We finally finished them about eleven that Wednesday night. Both of us had to work the next day but we were determined to follow the wedding planner timeline and get them out two months beforehand.
“Whew, that was a job and a half,” Rayne said, yawning and stretching as she got up off my living room floor. “I’m about ready to turn in.”
“Aw, you can’t go to sleep now. In exactly one hour, I’ll be thirty.”
“So you were born at midnight?” Rayne joked.
I laughed. “Actually, I’ve never known what time of day I was born. I’m not even sure if it was morning, noon, or night. I’ll have to ask Mom.”
“I’ve never understood why people always celebrate birthdays right on the second; especially adults. Kids are usually asleep.”
“Adults are glad to make it to another year.”
“Maybe that’s it.” Rayne shook her head. “Damn, thirty. Next year it’ll be my turn.”
“But you don’t look a day over twenty.”
She grinned at me. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Will it get me some birthday booty?”
She got back down on the floor, pushed me down, and straddled me. “Birthday booty. Is that different from ordinary booty? From daily booty?”
I reached around her with both hands and caressed her ass. “I don’t know. Why don’t we wait about forty-seven more minutes and find out.”
“Why wait forty-seven more minutes?” She lifted my shirt and started pinching my nipples. “We can get started now and, by the time midnight rolls around, we can be rumpling the sheets.”
“Sounds like a winner to me.”
She kissed me on the lips and climbed off me. “I’m going to run us a bath. Come join me in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be there.”
Rayne disappeared into my bedroom and the phone rang, as if on cue.
“Hello. This better be important,” I said, not even knowing who it was.
“Hey, man. It’s me, Felix.”
It had been several months since I’d spoken to Felix. I was pissed at him when he’d called Rayne out of her name at my parents’ anniversary party. He was the last person that needed to be commenting about anything.
“Yardley, you there?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m a bit early but I wanted to wish you a happy birthday tomorrow,” he said.
“I’m surprised you remembered.”
I sat down on my sofa as an uncomfortable silence ensued.
Felix sighed on the other end of the phone. “Of course, I remembered. Are you forgetting that the boys and I gave you a party for your sixteenth birthday? I remembered your birthday then and I remember it now.”
“Well, thanks for the well wishes.”
“Yardley, I realize that I fucked up royally—more than once—but I’ve always regarded you as my closest friend. Mike and Dwayne are cool with me, but you and I have always been tighter than tight.”
I couldn’t help it. I had to say what was on my mind. “Is that what was going through your mind when you and Roxie disrespected me in my own home?”