fiancé home to her parents and announced her impending betrothal to dentist, Dr. Andrew Evans. Her mother and father were happy for her...as was Gavin and their older sister, Coral. There was a big engagement party thrown at the country club and both families were in attendance. Nia was striking in an off the shoulder gown in olive green and her fiancé' was decked in a Hugo Boss suit of the same hue. They were a picture perfect couple. In attendance were over 200 of their closest friends, family and business associates. All were in awe of the lavish catering and decor. Truly a sight worthy of one of those wedding reality shows. As the announcements were about to commence...a group of unison gasps rang in the ears of the family standing in support. On the screen behind the two sets of parents and the happy couple where a slideshow of the couple was supposed to go…was a picture of Nia with Lisa fucking her doggy style with a strap-on. Nia stood cold as she viewed the picture she'd taken with her own camera phone and sent to Lisa's email as a tease. This was not the montage of photos of she and Andrew, she'd loaded. She looked into Andrew's eyes and they were filled with tears, anger and embarrassment. Needless to say, they didn’t get married. Oh, Andrew was ready to make up and take his love back, but his affluent family cringed at the idea of it and he fell victim to the pressures of his family's name. That was 2 months ago. Nia hasn’t left her apartment since.

Gavin and Angelle sat in their master bath, sipping wine and listening to the sounds of Kirk Whalum and staring lovingly across the tub at one another. They reflected on where they met and what they'd been through in order to find the kind of peace they'd found together. Angelle had never imagined that she'd be this happy. Gavin either...he'd given up on love when Stacia left. His heart melted and seemingly pulverized...until Angelle appeared. She'd had her heart ripped out by compliance. She complied with all Omar wanted which ended in the demise of their union. Now, their stories were shaping up to be pretty damned decent. Not your average love story...but a love story nonetheless. They figured they'd tell it to their grandchildren one day...well, maybe not the WHOLE story...