Page 35 of Beyond the Storm

Life with him had been a wild ride, just as he’d said.

And it had only begun.

The End

Raiden & Titan

A glimpse into their happily ever after.

Raiden

“Hey, my awesome people. It’s your boy Raiden here!” I winked at the phone aimed at me before motioning to the ingredients on the counter. “Today, I’m gonna teach you how to make the Titan Burger.”

“Wait.” Titan stepped out from behind the phone stand, where he was recording me. “The Titan Burger?”

“Yeah. It’s the tahini sauce burger you love so much. I named it after you.”

My husband tried not to smile, but one twitched at the edge of his lips anyway. “Fine.”

A few months ago, on a whim, I had created an account on a popular social and video-sharing platform. Mainly because Daman had sent me videos of funny cooking fails, and after laughing so hard I cried, I got curious about making my own videos. My first video—a super-simple one where I demonstrated how to cook a perfect over-easy fried egg—kind of went viral.

Bellamy saidwhatI was doing in the video had nothing to do with its popularity, but I didn’t get his meaning. Why would so many people like it, then?

The next day, I’d gotten a shit ton of followers, and with the encouragement of Titan and Nico, I decided to make more. I now had a cooking segment called Raiden’s Kitchen, where I showed how to cook my favorite recipes. I also posted random food-fact videos and stuff about health and fitness. Sometimes I showed my workouts. Bellamy called themthirst traps.Whatever that meant. But I always got a ton of new followers after posting them.

“First, you gotta season that meat.” I slapped the pound of ground beef in front of me. “I use salt, black pepper, and a special blend of spices made by my hot-as-hell husband. I’ll leave the ingredients and measurements in a comment on this video.”

Titan shook his head and paused the recording. “You smacking that meat got me hard.”

“Oh yeah? Why?”

He briefly closed his eyes. “Gods, you’re too adorably oblivious.” Back behind the phone, he nodded to me. “Let me know when you’re ready for the next part.”

It had been a challenge in the beginning, trying to shove my entire segment into a three-minute video, but with research into how other people did it and lots of practice, Titan and I had figured out a process that worked well for us.

It made me happy that he supported me doing it too.

“Hey, Ray?” Nico walked up beside Titan and glanced at the phone’s screen before looking at me. “You’re in perfect frame. If you take off your shirt, I guarantee you’ll triple the amount of likes on this video.”

“Shoo,” Titan told him. “Don’t put those ideas in his head.”

“Ah, you jealous?” Nico jabbed at him with his elbow. “Don’t want all those people drooling over your man?”

“I think they’ll be drooling over these burgers more,” I said. “I don’t gotta be shirtless to drive that point home. These burgers are dynamite.”

“Ew.” Nico’s face scrunched up. “No one says that anymore unless you’re, like, really old.”

I blinked at the kid. “Iamold.”

“Yeah, but you don’t need to act the part.”

“Is it sus?”

“Oh my god,” Nico exclaimed. “Please stop.”

Titan barked out a laugh. “We should record this exchange between the two of you. It would go viral for sure.”

Nico grinned. “Sure. Put me in a video! My face is so hot it would crash the app.”