Kelsey has been going through a right time. Although she's positive and optimistic life still hits her hard. Her family's house got caught on fire killing her mother and her dad is a illegal immigrant who faces daily challenges. With everything lost...
26 years ago today my wonderful, beautiful, inspiring, strong and kind hearted girlfriend was born. And even though she insisted over and over and over again that she didn't want me to do anything big for her birthday, I did it anyway. It's not like I had anything better to do, the season was over and all the guys had gone to their homes or on a vacation. Isaiah and Tati were in school and Trevor and Antonio were at work so I didn't have many people to hang out with during the day. So I used the whole day to figure out what to do for her birthday.
I go to the grocery store and get a cake big enough for me and her family. I pick up balloons and party supplies and drinks, for both the adults and the kiddos, and take it all over to my place. I set up my living room so it can hold six people comfortably and everyone had a place to sit. The cake was on the table and there was some ice cream in the freezer. The party decorations were up and I was getting more and more excited to see how this all turns out.
The first people to come over was Isaiah and Tatiana. They each brought Kelsey a gift too so I set them next to mine on a table set to the side. Then Antonio got done with his yard work early so he joined us as we waited around. After Trevor came over we were all ready to surprise Kelsey for her birthday.
So I drive over to the planetarium and walk around by myself. She wasn't done for another 10 minutes or so and I didn't want to get her in trouble so I let her be. I find her talking to a group of kids who had nothing but a million questions to ask, and she always had a answer for every single one of them.
"Do you believe in aliens" a kid asks her and I hear her laugh. I smile to myself because she always loved the Q and A's with the kids but she always gets some pretty weird stuff.
"I believe that this universe is infinite, and so are the possibilities. So maybe somewhere out there there are other things, and maybe they're not that different from you and I" she claims.
"Woah" the kid gasps.
Finally it comes time and she goes to her office to shut down for the night. She might be the only person who asks to work on her birthday, but she loves it here and she should get to do whatever she wanted today. Once she comes out I meet her in the hallway. I pull her into a long kiss and I feel her smile beneath me.
"Are you trying to get me fired" she asks.
"No, but I am trying to make up for lost time" I admit.
"I saw you this morning. Remember, you tried to cook me breakfast and when we got all the smoke detectors to stop beeping you took me out to Panera" she reminds me and I smile.
"Right..." I blush.
"So what are we gonna do now? Some fancy date or a carriage ride around the park" she wonders.
"We're going to my apartment really quick so you can open your gift, then we can decide what we want to do after that" I say.
"I do want to see my family at some point today. I know my sister loves me staying with you because she's got the bathroom all to herself but I need to at least say hi to them" she claims.
"You will, I promise. But your gift first" I insist.
"Sure. Even though I told you I didn't want anything" she shuns.
"You're going to love it" I smile.
We ride over to my place and I take her up. I unlock the door and take extra long so everyone knew we were about to come in. I open up the door and her family all hops out and yells "happy birthday". Isaiah found the confetti I got and throws it all over Kelsey as she stands there pretty surprised. I thought she was on to me but maybe I was wrong.
"Oh my god... you guys" she laughs.
"Happy birthday to my favorite sister" Tati says as she pulls Kelsey into a hug.
"Look! I got you something" Isaiah says as he jumps right in front of Tatiana. He had the baseball that she got hit with that I signed in a glass box. "I figured that since this ball means more to you than it does to me, you should have it. Plus Anthony has given me other stuff so I don't really need this anymore" he claims.
"From what I can remember this was a pretty good day" Kelsey jokes and I shake my head. Man, I'm never gonna live that one down am I?
"It was awesome. I got popular because of it. So in a way that was my birthday present" he claims.
"Always so modest" Kelsey mumbles.
She embraces Trevor and her dad and they give her their gifts. We gather around the table and sing happy birthday to her like they did on my birthday. She blows out her candles and we cut the cake. We spend the whole night laughing and talking and having fun. Her family were all so down to earth and so nice to be around. I guess given their situation they feel grateful for every chance they have to live their lives here. I hope they never have to leave.
Eventually it gets late and they all had places to be tomorrow, so we send them off and clean up all the confetti Isaiah left us with.
"Thank you for that, Anthony. That was pretty nice" Kelsey admits as we finish cleaning up.
"Of course. And I still have to get you your present" I remember and she looks at me weird.
"Was that not the present" she questions and I chuckle.
"Well that can be part of it. But I have something else for you" I insist. I grab the bag from under the table and hand it to her.
"Woah, this is heavy" she admits.
"Yeah. You should probably open that before it falls out of the bottom of the bag" I insist.
She digs inside the bag and grabs the gift. She pulls it out and before I even had time to explain what it was she knew.
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"Where... where did you find this" she whispers.
"Funny story actually. Because if you type in "space rock" there is a bunch of people trying to sell normal rocks for tens of thousands of dollars and say it came from space.
This one I tracked down through a collector of space objects. He had a lot of stuff but this one looked just like the one form that picture you have on your desk at work. So after a hard bargain I got him to sell me the rock and now it's yours" I explain.
"Anthony... this is the greatest thing I could have ever gotten. Thank you, thank you so much" she says softly as she looks up to me with tears in her eyes. I know she thought she would never see anything like this again, I just wanted her to know she never had to give up hope.
"You're very welcome baby. Now give me a kiss" I say and she smiles. She sets the rock down and jumps into my arms.
