Mal's birthday came quickly, and Ben did his best to helped her put everything away so they could have a little party for her at the apartment. Evie promised to be there for her birthday, and the boy made sure the make a reservation in a hotel in case the girls wanted to be alone in the apartment or if they wanted to stay in the hotel. He noticed Mal getting more comfortable with Seattle, and it seemed that Evie was the only reason the girl mention New York at all. Several opportunities to meet new people came with her job, and having her own group of friends in a relatively short amount of time made Mal feel like she belonged in Seattle.
Ben asked Mal who she wanted to invite to the party, and of course, Oliver was the first person she mentioned. Oliver was a constant in all their conversation, even the ones that weren't about her work, and even though Ben only saw the guy a couple of times, he didn't like him. Sure, he wouldn't tell that to Mal, the girl loved spending time with Oliver, and her job was making her happy, so Ben was not going to say anything about that. When he shared how he felt about Oliver with Azis, his friend asked him if maybe jealousy was a factor in why he disliked Mal's friend. "You have to accept that you didn't like Ryder very much at first because Mal kept talking about him. Maybe it is the same thing with Oliver."
Ben didn't feel jealous if anything, he felt like Oliver disliked him, and his feelings for the boy were a response of how he thought he was treated. Still, he agreed with Azis that he should be opened to talk and get to know the guy for Mal's sake.
The day before Mal's birthday, when Evie arrived, Ben shared with the girls the news of the reservation at the hotel, and the three of them decided that the girls would stay at the apartment while he went to the hotel. Packing light, the boy waited until midnight, and after wishing Mal a happy birthday, he went on his way, telling the girls to call him so they could have lunch together. By the time Ben was getting ready to sleep, the boy had started to regret leaving the apartment; still, he knew the girls need space to talk and how important it was for Mal to have Evie with her on her birthday so even though he was going to miss Mal he went to sleep smiling.
The next day started at 6 am for Ben; he planned his day to start earlier than usual, so there was no way any meeting would ruin his plans to have lunch with the girls. Ben needed to pick the snacks and the cake, so with that in mind, he waited outside the supermarket for it to open and bought all the snacks and beverages he was going to need and took them to his office. Sure, it would be best to get them to the apartment, but Ben didn't want to wake up the girls if they stayed late talking. So taking everything into his office, he took over Azis's, Jay's, and his private mini-fridges and put there everything that needed to stay cold while pilling the rest of the stuff in the corner of his office. At two, Ben called Mal; he was surprised that the girls hadn't called him for lunch at that time. However, when Mal answered, she told Ben that Oliver and the people at her office surprise her with lunch in a beautiful restaurant. "I texted you earlier telling you. Didn't you get the messages?"
As the girl said that she move the phone out of her ear, telling Ben to wait and checked her messages, there Mal saw the texts with a red dot next to them announcing they weren't sent. Evie was sitting next to her and overheard the conversation, then leaning she saw Mal's phone, and then look at her friend shaking her head. Ben's voice came from the phone, telling Mal that he didn't get any messages but that she shouldn't worry about it. Mal put the phone back on her ear just as Ben told her to have a great time and that they would see each other later that day. After hanging up, Mal felt guilty, and Oliver asked her if she was ok; the girl then shared with her friends what happened. They all told her not to worry, and that she should just enjoy herself, it was an honest mistake, and Ben should understand what happened.
Evie, on the other hand, stayed silent; she had told Mal to call the boy and tell him about the invitation; she knew that Ben wouldn't make the girl feel guilty if she decided to go out with her coworkers. However, Mal decided to send a text as Oliver suggested and went on to celebrate with the group.
A conversation she had with Ben a week before came to Evie's mind, and she understood why the boy didn't like Oliver; it seemed like Oli, like Mal call him, thought that Ben wasn't enough for Mal, and he would continuously make little comments to Evie about it. In every opportunity, Evie made it known that his assumptions were wrong, but the girl realized that the group was align with Oliver's thoughts. She tried to think back to her conversations with Ben to see if the boy ever mention the rest of Mal's coworkers, but she was sure the boy didn't meet them yet.
At lunch, they would talk about several subjects, but whenever Mal started to mention Ben, they would change the conversation. Evie wondered if getting to see him tonight would change how they thought of him and if Mal would notice what was happening. Evie excuse herself and made her way outside the restaurant to call Ben, she knew the boy wasn't ok with what happened, but he was not going to make Mal feel bad on her birthday. When he finally answered, Evie wasn't able to ask him anything because the boy asked her, "What happened? How exactly did a plan we had since yesterday got completely change?. I've been waiting for your call since noon, I'm hungry too."
Evie apologized and told him precisely what happened, and Ben cursed Oliver, and for the first time, Evie didn't tell him that he was overreacting. Still, Evie thought that Oliver was acting based on what happened after Mal moved in with Ben, and hope that tonight would help the boy realized he was wrong. However, the damage to what Ben thought of Oliver was already done. The girl asked her friend what he was doing, and Ben shared that he was taking everything he bought to the apartment, and he was planning to start getting everything ready, and then take a shower and relax. He needed to pick the cake at six from a bakery that Mal usually loved, and after that, people were going to join them at the apartment at seven, so he would be back before then to put the last things out.
They ended the call, and Ben went on with his chores, and after he finished cleaning and getting everything set up, he noticed that it was already time to go for the cake. Forgoing the shower, the boy made his way to the bakery calling Azis to see if he could go back to the apartment with him to finished everything while he got himself ready. Azis agreed and met Ben at the bakery, but when they made their way back to the apartment, they found Mal, Evie, and all of the girl's friends already there. Evie came to help him with the cake and a couple of boxes of sweets that the boys bought; the next person to greet him was Mal. The girl hugged Ben apologizing for not making their lunch date; however the second the girl was starting to tell him about her lunch Oliver came to her side and after a quick hello to Ben and Azis, the boy took Mal's hand, telling the girl that their friends were waiting for her to start a game.
It took everything in Ben not to tell Oliver that he was talking to Mal, so he needed to wait for them to be done, but still, the boy managed to stay quiet and not say anything while the girl went to sit with her friends. Evie and Azis stood in front of Ben, asking him if he was ok, and the boy said no. Evie told them that she shared with the group that Ben was not going to be at the apartment at six, and suddenly, everyone decided that they wanted to arrive at that time. Both boys rolled their eyes, and Ben told his friends that he was going to take a shower and change before the rest of the people came.
The moment Ben went away, Azis asked Evie what she thought of the entire situation. They talked about Ben's feelings and how much they were justified, which after spending time with Oliver, Evie was sure they were. "The weird thing is how Mal doesn't seem to notice what they do; she honestly doesn't say anything that could even be interpreted like Ben is mean to hear or at all."
Oliver chose that moment to come towards them and asked the couple if they want to join them. Reluctantly they made their way to the group, and Mal asked them where Ben was. "He went to take a shower, he spent the afternoon cleaning and putting everything together, so he didn't have time." Azis share and wondered what the group would say about that, and once again, Oliver changed the subject. Ben walked into the living room as the doorbell rang, so he made his way towards the door instead of the group, and suddenly, Lonnie was hugging him who knew how nervous Ben was for everything to go amazing for Mal. "We came a little early to help you. How is everything going?"
Ben smiled and from that moment on, more people joined the party until half an hour later, all the guests were there, and everyone was talking among themselves.
Ben tried a couple of times to be next to Mal, but her group of friends would usually make him feel excluded, so he decided to talk to his friends and let Mal have fun with her friends. Evie, however, got tired of the situation and asked Mal to come with her to the bedroom and confronted the girl about what was happening. At first, Mal told her that she was wrong but as Evie talk the girl started to see that her friend had a point, so she made her way to the living room, and one of her coworkers came to stand next to her, ready to take her to where they were seating. Mal smiled at Remi while telling the girl that she was looking for Ben, and for the first time, Mal noticed the girl made a face at the mention of the boy.
Ryder's laughter made both of them turned, and Mal noticed Ben standing in the corner with Ryder and Azis laughing at something which made her smile. Remi took her hand when she saw Mal getting ready to join the boys. "Come on, Mal, you can be on my team this round, or we can play boys vs. girls. "
Mal nodded but told the girl that they should ask everyone to join them, and Remi seemed not to like the idea. Still, the girl called everyone, and soon the entire party was splitting into teams, and this time, Mal made sure to be in the same group with Ben and Ryder. They had the best time, and after a while, she noticed how some of her coworkers looked confused about how seamless her interactions with Ben were. The couple would laugh at the silliest thing, and even when one or the other wouldn't catch on to some clues that made them lost points, their mood never changed. Ryder knowing them, would joke about the couple always being to lost in the other to concentrate in the game and blaming that for them not doing too well in the scores.
Ben laughed at Ryder's comment and promised to focus more on the game while Mal stuck her tongue at her friend and proceed to kiss Ben. The entire group had a blast, and the game went on for the rest of the party, which made it the best part of the evening for Mal. Every couple of minutes Ben would bring more snacks and asked people to please have some while walking among the group. Evie, Ryder, and Lonnie decided to help with that, and so they would take turns; by the end of the night, there wasn't any leftover food, which made Mal a little sad cause she loved leftovers from parties.
The night ended with the entire party singing happy birthday to the girl and she thanked everyone for coming to celebrate her day with her. Mal took the opportunity to thank Ben for everything he did, making the boy blushed. "I just want to say that I'm happy to be here with all of you. Moving from New York I knew that being closer to Ben was the right way to go and even though I freak out at first he has never hesitate to do anything in his power to make me feel welcome, and love. From giving away his stuff to make more space for me to building furniture so we have more space to grow together you never stop showing how much you love me. Most of you know how generous Ben is and I just wanted to tell him in front of all of you, our closes friends, how much I appreciate him and how much I love him."
Mal ended her speech looking into Ben's eyes, the boy was a little teary eye and completely speechless. So she smiles at him and taking his face into her hands she proceeded to kiss him, they shared a long kiss and, for a moment the,y completely forgot that they were surrounded by their friends. Finally, the kiss ended and Mal cleaned a few tears that escape the boy's eyes while he whispered how much he loved her. The moment was broken by Oliver standing next to the couple clearing his throat and Ben closed his eyes trying to gather all the patient he could to talk to the boy.