“Well, I was about to dig into this company-issued birthday cupcake, but you called.”
“I meant for dinner, smartass,” she reiterates, her tone flat yet playful.
“I have some plans with my friends, but that’s about it.” I haven’t seen my friends in a few months, since they live over an hour away from me, so we decided to meet up for dinner to celebrate my birthday. While I insisted it wasn’t something worth a big fanfare, it’s an excuse for us to catch up.
“You aren’t going to Mom’s?”
“I’ll see her this weekend at your party,” I answer.
“It’syourparty, not mine,” she corrects. And she’s semi-correct. It’s a weekend bash at her place. An over-the-top celebration with cake, music, and probably something else extravagant considering Teeny and her husband, Everett, are organizing it.
“Okay, fine. MineandSadie’s.” Another excuse for Teeny to go all out in the party planning sector of her entertaining needs. It’s her daughter, Sadie’s, birthday too. With the convenience of our birthdays being just a few days apart, celebrations are usually combined. As was the birthday I celebrated over a decade ago at a trampoline park complete with balloon animals and pepperoni pizza. Fun times.
“But call Mom,” she firmly instructs. “You know she’ll be upset if you don’t call her on your birthday.”
“I already did,” I tell her smugly, remembering my call with her as I drove into work. It ended with her tearful voice telling me the last of her babies is now officially in their thirties, making me feel like I’m a toddler again.
“Good,” she answers proudly. “So, I called for another reason.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“This weekend, any special requests?”
“Whatever Sadie wants, I’m okay with.” One of the best parts of having a birthday a mere two days before the first grandchild of the family is that a lot of the attention tends to shift to Sadie. I can fall into the shadows and let a lot of the decisions surround Sadie’s needs while having the luxury of avoiding any unwanted attention, an added plus after the first birthday debacle where I was left wearing a pink party hat, and the magician made a dove appear from my shirt pocket. It also didn’t help when a fat blob of bird poop landed on my knee.
“So, you’re okay with a DJ, a photobooth, and karaoke?”
“That’s what Sadie wants?” This sounds even more over-the-top than any birthday before. But I guess it’s not every year Teeny’s daughter turns sixteen. It could also be the added benefit of Teeny’s more recent living quarters and, even more likely, her attentive new husband. To say that he spoils Teeny and Sadie would be an understatement. While Teeny has him wrapped around her tiny finger, Sadie has her stepdad wrapped around her own. Two persistent strings he responds to with the smallest of tugs.
“Well, your niece is tenacious.”
“Open bar?” I guess if Sadie’s making demands, I can tack on one of mine.
“Everett’s taking care of that,” she answers. Of course he is.
“That’s about it then. As long as there’s food, I’m happy.”
“Done!” she exclaims. “So, I’ll see you Saturday?”
I pause, tempting myself into bringing up a topic that I’ve never brought up to my sister. “Hey, uh…”
“What’s up? You think of something else?”
“No, it’s not that,” I answer before tentatively asking, “How’s Grace?” I ask her against my better judgment after the curiosity began gnawing at my insides, scratching away at any wall or barricade to remind me I shouldn’t be wondering a single thing about her. She should be in the deep recesses of my mind, not right at the edge, teasing me with little threats to jump right into the more gratifying fabric of my dreams.
“Grace? LikemyGrace?”
I roll my eyes.HerGrace. “Yeah.”
“She’s fine. Why?”
“I ran into her a few weeks ago,” I answer. I can tell her that, right? I don’t need to dive into what that chance run-in led to. “I was just…curious, I guess.”
“Oh, okay.” Her voice trails off, confusion weaving into her dubiously spoken words. “She’s going to be there on Saturday.”
“She is?”
“Of course,” she says, shocked at the thought that her best friend would miss my—er, Sadie’s—birthday. “Seriously, why are you asking?”
