Best Friends #FleurishTogether

*This post is made possible in partnership with Fleurs De Prairie

I’m fortunate enough to have a small and strong circle. As you grow older you realize it’s a blessing to have friends you can count on. If you’re lucky like me, you have friends that are more like family. I met Melissa around 2005. She was a gorgeous girl a bit older than me. You know how it is when you’re young. The older girls are way cooler and you want to be cool too. She was sweet and we immediately clicked. Fast forward, thirteen years later (maybe more), we’re still very close friends. We’ve been through dozens of sleep overs, road trips, sunflower field adventures and mini family trips together.You ask anyone who’s known us for the past 10 years and they will all say that if I was around, Melissa was too. We’ve always been inseparable. So I guess you can understand that moving across the country and leaving my sister from another mister behind is pretty hard. Granted, adulting doesn’t really leave much time for get-togethers anyway. However, being all the way in Arizona will make that extra difficult.I  thought why not go all out and have a stoop date. I gathered some of our favorite snacks and I made the perfect grazing platter for two. Well, more like for 10-15 but we both love cheese so that wasn’t really an issue. I paired it with Fleurs de Prairie Rosé. The perfect compliment to everything on that platter. The perfect touch to a final East Coast date with my girlfriend Melissa.We ate, shared some amazing stories and toasted to new opportunities and new adventures. Who knew that 13 years later I’d be hanging out with my best friend on a rainy day sharing all of my hopes, dreams and anxieties about leaving everything I know. But I guess the saying is right when they say, that’s what friends are for. To listen, comfort, support, cheer and assist.I’ll share one of my favorite “Boyfran” stories. A nickname we affectionally adopted for each other some years ago. Last summer I drove Melissa down to central New Jersey to see the sunflower fields. The sunflower is her favorite flower. Melissa actually means “bee”  which comes from some other Greek word that means Honey. You catch my drift. This girl LOVES flowers. I wanted her birthday to be special. Especially since I’ve worked every single year she’s celebrated her birthday. On our way there my windshield got hit by a rock and it was just a hectic day. We got to the fields and the sunflowers weren’t really in bloom. That didn’t stop her though. If the sunflowers weren’t lighting up the place, she was. I know, I know… it sounds so corny but that’s just the kind of person she is. She can light up an entire field of sad sunflowers on a gloomy day. That day reminded me that it’s the little things, you know? That sometimes you show up, and things aren’t always what you expect them to be, but you’re there and that matters.So cheers to 13+ years of friendship. 13+ years of laughter, tears, endless conversations and lots of advice sessions. Cheers to so many years of being my assistant on photo shoots and even my muse. Cheers to being featured in Vogue Italia together and cheers to friendship. I hope everyone finds a friend like Melissa, and I hope that you can #FleurishTogether like we have.xoDenisse*Please drink responsibly