“Happy birthday to you.Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Sevynnnn! Happy birthday to you. We wish you many more.”
My small group of family and friends’ voices were a mixture of sopranos, tenors, altos, and a couple of basses thrown in the mix. But they all sounded surprisingly well and harmonious. I closed my eyes, leaned forward, and in the flickering lights of the candles, I made my wish. Once I was done, I blew out the candles on the monstrosity of a sheet cake that was placed before me.
It was a yellow cake with a photo collage of me through the years. The icing was white, but the cake’s edges were trimmed in purple icing. My grandmother had baked the cake, and she hadmy best friend, Waverleigh, help her with getting the pictures onto the cake.
Everyone clapped, and our waitress whistled. “Y’all sound like you’re about to cut a record in here,” she declared, causing everyone to laugh and make their predictions on the likelihood of that reality.
“I don’t know about that, but I do know that I would love to hear some of these same voices singing with the church choir this Sunday,” Grammy announced.
“Gram,” I whined.
She never missed an opportunity to encourage people to visit our church, New Bethel Baptist Church. Once they did, then she would discuss them joining and getting baptized. I wasn’t mad at my grandmother. She loved the Lord, and so did I, but she firmly believed Acts 1:8 that read, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” She said our corner of the world in Cherokee Springs, Georgia, was this end of the Earth.
“Sugar, we have a calling, and there’s nothing wrong with sharing the good news with others. You don’t want Christ to deny you when He comes back, do you?”
“No, ma’am.” I smiled lovingly at her.
“That’s my baby. Now let’s cut this cake.” She angled the cake knife with one hand and patted me on the back with her other.
“I got it, Gram,” my husband, Ethan, stated, grabbing the cake knife and hovering the knife over the cake. “How big you want it, baby?” he asked with a twinkle in his eyes.
I was going to get him for that later, because I knew what he was thinking. I instantly choked and sputtered when my best friend and coworkers giggled in the background. Gram kept smiling as though she were oblivious to the sexual innuendo my husband had just made.
“Not too big, please.”
Ethan leaned forward and sliced the cake. After he placed it on a plate and handed it to me, he leaned in, rested his hand on my back, and placed his lips on my cheek as though he were kissing me. In reality, he whispered, “That ain’t what you said last night.”
“Nasty ass,” I muttered, swatting his hand as he jumped back. Gram was busily slicing the next piece and thankfully missed the exchange between us.
Ethan laughed as Erin Jensen, one of my coworkers, stepped up to grab the plate that Gram was handing her. After the cake had been sliced and served, we returned to the other tables in the private dining room of The Ebony Candle, the upscale restaurant where my surprise birthday dinner was being held.
When I’d first arrived, I thought it was just a nice dinner for my husband and me. When we stepped into the private dining room, I was shocked to see my grandmother, Helena; my brothers-in-law, Liam and Kyle; my coworkers, Erin, Jalen and Phoenix; and my best friend, Waverleigh.
I didn’t have much in the way of family. My mother died in childbirth, leaving me to be raised by my father and my paternal grandmother. I lost my father to a brain aneurysm when I was only thirteen, and it had been Gram and me since. Unfortunately, Gram had chosen to go to a retirement home two years ago when she had a stroke.
She refused to come live with Ethan and me, saying that she didn’t want to be a burden on us. When we insisted that she wouldn’t be, she outright refused to come. She said we were newlyweds and deserved to have that time alone. Ethan and I had been together since we were nineteen, when we met during freshman year on our college campus, and we married right after graduation.
It hurt seeing Gram leave her apartment that she had lived in forever to move into the retirement home. Ethan and I did our research to make sure that it was the perfect place for her. As a geriatric social worker, I not only had several contacts, but I also knew what to look for when selecting the right place for her. She was happy there, and I was happy for her.
“Whatcha thinking ’bout, baby?” Ethan asked.
“Just how blessed I am. I might not have the biggest family in the world, but I love who I have. God gave me a beautiful family to replace my loss.”
Ethan’s family was wealthy, and I wasn’t close to them. His mother was cold and judgmental, and his father was distant and stuffy. Neither of them were here today.
His brother, Kyle, who was an addict and had been shunned by their parents, was only here for the free meal and hoping to get a handout from either Liam or Ethan. Liam was only here because Ethan had begged him. He always looked for his older brother’s approval.
Ethan’s family was wealthy, and they expected him to marry someone who came from a similar background, someone like his ex, Pandora. I was from the hood, and they were quick to let me know that I wasn’t on their level through a scathing look or a derisive comment.
“You do have a beautiful family, baby. Gram, Waverleigh, and I love you very much. I can’t wait to grow our little family into three, four, five, six, seven, eight?—”
“Excuse me, sir,” I replied, pulling his hands from around my waist. We were dancing in the middle of the private dining room, to the music that the deejay Ethan hired was playing.
“What?”
“It hasn’t been that long since we got back together. Let’s focus on building us strong again before we jump into making babies.”
“But that’s the fun part.”
