Dater's Handbook by Cara Lockwood

Author:Cara Lockwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hallmark Publishing
Published: 2020-08-14T19:09:23+00:00

Fourteen

My birthday dinner at Nadia’s was everything I could’ve asked for and more. Nadia cooked me an impressive meal—I was never going to complain about farm-to-table, all-organic anything ever again. Mom brought out her own delicious, chocolate-frosting, double-chocolate layer cake that embodied all my birthdays for all time. The very taste sent me back to every amazing birthday as far as I could remember. My nephew, Jeremy, helped me blow out the candles. The four-year-old couldn’t be cuter, and as he blew out the last one, Mom clapped.

“I hope all your wishes come true, darling,” she told me, as she went about cutting the first piece.

“They will after I have a piece of this cake,” I said, mouth watering. I could smell the chocolate decadence.

Mom began to cut a perfectly normal, perfectly average slice.

“Mom,” I scoffed.

“Oh, right,” Mom said. “Too small?”

“Of course.” I let my inner sweets monster loose on my birthday. It only seemed fair.

“I forgot who I was dealing with here.” Mom sent me a look telling me she might be a little proud of my inner sweets monster.

“We’ll take that one,” Michael said of the average piece. She plunked it onto a plate for Jeremy. “And we’ll come back for seconds. How about you and I split this, huh, buddy?” Michael handed a fork to Jeremy, who nodded fiercely. “We’re going to eat this and watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My gift to you.” He gave me a little bow. “Ladies’ time.”

Michael really took sweet to the next level.

Mom planted a righteous-sized piece of chocolate cake in front of me. Now this was more like it. I dug in with a fork and felt instantly transported back to my childhood. So good. Nadia—the very pregnant Nadia—waddled over and sat next to Mom, who gave her a piece, too.

“You’re never going to believe what happened today,” I told them between forkfuls of chocolate. “George and Robert both came to see me at work.”

“No!” Mom exclaimed.

Nadia looked stricken as she leaned forward over her plate. “Not good. Did they meet?”

“No.” Not exactly.

“Phew. Close call.” Nadia exhaled and sank back in her chair. “But more importantly, what did they get you?”

“George brought flowers. Lilies.”

“Oh, your favorite,” Mom murmured, surprised. But she didn’t exactly sound happy about it. Then again, she would be absolutely Team Robert, which would explain why she’d given him the heads-up about my birthday.

“Score one for George.” Nadia seemed impressed. “Personal gift without being too over-the-top.”

Mom was noticeably silent.

“And…Robert got me an iPod.” I fished it out of my pocket and showed them the bright pink device. How could I explain how he’d gone flying off the treadmill when his dancing to REO Speedwagon had gotten too intense? I giggled a little at the memory.

Nadia frowned. “Electronics?” She said the word as if she was saying something gross like spiders. “You hate pink.”

True, but Robert didn’t know that. And…it was a personal gift—actually, the most personal gift I’d ever gotten. I wanted to tell Nadia this gift meant more than she knew.

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