When Friday rolls around, Lori sends me the details for happy hour. I anxiously get home from work and change my outfit three different times. I haven't had a girls night out of fun and drinking in what feels like forever. I didn't make a lot of friends when I first moved here and I feel great that Lori and everyone at work is accepting me so quickly into their work family. I know sonny and the SVU team have accepted me but it's different with these people. None of them really know what happened to me over the past year and I'm excited for people to like me for me and not just because they pity me. I meet them at the bar and Lori waves me over happily "Addison, hey!" She says as I get closer "you've met Cheryl and Casey" she points to the two women next to her.
"Hi, nice to see you guys." I return with a wave.
"This is Gia, Maycee and Diana." She says who the next three ladies are.
I shake each of there hands and then take a seat in the open chair across from Gia. The waitress comes around and I order myself a vodka soda. All of the girls start to talk about work and what's been happening lately. It reminds me of what working in a school was like and I just smile and listen. Eventually, the conversation turns more personal as Gia asks Diana how her latest date went. "The Guy was such a loser! I can't even begin to tell you how bad the date was!" Diana starts to explain.
"That's why you don't go on dates with people from tinder!" Maycee comments back with a chuckle.
"Well, there aren't that many options now a days." Diana returns, sipping her margarita.
Casey says "it's true, not all of us can be as lucky as Cheryl and Desmond."
Cheryl waves her hand "oh, come on. You guys just need to keep trying. What about you Addison? You're engaged, how did you guys meet?"
There's the question, right off the bat. How do I explain that Sonny was the officer I first opened up to after my rape. As if Lori can tell I was struggling with answering in the 3 seconds before she spoke she jumped in "actually, let us hear how he proposed?"
All the eyes at the table widen and they eagerly wait for me to share. This one is actually easier to answer, because I can leave out parts of the story that involve me being the reason sonny was in the hospital anyway. "Sonny was actually injured on the job so I went to the hospital. I was waiting with his team for any news when the doctor came out and said we could see him."
"Oh, was he shot?" Gia asked at my pause.
Casey lightly taps her on the arm "G, you can't just go and ask her if he was shot. Come on."
I smile and answer anyway "He was, actually. But anyway, I wasn't going to go in just yet, yanno, I figured his team would want to talk to him first but they insisted I go in with them."
Two of them "aww."
I continue "So when we get in there, he asks me to come over to him. He holds my hand and tells me how he never thought he'd get to be a husband after that night and how he wanted to marry me."
"Stop. That's so cute." Cheryl gushes.
I blush a little and Diana then asks "so, you said yes?"
"Well, I think I tried to talk him out of it but he just assured me, in front of the people he cares about most, that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me." I finish the story.
"Well fuck, there goes the last romantic guy in the city." Lori jokes, raising her glass in the air "congratulations Addison."
All of the girls raise their glasses and we cheers. I keep my drinking to a minimum but have a really fun night with everyone. When everyone starts to part ways, Lori and I begin walking in the same direction. I take this opportunity to thank her "thank you for chiming in earlier, when they were asking how Sonny and I met."
Lori shrugs "well, I could tell in your face you just weren't ready to talk about it. I get it."
"It's just a really complicated story and—" I go to explain, feeling the need to do that since she's my boss.
She simply holds up her hand "no need, you don't have to tell me right now. Or ever. I'm just glad you're a part of my team now."
"Thank you, I am too." I say back. She turns another block down and I decide to catch a cab for the rest of the way. When I get to Sonny's, he still awake and on the couch watching TV "hey" I say as I kick my shoes off.
"Hey pretty lady, how was tonight?" He asks, looking at me with a smile. He turns the TV off and adjusts himself on the couch as I go over to join him.
I respond "it was actually a lot of fun. It was good to just kind of go out and try to forget a bit, live a bit."
"Good! I'm glad!" He leans in to kiss me on the lips. He pulls away and says "I have left over pasta in her fridge if you want some." He goes to stand up, probably just waiting for me to get home before going to bed when I grab a hold of his hand to stop him. He looks at me, reading me and asks "what's wrong?"
I tell him honestly "I don't know what to tell people when they ask how we met." He sits back down, thinking. We just look at each other in silence until I ask him "what do you tell people?"
"Well, I don't really have any people to tell. But if someone were to ask me I would just say I met you on the job." He answers back. I nod as if that makes sense, because for him it does. However, I wasn't on the job. I was hiding in my apartment after my rape when Sonny cane knocking on my door. Of course, it's like he knows what I'm thinking and adds on "but I could see why you would have a hard time telling people how we met. If you want, we can say something else to people. We can say we met online, at a bar, friends house."
"No, no, no. I don't want to lie. I just don't know what to say." I return and then shrug.
"Well, I don't want you to be uncomfortable to tell people either. It's totally okay with me to just say something easy like.." he thinks for a second, then snaps "we met when we bumped into each other in the crosswalk." I give him a side-eye, telling him that would be silly to say. I smile though, and he just kindly says "whatever makes you happy Addison, I'll say that. You tell me how we met and that's what I'll stick to."
"Okay, thanks babe." I shake my head a little. I don't intend to come up with some lie of how we met. I just wanted him to know how I was feeling about it. Sonny and I go to bed after that, and I end up tossing and turning most of the night trying to think of someway to explain to my boss how I met my fiancé.
