"Are you sure that Julian won't just randomly show up?" Mom asks me as I sit on Bradlee's shoulders to hang up the large poster that Nina had bought that exclaimed Happy birthday, Julian! since tomorrow was his 28th birthday. We decided to do the festivities today since I had decided that I was going to steal Julian on his birthday this year. Nina had been in charge of the surprise party, I was in charge of making sure he had a good birthday on the actual day, and Andrea was in charge in making sure he doesn't show up in the middle of us decorating.

"I'm sure, Mom. He went to do a Stigma presentation with Andrea that's about an hour and a half away. He'll be there until about 3:30 or 4:00 and then they have an hour and a half drive back and Andrea told us that she could take him to dinner if we needed more time. And Jonah's been texting me updates all day long because he's nervous that he's going to blow it or something," I tell her as she helps Theo set up the table that all the presents would go on.

"And we'll know if he shows up anyway, Colton's in charge of checking the security cameras," Nina informs, motioning to her husband that sat at the island of the kitchen counter with the tablet in front of his face. He had Bailey on his lap since he was worn out from running through people's legs to lick their ankles or whatever bare body part he could get access too.

"Hey, Mila, did you know that you can go back on these security cameras? I'm currently watching you make coffee this morning," Colton tells me. My panic starts to rise and I rush Bradlee to get me off of his shoulders. I almost fall on my face, but I don't care because I rush over to grab the tablet from Colton's hands before he can see anything of what happened the night previously.

"I don't think you need to be watching the cameras the entire time. Jonah will text me, so find another job," I tell him with an innocent smile and he snickers, reaching out to take the tablet from me.

"Don't worry, I already saw you and Julian fucking on the couch last night," he tells me and I'm immediately bombarded by yells of disgust coming from the people in the room.

"Miles! On the couch? Really?" Mom asks with disappointment.

I watch as Ivy stands up from where she was wrapping her present to Julian on the couch. She turns to me with disgust as she crosses her arms over her chest. "Well, I guess I shouldn't sit here then."

"We put a blanket down, calm yourself," I say with a sigh before going over to help Theo with opening the large sliding door in the living room. I only found out a few months ago that the huge three-paneled windows in the living room opened up to the yard. The backyard was a flat porch with dark exterior wood floors along with a grill and lawn chairs that he uses for tanning during the summer. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold today, so we could open the sliding doors to give us more room since this house was going to be filled with tons of people by night.

"Still disgusting," Ivy tells me, switching to the chair in the living room to finish wrapping her present. I let out an exasperated sigh before storming out to go up to Julian and I's bedroom to get the gifts that I hid in my dresser along with his kinky present that he'll get tomorrow night. I grab the three gifts wrapped in the navy blue paper before going back downstairs where everyone else was still decorating for the party.

When Mom sees me with my presents, her lips turn into a smile since she already knew what I had gotten Julian. She walks over to me to grab all of the wrapped things before placing them on one of the shelves in the living room since I wanted to do all of my presents last since they were definitely the biggest. "Are you nervous?"

I look up at my mom with a small chuckle. "Not really, I mean, I don't really think he'll say no."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she laughs before pulling me over to where Theo was standing so I would help them hang up the navy blue and white streamers all over the living room. I knew they would be a bitch to clean up, but Nina wasn't taking no for an answer today.

At around seven that night, all of our guests were here while we waited for the arrival of the birthday boy. I knew that he had no idea that anything was happening because I was actually pretty good at keeping secrets. I knew that the only person I had to worry about spilling the whole thing was Jonah, but Ivy and I had both threatened him that if he said a word, we both could kick him in his balls, so I think we were good.

I went over to the kitchen island that was covered in catered food that smelled delicious. The cake was absolutely beautiful, which was good because I heard that Nina spent loads of money on it. It was a three-tier cake that was three squares ranging in size stacked on top of one another. There were gold fondant ribbons tied around each tier and had 28 written all over the cake. Sticking out of the top of the first tier were stars that we're a mix of gold and black. The gold base that it sat on said Happy 28th Birthday, Julian! in black icing. I knew he would call Nina extra for getting a cake so extravagant, but I really hoped he liked it.

"Five minutes!" Nina calls as she walks around the room in her beautiful yellow dress that went down to the middle of her thighs. We kinda matched because I was wearing black joggers, a white button-up with a yellow sweater on top of it. I knew she would be asking for pictures later, but I decided to just hide from her all night because I knew that I currently didn't look too good with all the sweat starting to appear on my body.

"Why're you freaking out?" Bradlee asks me, coming to stand next to me behind the island counter since that was the least crowded place in the living room. All of Julian's close business friends, his actual friends, the friends that the two of us had together, my family, and some random people that I've never even seen before were taking up all the spots and I wasn't prepared for the huge crowd.

"Huh?" I ask, looking over at Bradlee giving me a concerned look. "Oh, I'm not freaking out. It's just hot in here."

"Uh, it's 63 degrees, man. We have the doors open, so either you're freaking out or you're having a medical issue and I don't know what to do unless you tell me what it is," he tells me, leaning on the counter next to me to get closer. Ever since I took over for Home Our Community, Bradlee's become a super close friend to me. He's probably the least judgmental person I've ever met and he's always helpful whenever I need him. We could also have tons of fun together, which was definitely a plus.

"Okay, maybe, I'm freaking out," I whisper to him.

"Is it because of your presents to him?" He asks because obviously, he would've figured it out. He's so nosy and observant about everything that he definitely would've already know what was going on before I even realized it.

I nod my head. "Yeah, what if he doesn't like all of them? I mean, I got big presents for him because we're about to be married and everything, but I'm still so fucking nervous. What if he doesn't like the r-"

"Don't think like that, Mila," he cuts me off. "we don't think about the what ifs and what the possibilities are in situations. Overthinking isn't something we need to be doing when we can stop it, right? That's what we tell the kids and we need to believe it ourselves if we're gonna go preaching it to them. So don't think about stuff like that. Focus on making this night good for Julian and maybe letting yourself have fun too."

I let out a sigh that I didn't know I had been holding in. I look over at my friend to see him giving me the most serious look I've seen in a long time. I reach over, patting his shoulder in appreciation before turning to the hallway that Julian would be walking through in just a few minutes. "Thank you, Bradlee. I really needed that."

"I know, man," he tells me, patting my shoulder before we both just sit there and wait for Julian to come into the house. When Nina calls the one-minute warning mark, everyone shuffles to the walls on the sides of the house because as soon as he started walking through the hallway, he would be able to see all the people standing there and ruin the surprise. Nina makes sure everyone was in a good spot before coming over to stand next to me, linking her arm with mine.

I hear the beep run through the whole house a few seconds later, telling me that the front door was opening. Bailey started barking like he did every time he heard the beep and everyone had to stop themselves from laughing as his tiny barks filled the entire room. Everyone in the room froze as we waited to see Julian walk through the entryway to the living room and kitchen. Once we see him walk into the living room and kitchen area, we all jump out a bit and yell "surprise!", making him jump in his spot. He looks up in shock and confusion and once he sees everyone standing on either side of the room, he lets out a chuckle before placing his hand on his chest.

"Surprise, birthday boy!" Nina says, rushing over to her best friend as everyone else in the room starts to talk again as other important people rush over to give him hugs. After a few minutes of him conversing with a few friends, I watch as he searches the room until his eyes catch mine. He was leaning over a bit to rub his hand through Bailey's fur since he was leaning against his leg, wanting some attention from his other dad. He smiles before looking at the people in front of him, holding his finger out and excusing himself. I stand up from the spot I was leaning on the counter and wait for him to step in front of me.

"Hi, birthday boy," I tell him, mocking how Nina had said it a few moments ago. Julian chuckles before he leans down to place a soft kiss to my lips. He pulls away quickly, not wanting to start something that we couldn't finish because of all the people currently in our living room.

"Did you help plan this?" He asks me, wrapping his arms around my body to set his hands on the middle of my back. I smile up at him, letting my own hands press against his chest as I ignore everyone around us and just focus on this man in front of me.

"I might've helped a bit," I whisper, feeling his muscular chest underneath my palms.

"Thank you, baby boy," he whispers to me, setting his forehead against mine. "I'm actually really surprised. I would've thought that all of this would happen tomorrow or something since it's my actual birthday."

"Well, I wanted you all to myself tomorrow, so be prepared for a day full of surprises. I almost wasn't able to pull it off because Nina almost had a tantrum at the fact that I wanted to just be alone with you tomorrow on your birthday, but I was able to persuade her," I tell him with a smug smile.

"Oh, a day all to ourselves? That sounds fun," he whispers with a naughty smirk playing on his lips. I chuckle lightly, slapping his chest a bit as his imagination runs wild at what tomorrow might entail.

"Calm it down, naughty boy. We're actually going to leave the house instead of just fucking all day. I want you to have a memorable birthday instead of one that's just filled with memories of us having sex," I say.

"Well, I can live with that," he whispers. I watch as he picks his forehead off of mine before looking at someone behind us before chuckling a bit. He glances at me with a shake of the head. "uh, so your family is staring at us."

I turn in Julian's arm to see that, yeah, my family was definitely staring at us. Behind me were my mom and sister standing together along with Theo and Jonah, all watching my fiance and I talk to one another. I hope that they weren't able to hear us as well because we were just talking about fucking all day tomorrow for his birthday, but I don't think they did because none of them looked disgusted or anything. I move out of Julian's arms to let my mom come and give him a huge hug. "Happy birthday, Julian."

"Thank you, Nancy. Thanks for coming and everything," he tells her after kissing her on the cheek. He switches to hug Ivy, also thanking her for being here before shaking Theo's hand.

Julian talks to them for a bit before grabbing my hand and pulling me through our house so he could talk to everyone and thank them for being here. I barely focus on what's being said unless I'm being acknowledged because I was too busy thinking of what was going to happen when he opens his presents. Yeah, Bradlee told me to not think of the what-ifs, but I couldn't help it. There were so many things running through my head that I couldn't even try to focus on anything more.

Once Julian talks to every single person there, including people that he has never even met, Nina calls for everyone to eat. We all scoop up some of the pasta and salad that we had catered here before beginning to eat. I sit with my mom, Ivy, Theo, Bradlee, Jonah, Andrea, and Matthias as I eat while Nina and Julian continue to mingle with all the other people at the party. Once we ate, they lit the candles to the fancy cake and I was right, Julian definitely called Nina extra for getting a cake like that.

After we sing the birthday song to him, he blows out the candles, refusing to tell Ivy what his wish was because she was just too damn nosy for her own good. Julian then sits on the chair in front of the TV so everyone could see him and starts to open up dozens upon dozens of presents. I knew how hard it was to buy shit for him because he's a billionaire, which means he could practically buy anything in the world, so you had to get a bit creative when it came to gifts.

I zone out throughout most of the gift opening, but I knew that he got a ton of clothes and different bottles of alcohol. He got a bunch of paintings that I knew wouldn't fit in the house, so he would have to take them to his office building or something. He received a few trip vouchers along with hotel gift cards, even though he could easily afford a hotel room or whatever. My mom and Theo got him some new shoes and a watch that he actually didn't have, which was surprising since he had a pretty big watch collection forming.

Ivy got him a few picture frames with pictures of random times with all of us, usually whenever we would go out to eat together. Jonah got him a very expensive wine, as did Nina. Andrea and Matthias got him a very expensive suit that he also didn't have, surprisingly. Bradlee got him some mugs along with a new coffee maker along with tons of Keurig pods since he knew about the fight that the two of us had gotten into about coffee that one morning.

Nina then got him a bunch of stuff in a box, but once he saw what was in there, he refused to show anyone what it was, which told me that I knew exactly what it was. Mia and Ned showed up a bit late because of some class that Ned had to teach, but they had gotten him a bunch of t-shirts and told him to "start dressing down a bit more" since whenever they saw him, he was always in a suit. I had decided to be cute and wrap a gift and write that it was from Bailey since the dog that was currently being held in someone's arms, probably would get Julian so many presents if he was human. I had pretended that Bailey gave him baby wipes since Julian hated it whenever our dog's slobber would get all over him whenever he got too excited. Everyone got a pretty good laugh out of that story.

"Well, thank you all for everything. I don't even know where all of this stuff is going to go," Julian announces, making people laugh as the pile of clothes and other random items forming to the left of him. He moves to get up from his seat, but my mom shakes her head and pushes him down to his seat. He gives her a confused look before she places all of my presents on the coffee table in front of him.

"Come on, Miles," my mom urges. I walk over to them, finally leaving my spot on the counter in the kitchen since I wasn't too big on sitting between people on the couches or on the floor with other people. They had brought in chairs from the dining room and garage, but I was perfectly fine sitting on the counter away from everyone since I didn't want to risk having a panic attack at Julian's party. When my fiance locks eyes with mine as I walk closer to him, I knew that he knew exactly why I had stayed a bit away, but didn't say anything in case he embarrassed me.

I settle on a spot next to my mom since she was the closest one to Julian on the floor in front of him. When I got comfortable on the floor in front of my fiance, he leans down to give me a quick peck on the lips, earning a loud awe from everyone in the room. I chuckle before handing him his first present that was wrapped in the shape of a poster. Once Julian unwrapped it, he let the poster fall open so he could get a look at it.

"So it's a scratch-off map, so whenever we go somewhere new, you can just take a coin and scratch off the place. I think it'll be cool to see all the countries we visit overtime," I tell him, making him look at me with soft eyes.

"I love it, thank you so much," he says and I can tell that this gift meant a lot to him because he loves traveling. I know he's been to loads of places already, but he wanted to experience every single place over again with me by his side and I couldn't wait to see the world with him.

I smile up at him before handing him the box that was wrapped in the same paper as the rest. When he opens up the box to see the wine glasses that he picked out, he chuckles before pulling them out to show everyone. One of them says Mr. Always Right and the other says Mr. Thinks He's Always Right, which describes our relationship perfectly because we both were extremely stubborn. Everyone in the room chuckles at that as I take them from his hands before setting them carefully on the coffee table behind me so they don't break.

The last present makes my heart start to speed up as I hand him the tiny box. My mom reaches over and grips my shoulder tightly as we wait impatiently as he takes his time to rip off the wrapping paper. When he sees that the tiny box was velvet, his eyes meet mine in a curious glance and I just keep my face impassive, not wanting to give anything away. As soon as he looks away, a huge smile graces my lips before he flips open the velvet box to display the ring that I spent hours picking out.

I watch as his face turns emotional as he examines the silver ring that had a line in the middle of black diamonds that gave the band a manly tone to it. I knew that he wouldn't want an extravagant ring like mine that was sparkling with normal diamonds, so I decided to do a black diamond one since I knew he would find it really cool.

I reach up and take his hand in mine that wasn't holding the box and he finally looks up to meet my eyes. I notice the tears brimming his lids and it makes my heart flutter to see his emotion. "So I know I already said yes to marrying you and everything, but I wanted to give you a chance to do the same. I also know that we were going to just pick out a ring together, but I wanted to make it special, so, Julian, will you marry me?"

Before I can say anything, he grabs me by the hands and pulls me up into a standing position before pulling me into his lap. I wrap my arms around his neck as he lets a few tears fall against my chest. I let my hands run through his hair as he lets out his emotions as everyone in the room claps for us. After a few minutes of just sitting there while he tries to control himself, he looks up at me with tears running down his cheeks. "Yes, I'll marry you."

"Well, I would hope so," I joke before wiping away the tears on his cheeks before connecting our lips in a quick peck. I grab the ring box that he set in my lap and take out the sleek band before gripping his left hand in mine and slipping on the ring. Everyone claps again as he kisses me once more and then bottles of champagne were passed around to celebrate what just happened along with Julian's birthday.

We finish the night off with everyone sitting around in the living room and telling random stories. Most people had left since it was starting to get late, but the people closest to Julian were still here. We spent an hour or two just talking and before I even realized it, it was super late. Julian looked like he was super tired, so I told everyone that I should probably get him to bed to try and persuade everyone to leave.

After about 30 minutes of waiting for Ubers to get to the house for the drunk people that were still here, I got Julian settled into bed as I changed my clothes. He laid in his spot, just staring at the ring that I had put on his finger just a few hours ago. I chuckle as I watch him before plopping down in my spot right next to him. "You like it?"

He smiles, sinking deeper into the bed as he continues to stare at the band. "I love it, Miles. You have no idea how much I appreciate it."

"Well, you're going to be my husband and I wanted the ring to be something special like mine is. I didn't want to just pick out a random one together, I wanted to find it myself. I thought you would like the black diamonds," I tell him, scooting closer to him before running my fingertip over the silver. He puts his finger on my chin before turning my head towards his before placing a firm kiss to my lips.

When we pull away, he stares deeply in my eyes with a huge smile. "I love you so much."

"I love you too and happy birthday," I whisper to him, giving him another kiss before getting comfortable against his chest. He turns off the lights before wrapping his arms around my body after getting into a good position. He presses a kiss to my head before letting out a soft sigh after this busy night. I knew he had fun with all his friends and my family, as did I. It was a bit stressful at times, but I would do it all over again hundreds of times if I could see Julian's smile every day. I fell asleep with that exact thought in my mind.