I Just Had to Lick the Cookie, Didn't I?

I'm a troublemaker,
Never been a faker;
Doin' things my own way
And never givin' up;
I'm a troublemaker,
Not a doubletaker,
I don't have the patience to keep it on the up

"HEY! Wrap it up in there!" Gary shouted, pounding on the bathroom door. Milo chuckled and pulled his mouth apart from mine, leaving me breathless and staring at him. It only took a second for me to smile slightly and let my head rest on the wall behind me.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright? I can come, you know. Not all of what I have scheduled is all that important..." he told me quietly, searching my eyes for an answer. I shrugged and sighed.

"Of course I won't be alright, but I know you have to do all of that stuff. It's important. And I really want you to get that internship. Gary will take care of me, I hope..." I breathed uncertainly. Milo nodded slightly.

"But Gary won't care that all of those people are watching you strut down a runway half naked like I do. That's supposed to be just for me," he complained playfully.

"It was either this or the catalogue modeling, would you rather it be eight times as many people, not including the thousands that would be making themselves 'happy' from the pictures," I pointed out. He rolled his eyes and sighed.

"This is the only one or I swear I'll kill him," he mumbled. I smiled and poked where his belly button was, only to giggle when he twitched.

"SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!?" Gary screamed.

Milo sighed loudly and rolled his eyes.

"Gary," he groaned. "GO AWAY!" I laughed and let myself relax.

"TELL THAT TO THE WOMAN IN THE WHEELCHAIR, MILO!" Gary retorted.

"Handicapped people, can you believe them?" Milo asked jokingly, shaking his head. My smile grew and I looked down to the floor. "Okay, before he has a heart attack, I promise to think of you every second of every day and be waiting for you in order to be the first person you see when you get back... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand," he said, getting quiet, and closer to me, "I love you."

With a grin I closed the small gap between us and pecked him on the lips.

"I love you too."

"Good, now you should probably go catch the plane before Gary kills me," he groaned. We both sighed and stared at one another.

"You know, you were supposed to take me to France, not Gary," I pointed out. He frowned.

"I want to, but this is all important for the both of us, right? I just...I want everything to be perfect. I've got an open invitation for residency at any hospital in the country," he said quickly. I stared at him, stunned. He hadn't mentioned that before... "And someone needs to take care of the dogs. It won't be for too long, you know that."

"You're such a hypocrite. You totally just contradicted yourself right there..." I sighed as Milo started to user me to the door. He chuckled as he turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"Expect the unexpected," he replied over Gary's increasingly annoying shouts.

"COME ON!" Gary screamed, snatching my hand and dragging me after him as he started off to God only knows where. Milo managed to quickly kiss me on the cheek before stopping and watching sadly as I was pulled along behind Gary. I literally felt my heart shredding into millions of little pieces as he started to grow smaller and smaller.

"Cheer up Adriaan; we'll only be gone for a little over a week. It'll be fun, I promise," Gary assured me softly, patting my hand in the arm rest. I took a deep breath and tore my gaze from the clouds to look at him.

"Gary, that isn't the point. I know it's going to be fun, but I just miss him. It's like half of me was left in the airport..." I sighed.

"Seriously. I understand that you two love each other like mad, but I don't see the purpose in being so completely in love with someone that you can't be independent. Clinginess is an automatic turnoff for me, not that I'm looking or anything. I love John," he told me.

"But isn't that what love is, Gary? Loving someone so, so much that you can't ever imagine life without them? Even for the slightest second? I feel like my heart got ripped out of my chest and I watched the nasty thing get poked a million times. I love him. I love him so, so, so, so much it hurts, Gary," I whined. He blinked and nodded slightly.

"Pathetic and yet completely heartwarming," he smiled. I stared at him and started to feel uneasy as his expression turned a bit evil... "Did I ever tell you that my best friend in the whole world has a dirty little secret?" he asked mischievously. Raising a brow, I shook my head. Gary giggled deviously and clasped his hands together. "He got lucky and I forgot to tell you sooner, but he's going to kill me and you're going to kill him. It all works out rather well actually..." he bubbled.

"The point, Gary?"

"Milo, our dear perfect Milo...is a closet smoker," he stated fiercely. I blinked in shock and stared blankly at Gary, baffled. "I am quite serious, my dear. The love of your life has polluted his lungs with the nastiness of tobacco smoke. He claims it's nothing serious and he rarely does it, but that's what they all say," he whispered cryptically.

"I'm going to fucking KILL him!" I yelled. Gary winced and shushed me as some other people in the first class section shot glares our way.

"I told him you would..." he sighed.

"Damn straight," I mumbled.

"So, your rack is right here. Walk down to the end, pose, come back halfway, pose, come back all the way to the beginning and pose again, then exit and change your outfit as fast as you can. Then you do it again, understand?" Gary told me, resting his hands on a metal rack with a huge mass of different outfits for me to put on.

"I'm scared," I whispered to him.

"Sweetie, you have nothing to be scared about. You're so incredibly gorgeous even six feet tall super duper models can't deny it. Besides, dating a super celebrity and being my friend has its perks," he smiled.

Nodding, I took a deep breath and started undressing. We had arrived a little early, but I figured I might as well get into the outfit now and get it over with. No need to wait for the obnoxious chaos that eminently loomed ahead.

Gary walked away and let me change alone, which I appreciated considering I would only be replacing half of my clothes. He'd recruited me to be a model for his lingerie show. I was really uncomfortable about the whole thing, but I figured that I could trust him.

Cameras flashed all around me. I stood still, holding my pose and breathing steadily. All of the other girls seemed perfectly fine, and I was horrified. As everyone in the room began clapping, I followed suit and did the same. Gary came traipsing out from backstage on to the runway and passed all of us. He stopped at the end and waved before motioning for everyone to be seated and quiet.

"Thank you all so very much for attending this evening. I've worked very hard to design everything you've seen and I proudly tell you now that I am more than satisfied. I didn't start this short speech to tell you all just about myself, but I did start it to introduce a very close friend," Gary announced. Right away I felt a bit excited that it might be Milo, but part of me knew that was highly unlikely.

Half of the people in the room gasped when someone entered. From where I was standing I could only hear their approach, not see them.

"Now if everyone would just accompany me to the after party. We have something very important to share after a brief performance. Come on!" Gary yelled and then scampered away with whoever his friend was. They joined the huge mass of excited guests in their escape to the room where the after party would be.

"Come on girls, get into your party dresses!" a voice yelled. As all of the other girls started off running to get back stage again, I sighed and reluctantly followed.

Back at my changing station I found a bright pink sticky note stuck on a hanger. When I read it I realized Gary had written it. It basically was just an order for me to wear the dress in the dress tote. I was a little surprised to find that the dress inside was just like the one I had worn to the Christmas Ball, only black.

Nonetheless I slipped the dress on over what I still had on and then took the bra off. Some of the others were already leaving for the party, so I quickly checked myself in the mirror before following.

Music was blaring and it was fairly dark. It was sort of surprising that what looked like a rave had come from such a quaint room in the Ritz Hotel. All judgment aside and such, I was scared.

"There you are!" Gary squealed and started dragging me behind him. I was completely taken off guard and just went along with it. Suddenly the loud music ceased and was replaced by the soft sound of a piano. Everyone in the room stopped and turned their heads in a common direction. Unfortunately for me I couldn't see and was forced to blindly follow Gary to where ever it was he was taking me.

And then it hit me. The song being played was only my favorite song on the face of the entire planet...

"I am color...blind..."

Right then, as soon as I heard those words being sung I knew. I started walking quicker behind Gary and tried to pass him, but he knew too and didn't let me. He held me back for a whole three minutes before he let me go. The song had already stopped, but no one clapped. Something was up, and I wanted to know more than anything, so I ran. Many of the people had noticed me and were watching as I made my way to the front of the room. I slowed down as I got closer out of fear, but that melted away as soon as I saw him.

I started laughing and slowly made my way to him. Milo smiled and took my hands in his. We gazed at one another for a few moments before he glanced away and back. He took a deep breath and smiled his perfect smile.

"I have something to do correctly," he told me quietly. He swallowed and took another breath before letting go of one of my hands and taking hold of it with his other. Then he did something that made me want to faint.

Milo slowly got down on one knee and reached into his back pocket, producing a small, shiny object. I felt myself starting to cry and briefly looked away. So many things ran through my head in those moments, but I disregarded them knowing that this is what I wanted indefinitely.

"Adriaan, will you marry me?" Milo asked.

"Yeah," I managed to say, sniffling and nodding my head. He smiled brightly and slipped the most beautiful, perfect ring on my finger as he stood up and enveloped me in a tight, loving hug.

"I love you, you know," he mumbled into my hair. My face was pressed against his hard chest and I just nodded and squeezed him even tighter.

"I know," I replied.

The room had erupted in claps and cheers seconds after I had said yes, but they didn't matter to me.

Gary was screaming and clapping frantically from somewhere close by and I could hear him run at us and leap on to us. He continued to squeal and laugh until Milo shoved him off and loosened his grip on me. We resituated ourselves so that Milo only had an arm around my shoulder so that we could look at Gary together.

"AHHHHHHH! Adriaan I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!! Oh my god! Oh my god! OH MY GOD! AHHHHHHHHHH! I'm calling my friend Julia to help plan the wedding. Oh, and we just have to hire Katie as an interior designer... Ooo, ooo, ooo! And we---"

"Gary, not right now," Milo ordered. Gary sighed and then reluctantly walked away.

For the first time I looked down at my hand and smiled. Milo had done well. The ring was perfect. It was exactly what I would have picked out myself...

"So... I found a house," Milo told me, lacing his fingers between mine and taking his arm off of me. We started walking towards the exit and I nodded happily.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"Minnesota," he replied. I shrugged.

"Whatever floats your boat."

"Good. The Mayo Clinic has the best Neurology department in the country. They want me. Well, everyone wants me, but that isn't the point. You're okay with that though? Moving there?" he asked.

"Yep. I hate New York. The sooner we're out of here the better. When can I see it?"

"Next week... I sort of already bought it. It was a ridiculously good deal; over a hundred acres and insanely close to the hospital. The thing was perfect! I had to buy it..." he explained.

"Seriously Milo, that's fine. I doubt I'll hate it, and besides, you just bought me thisthing," I told him, smiling and pointing to my beautiful newly acquired engagement ring.

"I knew you'd like it. I picked it out all by myself. Gary just helped me with the size."

"I knew there was a reason I loved you. We're, like, telepathic or something. Twins!" I yelled.

"Ew. Incest," he gagged. We both laughed as we got in the elevator and I couldn't help but smile brightly the entire ride. It was official. Milo and I were getting married and nothing could change that.

Not even the imminent rampages of the Boones and Hakim.

Nothing.