Chapter 36 – Kylie
thirty-six
Kylie
“Delivery for Kylie,” Lexi announces, walking into my office with a bouquet of flowers. I look up at her and smile as I take in the pink vase boxed with what looks like a hundred roses. “I wonder who they could be from?”
“I wonder also.” I shake my head and reach for them and put them on my desk, the white card in the middle sticks up with my name written on the front with two lines under it.
I’m about to grab it when the door to the office opens and then is slammed shut. “Kylie.” I hear Kirby’s voice and see Lexi’s whole face light up. “Where is the birthday girl?”
Lexi gasps and puts her hand to her mouth. “What?” she asks me, shocked as Kirby comes into my office with a box in one hand and flowers in the other. “That motherfucker beat me to it.” I can’t help but laugh at his tone.
“It’s your birthday?” Lexi asks me as I shrug.
“I don’t like making a big deal out of it,” I say and then she smacks my arm.
“What the fuck, Kylie?” she hisses. “I’ve been with you for over four hours and not once did you say anything.”
“I just told you that I don’t like making a big deal out of my birthday,” I repeat the words, walking over to Kirby and hugging him around the waist. “Thank you,” I say, grabbing the flowers from him, “but you already got me a fabulous purse and matching shoes.” He laughs.
“Good to know,” he says, “but this is something that I picked out.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you two?” Lexi shouts and then turns her glare to Kirby.
“You.” She points at him. “You didn’t think this is something you should have mentioned to me?
” Her voice goes higher. “And you,” she points to me, “it’s the one day of the whole year where it’s about you and only you.
” I raise my eyebrows at her. “I’m so mad at you right now. ”
“I’m sorry, Lexi, I should have said something but—”
“If you say you don’t want to make a big deal about your birthday one more time,” she threatens me, “there will be hell to pay.” She turns and storms out of the office.
“I think you pissed her off,” Kirby says, “and in return I pissed her off.”
“You should have told her.” I try not to laugh when his mouth hangs open. “Why wouldn’t you tell her and make a big deal out of my special day?” His face looks like I just kicked him in the balls. When I can’t take it anymore, I burst out laughing. “I’m kidding, I’ll talk to her.”
“No one is going to talk to me!” Lexi shouts from her office. “I’m not talking to either of you!”
“Wow.” Kirby hands me my flowers and the box. “I didn’t even do anything wrong.”
“That’s what you think, mister.” She comes back into my office. “Think about how I feel. How insensitive do you think this paints me out to be that I didn’t even wish her a happy birthday?” She looks at both of us as Kirby takes a step to her. “I acted like it was an ordinary day.”
“Will it make you feel better if we do a birthday lunch on Friday?” I ask her and the look turns into a glare. “Okay, fine fine. You can tell the girls and we can do it on Saturday at the game,” I counter and she nods.
“Better, and here I thought Knox sent you those because you had anal sex with him.”
“Eww,” Kirby says and I can’t help but laugh.
“Number one, if I do anal, there have to at least be diamonds involved.”
“I never want to be part of this discussion in my life,” Kirby tells both of us. “I don’t want to think about it, talk about it. It’s like Fight Club, what is the first rule?” He looks at me then at Lexi. “We don’t talk about Fight Club.”
“I tell her about our sex all the time,” Lexi points to me, “and she’s fine with it.”
“I’m not, actually,” I admit to her. “When you start talking about it, I picture the yellow Minion in my head and sing a song, any song.” Lexi just laughs.
“So should I expect a big thing on Saturday?” I ask her and she just smiles.
“Great, fun times.” I shake my head as I walk back to my desk.
“Get out of my office, the both of you,” I tell them.
“And you,” I point to Kirby, “thanks for having a big mouth.”
He holds up his hand as both of them walk out of my office. I look at the massive bouquet of flowers and grab the small white envelope. Turning it over, I pull out the card.
Happy Birthday, Kylie
To many more.
Love
K
I pick up the phone and call him and he answers right away. “Happy Birthday, baby,” he says softly.
“You already said that this morning when you showed up at my house,” I remind him, “and when you kissed me goodbye, and the two other times I called you.”
“It’s the whole day,” he reasons, and I can picture the smile on his face.
“I just got your flowers.” I look at the massive flower arrangement. “It’s too much.”
“I am going to make some steak for dinner since you don’t want to go out.” He totally ignores what I just said.
I close my eyes. “Fine, I’ll be there after work.”
“We will be waiting for you. I love you,” he says softly and my stomach flutters. “Happy Birthday.”
I laugh. “Bye.” I hang up on him and hear Lexi and Kirby head out not long after.
I get up and grab my flowers as I head out. I swing by my apartment to put the flowers down and change out of my work clothes, grabbing a pair of black jeans and a black short-sleeved shirt before heading over to Knox’s.
I park beside him and by the time I step out of the SUV, he’s walking down the steps to me, a huge smile on his face. “Happy Birthday, baby.” He puts both hands on my face and kisses me.
“Thank you.” I hold his hand as we walk back up the steps and into the house.
I kick off my sneakers and follow him into the house but stop once I get to the living room.
Vincent, Westley, and Nora are lined up with balloons behind them that spell Happy Birthday as they shout, “Happy Birthday, Kylie!” Nora is jumping up and down on the spot while Vincent and Westley smile at me.
“Oh my goodness,” I say, putting my hand to my mouth and trying not to cry in front of them.
I think the last time my parents ever got me a birthday cake was when I was sixteen and that was only because my mother threw me a huge sweet sixteen.
I want to say she planned the party out of love, but I always thought she did it more for appearances.
Because all my friends had them, and she wanted mine to be much better than theirs.
“I made you something,” Nora singsongs, “but I get to give it to you after the cake.”
“After the cake?” I repeat her words, looking at Knox, who just smiles.
“We can’t have a birthday without cake,” he informs me and for the first time he kisses me in front of the kids.
The two of us look at each other and neither of us moves as my eyes go big and so do his.
“Happy Birthday,” he repeats nervously; he must have told me happy birthday at least twenty times already today.
“Who is hungry?” He claps his hands, and I look over at the kids.
Vincent smirks at me and then looks down, trying to hide it. Nora runs to me and hugs me around my waist. “Happy Birthday, Kylie,” she says and I have to take a second to answer her because I know my voice will tremble.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” I reply, bending to kiss the top of her head. Westley is the next one who side hugs me, and I can’t help but laugh. Vincent comes to me and holds up his hand so we can share our secret handshake.
“What can I do to help?” I turn when he walks away from me as I walk into the kitchen.
“I ordered all the food,” Knox relays, taking platters out of the stove. “I was busy doing other things today,” he says and I shake my head.
“Yeah, I see that.” I point to the balloons.
“We’re sitting in the big dining room,” Nora states and comes over to grab my hand and pull me into the room.
The whole room is filled with gold-and-white balloons, gold metallic strings hanging from each of them.
A white tablecloth is on the table with gold circles of metallic confetti.
Four small vases with white roses are in the middle of the table, with big vases filled with water and floating candles.
“I helped with the flowers,” Nora shares and I can’t even see because my eyes are filled with water, tears welling at the bottom of my eyelids, ready to fall over.
I put my hand on my mouth, looking over at Knox, who smiles at me.
He must see that I’m about to lose it because he comes over and hugs me so I can bury my face in his chest. “She must really like it,” Nora says. “She’s speechless.”
I can’t help but laugh as I wipe away the tears. “I love it.” I turn in his arms and look a the three of them. “It’s the best birthday surprise I’ve ever gotten.” I swallow down the sob that wants to come out.
“You sit in this chair,” Nora instructs, pointing to the head chair, “and Dad said you can wear this.” She grabs something gold in her hand and runs back to me. It’s a gold headband with Birthday Girl in glitter. “It’s mine but I can lend it to you.”
I look up at him then down at Nora. “I would be honored,” I say, putting it on. “How do I look?” I ask the room.
“Beautiful,” Knox replies, “now let’s eat.” He motions with his head toward the kitchen, the kids running off first. “Surprised?”
I look down. “Yeah,” I say softly, “more than you know.” I follow him to the kitchen, making my plate and when I sit down I can’t eat a thing.
I try to but my stomach is just in knots as I take it all in.
The shock of being celebrated, of being given something like this.
I’m overwhelmed, and it’s taking everything in me not to run out of here.
I eat half my plate and even Knox notices but doesn’t say anything.
“You stay here,” Nora tells me and I sit down, looking at all the work he put into my birthday.
My chest contracts as I hear her running back with something in her hand, followed by Westley and then Vincent.
Knox is behind them with a cake as they sing “Happy Birthday” to me.
I look at the pink cake with white writing that says Happy Birthday, Kylie.
“Make a wish,” Nora urges me as soon as they finish.
I hold up my hands, crossing my two fingers together, while I close my eyes and blow out the candles.
“Did you make a wish?” she asks me and I nod.
“You can’t tell me or it won’t come true. ”
“Got it,” I tell her and then she hands me what was in her hand. “What is this?” I ask of the white folded paper.
I open it and I gasp. “I made you a birthday card,” she tells me.
“That’s me,” she points to the stick figure, “and that’s you.
” She points to the taller stick figure next to her.
The sun is in the sky as my stick figure holds a string with different colored balloons.
Happy Birthday, Kylie is written on the top.
“You made this?” I try not to have my voice tremble, but I fail. “This is the best thing I’ve ever gotten for my birthday.” I put the paper to my chest. “I’m one very lucky girl today.”
“We made you one also,” Westley interjects, handing me his but it’s just a Happy Birthday, Kylie written with have a nice day. I smile at him, then Vincent hands me his, which is much the same as Westley’s, and I think they probably did it to be nice to me.
“This,” I look at them, “is the best birthday ever.”
“Yeah,” Nora says, “now let’s eat cake” She gets on her chair on her knees as Knox cuts a piece of cake for each of us. I smile at him as I eat my slice, and then I’m told to sit on the couch and wait for him.
Obviously, I clean up the kitchen as he puts the kids to bed. When he comes back downstairs, I’m sitting on the couch looking at the balloons. “I see you listened to me.”
He comes over to me and I just smile up at him as he sits on the table in front of me, a brown box in his hand. “One last birthday surprise,” he says and I look at the box in front of him.
“After everything that you did,” I lift my hands to the balloons, “you didn’t have to do this.”
“I know.” He smiles, and I lean in and kiss his lips. “But I wanted to.” He thrusts the box in my hand. “Open it.”
I grab the brown square box with a brown satin bow.
I pull the sash off the box and then open it and gasp.
Sitting in the middle of the box, on top of a brown satin cover, is a gold necklace with a diamond in the middle.
Dangling off the diamond on a little piece of necklace is the letter K, also in diamonds.
“This is…” I can’t help the tears that roll down my cheeks as I look up at him.
“I stopped celebrating my birthday when I turned fourteen and was told that it was just another day and we should celebrate each day, even though we did not celebrate each day.” I breathe out of my mouth, trying not to sob.
“From that day on, I celebrated my birthday alone. I used to have dinner by myself.” My finger touches the K.
“This is why I was scared to fall in love with you,” I admit to him. “All of this. It’s too much.”
“Baby,” he says softly.
“I usually just pretended it was another day,” I tell him.
“It’s not, it will always be a special day.” He grabs my face in his hands and kisses my lips. “I promise you that every single birthday from here on out will be special.”
I don’t answer him because the lump in my throat is as big as a golf ball. “Happy Birthday, baby,” he whispers and I look into his blue eyes.
“I love you, Knox,” I tell him when I know it won’t come out in a sob.
And I do I love him with every single fiber of my being.
I love him with every breath that I take.
I love him and I know he’ll be the only one for me.
I would do anything for him. Only for him.
“Will you help me put this on?” I ask, picking up the necklace.
“Yeah.” He takes it out and I hold up my hair and turn around so he can attach it. He kisses the back of my neck as my hand comes up and I touch it. “So the K,” I look over my shoulder as I let my hair go, “is it for Kylie or Knox?”
He smirks as he pushes me onto my back on the couch. I laugh. “It’s for Knox because you’re fucking mine, Kylie.”