I awoke the next morning – well, afternoon -- to Taylor tickling my feet. I yanked them back under the covers and groaned, pulling the blanket over my face to block out the light. I was just falling back asleep when I felt a kiss on my forehead.

“Hey Swishy, Jenn is here,” he whispered in my ear. “And it’s one thirty in the afternoon, ya bum. What were you doing out so late anyway?”

“Ike needed to talk,” I replied groggily. I put the covers down and yawned, looking at the clock. “Oh, God. It really is one thirty in the afternoon.”

I saw Taylor’s grinning face. “Told ya. What a bum.”

I heard Jenn laugh at something, followed by Zac’s laugh. “When did she get here?” I asked, sitting up. This action brought Taylor to my side, his arms going around me as I stretched.

“About an hour ago. I didn’t want to bother you because you looked so peaceful.”

“Aw, aren’t you sweet,” I grinned, kissing his cheek. “I’m going to go freshen up a bit, babes.”

He let go of me and I went into the bathroom, giving Jenn a little wave when she looked over to see who was in the hallway. She gave a wave back and I freshened up, returning to Taylor’s room to quickly change into something, and finally emerging.

“Well hello there, Stranger!” I said.

“Hello yourself!” she grinned, coming over to hug me. She lifted up my left hand afterwards and whistled. “That is quite the diamond, I must say. Good job, Tay!”

“Thanks!” Taylor smiled. Jenn, Taylor and I discussed the upcoming wedding, and it was still set in Taylor’s brain that we were going to have it in December. Zac didn’t say anything; just sat at the table, absentmindedly peeling an orange. Sometimes I would glance over and catch his eye, but he’d quickly look away. Eventually, he got up and walked out, grabbing his car keys on his way out.

“What’s his deal?” Taylor asked, looking towards the door after Zac had slammed it shut.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged casually. I caught Jenn’s eye and immediately looked down at the floor. “Maybe he’s just having a bad day.”

Taylor nodded and we resumed our wedding talk. I admitted we didn’t really have anything planned out yet, and Taylor jumped in with “Except for the rest of our lives together”. After several more minutes of catching up, I went to get dressed and Jenn and I headed out to spend some quality girl time together. We ended up at Universal Citywalk and went into one of the restaurants; it seemed to be something we did. Get together, get food, and of course gab away like there was no tomorrow.

After we had settled in our booth, we got right to talking, the menus in our hands simply props at the moment. I asked about her and Robin, trying not to seem like I knew something she didn’t. She gushed on and on about him, about how they do date nights a few nights a week and how amazing he was. I loved seeing her so happy. We also talked about how things were going with the guys; she said she hadn’t been with them in a while, but that she would be spending a lot of time with them in the next few months. We finally ordered our food after telling our waiter that we needed “a few more minutes” at least three times.

“So, about this whole being engaged to Taylor thing,” Jenn said, a wicked smile on her face. “What brought about his proposal?”

I laughed nervously and was about to answer when she said, “And don’t bullshit me.”

“Well,” I said, playing with the straw in my glass. “He did a … not so good thing the night before, which apparently made him realize that we were meant to be together …”

Jenn raised an eyebrow. “’Not so good thing’?” she echoed, tilting her head curiously.

“Yeah, uh … he sort of hooked up with his ex girlfriend the night before he proposed.”

Jenn didn’t say anything for a while and I looked up from the table nervously. “Oh really?” she finally asked.

I nodded, embarrassed. “Yeah. I guess he somehow realized that I was the one for him after that.”

Jenn nodded and I shifted uncomfortably. “Interesting,” she replied.

To my relief, our food came and I switched the topic to how delicious it looked. We ate and talked as usual, then declined dessert when we had finished. We paid the check and left, strolling around City Walk slowly and taking in the sights and sounds of a sunny Southern California afternoon.

“Trish, you’re in love with Taylor,right?” Jenn asked, while we were browsing through some random knick knacks in a store.

“Of course I am,”I replied, picking up an action figure and not really examining it before putting it down.

“And you feel like now’s a good time to get married to him?”

“Well, maybe not now but .. yeah, soon,” I shrugged. “I mean, we’ve been dating for, what, almost two years now? And we’ve known each other our whole lives. Getting married is, like, the next logical step in our relationship.”

“I guess,” Jenn said. She turned her head to look at me. “Do you still have feelings for Zac?”

“N-no,” I stammered, then let out a nervous laugh. “Of course not. That’s over and done with. I wouldn’t have said yes to Taylor if I still felt something for Zac.”

She gazed at me. “Alright,” she finally said. “It’s just … you and him, there’s –“

“It’s done,” I said. “We’re just friends now. That’s it. Nothing more.”

She nodded.

“I promise, we’re just friends,” I repeated. I nodded to assure her, but it felt more like I was reassuring myself.

Jenn came over to the apartment later, catching up on everyone’s lives. She prodded Taylor more about the wedding, but his answers of “We’re not really sure yet” caused those questions to stop. Zac hadn’t returned from wherever he was yet, and when I asked about him, Taylor and Isaac both said they had no idea where he was. Jenn prodded Taylor about wedding stuff, but after he answered “I’m not really sure yet” to her questions, she stopped asking about it and moved onto other things. Isaac asked about Robin and she gave a vague reply, which caused Isaac to look over at me with a “SAY SOMETHING!” look on his face. I just grinned innocently at him like I had no idea what he was giving me that face for.

After Jenn left, Taylor and I settled on the couch together with Isaac sitting in a chair near us. He read a magazine while Taylor and I attempted to figure out some wedding stuff. I told him I still wanted a summer wedding and he said he was leaning more towards summer than winter now. He wanted to go look at wedding bands with me and said he wanted to help out with every detail of the wedding. Isaac just snorted when he said this but didn’t offer up an explanation after Taylor asked him why he did that.

While we were talking about locations for our wedding, we heard the front door open and a hearty laugh from Zac. Before I could even turn to look over at him, I heard an unfamiliar – and female – voice right after his, saying, “Isn’t that the stupidest shit you’ve ever heard?”

Isaac looked up from his magazine, glanced briefly at me and looked over at Zac, who was now closer to us with unidentified female next to him. “The stupidest,” Zac agreed. “By the way, the goons on the couch are Taylor and his fiancée, Trish, and that loser over there is Ike.”

We all turned to look at Zac and the girl, who was absolutely beautiful. “Hi,” she greeted us, flashing a toothpaste commercial smile. “Sorry to barge in, but he wanted to get his jacket or something.”

“It’s okay,” Taylor chirped. “Who are you?”

“Blythe,” she answered. “By the way, my sister was in love with you guys when ‘MMMBop’ came out.”

“Who wasn’t in love with us?” Isaac joked.

She chatted with Taylor and Isaac while Zac retrieved his jacket, and all I could think was, So this is the Blythe he met before. I felt a strange sort of jealousy go through me but tried not to let it show on my face. When Zac returned with his jacket, they said goodbye to us. Zac told us not to wait up for him – he didn’t know when he’d be home. As he said this, he looked briefly at me, and I looked away.

“Well, don’t stay out too late kids,” Isaac said in a mock father-like tone. “You don’t know what kind of crazies are running around out there.”

“Well, we’re adding two more crazies to the crowd,” Blythe grinned, making Taylor laugh. “But I’ll try to have him home early.”

“Keep him if you want,” Taylor said. “We won’t miss him.”

Blythe laughed and they said goodbye to us, with Zac shutting the door behind him.

“Well, she seems nice,” Taylor said. “Didn’t know he was still talking to her, though.”

“Me either,” Isaac shrugged. “Oh well.”

We sat around a little bit more, with Taylor and Isaac now discussing music stuff. All I had on my mind was Zac and Blythe, and what they were doing. The sparkle of my engagement ring caught my eye and I looked down at it; instead of a feeling of elation or excitement, I felt a knot tighten in my chest.