Striptease

Letter

[Everleigh]

"So, just to clarify, I'd like to reserve the talking mermaids, the balloon animal artist and the children's play fountain for that afternoon….And you're absolutely sure that you can provide a full money back guarantee if I have to cancel on that day?"

I asked the receptionist for the party planning company who was on the other line of my phone, the phone that was also currently beeping in my hand from unanswered voicemails, text messages and some of those messages were probably the phone bill company as well saying that I had exceeded my limit of minutes and unless I started paying my bills, I was going to no longer be able to use thy phone.

Well, they can go piss off because I mailed in that bill almost a week ago and they're still saying I owe more than the amount of minutes I've gone over in my data plan.

Like seriously, how much more money can I give them?

I'm gonna have to resort to selling a kidney or giving some bone marrow or something just to get these assholes off my back.

And honestly, I had a legitimate reason to be complaining right now about these anonymous, annoying pricks.

Because it wasn't like I didn't pay my bills at all, I was almost on time with everything in my life from paying rent checks, grocery shopping and right now, making sure that the party planner actually planned the goddamn party for Teresa on the right day which was her birthday.

It was almost a week away and I had all of her presents wrapped and stashed away safely with the right amount of ingredients that I'd need to make a special birthday cake for her since I never trusted anybody to make something good for my younger sister.

But instead of making sure that everything was ready and good to go, I was being hassled and harassed by idiots who couldn't even manage to do their own jobs correctly and I refused to let Esa pay the price for it.

She was going to have a good birthday, goddamn it, even if it was the very last thing I'd do.

And that statement probably would've been true if I really wanted to relive the embarrassing moment that Charlie had to find out about my life threatening fish allergy right in the middle of our damn fucking date.

That memory, still imprinted in the back of my mind even though it was well over a week ago, still caused me to cringe whenever I relived that moment.

Some might ask how I could've been so stupid and so reckless with my own life, of course I should've informed Charlie about any allergies before he picked the restaurant just in case that's all of what they served so we could've avoided a bit of that embarrassment.

But I'd like to think that some folks out there would also agree with me that telling someone about an allergy when you were just gettin' all hot and bothered with them earlier was a bit of a mood killer and the last thing I wanted to do was ruin what a good thing that we had going on.

Except if Charlie hadn't thought quickly and clearly, it definitely would have ruined the vibe since, ya know, you would've been dead and that's a bit more of a conversation killer than anything else, amiright?

Rolling my eyes to myself at the annoying though completely accurate voice inside my head, I forced myself to remain neutral and passive even as the annoyed receptionist rattled off the rest of her spiel about how she was absolutely sure that I could get my money back guaranteed if I had to cancel for the requested day.

I had no intention of cancelling at all, as long as nothing drastic or major came up right before then.

I was so excited and ready to make Teresa's birthday perfect, she was only going to turn five once and I knew that humans only turn one age once but this was a big birthday for her.