Right Place, Wrong Time

15. A Regular Day

After ice cream with Lauren, Joey was desperate to see her again. Take her out somewhere else, maybe somewhere of his choosing this time, but somewhere he knew she would love. But the way the last date ended made him nervous. He thought they'd had a really good time — he certainly had, and she had seemed to, until she couldn't get inside fast enough when they got back to her house. So he put it off, afraid to broach the subject, just smiling and talking to her in their classes or when he ran into her in the library or the cafeteria. Now, though, the perfect opportunity may have arrived.

He had typed out a message on his phone and now tapped his finger against the side of it, wondering whether this was really a good idea. But it couldn't hurt. He pressed send.

'Do you have plans for your birthday?'

He set his phone down on the bed to wait for her response, but it had barely touched the sheets when it lit up again with a reply, and he grinned to himself.

'I don't have a birthday'

'Reliable sources have informed me your birthday is on the 8th', he typed back.

'You should check your sources'

For a moment he wondered if Darren had got it wrong when he'd given him a heads up that her birthday was coming up that week. But he thought back to her text before and smiled to himself.

'You don't want to do something fun with me?'

He watched the three dots appear. Then disappear. Then reappear. Then disappear for long enough that he started panicking that something might have happened to her, before realising it was much more likely that she was just ignoring him. Then they reappeared again, and her reply arrived.

'You're not allowed to mention my birthday'

'Deal', he replied. He would have agreed to anything as long as it meant seeing her.

Over the next few days the quality of his school work plummeted as he spent much more time thinking about his plans for the day, which fell on a Saturday. And of all the things she could have done, all the friends she could have hung out with, she had agreed to spend the day with him. So the pressure was on to make it good.

When Saturday arrived, though, it was all worth it the moment she opened her front door to him and he saw the smile that lit up her face.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," he replied, and held out a small cardboard box from behind his back. "I got you something."

"Joey," she said, disapprovingly.

He knew she'd recognise the box, because it was from her favourite bakery, so he quickly said, "It's not a birthday cake."

One eyebrow was arched in scepticism as she opened the box, which held a vanilla cupcake with purple buttercream and green sprinkles.

"Happy International Women's Day."

An impressed laugh burst free from her lips, and she dipped her finger into the frosting, bringing it to her mouth. "Do you use that on all the girls?"

"Only the ones born today," he said, with a wink, and she narrowed her eyes at him, but the smile still hadn't left her face.

"This was very sweet of you," she conceded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he beamed. "Are you ready to go? You can eat that on the way."

"Where exactly is it we're going?" she asked.

"It's a surprise."

"Joey," she whined.

"Come on, you gotta let me have a little fun."