Bon voyage, Briar!
I look over at the dining table, where Blake’s teammates are setting up a taco bar.
“Oh my gosh, you guys! This is amazing.”
They turn around and greet me. Poppy walks out of the kitchen and hugs me.
“We wanted to do something fun to send you off to Mexico City,” she says. “Blake says tacos are your favorite, so we thought a taco bar would be fun.”
“He spent the whole morning cooking all the food,” Nick says, grinning at Blake. “He wanted everything to be perfect for you.”
Emotion squeezes through my chest at how thoughtful he was to plan this dinner for me. I’m leaving tomorrow for my two-week internship in Mexico City. Blake told me that the guys, Anna, and Poppy wanted to have me over for a goodbye dinner before I left, but I had no idea he planned all this.
I reach up and grab his face to kiss him.
“You’re the sweetest,” I murmur.
He smiles, then glances over at the banner. “Sorry about the banner. I left Nick in charge of that. Not sure why it’s in French and not Spanish.”
Nick shrugs, his signature cocky grin on his face. “I’m kind of an idiot.”
I laugh. “It’s okay. Mexico City has a lot of French speakers in addition to Spanish speakers. And I also speak French, so this is a fun combination of both languages.
He pats my shoulder. “Thanks, Briar. You’re awesome.”
We start to dig into the food when Anna walks in the door.
“Sorry I’m late, my research lab ran long.” She makes a beeline for me. “Briar! I can’t believe you’re leaving us!” She pulls me into a hug.
I laugh as I squeeze my arms around her. “Only for two weeks. It’ll fly by, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Promise to bring us back some really good tequila, okay?” she asks when she lets me go.
“I promise I will.”
We all sit in the living room as we eat our tacos while chatting and catching up. Now that I have my own apartment, I love having my own space. Blake comes over a lot too. He spends half the week sleeping over, which is so perfect. I love falling asleep and waking up in his arms. I do miss hanging out at the house though, so it’s nice to spend my last night here before I leave.
“We got you a going-away gift,” Anna says. She hops up from the couch, heads upstairs to Travis’s room, and comes down a minute later with a small gift-wrapped box. She sets it in my lap.
“It’s from all of us,” she says.
When I open it, I gasp. It’s a brand new pair of expensive earbuds.
“You guys! Are you kidding?” I look up at them, all smiling at me.
“You mentioned that your current earbuds are getting a little old, so we thought you’d like some new ones in time for your trip,” Poppy says.
“They have a noise-cancelling feature too, so you can use them on the plane if you get stuck next to a crying baby or the person in the seat next to you won’t shut up,” Leo says.
I chuckle. A second later, tears fill my eyes. I blink quickly to keep from crying.
“You guys, this is too much.”
Poppy reaches out and grabs my hand. “It’s not. You’re our friend. We wanted to do something special for you.”
I flash a wobbly smile. “Thank you.”
My heart feels full in a way it never has before. I think about how awful it felt when I lost all my friends in Chicago. But then I moved here, and Blake’s friends welcomed me with open arms.They blew me away with their kindness and generosity. They became my friends, too.
