“He does,” we all said in unison.
“Me, too,” Valerie said.
And Valerie and Albert were married.
“Let's cut the cake,” Lula said.
My grandmother trotted in with a cake knife, and we clustered around the cake. It was a great cake, except Bob had eaten all the icing off one side.
“It's better this way,” Grandma said. “You got a choice like white meat or dark meat, only this time it's icing or no icing.”
I ran upstairs to the bathroom to look for more salve.
Diesel came up a minute later with a piece of cake for me. “That was a nice thing you did for your sister,” Diesel said.
“How's Albert?”
“Deliriously happy.”
“I think they've found true love.”
Diesel nodded and fed me a piece of cake. “I have to go. I'm being reassigned.”
“So soon?”
“Yeah, but I'll be back. You owe me a night.”
“I do not owe you a night.”
“I was willing to go the distance,” Diesel said. “That has to be worth something.”
“How about beer and pizza?”
“It's a start,” Diesel said. “And don't worry about Del-vina. I changed him into a toad.”
The doorbell rang, and I heard Grandma hustle to get the door.
“Stephanie,” she yelled up the stairs. “There's a flower delivery guy here, and he's got a bunch of flowers for you. The flower guy said two of these were supposed to go to your apartment, but I said you'd take them all here.”
I went downstairs with Diesel following, and I took three boxes from Grandma.
The first box held a single perfect long-stemmed red rose. No card.
The second box held a dozen yellow roses. The message on the card was… love, joe.
The third box held a bouquet of daisies. The hand-scrawled note said… valentine's day sucks, usually.
Valentine's Day didn't suck this year, I thought.
I felt someone brush a kiss across the nape of my neck, and I turned to Diesel, but the only thing behind me was the cake plate sitting on the bottom step.
THE END