"Why the fuck are we here?" Mike groaned as him, Shannon, and I were out baby shopping at this little boutique on Melrose.

"Because I'm having a baby, duh." Shannon eyed him, annoyed.

"You told me we were getting food." He persisted, looking at me.

"We are! Just calm yourself down, there." I gave him a small smile, hoping it would get him to reason with me.

He rolled his eyes, "Fine."

"Thank you. We'll go get food after this, I promise." I grabbed ahold of his hand, and he looked down at me with a small grin.

He nodded, then turned to Shan, "What are you having, anyway?"

"A girl!" She smiled excitedly, placing a hand on her stomach that about almost five months in growth, now.

"Cool." He said blankly. "So that's a September baby?"

Shannon nodded looking at baby clothes. Mike stuck his tongue out at her, not thinking I could see. I giggled, lightly hitting him, "Stop." I mouthed.

"Luce, when we have a baby, it'll be dressed cool. Not like these ugly dresses and shit." Mike announced, pointing to a dress that Shannon was looking at.

"Hey! It's not ugly." Shannon protested.

"Oh yeah, the dress in your hands is uglier." Shannon glared at Mike, ready to hit him.

"Okay, okay guys. Calm down. C'mon baby, let's go get you food. Obviously you're a little grumpy because you're hungry." I looked over to Shan, "If you need me, call me. We won't be long."

She nodded, relieved that Mike was getting out of her hair. We walked towards the door and Mike grinned evilly as we made our way to some restaurant nearby. "Stop being ugly! You know she's extra sensitive."

"So? I'm hungry."

"Mike, stop being mean to her, please?"

"Fine! But why does she have to take everything up the butt, like calm down killer, it's a joke."

"Hormones, Mike. Those are what we call pregnancy hormones." I looked up at him, "Those dresses were kinda ugly, right?"

He laughed, "See? I'm not being mean, I'm being honest. I'm like that guy from that Project Runway show you watch." I laughed, ignoring him.

We walked into the restaurant and the waiter took us to a table on the patio, outside. It was so nice out, on this April day. Mike and I ordered our food, the salads coming out first. "How's the album coming?" I asked, stabbing a piece of my salad, and shoving it into my mouth.

"It's going good. I tracked my drums in one day." He smiled proudly, hoisting his arms up.

"Good job, buggie!" I high-fived him.

"What can I say? I'm amazing."

I rolled my eyes then laughed at his silliness, "That you are, babe."

"So when the album comes out, do they allow the writers, such as yourself, to like review their band boyfriend's albums or is that considered a biased opinion?"

I chewed on my lip, "I'm not sure. I could ask Marc or Shea. None of the writers have ever dated a band member that we have covered before."

"Because you would have to give us a good review, huh?" He winked jokingly.

"Hey, I don't lie, Mike. If it sucks, I'll say it sucks." I winked back earning a smile from him.

"But you review your friends' albums. Same thing, right?"

"I guess so, but I'm not sleeping with them like I am you. It's kind of different." I grinned widely.

"Speaking of friends, I see you reviewed Of Mice and a Men's new album."

I made a face, "Yeah, I was trying to get out of it, but Marc was getting on me about it. Good album, hate the lead screamer."

"I think you should talk to him. It's been what- three months since that little argument?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't the one who talked shit on fucking Twitter the next week. He's being mean for no reason and I'm not talking to him."

Mike rolled his eyes, "You're a big baby."

My phone rang a couple of minutes later, revealing Marc, my editor's name. "Marky Marc, what's up?"

"Hey, I'm here with Shea. We wanted to talk to you about something, if you're not busy."

"Not too busy. I'm having lunch with Mike. Talk about what?" I asked curiously, nervousness filling my stomach.

Mike Shea, the CEO of Alternative Press, the head honcho, my boss, spoke. "Hey Lucy, we wanted to discuss some big things for you. Sorry to interrupt your lunch date.

"It's not a problem, guys. Big things as in?" Mike looked at me strangely as to what the hell I was talking about and to who. I mouthed, "boss" to him and he nodded.

"Well, little missy you've made quite a name for yourself in a course of almost four years and you've made us really proud over here in Ohio. Marc and I have just fallen in love with every piece you've written and-" I put it on speaker so Mike could hear. "- every article and review is absolutely real and that's what I love about you. Once we heard that Rolling Stone was interested in you, I was scared you were gonna take it even though you completely deserved it. Nonetheless, I was a little too happy that you declined their offer. Marc, myself, and the other head people here were discussing you get a promotion."

I grinned, along with Mike who sat there listening intently. "Thank you so much, guys. Really, thank you."

"No, no, you deserve it, Lucy. It's only fair because you've earned it by working so hard. Well, we wanted you to become the official editor-in-chief for our LA headquarters while still being able to write yourself, since that's what you wanna do. You'll receive the same benefits, but your pay will almost double, and you'll still be in LA. What do you say?"

My heart almost leaped out of my chest, "Oh my god! Are you serious? Oh my god."

"Well?" Marc sang out.

"Yes! Yes! I would love to take that offer, oh my god, guys."

"Congratulations Lucy! I'll be making a formal announcement not only within our staff but for the readers as well. Alright, we'll be sending you off. Sorry again to interrupt your lunch date."

A smile never left my face, "No problem. Thank you so much, again."

"You're welcome. We'll talk later, bye!"

"Bye guys!" I said then hung up. "Oh my fucking god, did that just happen?"

Mike 's eyes widened as he seemed he was going to shout, "Oh my god! Dude, what the fuck. Babe, I'm so proud of you!" He leaned over the table and planted a kiss on my lips. "Congrats!"

"Holy fuck." I ran my hand through my hair, not caring where it fell. "I just got made the editor-in-fucking-chief of my headquarters."

"And you'll still get to write, and your salary is doubling and now you'll literally run that place." He winked at me, happily.

I smiled even bigger, thinking of all the possibilities that would and could happen how. If we wanted to, Mike and I could move into a bigger house, an actual house, and I could afford vacations and all types of things for myself, and for Mike and for whomever. This was literally more than a dream come true, and I couldn't believe it was happening in general, but the fact that it was happening to me.

"We have to go out and celebrate tonight. Call your homies and we're going to dinner and going drinking because this is amazing!" He threw his arms up in the air, then a minute or two later, our food came. We were even more excited about that.

---

I groaned as I looked in the mirror, scanning my outfit choice of the night. Mike groaned back at me as he lay on the floor mumbling something.

"I look like a Christmas tree!" I frowned as he looked up at me. Tonight's outfit was appropriate for both dinner and going out to wherever afterwards, but I felt overdressed.

"You look great, Luce. I promise." Mike smiled softly as he sat up.

The doorbell rang signifying it was the guys. Mike got up and answered, leaving me to glare at my outfit one more time, then realizing I was too lazy to think about changing now. I heard voices from the living room, laughs also. I walked out of the bedroom announcing, "I'm ready!"

Vic smiled at me, "You look great, Luce!" He walked over to me and gave me a big hug, "Congratulations on the promotion, dude."

"Thank you, Vic!" I grinned happily as Jaime and Tony gave me hugs as well.

"Tal, Taav, Brandon, Steph, and Benji are meeting us at the restaurant, so let's go." Mike looked at me. I nodded and grabbed my keys as we walked out of the house and got into the car, making our way to dinner.

All the talk that dinner was about me and my work, and eventually it moved on over to Mike and I. It was weird. A year ago, it was just me. I didn't have to worry about anybody or anything; my only concerns were myself and my job. Now, I was an editor-in-cheif, I was in love with Mike, I had a puppy, and now everyone I knew was moving forward with their lives. Thinking about the future scared me. And that's the thing about it and that there is that there is always a future. Less than ten years ago, I was worried about what I was going to do with my life, and now I'm 27 nearing 28 sooner than I thought, and I'm thinking about the next steps in my life; and that was a strange thing to face.

I looked at Tal, 33 and single, doing what he loves to do; and that's everything. Benji, whom just turned 35 and was single, his dream still being music. Brandon and Steph were engaged to be married now, and back at home, Shannon is pregnant, and Lynda is busy being a mom. Mike, living his dreams every single day by touring and drumming his life away. My brother and Britt are being the married couple, working on the next step which is a family, and I'm here, having more of life's things than most. Like I said, I have a job that I am more than passionate about. I have a boyfriend that I am more than in love with who lives with me in a house that I had grown to love over the years. It was odd how different each of us were in our lives, but how I considered everyone successful.

I smiled to myself as I had drowned out the sound of everyone around me. I never thought I'd be here, with all these people, and happy. Mike looked over to me and smiled, leaning into my ear and saying, "I love you, Lucy."

I licked my bottom lip and replied simply, but being more honest than ever. "I love you, too."

He squeezed my thigh and then held my hand under the table, shooting me more soft smiles with his beard growing beneath it. It was in that moment that I realized that it was never getting any better than this and I was perfectly content with that. I was perfectly happy with good things happening and small changes going on around here.

Notes

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates. School and work is taking up more time than I thought. I had written about half of this during free time at school, and worked on it here and there, then decided to finish it up today.

To those of you who continue to read this and respond in the many ways; thank you. You keep me motivated to keep writing.

Any thoughts on what went on in this chapter? I'm hinting at a few things that will be happening in the near future, so watch out for that. And if you didn't notice, I sped up the time to a couple of months after the whole Austin fight thing.

Once again, thank you and I love you all :)