Our Pizza Romance

Chapter 32: Rotisserie Chicken

"Happy birthday to you...", everyone sang in unison.George, Hailey, Derek, Josh and even Sebastian was here. Overwhelmed and surprised, I couldn't suppress my emotions, I was grinning ear to ear and I had tears in my eyes. Of course they were tears of joy.

"Happy birthday princess", Leo whispered in my ear.

Hailey was carrying a cake. The cake was beautifully decorated with the words, "Happy Birthday Pizza Girl!" written on it. I was touched by the gesture. "Make a wish!" Hailey said smiling at me.

I blew the candles and cut the cake, feeding Hailey the first slice. Then I took turns feeding cake to everyone.

"I am sorry but I just have to do this", before I could react Leo took some icing of the cake and applied it on my cheeks. "There much better. The highlight from the icing looks good on you", he said grinning at me.

Of course he's still an asshole. I took some icing from the cake and lathered it in my hand, "I think you are in dire need of some moisturiser".

"Oh I am so recording this!" Josh laughed bringing out his phone to record the whole thing.

"Oh no you are not going to do that", he said backing away.

"Of course I will", with that I ran towards him. I didn't realize but we both ended up tripping over the sofa, with me being on top of Leo. I knew I was in an awkward position but I didn't care as I finally got him. I applied the icing on his face while everyone laughed and cheered on, "That's much better", I said smirking at him.

"Happy birthday to my girl!" I heard someone from behind me sing. I swiftly turned around almost dislocating my neck. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was my mom. My mom standing in front of me carrying a cake in her hand. I get to see my mom after so many months!

"Mom!" I yell in excitement. But she wasn't excited to see me as I was. She was looking at me with a startled look on her face.

"Uhh you might want to get up from me princess", Leo said blushing. Just then I realized what an awkward position we are in. To someone entering the room this might look really strange and not to mention they can get the wrong idea. Like my mom.

I got up immediately. "I swear I wasn't recording an R-rated flim Mrs. Justice", Josh said defending himself. I wanted to facepalm myself.

My mom instantly recovered. "Happy birthday Emma!" She said again, smiling at me.

I went up to hug her, "Is that a pizza cake?" I asked gleefully. My birthday just couldn't get any better.

"Uh huh. Leo and I baked it for you. In fact you should thank Leo, he is the one who planned everything. He also brought me here", she said looking at Leo.

Leo was scratching his head, his cheeks redder than the cherry tomatoes on the pizza, "Uhh I got a lot of help from June and the others too", he said referring to our other friends.

"Oh please I just had to make a Pinterest board. You did everything", Hailey said.

"Aww is our little Leonardo Arsen blushing?" Josh teased.

"Shut up", Leo snapped.

"Don't try to be modest. I just arrived this morning. I am sorry he had to get you out of the house dear, I was already inside the house and we wanted everything to be a surprise. In fact Leo stayed up all night to finish baking your cake so that you don't get any hint of it".

I was speechless. I didn't have anything to say. I look around to observe the decorations around me, starting from the mini pizza tarts to the Harry potter themed candles hanging from the roof were all done by him. It looked something out of Pinterest and I was more than impressed by it, I was awed.

I read the writing on the t-shirt,"What does a house wear?"

"Turn it around!" George said excitedly.

I turned around as he told,"A dress", I read the writing on the back.

"I knew I had to give this to you!" George said beaming at me.

"I am sorry you had to go through this", Sebastian said cringing at the joke. "I tried to stop him from buying this but he didn't listen".

"No I like it", I laughed.

"Oh stop it! You should be glad I didn't make us wear matching 'We make a great pear t-shirts", George mused.

Sebastian rolled his eyes, while we laughed.

"This one is from both of us", Sebastian said handing me a black shiny gift box. I opened the box to find black stilettos, exactly the ones I was trying out with George yesterday.

"Did you.... You shouldn't have. It must have been expensive".

"You don't have to worry about that", Sebastian said. "George saw how you wanted to buy it so it's a little gift from us".

"Besides Sebastian is rich! He is like my sugar daddy!"

"My turn!" Hailey said handing me a her present.

I opened the present, careful not to drop it since it was quite heavy. "Oh my god.... That's us".

"I am there too! Aww Hailey you do love me!" George said.

"Yes unfortunately", she said to George. "I found all our photos and made a collage out of it. Hope you like it", Hailey mused. It was picture frame with all our photos. This brought back so many memories. I was having a flashback to the time when Hailey said she might have feelings for George. I think she understood what I was thinking from the look on her face.

"By the way I don't have feelings for George. I just made that up so that you don't end up leaving early. We needed to distract you from going home as Leo was planning your surprise here", Derek was laughing beside her.

"And I am not over Sebastian. We are officially in love", George said with a faraway look in his eyes. Yup he had it bad for Sebastian.

Derek gave me multiple coupons from Carlo's Pizzeria which I didn't mind as they guaranteed me free pizzas. He also got me a bracelet which was beautiful.

We all had some early morning snacks since it's midnight now. They left after sometime as everyone was sleepy and it was almost 4 am.

My mom was already asleep as she was tired from the journey she had in the morning. Leo on the other hand tried to stay awake but that didn't work as he was really exhausted from working all day. He ended up falling asleep when we were opening my presents. But I really wanted his present though which he was excited to give me. Honestly that would have been a lot since he has already done so much.

I put a blanket over him. He stirred in his sleep, making himself comfortable in the couch. I decided not to wake him up as he was in a very deep slumber. "Thank for everything. You know you are really making it hard for me to not fall for you", I placed a kiss on his forehead and went to my room, to get ready for bed.

I open my door to find a painting hanging on the wall. It's a picture of me with Leo and Josh's niece Sarah. I am holding Sarah while Leo is feeding her. I remember this picture really well. We were babysitting Josh's niece and nephew while Josh was on a date. After Josh came back he took pictures of us with his niece and nephew. I loved this picture the most in fact I have it saved in my phone too. I was too busy admiring the picture that I didn't notice the note attached to it. Happy birthday Emma! I didn't know what to give you for your birthday. Since you always appreciated my works I had to paint this picture for you. Besides this painting contains my three favorite people. Hope you like this. -Josh I realized I had the most amazing friends ever and I was really grateful to have them. This was officially the best birthday ever.