meet me at midnight.

17.

"Girl, you wouldn't believe how romantic it was." Desiree said, as we removed our aprons.

We'd finished our shift and she was excitedly telling me about Theo's proposal. This last weekend had been their two year anniversary and I smiled as I listened to her talk about it.

"It sounds really nice." I said, folding my apron up and putting it in my backpack.

"Girl, it was," Desiree grinned. "Picture the scene, we were at the Botanical Gardens, where we had our first date and he got down on one knee."

"And the ring?" I asked.

"Hang on, lemme get it out my bag," Desiree said. "Had to take it off for work just so I didn't lose it."

She slipped the ring onto her ring finger. The stone on it was a large, round diamond set between two smaller ones.

"That's so pretty." I said, and she nodded.

"Exactly girl, feed that Desiree ego trip." She giggled.

"Are you guys going to celebrate?" I asked, as we left the staffroom.

"Yep, we're having an engagement meal," She said, looking at me. "I'd really appreciate it if all my friends could be there."

"You want Josh and I to come?" I asked.

"I would very much appreciate all of you being there," Desiree said. "I've never had a big group of friends before and I've never been so happy before."

"Then yes, I'll extend an invite." I smiled.

"Awesome," Desiree said. "My friend from high school, Aubrey will be there as well. Think there's a chance she'd want to meet Kenny."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah, I showed her a photo and she's down for it," Desiree said. "Her last boyfriend left her living in her car after they broke up."

"That's really mean." I said.

"Yeah, he was a raging narcissist." Desiree said.

We left IHOP and waited outside. Desiree filled me in on the finer details. Her parents were paying for the engagement dinner and a night's stay at PUBLIC hotel on the Lower East Side. I gave her a rough figure, hoping we'd all be able to make it. Desiree seemed really happy when Theo arrived. I congratulated him as well.

I didn't have to wait long and I smiled when I saw Josh's car. I walked over and he leaned over, opening the passenger door.

"Missed you." I smiled, getting in the car and shutting the door.

"Missed you too, little mouse." He said.

We drove back home and I told him about Desiree's engagement and her planned party. We got home ten minutes later. The apartment smelled slightly burnt when we got inside.

"Kenny, what the fuck is that smell?" Josh asked.

Kenny pushed the lounge door open, looking annoyed.

"I made cookies." He said.

"You made cookies? Or you desecrated them? Huge difference, dude." Josh said.

I followed them into the lounge. Kenny's cooking had been improving at a slow pace and he was prone to leaving food in the oven, getting high then forgetting it was there.

"C-can I try one?" I asked.

"Yeah, let me just find one that's the least burnt." Kenny said.

"How do you manage to fuck up cookies?" Josh said, sitting on the couch.