***COMPLETED*** Around the World and Back [A Patty Walters Story]

Chapter 24: "Happy Birthday, baby."

July 25, 2018

Darien Center, New York

"Happy Birthday!" Patty yelled as he came up behind me, throwing his hands over my eyes. "I've got a surprise for you later today!"

I heard more footsteps and laughter behind him, so I knew they were up to something.

"You didn't have to do anything," I laughed. "Why are your hands over my eyes?"

"So Ronnie and Ben can bring your surprise over!" He smirked as he moved one hand around my waist, keeping the other over my eyes. "No peaking," he whispered in my ear, kissing the spot under it and making me shiver slightly.

Ronnie and Ben were whispering about something, and I heard a soft "thud," followed by the flick of a lighter.

"Shhh, she can still hear you!" Patty whispered as he turned us around, presumably so I wouldn't see. 

"I'm sure this looks awfully suspicious to Luke and whatever fans are at your merch table right now," I laughed as I kept my hands on his arm around my waist. "Can I look?"

He laughed as he rested his head on top of mine, swaying us back and forth.

"I'm sure it looks fine, Luke knows what's going on," he said as he kept his hand over my eyes. "Okay, you can look now."

He turned us around and took his hand off of my eyes, and I nearly screamed.

There on the table in front of us was a small cookie cake with 25 candles, a pizza from Dominos, a dozen roses, and a giant teddy bear.

"Patty!" I laughed as I looked back at him. "You didn't have to do all of this!" I said as I wiped my eyes. "Oh, my god, I'm crying."

Ronnie pulled me into a hug and laughed at me.

"I told you she would cry!" He smirked as he let me go after a few seconds. "Happy Birthday, Avery!"

"Thank you!" I laughed as I turned back to Patty. "How'd you do all of this?"

He smirked as he pulled me into his arms again.

"I'm getting really good at this Uber eats thing, and also finding people to run to places for me," he laughed as he kissed my head. "I have another surprise for you later."

"What?!" I said as I opened up the pizza box. Double pepperoni - my favorite. "Patty, you don't have to do anything else for me!" I said as I walked over to the cake to blow out the candles, Patty had gotten that part on his Instagram story.

As he was posting it, he looked up at me.

"Oh, but this is something you've been asking me for a while, and I don't want to wait any longer," he said as he sat down in one of the chairs. "Go ahead, birthday girl, eat up!"

Xoxox

"You made everyone leave the bus for the evening?" I laughed as he led me into the lounge. "You didn't have to do that either, we could've waited until tour was over to celebrate!"

"Babe, it's your birthday, I don't want to wait to celebrate it," he said as he kissed my temple, leading me over to the couch. "Besides, this is the last thing I have for you."

I sat down on the couch and watched him walk over to the corner and pick up his acoustic guitar.

"Remember a few weeks ago when I played you a demo of The Question, The Answer, and you said you couldn't wait until the album came out to hear the rest?" He asked, sitting down across from me and holding it in his lap. "I decided that I'm gonna play the full version for you tonight."