Chapter 12 After Hours Birthday
Sophia finished her quiz corrections before the birthday party.
Sophia kept reminding herself of the rule.
Not because anyone told her. Because if she walked into Bella Luna with glitter, cake, Gia, Victoria, and Vinny all waiting while her schoolwork sat unfinished on her desk, she would hear Dr. Miller’s voice in her head.
Warning sign. Not verdict. Sophia liked Dr. Miller.
She didn’t want Dr. Miller in her head during cake.
So she sat at the kitchen table with her laptop, her corrected notes, and one mug of coffee she had reheated twice.
Her phone stayed facedown near the fruit bowl.
Close enough to choose. Far enough to work.
Constance came in from the hallway wearing earrings she had already changed three times. “You are still going?”
Sophia typed the last sentence of her reflection response. “Yes.”
“To a twenty-first birthday party.”
“After hours at Bella Luna.”
“Where there will be alcohol.”
“For Gia and Victoria. Not me.”
Constance leaned against the counter. “I know. I am asking because it is my job.”
“It is also illegal for me.”
“That hasn’t stopped every twenty-year-old in Chicago.”
“It stops me.”
Constance smiled a little. “Yes, it does.”
Sophia submitted the reflection and waited until the screen confirmed it.
Done.
Actually done. She let out a breath.
Constance’s expression softened. “School first?”
“School first.”
“And now?”
Sophia closed the laptop. “Birthday.”
“And Vinny?”
Sophia’s face warmed.
Constance pointed at her. “That face.”
“I have no face.”
“You have a very specific face.”
“I am going to change.”
“Do that.” Constance took her coffee mug to the sink. “And Sophia?”
Sophia paused in the doorway.
“Have fun,” her mother said.
Sophia smiled. For the first time, it sounded less like a warning and more like trust.
“I will.”
Bella Luna looked different after hours. Not closed. Held open.
The front door was locked, the blinds lowered halfway, and most of the dining room lights were dimmed, but the bar lights glowed warm over bottles and glassware.
Someone had pushed two tables together near the center of the room.
Gia had hung one crooked streamer that said TWENTY-ONE and another one that had ripped in the middle and now said TWENT ONE, which she insisted was “minimalist.”
Victoria hated it, which only made Gia love it more.
Antonia stood near the bar with her arms crossed, looking at the streamer like she wanted to fix it but refused to give Gia the satisfaction.
Brett sat on one of the bar stools in a dark sweater, looking amused and very aware that he was only there because Antonia had invited him, not because he understood birthday streamers.
Vinny was nowhere in sight. Which Sophia noticed immediately.
Which was annoying. Gia noticed Sophia noticing. She did.
“He’s in the kitchen,” Gia said.
Sophia stopped near the host stand. “I didn’t ask.”
“You looked.”
“I looked around the room.”
“You looked at the kitchen before you said hello to the birthday girls.”
Sophia’s face heated. “Happy birthday.”
Gia opened her arms. “Too late. I accept anyway.”
Sophia hugged her. Gia smelled like vanilla, espresso, and the perfume she kept pretending she didn’t wear.
Victoria stood beside the table in a fitted black top, dark jeans, and heels she had no business wearing after a full shift.
She looked beautiful, as always. Polished.
Sharp. Like she had decided twenty-one should look untouchable.
Sophia hugged her next. Victoria held on half a second longer than usual. Sophia noticed.
“You all right?” she asked.
Victoria pulled back. “It is my birthday. I am gorgeous. Obviously.”
That wasn’t an answer. Sophia knew the difference.
Before she could ask again, Gia pointed at Sophia’s hands. “What did you bring?”
Sophia held up a low gift bag. “For both of you.”
“For both of us?” Gia looked offended. “We are separate women.”
“You have separate gifts inside.”
“Nice recovery.”
Victoria took the bag and peeked in. Her face softened.
Sophia had bought Gia a pair of ridiculous red earrings shaped like tiny tomatoes because Gia had once said earrings should either be elegant or confusing.
For Victoria, she had bought a slim silver compact mirror with a tiny blue stone on the front. Not expensive. Pretty. Practical.
Victoria touched the mirror with her thumb. “Soph.”
Sophia froze. Gia’s mouth opened.
Victoria realized what she had said and immediately frowned. “No. Absolutely not. That is his thing. I take it back.”
Sophia laughed before she could stop herself.
Victoria pointed at her. “Don’t laugh. I am serious.”
“I know.”
“I got excited and made a mistake.”
Gia lifted the tomato earrings. “I forgive you because these are ugly in a powerful way.”
“They are tomatoes.”
“They are art.”
Antonia came over carrying three glasses. “Sophia, sparkling lemonade.”
Sophia took the glass. “Thank you.”
Gia looked at it. “Baby drink.”
Sophia lifted her chin. “Legal drink.”
Victoria raised her glass. “Correct answer.”
Gia rolled her eyes but smiled. “Fine. Legal queen.”
Sophia looked into the glass. Bubbles rose over ice and a slice of lemon.
No one had tried to sneak her wine, no one had acted like she was boring, and no one had made it weird.
No one making it weird let Sophia relax a little.
Vinny came out of the kitchen carrying a flat white bakery box with both hands.
Sophia’s stomach did that stupid warm thing.
He had changed after service into a clean black shirt.
His hair was a little damp like he had washed his face and run water through it.
There was still a tiny dusting of powdered sugar near one wrist. He saw Sophia.
Stopped for less than a second. Smiled. Not too big. Still enough.
“Hey, teach.”
“Hi.”
Gia looked between them. “Painful.”
Antonia said, “Gia.”
“What? I used one word.”
“You used tone.”
Gia sipped her prosecco. “Tone is legal now. I am twenty-one.”
Victoria looked at her. “You are twenty-one tomorrow.”
“Close enough.”
“Not legally.”
Sophia lifted her sparkling lemonade. “Correct.”
Gia stared at her. “That lemonade is dangerous in your hands.”
Vinny set the cake box on the table. “No one argue near the cake.”
Gia gasped. “Did you hear him? Authoritative.”
Victoria folded her arms. “Cake first. Then I decide whether he gets credit.”
Vinny looked at Sophia. “She is always like this?”
“Yes.”
Victoria pointed at Sophia. “Don’t help him.”
“I am being honest.”
“That is worse.”
Vinny opened the box. For once, Gia didn’t speak first. The cake was rectangular, but he had divided the decoration down the middle without making it look split.
One side had espresso-colored frosting with little piped swirls and chocolate curls.
Gia’s side. The other side was pale vanilla with raspberry dots and thin silver sugar flakes that caught the light.
Victoria’s side. In the center, written slowly in dark chocolate, were the words:
Happy 21st, Gia & Victoria
Under that, smaller:
One day apart. Same problem.
Gia pressed a hand to her chest. “I have never been so honored and insulted.”
Victoria stared at the cake. Sophia looked at her face.
For a second, Victoria didn’t look sharp.
She looked young. Tired. Touched in a way she didn’t want everyone to see.
Vinny saw too, because he said nothing. Good.
Antonia moved beside Victoria and squeezed her shoulder once. Victoria blinked, then looked at Vinny.
“You made it not ugly.”
“That was the goal.”
“And not childish.”
“Also the goal.”
Gia leaned over the cake. “My side has espresso?”
“Espresso cream,” Vinny said. “And chocolate. Because you run on both and spite.”
Gia nodded. “Accurate.”
Victoria pointed to her side. “Raspberry?”
“Raspberry vanilla. Light. Not too sweet.”
Victoria looked at him a little too slowly.
“You asked someone.”
Vinny nodded toward Sophia. “She said you like raspberry.”
Sophia blinked. “I did?”
“You said it when Gia stole your tart last week.”
“I didn’t know you heard that.”
“I remember food things.”
Gia looked delighted. “That is still strange, but useful.”
Victoria’s mouth softened. “Thank you.”
Vinny shrugged, but his ears went red. “Happy birthday.”
Sophia watched him step back from the cake, not waiting for too much praise.
Not turning the room toward himself. Just letting the birthday girls have the moment.
Not just how he cared for her. How he cared when other people were watching, and when they weren’t.
After Antonia lit two candles, one on each side, Gia immediately tried to blow out Victoria’s too.
Victoria slapped her arm. Everyone laughed.
Sophia stood between Antonia and Brett, holding her sparkling lemonade, laughing with them.
The sound filled Bella Luna differently after hours.
During service, every laugh had to squeeze between plates and orders and work.
Now it could fill the room. Gia laughing too loudly.
Antonia trying not to. Brett looking at Antonia instead of the cake.
Victoria smiling even while pretending not to.
Vinny stood near the end of the table, knife in hand, waiting to cut the cake. Sophia caught his eye.
He winked, quick and private enough that her face warmed before Victoria noticed from three feet away.
“I saw that,” Victoria said.
Vinny pointed to the cake. “I am holding a knife.”
“Don’t point cake tools at me.”
“I would never.”
Gia lifted her glass. “To me.”
Antonia cleared her throat.
Gia sighed. “Fine. To us.”
Victoria raised her glass. Everyone lifted theirs. Sophia lifted lemonade.
Gia’s eyes softened when she looked at Victoria. “To us being adult women now.”
Victoria snorted. “You first.”