"Hey, hey, hey! Glad I finally caught you! Long no time no chat—you been really busy?" Hector asked. It sounded like he was walking around outside or something, like wind was leaking from my phone.

"You texted me, like, two weeks ago," I said and laughed casually, trying to play it cool but still sound interested. It was a little uncanny that he called because I, strangely, started missing him recently. We'd broken up five months before, and it was smooth as far as breakups went. We had both decided it would be best to move in different directions but still wanted to be friends. "But, yeah, work's been a little wild. So, what's up?" I was taking my lunch break at work. Laryn and I went out to a nearby food truck and had gotten some hot dogs to bring back to our break room. Thankfully, no one else was in there, but I was waiting for Laryn to get back from the bathroom before digging in.

"So, I've got a pretty wild proposition for you…" Silence for a few moments. "Sorry, that sounded weird. I'm gonna start over." He was obviously nervous about something. Laryn walked back into the room at that point, talking about someone forgetting to flush the toilet after taking a shit. Then she saw I was on the phone and hurriedly sat down across from me, mouthing who is it should I leave? I mouthed back that it was Hector, and she twisted her face in surprise.

"Wasn't expecting that," she whispered to herself. She sat back in her chair, sipping her lemonade noisily through a straw, and carefully watched me. I turned slightly away from her so she wouldn't distract me.

"Okay. Here's what I wanted to ask: remember when we sort of planned on going to The League? Like, a long time ago?" I vaguely recalled the conversation but had an inkling of what he was getting at. "Well-l-l-l, I was wondering if you'd maybe…want to go with me? In a month? I sort of bought tickets on an impulse, and you were the first person I thought of to bring along. I-I totally get if you think it'd be too weird 'cause I could always go with someone else from work—I don't know if you remember William? The weird one? He really likes Pokémon, too, but anyway, I'm getting off-topic… So…would you wanna go?" I could only gasp in amazement, causing Laryn to lean forward. She was biting her straw, and her eyes were wide, practically shouting tell me what he said!

"U-umm! Wow!" was all I was able to muster at first and got up to get away from Laryn. She was practically breathing into the phone, and I needed to think of what to say. Laryn tried to get up and follow but I motioned for her to stay the fuck at the table. "That sounds really—I mean, I'd love to go, actually, but I don't think I can afford a ticket. They're still really expensive, right?" Hector chuckled.

"I had a feeling you'd say that. I guess the other part of the surprise is it'd totally be all on me!"

"What? Hector, I couldn't accept that—it's too much money!" Laryn's eyes widened again, accompanied by a sly smile, and I could almost hear the inappropriate thoughts flooding out of her brain through ears.

"I hear you, but really, it's okay! I sort of got promoted at work recently, so I'm making quite a bit more than I did when we were still, ya know, together… Who knew so much could change in five months? Anyway, it would be my treat, and I want to do this for you. You could probably use a break from work, anyway, right? I know this time of the year usually gets a little wild for you."

"Whatever he asked you to do, just say yes!" Laryn shouted from across the room with a mouthful of hot dog. I quickly tried to cover the speaker on my phone, so I could yell,

"Shut the fuck up!" but I was also half-laughing.

"Oh, was that Laryn? Tell her I say hi!"

"I say hi back!" she shouted again with her mouth still full.

"You could hear everything the entire time?" I whispered harshly and lowered the volume on the call. She gestured with her hand and craned her neck as if to say obviously.

"Oh, gosh, Hector, I don't know. It's amazing that you got promoted—that is definitely really exciting. And I know you're offering, but it still feels like it'd be too much to ask you to pay for everything."

"Well, I'd pay for your ticket, but anything else you'd wanna buy would be on you. And the ferry to get there and back, but I think that's pretty affordable, compared to practically everything else," he said. Laryn started quietly pounding on the table, food still stuffed in one side of her mouth, chanting,

"Say yes, say yes, say yes…," in a monotone voice. She only paused to take a sip of lemonade and swallow everything audibly before continuing. I shook my head and stared at a poster one of the supervisors had posted forever ago. It was a black-and-white picture of someone looking out over a cloud-covered valley from a mountain or something. The sun was shining off in the distance. The words on the poster were from a quote that Michael Jordan supposedly said.

"Some people want it to happen. Some people wish it would happen. Others make it happen." This was printed under the words MAKE IT HAPPEN, which was a larger font size. Laryn clearly saw me looking at the poster and changed her chant to:

"MAKE IT HAPPEN! MAKE IT HAPPEN!" She was almost screaming at that pointing and was pounding the table hard enough to vibrate the metal napkin holder to the ground. I sighed and almost started laughing.

"So, what's it gonna be?" he said, sounding like he knew what I was going to say. I turned to Laryn, smiling.

"What should I pack?"