My knock is met with a soft shuffling sound, like someone hastily trying to put things away.

“Mel?” I call through the door. “Is now a bad time?”

There’s a pause in the noise, and then light footsteps. Melanie pulls open the door of her and Raj’s bedroom, a relieved look on her face.

“Hi,” I begin, then break off in surprise as she catches my arm in her slender fingers and yanks me inside.

“Hi!” She closes the door, then presses her back against it. “Sorry, I thought you were Noah. I don’t want him to see what I’m working on.”

“I’m actually here to pick him up,” I answer. “We’re hanging at my place tonight. But why don’t you want him to…?”

I trail off, staring around the room. Melanie has a lot of stuff out on the floor.

She follows my gaze to it, nibbling her lip. Her dark brown hair is loose around her shoulders, wavy from the braid she was wearing earlier. I can see the parental tiredness in her eyes that she, Noah, and Raj have had since Nikita arrived, but she seems happy.

“Wedding stuff,” she explains.

I break into a slow grin, nudge her arm with my elbow. She laughs, her face bright with excitement.

“Well, that’s perfect,” I tell her. “That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you before I kidnap Noah for the evening.”

“Kidnap him,” she giggles. “Like he hasn’t been excited about it ever since you texted him.”

I blink at Melanie, an unexpected touch of warmth in my heart. “Oh."

“Anyways, you wanted to talk about the wedding?” Mel smiles up at me. “I hear you’re gonna be Raj’s best man.”

“Yep.” I match her smile, the warmth in my heart spreading. “But that’s not actually why I came up here. Did Raj tell you that he asked me to do the flowers?”

“Mhm, he did.”

“Right, so. I thought I’d come up here and find out whether or not he ran that idea by you before he asked me.”

“No, he did not,” Melanie laughs, folding her arms over her chest. “He - read my mind, I guess. Like he does all the time. I don’t know how the hell he does it.”

I think of Raj, the only one to figure out what all three of them wanted on his own, without any outside help. How clearly he could see what was growing between Melanie and Noah, and how hard they were both struggling to fight it for his sake.

No one said a word to him about it. He just knew. More than that, he understood.

“Raj has a talent for that,” I tell Melanie, who nods, an affectionate look in her eyes. “Does that mean you definitely do want me to do the flowers, then? Both of you want that?”

Melanie gives my arm a squeeze. “I’ve seen your work before, Jamie, so. Yes, I’d love for you to do them.”

The warmth completes its takeover of my heart, and I can’t help but beam at Melanie. I pull her into an excited hug, and she laughs, returns it.

I hold my notebook up when we break apart.

“I was hoping to talk about what you want, so I can start sketching out ideas. If you have a minute, that is. I can see you’ve got a lot going on.”

“No, let’s do it now," Mel says brightly. "I’ll work while we talk.”

She picks her way across the cluttered floor, drops to sit in the middle of it all, and beckons for me. I follow after her, find myself enough space to sit cross-legged amidst everything she’s got out.

“What is all this?” I ask, running my eyes over it.

“Some craft stores sell mystery boxes of miscellaneous clearance items,” Mel explains. “Five dollars flat, for a box. I buy a lot of them, use the stuff inside for the events my company plans. Here, see?”

She reaches into one of the boxes and comes out with a handful of various things. A package of colorful paper baking cups, for making cupcakes in. A can of gold glitter spray. A set of four acrylic paints, the palette named Halloween Harvest. A box of long black candles, with gold wrapping around the bottom.

“I go through the boxes for things I can use, take out what I can’t.” Melanie sets the acrylic paints aside. “I’ll give those to Ripley, but the rest of this stuff I can probably use for some event we've got booked, or that we'll book in the future. Halloween party, maybe. Seems like that's the theme of this box.”

“Wow. That’s smart, Mel. No wonder you’re the boss at this company.”

Melanie laughs, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“And now I get to look through them for my wedding.” She gives me a glowing smile, then points to something she’s already pulled out. “Unscented candle making wax, I’m gonna add a scent to that. Use it to make mini candles for the wedding favors.”

“Sounds like a lot of work,” I realize, looking around. “You need an extra set of hands?”

“Raj and Noah will be able to help me soon, assuming…” Mel fades off, her smile falling to an anxious frown. “Assuming everything goes well on this trip to the beach house.”

She's clearly thinking about the proposal, so I hesitate, concerned about overstepping.

“How are you feeling about that?” I ask, choosing my words carefully. “I can tell that Raj is a little nervous.”

“Yeah, he is. I am, too.” Mel touches a fingertip to the small red stone in her engagement ring, drops her gaze down to it. “You should see what Noah is like when the wedding comes up, Jamie. That’s why I don’t want him to know that I’m working on it right now. He tries to act like everything is fine, but he gets all...”

Mel’s sentence slows to a stop. She sinks into her thoughts, her eyes distant. I give her time, the way I’ve learned to do with Aiden.

“If Noah doesn’t want this,” she finally says, “If this whole thing freaks him out, and he…”

She stops again, faltering.

I know why Noah starts behaving oddly when the wedding comes up. It's because he wants in, and doesn’t know how to ask. I'm sure about this - even if Noah hasn't told me so - but I can’t exactly say it to Mel. I fall silent for a moment, considering my words before I answer her.

“Hey.” I poke her arm, fix her with an encouraging smile. “I told Raj this already, but - I really think that Noah is done running. Also, he would fucking do anything for you two. Like, anything.”

Mel starts to smile back at me, then pauses.

“I don’t want him to do it for us, though,” she says, fidgeting with her engagement ring. “I know how trapped he felt, all those years with Ralph. I never want him to feel backed into a corner like that again. If he decides to do this with us, I want it to be because he chose it. Because he wants it.”

A burst of happiness for Noah rolls through my chest. I debate telling Melanie that the fact this thought would occur to her is probably something that Noah adores about her. One of the many reasons I think the proposal is going to go well.

“So, I’m gonna get busy designing the flowers,” I say instead, “Because this wedding is so on, you don’t even know it.”

Mel lets out a surprised laugh. She gives me an affectionate smile, gently swats my arm with the back of her hand. She seems to steady out, to get a deeper breath into her lungs.

“Okay," she says. "Let’s do it.”

I flip open my notebook, take the pencil from behind my ear. “Where’s the wedding?”

Melanie points over her shoulder at the window. “In our backyard.”

I pause with my pencil over the paper, looking up at Mel, a smile spreading over my face. That location hadn’t occurred to me, but now that I think about it, I have a feeling that it’ll be beautiful. The lights Noah put up in the trees, the soft swaying of the branches in the wind, the open sky overhead.

That the mini-rainforest I built for them will be the background to all this makes me happier than I think Melanie realizes. I clear my throat, trying not to look as touched as I am.

“Okay, cool. Do you have anything in mind for the flowers already?”

Mel nods. “I have the containers they'll go in.”

She reaches for one of the boxes and begins pulling things out of it. An array of items, all with a worn, vintage look to them. A teapot missing its lid, several completely different vases, an old metal toolbox, a pitcher.

Seemingly disconnected things, except that they’re all burnished gold. Even the toolbox has been brushed with gold paint, and it fits right in.

“The flowers go in these?” I ask Mel, who nods again.

“I’ve been on a gold hunt through all the thrift stores in the three nearest counties.”

“You and my mom would get along,” I inform her. “So - what do you want the flowers to look like?”

“Honestly, you know us three so well, Jamie, and…” Mel narrows her eyes, peering into mine. “You already know what you want to do, don’t you? I can see the gears turning.”

I tilt my head to the side, trying to figure out where she's going with this. “I mean, I - I’ve got some ideas, but it’s your-”

“Surprise us,” Mel interrupts, smiling at me. “I’m sure it’ll come out perfect.”

I stare at her, caught off-guard.

“Okay,” I mumble, nervously tapping my pencil on my notepad. “No pressure, or anything. Just have to make the perfect surprise. For your wedding day.”

Mel touches my arm, looking into my eyes again. “Can you do it?”

I hesitate, then reach out and take the can of gold glitter spray from the pile of stuff on the floor.

“I’ll be needing this,” I tell Melanie, and she giggles happily, which tells me I’m on the right track.

She watches as I set my notebook aside and reach for the different containers that the flowers will go in, turning them over in my hands. Her gaze lingers on the page that the notebook is open to.

She picks it up, runs her eyes over what I’ve already sketched out.

“That’s for Noah and Raj,” I explain. “Just an idea. If you don’t like it, that’s-”

“Oh, Jamie, I love it.” Melanie’s eyes flit up to my face, warm and happy. “I just hope that I get to see both of them wearing it.”

I step out of the room with the can of gold glitter spray and the notebook in my hand, my head already filling with ideas.

“Ready to go?” I ask Noah, when I get downstairs.

He’s already pulling on his bomber jacket. “Yep. What were you and Mel talking about?”

I hesitate, trying to think of how to answer without lying. “Just - the beach house trip.”

It's true, in a way. It all comes down to that trip.

~~~~

“I’m fuckin’ pumped, man,” Noah tells me, his eyes on the TV.

I hit the blunt and hand it back to him, matching his grin. “Yeah?”

“Dude, it’s gonna be sweet. Haven’t surfed in forever. Aiden and I used to, but I kinda stopped going, after he left.” Noah lets a thick wave of smoke waterfall from his mouth as he flips through the armor options on the screen. “You gonna surf, too?”

“Maybe.” I equip the armor I want, then take the blunt back from Noah. “Raj says he has a board I can borrow. I do okay, but paddling takes so much arm strength. That’s Aiden’s forte, not mine.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Noah answers, then laughs when I stick my leg out to kick him.

“Wait, don’t go that way,” I say quickly, as Noah starts guiding his character up a forest path on the screen. “I already scouted it, there’s an ambush. They’ve got a boss-level necromancer, so we shouldn’t engage until we recruit at least one priest, or maybe a-”

My sentence ends in a gasp as Noah strolls right up to the ambush and triggers it. The battle loading screen comes up, and I turn slowly to look at him.

He lets out a burst of smoke and laughter when he sees my expression.

“Sometimes you gotta face things head-on, bro.”

“Oh, do you?” I sputter, indignant. “Let’s see how well this idea of yours works out, shall we?”

The battle starts, and Noah takes the first strike against the necromancer.

“Oh,” he says. “One point of damage. Yikes. The archers really don't do good against these guys, huh?”

I squint at the screen through stoned eyes. “How many hit points does the necro have?"

“Um…” Noah nibbles his pierced lip. “Two thousand.”

I groan so loudly that Noah bursts out laughing again.

“You - dumb - fucking - idiot-” I lay down another kick against his thigh with each word, until he shoves my foot off of the couch. “We are never gonna beat this game!”

“S’not my fault, dude, I’m so fucking high.” Noah tosses his controller aside, reaching to take the blunt from me. “Matter of fact, I’m confused about my current location in your place.”

“Mmm - well, we can figure it out. What’s around you?”

Noah’s eyes settle on the nearest object. “Coffee table.”

“So, living room, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s not what I mean.”

I wrinkle my nose at him, baffled, and let out a laugh. “Then I don’t know what you mean."

Noah lets out a helpless laugh of his own. “I don’t know, either.”

“Okay, I’m putting this out.” I take the blunt from his fingers and short it in the ashtray. “We shouldn't have smoked two in a row. Neither of us are barely - either of - getting the words out right." I cringe at Noah, horrified. "Oh, no. You see what I fucking mean?”

Noah laughs again, lounging back against my couch. I cross to the window and push it open wider, letting the breeze in. I drop to sit next to Noah again, and we both breathe the cool outside air for a moment, let it bring us back to a reasonable headspace.

We watch our entire army get obliterated by the necromancer.

“You and your amazing ideas, Noah,” I groan, wincing as my character is quite literally sliced in half. “Always with your foot flat on the goddamn gas pedal.”

“Only in video games, bro. I know when I’m about to make a fatally stupid mistake in real life.”

I turn to face him, arching an eyebrow. “I’ve never heard you admit to one of your ideas being stupid. Ever.”

Noah falls silent for a moment, growing serious. He hesitates, then holds out a hand to me, palm down.

“Here’s one I nearly made,” he tells me. "Came damn close."

My eyes drop to Noah's hand, but again, I have no idea what he means.

“I’ve got an open space,” he explains, pointing it out with his other hand.

I realize that there’s a band of untattooed skin at the base of his left ring finger.

“Figured… didn’t want to put any art there, because something was gonna go over it one day, and cover it up.” Noah can either say this or look me in the eyes, but not at the same time, apparently. “Now I know that nothing will. ‘Cause my two people are marrying each other, not me. So I thought I might - ask Raj and Mel if it would be okay for me to, um - to get a ring tattooed, when they get married. To show them how I feel, just a - gesture, like…”

He stops, swallows.

I’m actually glad that Noah isn’t looking at me right now, because my hands are only covering my mouth, and I’m sure that my eyes are giving my thoughts away.

He lets out a laugh that doesn’t really sound like a laugh.

“Can't believe I seriously thought that there was any chance they might say yes to that. That they might want that.” He shakes his head, like it’s the most ridiculous fucking thing he’s ever heard in his life. “Talk about a fatally stupid mistake.”

I stare at Noah, my fingers still pressed over my mouth. He casts a sidelong glance at me, and I hastily turn to face the TV, but he already caught an eyeful of my expression.

“The fuck is that face for, Keane?”

I give him a very honest answer.

“I’m just excited. For the beach house trip.”

Noah smiles, clearly grateful for the change of subject.

“Gonna be a blast,” he says, reloading our game. “Think everyone’s gonna have a real good time.”

“Yeah,” I answer, smiling back at him. “I think so, too.”