A few days later.....

“Alex, there’s somebody at the door,” Destiny called from the kitchen.

“Okay.” AJ got up from the couch and went to answer the door. He looked through the peephole and saw Amanda. He opened the door quickly. “Amanda, what are you doing here?”

“Destiny called me and asked me to help with the party,” she answered. “Didn’t she tell you?”

AJ smacked his forehead. “Oh yeah. I forgot she mentioned it to me.”

“Can I come in?”

“Oh, sure.” AJ stepped aside and Amanda walked in. Just then Destiny came over.

“Amanda, thank you so much for helping out,” Destiny said. The two hugged briefly.

“No problem. I love throwing parties,” Amanda smiled. “Where do I start?”

“Well, Alex’s mom is taking care of the desserts and bringing them over in a little while, Alex has been setting up the sound system, and none of us have had time to finish decorating the living room,” Destiny said. “I’m still finishing up a few things in the kitchen, so it would be really good if you could finish the living room.”

“Alright, cool,” Amanda said. They all headed to the living room. AJ went back to what he was doing while Destiny showed Amanda the decorations and gave her an idea of how she wanted it to look.

“Of course, if you think it would look better a different way, it’s cool if you put it your way,” Destiny added. Sensing AJ and Amanda still needed to talk, she excused herself and went into the kitchen.

The two worked silently for several minutes before one of them spoke.

“So how’ve you been?” AJ asked Amanda.

“I’ve been doing fine,” Amanda answered. “I’m seeing somebody right now.”

“Really? That’s great. I wish you the best.”

“Thanks. I invited him to the party if that’s okay.”

“Sure it is. You can bring whoever you want. The more the merrier. So when did you become such good friends with Destiny?”

“I ran into her at the mall a couple weeks ago. We talked and she helped me realize a few things.”

AJ looked her. “Like what?”

Amanda stopped what she was doing and looked at AJ. “Like how much our friendship means to me. I’m really sorry about the way I reacted when you told me it was definitely over between us. I was just really hurt and I didn’t know how to deal with it. I cared about you so much and I didn’t want to let you go.”

“I’m really sorry about hurting you, Amanda,” AJ said. “I never meant to cause you any hurt. It’s just I had to follow my heart and my heart belongs to Destiny. But I still care about you and I always will. Your friendship is very important to me.”

“And yours is very important to me,” said Amanda. “I was just too hurt to realize that. I don’t want to throw away a great friendship because it didn’t work out romantically. Destiny made me realize that.”

They were quiet for a few minutes, before Amanda spoke up again.

“Destiny is really something,” she said. “If she had been any other women, she probably would told me to stay away from you, but not her. She told me how much you wanted to continue our friendship.”

“Yeah,” AJ said, looking down at his hands. “I didn’t think we’d be friends again and I felt saddened by that. I’m glad you’re here.”

AJ walked over to Amanda and gave her a hug. She returned the hug. Finally, they both felt like they had closure. Just then the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Destiny called out. A few minutes later, she walked in with a tall, good-looking, dark-haired guy. “Alex, honey, this is Sam Wilkins.”

“Nice to meet you,” AJ said, shaking the guy’s hand.

“Likewise,” said Sam. hen he turned to Amanda. “Hello, my love.”

“Hey, baby,” Amanda said. She walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Sam, this is AJ. The guy I told you about. AJ, this is my boyfriend, Sam.”

“Oh, Amanda mentioned you earlier,” AJ said.

“Well, Amanda speaks very highly of you, AJ,” Sam told him. “She talks about you all the time.”

“I do not,” Amanda said, hitting him playfully in the arm. “Come on, help me with the decorations.”

Amanda pulled him aside and they got to work. AJ went with Destiny into the kitchen. He pulled her close to him and gave her a long kiss. Destiny kissed him back fervently.

“Thank you, baby,” AJ said when their kiss ended. “You are a remarkable woman.”

“Well, I knew you missed her,” Destiny said. “After all you’ve given me, I figured the least I could do was help the both of you straighten things out.”

“I haven’t done much except love you.”

“You gave me your friendship when I really needed it and then you gave me a reason to continue living,” she told him seriously. “You helped me find out I did have a reason to stay. Loving you is the reason I came back.”

“And I’m never letting you go,” AJ said, wrapping his arms around Destiny. “I love you, Destiny Morningdove.”

“And I love you, Alex McLean,” Destiny answered.