Nini's life was beauty. 

She was only a few weeks away to graduating with two bachelors degrees. She'd gotten into her graduate school of choice and was planning to move there to gain residency. Just yesterday, she had walked into the Meijer she'd worked at for the entire four years and gave her two weeks notice. It hadn't been fun anyway since Seb had quit. She was still together with Ricky, although their future together was a little questionable since she'd be leaving for California in the fall to attend UC Berkley. They were now simply trying to enjoy all the in person time they had left with each other before Nini moved.

Her life was finally falling into place. She could almost see the things on her life accomplishments list being checked off. She was becoming an adult faster than she could blink.

The sunlight was illuminating Nini's face as she drove to Starbucks again as she had done nearly every day for the past four years. Ricky still worked there, although with some different people.  Carlos had quit with Seb after they had both graduated school, and moved away together. They had become engaged recently, and Nini and Ricky had received special invitations to their wedding. Ashlyn still worked there, but had plans to quit soon after Big Red had announced his quitting. He had quit to take a computer science internship in California over the summer.

As Nini walked in, the Starbucks counter was full of unfamiliar young faces. Most of them looked like high school students, who likely only knew Nini as the 'free coffee girl'. She still hadn't paid for coffees, despite the new staff not knowing her. 

To her surprise, Ricky was sitting in her regular spot waiting for her.

"Thought you worked today," Nini said, confused.

"Eh, I asked one of the kids to cover for me. They wanted more hours anyway, so I just switched with them. Wanna go out?"

"We are out." Nini said.

Ricky rolled his eyes. "I mean out out. As in not here, my place of employment."

Nini laughed. "Sure. What were you thinking about?" 

"Is the parking garage fine? It's a gorgeous night."

"More than fine." Nini agreed immediately. Every so often, they would return to the lot. It was a special place to Nini; it was, after all, the place where Ricky told her that he loved her for the first time. It had been one of the best nights of her entire life.

"Après-vous." Ricky bowed, opening the door to his cheap car. Nini rolled her eyes, laughed and sat in his car. Soft acoustic music played on the radio as Ricky started his car, and they set off onto the freeway out of the city. 

The golden light began to turn into a bright pink and orange sunset. The wind coming from the opened windows blew Nini's long hair into her face as she leaned on the opening and stared at the sight. She could always appreciate a sight and a euphoric moment such as this one; staring at a summer sunset from the car of the love of her life, with the windows down. Nini looked at other cars speeding down the highway.  She wondered where they were all going.

Eventually, they got off the ramp into a familiar rural area. Nini knew the garage was only a few miles away.

"Ricky." Nini said suddenly.

"Yeah?" He replied, his eyes still focused on the road.

"How has no one ever found it? The parking garage, I mean. It's so beautiful."

Ricky smiled. "Because it's a hidden beauty. No one could ever find a parking garage as beautiful as you or I, especially not this one. I mean, you've seen it. It's rundown. It has moss growing up the sides of the concrete. There's probably rats in it somewhere."

"Get to your point." Nini laughed.

"I'm trying to say that it's not a secret. Everyone knows it's there. People just don't see it like we do. They don't see our palace, they just see a dingy old building. It's beautiful because you make it beautiful. Because the way you see it is beautiful. You are beautiful."

--

After a few minutes, they had pulled into the area, walked into the building, and took the elevator to the roof as per usual. 

Nini was shocked to see a multitude of blankets, pillows, and multiple types of takeout laying on the concrete in front of them.

"Ricky, what is this?" Nini laughed.

"Bienvenue au restaurant de Ricky." 

"You take one required language and don't know how to act."

"Be grateful! I set this up for you!" Ricky laughed. "Now a tour of the restaurant; here we have various blankets and pillows of your choosing to sit on. Because we are standing on concrete. Then, we have takeout from all the restaurants I know you like. We have Chinese, Italian, the pie place, the diner on campus. So much food."

"Ricky, why'd you do this? It's not our anniversary yet, is it?" Nini asked with genuine worry.

"No!" Ricky laughed. "As if you would be the one to forget our anniversary. I just did this because I love you so much. And I'm going to miss you so much when you go to California in the fall."

Nini's face fell. "I'm gonna miss you so much too. I want you to come with me, but I couldn't ask you to uproot your entire life here for me."

"We'll figure something out. I know we will." Ricky still had the biggest grin on his face. "Here, sit." He gestured to the ground and the many blankets and pillows.

"Where'd you get all these?" Nini laughed. "I know for a fact you don't own half these."

"Stole them from Neil's place. He has like eighty thousand freaking blankets. His girlfriend Megan loves them."

"Megan scares me."

"Me too." Ricky laughed. "Let's dig in."

"What to eat first...." Nini whispered absentmindedly. She decided to take the Chinese first.  The sunset shone on them as they ate and conversed about everything and nothing, meaningful and meaningless.

--

Soon enough, their feast was done, and they were stuffed. They had arranged who would take home which leftovers, and the sun had set completely. The dark blue sky was dotted with white, gleaming stars, and the moon shone brilliantly.

Nini stood up. "Got everything else?" Her hands were full of blankets and pillows and a few boxes full of food. She wouldn't have to cook for a few days.

She was met with silence. She turned to maneuver herself so that she could see him behind all the blankets and pillows in her arms.

Ricky was staring at her, with a grin on his face, on one knee, with a box in his hand that was opened to reveal a beautiful diamond ring.

The blankets, pillows, and food were forgotten. They fell to the concrete.

"What are you doing?" Nini whispered, tears filling her eyes.

"I love you, Nini." Ricky began, seemingly shaky. "I've loved you since the day we met in the Starbucks. You were soaking wet yet walked into the restaurant like you owned it. Like nothing was wrong; like you were just... the queen of the universe. I just knew I had to talk to you, and I'm so glad I did. Because I got to know you as the most incredibly smart, beautiful, funny, and coordinated woman I've ever met in my entire life."

Nini let out a tearful combination of a laugh and a sob. She wiped a tear away from her cheek.

"I fall more in more in love with you every single day, and I learn more and more about you. You make me incredibly, insanely happy, more than anyone else has ever made me in my entire life. I have no doubt in my mind that I want to spend my life with you. Whether that be here, or California, or Europe, or wherever. I don't care. I'm willing to uproot my life for you. It doesn't matter where we are. When I'm with you, I'm home." Ricky laughed, wiping a tear off his own cheek, and looked back up at Nini, who was a mess.

"Nini Salazar-Roberts, will you marry me?" He looked up at her.

"Yes, I will, I will!" Nini cried. Ricky laughed out loud, slid the ring on her finger, and stood up to kiss her. 

Nini's life was perfect.

"I love you so much." She whispered.

aaaand that's the end!!!!!!!! we made it! i hope the ending was worth the wait!

i have a couple thank yous to make<3

first and foremost i'd like to thank all my readers who leave such kind comments! especially all the ones who have been voting and commenting since day one! you all motivated me so much to pick this up and finish it, and i've gotten more views on this story than any of my other stories! you all made this journey what it was:) thank you<3

secondly (and i guess lastly) i would like to thank my best friend megan for leaving weird and fun comments and always cheering me on and supporting me through everything ive ever done even if that thing is extraordinarily stupid.this story is dedicated to you! although you know that already. i hope you noticed the character i named after you:) come over, i miss u and we need to finish our movies >:( 

if you like the movie dead poets society, i recommend checking out her account!