Fall (:GxG:)

Chapter 4

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

“What’d she say?” Eagerly, I asked you Jill’s reply the morning after. I was seated at the breakfast table, eating a bowl of Lucky Charms. Because the marshmallows tasted good enough for me to ignore the blandness of the cereal.

"She said ‘Yes!’” You said excitedly, yet proudly at the same time. “I’m getting married!”

“That’s… that’s great!” I said, although I just wished that it wasn’t true.

“So…today is February 15th, your birthday…and Jamie’s.” You added her name as an afterthought. I found this unusual, as you every year previous, you had said something like ‘So…today is February 15th, Jamie’s birthday…and yours.” You never put me before her.

“Yep.” I nodded.

“Hang on a sec, I gotta go grab your present from its hiding spot…that is unless you found it while I was…out?” You chuckled amusedly.

“No, I didn’t find it.” I chuckled along with you, I was notorious for finding my present early, and opening it secretly, then acting all surprised on the day I got it. Mentally, I shrugged, I had a curious nature. The saying ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ was totally false anyways…right?

“Mmmk.” I acknowledged you, before I went attacked my soggy Lucky Charms with a vengeance, as soon as your back was turned. It helped calm me down a bit. I felt like crying, exploding in anger or hyperventilating, perhaps all of the above.

“Here.” I jumped in fright, I hadn’t heard you reenter the kitchen, and the sudden shoving a brightly wrapped silver gift under my nose had startled me.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” You said, as I turned around to glare at you. You were rubbing the back of your neck sheepishly. “Won’t do it again.”

“Happy birthday Adelaide.”

I carefully opened my gift to find a first edition, brand new, signed copy of Amy Anderson’s New York Times bestseller – my favorite book of all time – ‘Freefall’.

Letting out a squeal of delight, I stood up so quickly that the chair I had been previously occupying made a loud screech against the floor, in protest.

“Oh my god! I love you Lynn! I can’t believe you managed to get me one of these! The author is dying! Oh my god! She stopped writing too! How did you get it?”

“Well…I knew her when I was a little kid, she’s my mom’s second cousin, so she is family – distant – but family nonetheless. So I tracked her down and got her to sign that for me. Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. She has Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home in Switzerland, and can’t remember anything, and there are only 10 copies of those first editions left in the world, I had to get it from a first edition only European bookstore. Germany, I think it was.”

“Thanks Lynn!”

I grinned delightedly. “It’s the best gift ever! I’ll treasure it forever and ever!”

Your eyes seemed to soften for a moment. “I’m glad you like it Adelaide.”

“So what are we doing today?” I asked.

“Dinner at Roberto’s, dessert at Trend, and then dancing at Beat?”

“Sounds wonderful.” I grinned at you. “Just let me go get dressed. I also gotta go put on my contacts.”

“I was thinking…maybe you could stop wearing the contacts? I think that maybe it’s time for me to move on.” You said it slowly, and quietly. Reflectively even.