“So you scared?” Ashely asks me as we sit down across the street from work at Il Fornia Deep Dish.

“Scared about what, babe?” I ask Ashely, rolling my eyes as I lean back and let the waiter place our personal deep dish pizzas in front of us.

“Duh, you only got promoted today Alicia,” Ashley replies back giving me an eye roll of her own. “I mean like one year ago you basically almost lost your job.”

“Oh my God, you remember Nadia Moore?” I ask her, shuddering. “I can’t believe she stole all that money from Derek.”

Ashley takes her knife and fork and starts cutting into her deep dish pizza with gusto. She ordered the Italian Sausage and I got the pepperoni and bell peppers. It’s greasy, cheesy. And it tastes so good. But…

“By the way, babe,” Ashley says to me as she pops a piece of pizza into her mouth. “I know you’re like the youngest Vice President in the history of Carter Jeffries now, all promoted and whatnot and still in your 20s, but we can’t keep eating like this.”

Gimme a break, you know?

I mean, sure, I’m popping the pizza in my mouth, but it’s not like it was my idea to go get deep dish pizza.

“Ya babe, I’m so with you, we gotta do better eating wise, because I don’t know how many more hours of Pilates we can really do before we end up just passing out.”

Alicia laughs to herself. Is she laughing at me? Oh my God, I can’t believe it!

“What the fuck, babe?” I ask her.

“Like, I think you can eat as much greasy food as you want with all the fucking you’re getting from your billionaire boyfriend,” she teases me. “If you get him an extra 10% return will he maybe do anal?”

Ya, in case you were wondering, I’m still an anal virgin. I haven’t given it up.

But I mean, it’s not like it’s been boring sex.

Far from it. OMG. It’s like life-altering sex. It’s like we’re one person. It’s like everything I could have dreamed of.

“Seriously babe, it’s like you're like living in a romance novel or something, “ Ashley says to me and looks out the window. “I just hope that I’m as happy as you one day.”

I mean, I know that Ashley is the first to tease me and such, but something about her in this instance lets me know that she’s genuinely happy for me.

And you know, it does feel good. I’m so much better off than I was a year ago. I have a man who totally loves me. I have my career. It really does seem to be possible to have it all.

It’s been a great year. Just in case you need a quick rundown of what happened to my life over the last 12 months, let me just let you in on the key details.

So, Nadia Moore is in jail. She lost her securities license. Then she got indicted for fraud and grand larceny as well as conspiracy.

I kept working at Carter Jeffires. Ashley went to work for a fashion magazine in Times Square called Femina.

I still live in my apartment but spend most of the time with Derek. I mean, I should probably not renew my lease when it expires next month. I’d probably save some money.

Work? It’s been good, I guess. I mean, being part of the team that brought down an international con artist and thief put a lot of wind behind my sails. I’ve traded nods with the CEO because he’s recognized me.

I know, right? It’s insane. Like I’ll be walking down with my co-workers and Preston Cabot and his Managing Directors will be walking by and he’ll recognize me and nod and be like “Alicia,” and I’ll nod and say, “Hi, Mr. Cabot!”

Totally raises your street credibility among your peers.

And I guess it doesn’t hurt that Derek goes golfing with Preston and we’ve all gone out to dinner and various social events together. Maybe it doesn't help, but I mean, it probably doesn’t hurt that my guy is his client/boss.

But enough about me. I need to get Ashley off her subject and on something else. Plus, I wanna know about her new job.

“How is the new job at the fashion magazine?” I ask her. “Any cute guys?”

Ashley shrugs. “The managing editor is a dick,” she says with enough matter-of-fact to let me know she’s made peace with it. “But the commute is good.”

“Yeah, but what about the guys?” I ask again. “You’re not answering the question.”

That’s when it dawns on me. “Oh my God. Did you already fuck someone?”

Ashley looks startled. “No!” she squeals back to me. Then, as if considering. “But there might be someone I saw in the building,” she answers quietly.

Yay! It’s like my good fortune is rubbing off. Because if anyone deserves to be happy, its my Ashley baby.

“You need to wear that skirt you have from Forever 21,” I tell her. “The one that looks totally sweet and slutty.”

“Uhm, no,” Ashley says to me. “I don't wanna look like a slut in my first month to get some guy. Besides you borrowed it and never gave it back.”

Oh right. I totally forgot that. I borrowed it to go to a Yankees game with Derek. He owns a skybox and I remember wearing that skirt. It was great because he was able to lift it up in our skybox (it was just us) and fuck me so hard during the 7th Inning Stretch.

I’m smiling at the memory, getting so hot that I reach over to get a drink.

Ashley sees me.

“Oh. My. God. Babe, get the fuck out!” she says to me and I see her eyes widen.

Oh, yeah, I may have forgot to tell you Derek proposed to me on Saturday.

I promise, it’s not like I was hiding it from you or anything. I swear!

It’s just that I got promoted today also! It’s been like a really intense week and it’s only Wednesday.

“Get out!” Ashley says. “How did you not tell me?”

I decide that I really should have told Ashley, but when you’re getting proposed to on the top of the Empire State Building and…

“Tell me all about it, babe,” Ashley says and her eyes narrow. “Now!”

I smile.

She’s so sweet when she’s insistent.

But hey, fuck it. I’m a VP now. I guess I can take a whole hour and talk about how I got proposed to.

“So ya, we totally woke up and he took me to this amazing romantic brunch at the Boathouse in Central Park,” I say.

“Oh my God, I love the Boathouse,” she jumps in.

We both take a bite of our pizza and I look out the window. People walk to and fro.

I smile and realize that Ashley is right in a way.

Life can’t get better than this.

I can’t wait to see what else is to cum.

<3