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SYDNEY, April 10
For the second morning in a row, Avery had a less than ideal awakening. The day after her birthday she woke to the sound of a fist pounding on her bedroom door, coming face to face with Hannah, who looked strangely somewhere between irritated and elated. It took Avery a quick two minutes to change into a sweatshirt and a pair of running shorts, reopening her door and walking apprehensively down the hall as she followed slowly behind Hannah.
"This is fucking absurd." Hannah was at a loss for words as she gestured wildly towards the table in front of the three girls. "I came back from pilates to find all these flowers outside of our door. They cover the entire coffee table!"
Avery's eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she took in the sight. Hannah and Emilie stood on either side of her, their eyes fixated on the bouquets of lilies that indeed entirely covered the table in their lounge room. The mix of pink and yellow hues of her favorite flowers left her speechless, feeling a dumb grin growing across her lips as she shook her head in disbelief. When she saw the small card sticking out of one of the bouquets, Avery grabbed it and held it close to her body as she opened it up. Biting down sharply on her bottom lip, her eyes scanned over the card quickly over the typed words that still made her cheeks flush pink.
"Sorry these are a day late, but it was still the 9th here so technically it was still your birthday. Cheers to 23!" — Oscar
Unbelievable.
She finally put together the clues to deduce that this was the other surprise than Shannon mentioned was up her sleeve the day before. Her manager had looked a little too smug at lunch, the puzzle pieces falling into place as Avery closed the card back up with a grin. Her fingers were still clutching onto the paper tightly, eyes daring to sneak another peek at the message as she wondered if there was a chance that she was still sleeping after all and that none of this was truly real.
Aside from her roommates buying flowers on occasion at the local farmers markets, the last time she'd been gifted flowers had been from her parents when Heartbreak High was renewed for a second season.
"I want to see this." Emilie grabbed the card out of her hand as soon as she saw the smitten smile on Avery's face.
Emilie and Hannah read it together, two sets of overjoyed eyes flickering back to Avery. Neither girl believed that their friend had a particularly great taste in men, her track record abysmal as of late, but both were able to say that this one seemed good so far. Jack had never done anything that impressed them, and neither were particularly fans of her casual situation with Luke. Maybe they were right in telling her that it wasn't a good idea to get involved with a costar, but at the time she really did like him off screen.
"This is the guy you were talking to in Melbourne? Let me get this straight: you didn't wish him happy birthday, and he sent you seven bouquets of flowers from—" Hannah held up a finger to pause her train of thought as she scrolled through her phone to find the F1 calendar. "he's probably still in Japan right now!"
