ᴄᴀɴ ᴡᴇ ᴀʟᴡᴀʏꜱ ʙᴇ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴄʟᴏꜱᴇ, ꜰᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀ?
........

It was my second favorite day of the week, Friday. Second because no day can top Saturday.

The whole day was packed, with back-to-back meetings. Constant calls, scheduling and rescheduling the meetings. I didn't even have the time to have lunch but I went to the cafeteria anyway. I wasn't needed in the meeting that was going on, plus an intern was happy to replace me.

"Celeste." I heard Logan as he stood beside me. I still haven't talked to them, am I being too much? Maybe yes but who cares?

"We're not talking." I mutter, waiting for my order.

"Yeah, I've noticed." He replied dryly. "You got a boyfriend and you forgot us, afterall he's the CEO and we're just his employees, obviously you'd choose him over us." He continued.

I turned to him, his face was emotionless. "Are you listening to the shit that's coming outta your mouth? I would never leave my friends for a guy and it was not me who decided to make fun of you just because I trusted you." I reply, picking up my tray of food angrily, then instantly regretting when my juice spilled a little.

"What are you talking about? Why would I make fun of you? You think I'm like that?" He asks.

"Will you stop acting like you don't know anything? Was it not you who thought it would be fun to tell me you and Melissa kissed and then when I believed that, you made fun of me." I whisper-yelled because nosy people would love to see us argue.

"What? No. I never thought anything like that, who the heck is feeding you lies?" He asks, completely mortified at the thought.

"Melissa." I reply, suddenly feeling alot of different things inside about my friend.

"I swear to god Celeste, I never knew anything about it. It was all Melissa, she didn't even say anything when I asked her why you were not talking to us, I just thought.." He shook his head. "I'm sorry for the things I said earlier. I promise I wasn't involved in whatever shit she told you." He said.

"Where's she now?" I ask.

"She's having lunch with the new assistant manager these days, Sophia something." He says.

"God, I hate her. You know she was making fun of Caleb the other day." I tell him.

"What is wrong with Melissa?" He asks, more to himself with a frown on his face.

"Guess she isn't what we thought." I shrugged, taking a bite of my sandwich.

"Maybe it was a one time thing? She won't do it again?" He says, uncertainty clear in his voice.

"Maybe, it's too soon to judge. I'm sorry, I should've confronted you." I say.

"It's fine, we were both clueless. I guess I won't be having lunch with losers anymore?" He says with a chuckle.

"You won't." I promise him. "Oh, it was dinner night today. You should come! Take it as an apology for ignoring you for days." I tell him.

"Where?" He asks.

"Chase's place."

"Nope. I'm not coming."

"He's nice I promise, he's not what y'all think him to be. He's just an adorable guy." I tell him, thinking about Chase.

"No it's not that. He's my boss, I can't go to his house for dinner you dumbass." He says, stealing the other half of my sandwich.

"Oh c'mon, think of him as my boyfriend." I nudge him.

"Yeah, your boyfriend who's my boss' boss. Some other day." He says, getting up while looking at his watch. "Lunch's almost over." He tells me.

"Yeah right." I quickly gulp down the juice and buy three more sandwiches, one for the intern who helped me, one for Chase and one for me since Logan took half of mine and head up to the office.

"Yo Daniel." I say to my favourite intern. "This is for you and thankyou for taking my place for a while." I tell him, handing the sandwich to him.

"Don't worry about it." He smiles.

"That's why you're my favourite intern." I say, giving him a wink. The kid starts blushing.

"I'm the only intern you know." He replies, walking out of my office. It's true, he's the only intern I know but the encounter with other ones makes me feel like my judgement is correct.

I went to Chase's office to wait for him to return from the boardroom. It's been an hour. I organized his desk while waiting, he didn't choose to come back at that moment no, he came just when I accidentally knocked over his favourite cup.

"Are you okay?" He asked, rushing over to me.

"I'm sorry for your cup." I said, bending down to pick the pieces. So glad it was empty.

"Don't touch it, I'll call a janitor to clean this up." He said, picking up the phone to dial.

"I'll clean it, stop disturbing others." I frown at him.

"That's their job." He says.

"It's okay, it was my fault." I say, picking up the big pieces first.

"Why are you so stubborn? You'll hurt yourself with the glass, stop it." He said, grabbing my wrist at the same time I heard a knock. He said a low 'come in' and a janitor walked in. When did he even call? I didn't give him a chance.

After cleaning up the broken pieces quickly, she left.

"When did you even talk to someone else?" I ask.

"When you were talking to yourself." He replied. Hello? I wasn't?

"Okay leave it, I brought you a sandwich. Have it." I tell him, pointing to the sandwich I kept on the table.

"Thankyou." He said, picking it up.

"Come here, take a seat." I told him, getting away from his chair to the couch with my sandwich. He chose to sit beside me instead.

"Do you want a little more?" I ask him after finishing one half of mine.

"You don't want it?" He asks.

"N-"

"Thanks." He said, taking it from my hands. I guess he really was hungry.

"You know, we like Logan." I tell him.

"We do?" He asks.

"Yeah.." And I tell him the whole story about how Melissa lied and Logan was innocent.

"Cancel the rest of the meetings for the day." He said, taking its last bite.

"There's just one left. It's been scheduled for so many months, they were desperate to meet you." I remind him.

"Who is it with?" He asks.

"Jack Wallace." I reply, looking at the schedule on my phone.

"That's Bi- Beth's father. I don't want business with him." He tells me. And he couldn't have asked me to cancel it earlier?

"Okay." I tell him, walking to my office to fulfill his wishes.

••••••

"If they didn't arrive in the next few minutes, I'll start eating." Chase said as we waited for our friends to arrive. It was my idea that we should to a Friday night dinner. I invited Luke too because I want him to get along with them.

"No you won't." I say.

"Yes I will."

"Are you challenging me?" I ask.

"No I'm just telling you my plans." He says. I narrow my eyes at him.

"They are on the way." I tell him. He sighs before picking up a cookie that was cooling off and popping it into his mouth.

"That was for later!" I smack his chest, pushing him out of the kitchen.

"I just took one." He argues.

"You took one 5 minutes earlier too." I remind him.

"You're so mean." He said, hugging me.

"And you're hugging me because I'm mean?" I ask.

"Nope." He replied, pulling away with another cookie in his hand.

"Chase!" I warn as he ran out of the kitchen. "You just wait." I said before running after him.

When he thought I wasn't after him, he took a break to chew his cookie. I took that opportunity to pin him against the wall.

"Caught ya." I said, giving him a smirk or what I thought was a smirk.

"You did?" He asked, amused over something.

"Yes you cookie stealer!" I said, holding both his hands in mine, refraining him from moving.

He turned me around and pulled my hands up above my head. "Who caught who now?" He asked, moving one of his hands to my hip as I clearly lost my hold on his hands.

"You cheated." I point out.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you were supposed to be the one in my place." I tell him, trying to free my hands. I stopped trying when he stepped closer.

"But I'm enjoying this place right now." He said, his voice getting lower.

"You are?" I ask stupidly. Stop looking at his eyes!

"Yes darling." He replied, his lips coming closer to mine when he suddenly pulled back. "This little fucker." He groaned as I looked down at Pico who was clawing his leg. I shouldn't laugh, but I did anyway.

He picked him up and raised him up in the air. "I'll throw you out someday you little son of a cat." He said to Pico who just turned his head and licked his hand.

He turned to me to say something and the bell rang. "The world is saying shut up to you." I joked, going to open the door.

"Did you bring me something?" I ask, looking at Luke who was the first one to arrive.

"Hello Celeste." He said dramatically.

"Oh fuck off, we met a couple of days ago." I remind him.

"It's good to see you again." I heard Chase behind me.

"Hey." Luke replied.

"Let him in idiot." Chase murmured.

"Oh yeah right, come in." I say, moving aside.

I looked behind me to see if Chase can hear us on not, he was closing the door. "You promised me chocolates." I said to Luke.

"Here." He rolled his eyes and pulled out some chocolate bars from his pocket.

"Good." I replied, stuffing them into my pockets.

"Is that Pico?" He asked, looking at Pico who was now running upstairs to Chase's room.

"He's shy-"

"He just wants attention." Chase said, cutting me off.

"He's just jealous, ignore him." I brush him off.

"Can we eat now?" He asked.

"No ofcourse not. We're still waiting for the other three." I tell him before taking out the smallest chocolate and giving it to him. "That's all you're getting right now." I said and turned to Luke, who wasn't there anymore.

"Where did he go?" I asked Chase.

"You made cookies." Luke said, emerging from the kitchen.

"Lucas!!!"

"They're good." He replied.

"I will take one too." Chase frowned and started walking towards the kitchen.

"No you won't. You'll finish them before they even come!" I exclaim.

"But he took one." He reasoned.

"You took alot of them before him." I remind him.

"Just one?" He says.

"No."

"Please?" He said, coming closer.

"This is cheating okay?" I tell him, bending backward to have some distance between us.

"Thanks." He said, pecking my cheek and going to the kitchen.

Luke snickered. "Shut up." I said, snatching the other cookie I didn't notice in his hand before.

"You're so whipped." He said.

"He doesn't burn down the house so it's good I guess." I replied, immediately regretting it.

"Ouch." He said, touching his heart. "She didn't even give me clothes she stole." He sighed.

"Yeah, she stole them dumbass. No one returns something they stole." I tell him. "Let me pull him out before he really finishes them all." I said, remembering Chase is still in the kitchen.

"Yeah."

"Make yourself home, you already did but anyways." I said, going to the kitchen.

He wasn't eating cookies anymore, no. He was eating little from every dish. I pulled him away by his ear.

"That's what grandma used to do." I heard Caden laugh in the background. When did he come?

"I was just tasting if it needs anything or not." He explains his pathetic excuse.

"You're not entering the kitchen anymore." I tell him, leaving his ear.

"I don't like you." He tells me.

"I don't like you either."

"Mom and dad are fighting." Caden cried.

"Where's Alec?" I ask, looking for the only person who's left.

"HERE!" We heard him yell through the door.

"He's got some super ears." Rome said.

"Can we eat now?" Chase asked. How hungry is he actually?

"You could've told me earlier that you were this hungry, I would've made you something else." I say to him.

"You were already having so much pressure to finish on time-"

"You never cook for me!" Caden interrupted us as he poked Rome's chest.

"But babe-"

"Ew, did you just call him babe?" I asked.

"You know what? You're not pretty anymore!" He said to me before turning back to Caden. "I don't know how to cook!" He completed.

"Hey guys!" Alec said.

"You're late!" I tell him.

"I had a meeting." He defended himself.

"Okay, on the dining table now. I'm starving." I said loudly.

"I'll help you." All of them said together.

"Fine, bring out the dishes." I told them, walking out and taking a seat.

Dinner went silently once Alec almost died from choking because of laughing at his own joke, everyone ate in silence.

When the guys left the table to wash their hands or use the washroom, Chase turned to me.

"Do you want something?" I asked.

"Dessert." He replied.

"You had alot of cookies-" I didn't get to complete my sentence as his lips were on mine.

"Sweet." He said, getting up with his plate and going to the kitchen as if he didn't just kiss me.

•••••

Chase was the only one who was drunk among us. It just took some glasses of wine and beer.

"Can y'all stop cuddling? I'm feel bad being single." Alec said, looking at Rome who was sleeping on Caden then at Chase who had his hands wrapped around me. "Luke my boy, come here." He said to Luke, opening his arms.

"I'm good." Luke replied.

"He just broke up with his girlfriend, he's sad she stole his clothes." I tell him.

"Really? I dated this girl once she took all my hoodies, they were expensive as hell." Caden joined in.

"Right? I don't know why they steal clothes, I didn't even sleep with her and she took my hoodie. Never let a girl in my dorm room after that." Alec said.

"So it's like, a girls thing." Luke said.

"You can steal my clothes, you look pretty in them." Chase said to me, he thought he was whispering but he wasn't.

Caden smacked Rome's head, waking him up. "Learn something!" He said. "He was mad at me because I wore his jacket the other day." He told us.

"You didn't have to hit me." Rome frowned. "And it wasn't washed!" He exclaimed as if he was saying that for the hundredth time.

"That was the point!" Caden replied back.

"Your brother is not being nice to me." Rome turned to Chase with a disappointing frown.

"Good, you call my wife pretty. You deserve that." Chase replied and went back to smelling my hair.

"These Black men disappoint me." He said.

"You're sleeping on the floor." Caden told him, making us laugh.

"I don't feel bad being single anymore." Alec joked.

They all crashed in the guest room since we all had alcohol in our systems. Luke left since he wasn't comfortable staying at Chase's place.

......