Chapter 2 AMELIA'S POV

"Rach! This dress is so tight! It'll surely disintegrate if I sneeze!!"

"Don't sneeze then" she teases.

We are in my room and Rachel is in my robe spread eagle on my bed. She came to my house after I came back from working my second job as a cleaner at a caregiving home.

I am exhausted, but as soon as Rachel enters the house, she announces rather loudly that she's not going to let me sulk at home, and that a girl's nice in order, my protests were all in vain as she somehow got Eugene and mum to take her side and magically my opinion didn't matter.

So here I am suffocating in a tiny black dress I used to wear in high school, I reach for the blue maxi dress that is a safer option, and Rach bats my hand away.

"Amy stop being dramatic, just wear the cute black dress, you haven't even done your makeup, we are late!".

I look at the time it's 7:26, and our reservation is for 8, I don't know what restaurant we are going to, this whole outing is Rachel's treat and she refuses to tell me where we are going, I give her my best puppy dog eyes.

"If I wear that dress I'll freeze in the New York cold, don't make me!"

"At Least you'll die looking cute" I gasped and smacked her in the face with a pillow.

"Hey!" She exclaimed "Watch the face girl " I chuckled.

I love that she's always here for me, we both don't have much but she's doing this to cheer me up and I appreciate everything.

I hug her and she smiles.

"What's that for?" She asked

"For being the best friend a broke girl can ask for"

She gasps dramatically " So you're only with me for my money?"

" Of course," I say while I flip my brown hair

- playing along, we both laugh and I move towards my vanity so Rachel can do my makeup.

When she's done I'm in awe, she glammed me up real good "Wow, thanks girl"

" Don't mention, anything for my sugar baby" She teased, making me giggle.

She puts on her dress- a sexy yellow mini number that has black rhinestones encrusted around the bust area, her black goddess braids are in a bun on top of her head and she has two loose to frame her face, her makeup is perfect.

She looks gorgeous as we take some pictures, hyping ourselves up as it has been forever since we went out, putting on our heels and heading downstairs.

Mum and Eugene are cuddling up on the couch, watching a romcom, Eugene is pretending not to enjoy it.

'Help me!' he mouths to Rach and me but we just laugh, mum turns towards us, a wide smile on her face, this smile reaches her eyes and I'm happy to see her functioning better, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that something would go wrong, I walk towards the couch and hug mum.

"My girls! y'all look so good!".

Her voice is stronger and her eyes sparkle with mischief, it's just like old times, she turns to Rachel and in her sing-song voice admonishes her.

"Don't let Amy convince you, girls, to come back before 1 tomorrow, she's such a worrywart, everything will be fine, you girls are young and gorgeous, go have crazy fun"- she squints her eyes teasingly "- not too much fun tho" she looks at Eugene for support and he nods.

"Aye, aye captain " Rachel gives Mum a mock salute and then our Uber horns for us and we go out to the navy blue Toyota, we confirm the plate number and get into the back seat, soon we are on our way, singing loudly and dramatically the song on the radio.

The car slows down in front of La Pentola and I gasp and look at Rach in disbelief as she just smiles.

La Pentola is the best Italian restaurant ever, their gnocchi is to die for, if it wasn't so expensive it would have been a staple food for me.

I'm so excited, the last time I was at La Pentola was years ago when Mum wasn't sick and Eugene was just a cute round-faced little boy.

We enter inside, our heels clicking against the marble floor, the place is as beautiful as I remember.

The receptionist looks up as we approach

her little desk set at one side close to the entrance of the restaurant, I look at her crisp white shirt and her name tag says 'Laura', her black hair is shiny and her dimpled smile is professional as she intones.

"Good evening, welcome to La Pentola, how can I help you?" Rachel goes towards her and shows her phone.

"We have a reservation for 8, the reservation is under the name Maxwell" Laura looks through her tablet, her green eyes searching, I start to fidget but then she looks up and gives us the same tight-lipped smile as before.

"Have a nice dining experience??" she says as the maître d' leads us to our seats, we giggle as he holds the chair out for both of us, our waiter comes and we giggle again as we see how cute he is.

I order the gnocchi and Rach orders chicken risotto, we sip our wine and talk as we wait for our food, I'm glad Rach insisted on me wearing the cute black dress, the blue dress would have looked out of place with the ambience of the restaurant, our food comes and it smells divine.

"Oof, that was a meal!" Rach says, taking a sip of her red wine as I nod in affirmation.

"You know what would make this night better?" She asks.

"Tell me, I ask back, raising my brows.

"Just hear me out, what if the night doesn't have to end here?"

"What do you mean?"

"We could go to a club, have some drinks, dance and have some crazy fun" she wiggles her brows at me.

" Rach-" cutting me off.

"C'mon Amy, don't say no please"

"Rach-"

"I promise it'll be fun Amy and your mum said you could stay out for a while, you were there, you saw her, she's fine, just do this with me, please?"

"Rachel!",

"Yes?" She looks at me expectantly.

"Let's do it"

She smiles.