My Real (18 page)

I’m sitting on my deck with three bags of balloons and instructions to blow them all up. Lord only knows where Ella is, probably following Jake around drooling over him. Bailey is running around the house like a crazy woman making sure everything is done before my mom brings Emerson over. Bailey decided since it was Emerson’s first real party, she wanted it to be a complete surprise. Em is going to be here in a half hour.

“Are those balloons done yet, Andrew?” Bailey yells from the kitchen. She is putting the final touches on a beautiful rainbow cake. She took Emerson’s love of coloring and turned the entire back yard into an art studio.

“Just finished the last one, what can I do now?” I ask as I walk into the kitchen.

“The guests should start coming any minute. Can you greet them and send them to me in the back yard?” she asks as she puts the finished cake on the picnic table.

I grab her around the waist and steal a kiss before walking toward the front door. The bell rings at that point and the guests start pouring in the door. Once there is a lull in the guests arriving, I walk to the back to check on Bailey. She is in her element. She had every person paint on a section of a banner that has Emerson’s name on it and they hung it on the fence, each person had decorated a name tag, and now they were all sitting in the grass listening to a story.

She looks up and sees that I’m watching her, and gives me a smile as she finishes the book.

“Alright boys and girls, Emerson will be coming through that door any second now. I want everyone to get real quiet and when she walks in you can jump up and yell ‘surprise.’ Now, I have a prize for the quietest person and one for the loudest person when she gets here.”

Every kid freezes in place and becomes statues. Bailey tiptoes through the crowd of kids to come up to the door by me. She pulls out her iPhone to tape Emerson’s reaction when we hear her at the front door.

“I’m home, where is everyone?” she calls out into the house.

“On the deck Emerson.” I call as Bailey starts taping.

Emerson walks through the door, causing everyone to yell “Surprise!”

Emerson’s face lights up with surprise. She runs up to me and jumps into my arms.

“Is this a surprise party for me?”

“It is, baby girl. Happy birthday.”

“Thank you Daddy, I love it!” She wraps her arms around my neck and squeals.

“You need to thank that lady right there,” I say pointing to Bailey. “She planned the whole thing for you.” Emerson jumps down and runs up to Bailey and wraps her arms round her neck.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bailey!” She hugs Bailey then runs into her group of friends.

For the next two hours the kids played, painted, colored, and partied. Emerson had the time of her life. I can’t believe Emerson has gone this long without a party like this. All in the same second I feel horribly and relieved. Horrible that she’s never experienced this before, but relieved that we now have Bailey in our lives to plan things like this.

As all the kids are leaving the party, Emerson hands out goodie bags. I stand back and watch as Bailey talks to all the parents and the kids that were leaving, thanking them for coming. I’m in complete awe of her. After the last of the guests leave, Emerson and Bailey plop themselves on the couch. Emerson cuddles into Bailey’s side and says, “That was the best day ever.”

I sit down next to them on the couch and put my arm around Bailey. Ruffling Emerson’s hair, I say, “Well kid, start cleaning up. You have a lot of work to do.”

“Daddy!”

“Alright, alright. How about you go out back and see if Uncle Jake and Ella want to go out for pizza instead. We can clean up tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Emerson jumps up and exclaims. “Uncle Jake owes me a rematch at skee ball.” Emerson runs down the hall.

“Pizza is a great idea. I don’t think I have the energy to cook tonight,” Bailey says resting her head on my shoulder.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” Bailey asks twisting around to look at me.

“For putting this all together.”

“Aww. It was nothing.”

I sit up and hold onto her face. “It was something. You just made that little girl’s day and that means the world to me.” I lean in to kiss her forehead.

“Well, when you put it that way, maybe you can pay me back tonight,” Bailey answers with a wink.

Emerson interrupts what was planned to be a very steamy kiss when she comes running down the hall again yelling, “They said yes.”

“Why don’t you go get changed while I kiss the party planner?” I say leaning in to lay one on Bailey.

“Eww. That’s gross Daddy.” She races down the hall to change. Ella and Jake walk in and interrupt us again.

“We are never going to get a second alone,” I complain as Ella plops on the couch next to me.

“Patience Lover Boy. You get to have her all night.”

Emerson comes running back downstairs and yells, “Ready, let’s go,” as she grabs Jake’s hand, and pulls him toward the door. Once they are outside I turn to Ella, “Looks like you’ve got some competition there for Jake’s attention.”

She sticks her tongue out at me as we all follow Jake and Emerson out the door.

When we get to the restaurant, we all climb into the booth. Emerson squeezes between Jake and Ella. He lifts her up and puts her on the other side of him next to the wall.

“Sorry pip-squeak. Ella can’t resist sitting next to my fine ass,” Jake announces.

Emerson thrusts her hand up in the air without saying a word. Jake groans and pulls a dollar out of his wallet and puts it in her tiny palm.

“What was that for?” Ella asks as I see her scoot a little closer to Jake.

“Swearing. I have to pay her a dollar every time she hears me swear,” Jake answers putting his wallet away.

“I’m glad I don’t have to do that, shit, I’d be broke,” Ella laughs as Emerson shoots her hand across Jake’s chest. Ella reaches over and gives Emerson a high five.

“No Ella, anyone who swears in front of me has to pay me a dollar. If you are going erupt me then you are going to pay for me to go to college,” Emerson says with her hand still in the air.

“I think you mean corrupt,” Ella responds taking out her wallet then looks at Andrew. “What are you teaching your daughter?” Ella hands Emerson a dollar.

“It wasn’t me. She saw it on TV.”

“Come on Uncle Jake, while we wait for our pizza, we can play skee ball,” Emerson says trying to push her way out of the booth. Ella stands up to let them out and then sits back down.

“Aren’t you coming?” Jake turns around to ask Ella.

Smiling, Ella follows behind them to play games.

“Okay, I see it now. There is something definitely going on between the two of them,” Andrew laughs.

“Gee, ya think?” I elbow him in the side.

Andrew and I relax in the booth and order our dinner while the others play games. While they are out on the floor, Andrew sneaks out to the car to get Ella’s birthday gifts.

Once the pizza is delivered to the table, everyone finds their way back. Emerson is dancing in her seat next to Jake.

“I’m the winner. I beat Uncle Jake. I’m the winner,” she sings and points to Jake.

“Yeah, yeah, you won. That’s only because I was distracted.”

“Thank you Miss Ella.” Emerson puts her hand up for a high five.

“We make a good team kid.” Ella high fives her then pokes Jake in the side. “You let a little girl beat you. Where is your dignity?”

“If someone wasn’t bending over next to me to tie the kid’s shoe I would have made the last shot and beat her.”

When the pizza is gone and the waiter has cleared the table, a chorus of singing waiters come out with two pieces of cake. There is singing and dancing and as the whole restaurant cheers for Ella and Emerson. Once the candles are all blown out, I pull out the presents and put them in front of Ella.

“Aw, you guys. You didn’t have to do this. This is Emerson’s party.”

“My party was this afternoon, this party is for you. Here, open my gift first.” Emerson says handing Ella a present she wrapped herself. “I made it all by myself.”

Ella opens the card first and shows everyone the picture that Emerson drew of Ella and Emerson holding hands. Ella rips the wrapping paper open and holds up a keychain.

“I made it myself. It’s a keychain that says Aunt Ella. I figure since I don’t have any aunts that I’d pick you for my Aunt.”

“It’s beautiful,” Ella says clipping it to her keys. “I don’t have any nieces either, so it’s perfect you picked me. I love it.” Ella reaches across Jake to give Emerson a hug.

“Now open this one,” Emerson says handing Ella our gift. She opens the bottle of wine and the wine rack.

“Thank you, I will be enjoying this gift tonight,” she says putting it on the floor next to her.

“This is for you too,” Jake says quietly handing her a gift. “It’s just something small I saw and I thought about you.

Ella rips open the paper and gasps. “This is the book that I was telling you about,” she says as she opens the front cover. “Where did you find it?”

“I found it in the used book store,” Jake answers as Ella continues to flip though the book and gasps again.

“It’s signed by Jennings Michael Burch!” She throws her hands around Jake’s neck hugging him. “Thank you so much.”

“What book is it?” I ask trying to grab it out of her hands.

“
They Cage the Animals at Nigh
t. I had to read it in college, and I lost my copy.”

“When did you guys talk about this book?” I asked as I turn the book over in my hand.

“When you two were sucking face in the parking lot at Skye’s,” Jake says to me, then turns to Ella again. “So, you really like it?”

“Best birthday gift ever,” Ella exclaims.

“What about mine?” I question.

“You bought her wine Bailey,” Jake counters.

“Yeah, but it’s her favorite wine.”

“Alright you two, stop arguing. They are both very nice gifts,” Ella tries to put a stop to the friendly bantering.

“Only mine was slightly better,” Jake added quickly.

“You’re right. It was,” Ella laughs then turns to Emerson. “What about you Emerson. Was this your best birthday ever?”

“It was. That was the best birthday party ever. What about you Bailey? What was your best birthday?”

“That’s an easy one. It was the year I turned twenty-one.” I glance over at Andrew to see if he remembers that night. His face brightens automatically. Yeah, he remembers.

“Jessica, are you coming to the bar with us or not?” Andrew asked calling into the bedroom.

“Not, I don’t feel like going out tonight. We are going out tomorrow night aren’t we? What’s the point of going if I can’t drink anyway?” Jessica whined.

“Yes, but you know it’s tradition to go out at midnight. Everyone will go out for your birthday,” Andrew tried to reason with her.

“Andrew, it’s really fine. We don’t have to go out. I can wait until tomorrow,” I told him quietly as I sat down on the couch. I was one of the first people in the group to turn twenty-one so there really was no point in going out. Andrew and I were the only ones who could drink.

“We’re going.” Andrew grabbed my hand and pulled me off the couch. “We’ll go have a late dinner then Jake and Sam are meeting us there when they get off work. Is Dave coming?”

I just shook my head. Dave said that he wasn’t going to a bar to watch Andrew and I get drunk. I’m not even sure if he was coming out tomorrow either.

Andrew and I got to the bar and got a big table so Jake and Sam could join us later.

“Okay, we need to get something really carby in your stomach so you are ready for midnight and don’t get sick later because tomorrow’s the real party.”

“Carby? Did you make that word up?”

“No, I didn’t. Carby is a adjective. It comes from the Latin word Carbous meaning foods full of carbohydrates.”

“That must be a fancy scientific word then. This cut and paste major’s brain can’t handle big words like that.”

“Hey, I never said Elementary Education was a cut and paste major.”Andrew held up his hands in defense.

“No, your exact words were ‘Are you majoring in cutting and pasting?’ I specifically remember because I was cutting out letters for a bulletin board and pasting them to paper at the time,” I laughed hitting his arm.

“You have to admit, you do a lot of cutting and pasting.”

“If you are jealous, you still have time to change your major. You could even get a minor in Elementary Education and teach science.”

“That’s ok. I’m happy with my major. I’ll leave the cutting and pasting to the professional,” he laughed as the waiter came to take our order. Andrew announced that I will be turning twenty-one in a few short hours and tried to get the waiter to bring me a beer with my dinner.

“She could have brought you a beer. It’s only two hours early. You can steal some of mine when they aren’t looking.”

“What’s the saying? Beer before liquor you’ve never been sicker. I’ll pass.”

“Good thinking, because you’ll be drinking lots of liquor tonight!” Jake yelled as he came up to the table and gave me a hug. “Happy Birthday Bailey. Sam can’t make it. The second shift manager went home sick so he’s covering for him but he gave me a twenty to buy you your first round on him,” he said slapping the twenty on the table.