Lonnie announced to everyone that it was finally midnight, and a second later, Ben's parents were hugging the boy wishing him a happy birthday and telling him how much they loved him. Soon the rest of the group took their turned and hugged the boy who felt so love, and a little disappointed of not being able to kiss his girlfriend at midnight like he had planned. Still, the amount of love irradiating from every single person there made Ben thankful for everyone there, Jane and Carlos let go of the boy and made their way towards the kitchen to join the rest of the group. Lonnie's voice could be heard in the kitchen asking Belle and Adam to help her with the cake so they could sing happy birthday while Mal stood in front of Ben, taking his hand and taking him to his bedroom. Ben smiled when the girl closed the door, knowing that even though it was past midnight, he at least was going to able to kiss her; however, when Mal stood a couple of steps away from him looking at her phone, the boy was confused. Suddenly, she smiled and started to count down from 10 and turned her phone so that Ben could see it. There he saw that it wasn't midnight yet, it was 11:59:50, and he couldn't help the smile that came to his lips while Mal continued the countdown with each step getting her closer to him. At exactly midnight, they were kissing, and Mal wished him a happy birthday. When Ben asked her how exactly she made that happened, the girl went on to tell him that she texted Lonnie telling the girl to tell everyone it was midnight before time so they could have a moment of their own at midnight. "Lonnie was feeling guilty for keeping your parents secret, so I was sure that she was going to do anything I asked to made it up to you."
Ben smiled and kissed her again, after that the couple joined the rest of the group that was making it impossible for his parents to find the matches so they could start singing. The boy chuckled at the group antics and how, in the end, it seemed like there was a part of them that would always act like kids. Jay finally "found" the matches and after lighting up the candles they sang happy birthday to Ben, soon everyone was eating cake, and after that, it was finally time for everyone to leave, his parents with the promised to get together to have lunch. The couple change and then went straight to bed tired from the last couple of hours, as they were felling asleep Mal snuggle into Ben's chest, whispering happy birthday to the boy, making him smile into his sleep.
The next morning Ben's alarm woke the boy up from a peaceful sleep; he managed to get to the phone and stop the alarm before Mal woke up. She was always a very deep sleeper, so the boy wasn't shocked when she simply turned the other way and continue to sleep completely, ignoring the noise. Reluctantly he stood up and went on to get ready for the office the night before he thought every single plan for his birthday was going to be destroyed with his parents there. However, Mal convinced them to change the party for an intimate dinner and kissed him at midnight, making him have high hopes for his day. Before going on his way, he sent Mal a text making sure that her phone was charging in the kitchen next to the coffee machine. At first, Ben thought about leaving her a note telling her how much he was looking forward to seeing her later that day, but after thinking that his parents might see it before her, Ben decided against it. At the office, Lonnie had already shared with everyone that the surprise dinner was canceled, but that they were going to have a small celebration for Ben next week. When the boy made it to the office, everyone wished him a happy birthday; still, he could see how most of them seemed disappointed not to be able to party that night. Honestly, Ben wanted to roll his eyes at their attitude, if they wanted to party so bad they could go to a club or something. At one, he grabbed his things, and after saying goodbye to everyone, he made his way to the restaurant where his parents and Mal were waiting for him. Before last night Ben planned to go back to the office after lunch, but the boy decided that he instead was going to spend the rest of the day with Mal and his parents and work extra hours next week when they went back to their cities. They had a lovely lunch with the couple holding hands under the table for the majority of the time, and sharing stories of when they were younger and their transition to how they were still "friends" now. Both couples walked around the city with Ben acting as a tour guide for a couple of hours until his parents decided that they needed a break, so after walking them to the hotel, the couple was finally able to spend the rest of the afternoon alone.
Knowing Mal's love for beautiful places, Ben took her to the Chihuly Garden & Glass, and the girl instantly fell in love with the aesthetic of the site, she walked in wonder of the sculptures that surrounded her. The boy asked her if she wanted to take some pictures, and opening his backpack, took the girl's camera that she always carries with her when they went out. It didn't take long for the girl to lose herself in taking pictures from different angles trying to look for the best light, and Ben couldn't help to take a couple of photos of Mal while she did that. Once again, his mind wandered to a future were the girl decided that moving to Seattle was the best option for her; in the last couple of months of him dating Veronica, the couple went to check up houses. They were not planning to live together, but Veronica help Ben realized that he should be investing in a house or apartment of his own instead of continuing to pay rent. The boy had fallen in love with a couple of places, but when he started dating Mal, he realized that if the girl ever said that distance was going to be an issue for them, he would try to relocate to New York for her so buying something didn't make sense. However, seeing Mal enjoyed Seattle made the boy hoped that at some point, he could go on and buy one of his favorite for them to move in together. His phone rang, breaking his line of thoughts, and the picture of Ben with Jay making weird faces at the camera appeared, making the boy smiled. Ben answered, and Jay told him that the entire group with his parents were waiting for them to come to the apartment so they could leave for the restaurant because their reservation was in half an hour. That's the first time the boy realized how late it was; he knew then that going back to the apartment was going to make them lose the reservation. "Jay, we are at the glass museum there is no way that we are going to make it if we go back to the apartment. You guys go ahead, and we'll go straight from here and meet you there."
After they agreed, Ben ended the call and started looking around for Mal and found the girl looking at a display of a boat full of sculptures of bright colors. Walking towards her, he hugged her from behind, kissing her on the top of her head, asking her if that one was her favorite, making her go into a long rant about how every single piece of art is unique and how difficult it was to compare them. After she finished, Ben made her turned and randomly point to one and saying that that one was his favorite, making Mal rolled her eyes because she knew the boy was doing that to annoy her. Mal slapped his arm playfully, making Ben laughed at her annoyed face, and after giving her a little kiss, he went on to tell her about Jay's call. Mal was shocked by the news and told the boy that they needed to make their way there as soon as possible. "There isn't a dress code there, right? We are both not dress for a nice restaurant Ben."
Ben assured her that they were fine, and the only thing they needed to do was getting themselves to the restaurant as soon as possible. Mal took her phone out, and a couple of minutes later, they were on their way to meet the group while the girl showed Ben her photos. Jay was waiting for them outside with Adam, so the second their car stop their door was being open by them while telling them that everyone was already inside. That night they all had a wonderful time; Mal showed her photos to the group, and Jay leaned into Ben, whispering if that is all they did while being alone. Ben nodded, surprising his friend; he knew that everyone assumed that they were already doing more things that they did. Part of him was surprised too when they make out the first time the boy thought they were ready to let things escalate quickly; however, from that moment on, he noticed that both of them were taking things slow. It was like a part of them wasn't ready to completely embraced their new status. Also, in reality, they didn't spend a lot of time together with both of them having busy schedules, and living in different cities, it felt weird just to jump steps. He enjoyed spending the time as they did; being able to see her fall in love with a place that had always reminded him of her made him happy. His parents did a toast sharing with everyone how proud they were of Ben and how they hoped that every single person on that table would remain to be in their son's life forever. They stayed there for hours, and then everyone made their way to their places, once again, when Mal and Ben made their way to the boy's apartment they were more than ready to fall asleep. As the boy was falling asleep after bringing the girl as close as possible to him, he noticed that Mal was not relaxing, but instead seemed to be a little jumpy. Without opening his eyes, he asked her if something was bothering, and even though Mal denied it at first, Ben asked her again after telling her how obvious it was that she wasn't okay.
"I'm tired, but I was thinking about the museum and how beautiful it was." The girl went on to talk about the sculptures, and as hard as Ben tried to stay up, he ended up falling asleep in the middle of her speech. In his defense, he woke up early that day to go to work while the girl continued to sleep. Hours later, he woke up to an empty bed and laughter coming from his living room, still a little tired Ben stood up and made his way out and saw Mal and her parents eating and talking. Belle was the first to noticed him and got up to hug the boy apologizing for waking him up; Ben hugged his mother back and assured her that he loved waking up to his favorite people having a good time together. He sat on the couch next to Mal that looked as sleepy as he felt and asked the girl why was she looking like that and he was thankful when she didn't take offense to it but went on to share with Ben how she stayed up all night working on the photos she took at the museum. Ben smiled at her and felt and urged to lean and kissed Mal; instead, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze telling the girl that she should go on and sleep. Belle chimed in backing up Ben assuring Mal that they would still have opportunities to spent some time together because they were leaving on Sunday. She even went on to tell Mal that they were planning to give her a ride to the airport, Ben suspected as much, but he still felt defeated when he heard Belle said that. Mal yawn again making him turned towards the girl telling her again that she needed to go but before the girl could say anything else Belle stood up and taking her hand she walked with the girl to the room and helped her get into bed while Adam told Ben to change so they could go out and have something to eat giving Mal some peace and quiet.
In the end, the couple spent the majority of Friday apart, Ben, with his parents and Mal sleeping. That night though, after Ben's parents went back to the hotel, they decided to do something just the two of them, so after choosing a movie and cooking together, they had a lovely evening. At the end of the night, the couple went to sleep happy to had some time together; it was funny to think that aside from those few moments they failed at their plan of having time just for the two of them to have a conversation about how they were going to make their relationship work. A couple of hours later, Mal woke up her mind full of questions about them as a couple, and without even thinking about it, she shook Ben out of his sleep and told him that they needed to talk. "We are not going to have a lot of chances to be alone, and the last thing I want is to go back home without having a clear perspective about us."
Ben nodded and told her that they needed coffee, and together, they went to the kitchen when Mal saw the map of New York with what anyone would mistake as a red dot, but in reality, it was a heart the girl smiled and went on to kiss Ben. They spent hours on the couch sharing their points of view about the best way to maintain their relationship; schedules were discussed, even plans for future visits and calls. Mal told Ben that she worried that all this planning was going to make their relationship feel more like they were planning business meetings instead of being boyfriend and girlfriend. The boy understood her fears, he was feeling them too, and he promised her that even though it didn't sound romantic, they could make it work.
"I believe we can make this work, and all this planning is just proof of how much we both want it. You need to have faith in us, Mal, ok?" Ben leaned in and gave her a kiss on her right cheek and the left one, he continued to kiss her all over her face and then started on her neck. The girl closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of Ben's lips on her neck and how he was slowly moving her to lay on the couch with him on top of her. In the end, the boy was right all of the planning speak volumes of how important it was for both of them to make their relationship to work; they care more for each other than any other person had ever had, and they would do anything for to make it work. Mal decided then to stop worrying about the future and just focus on how much she already felt for Ben, and how loved he made her feel.