Epilogue

Chucking his angrily ringing phone onto the coffee table, Chen collapsed onto his couch, and let out an exhausted sigh to the sounds of fists banging on his door and the constant dinging of his door bell. He felt no remorse or anger to what he had done, but it took all of his restraint to remain calm when "she" appeared at his door, and, without a shred of humility or civility, or even a "hi, how are you?," immediately demanded more money from him, despite his already generous alimony payment.

Apparently, she and her "best friend" had made some investments, which left them short-changed, and had needed a quick cash injection so that they could get through the month. Noticing the new purse, shoes, and how well done her nails and hair was, Chen had a pretty good guess as to what kind of investments they were.

Stone-faced, he reached into his wallet, pulled out about a week's worth of his salary, put it in her hands, muttering that that was all he could spare, before closing the door in her face, completely deaf to anything else she was about to screech. His arm reached towards the pack of cigarettes he used to have stashed away but remembering that his last smoke was almost a whole month ago, his hand curled into a fist and he snarled angrily. Closing his eyes, he lightly beat his knuckles against his forehead, trying to weather the stress via sheer mental fortitude.

The sounds of soft footfalls, the smell of tea, weight taking a seat next to him, and a head nuzzling into his chest made all that noise go away. "Who was that? She sounded awful," a soft female voice, sounding full of concern said.

Opening his eyes, he met his girlfriend Allie's big, worried gaze behind her large circular glasses. "My ex-wife," he replied, putting his hand on her side and stroking it with his thumb. He let out another sigh. "She was awful."

After that night together, he and Neba had been drinking and fuck buddies for a while, until the point where he thought he was starting to have feelings for her. Unfortunately, she didn't feel that she could give him what he needed emotionally, but did know someone who could, and introduced him to Allie.

She was a sheep-woman with soft, thick, fluffy, black wool-like hair, large expressive eyes, about his height, and according to Neba, had a good heart and a decent head on her shoulders, but was someone that needed guiding in her life. While she was a bit free in her relationships with men, Neba had done her best in keeping Allie safe from the worst of them. Believing that she and Chen would be a good match, she arranged a date for them and smiled with pride as they seemed to hit it off well, while teasing her new prospective sex partner, a big and burly lizardman, with her foot under her table.

"I'm glad she's your ex," Allie said, shifting in closer and hugging him a little tighter. "It's so much better that you don't have to deal with someone like that anymore."

Getting his arms around her, he placed a chaste kiss right on top of her head. "I still do. Just a lot less. But you know, I'm kind of thankful for it," before looking down and smiling at her. "If she hadn't left me, I wouldn't have met Neba, and then I wouldn't have met you."

She beamed at him and gave him a quick kiss on his lips, but then quickly clambered away from him. "Oh, I almost forgot!" she exclaimed, trotting over to his dining table, leaving him watching her legs bound away. She returned promptly and handed him a letter. "Got this out of your post box for you. No idea what it is," she said, sitting next to him.

Cocking his head to the side, he tore open the envelope and opened the letter. He gave it a quick read-through, and then re-read it again slowly. He tried reading it a third time, but the tears welling in his ears made it difficult. "Chen? Chen, what happened? Is it bad?" Allie said, taking his head in her hands.

"No, no, it's not bad," he blubbered, shaking his head and **** back even more tears. "It's... it's the best news I've ever gotten in my life." Taking a couple of steadying breaths, he said, "It's from the adoption agency, and it says that I've been approved..." Unable to restrain himself anymore, he hugged her tightly and began to weep on her shoulder. "I can be a dad... I can finally be a dad..."

Allie sat in stunned silence. She didn't think that she was ready to be a mom, nor that she'd want to be one with Chen. They had only become official a couple of months ago. This would most definitely have to be something they had to talk about, but right now she could do the only thing she knew he needed.

She hugged him back, and pretended that his roof was leaking.