Cinquante Et Un

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It didn’t take too long to forgive Deuc. Even before we had headed to bed, I could tell he was truly sorry and I couldn’t bring myself to be mad or even disappointed with him.

Looking over to my left, I watched him set down his knife and fork on the empty plate.  I had always sat on his right, it was a habit now.

“It’s your birthday soon,” he said and I hummed before finishing off the last of the food on my plate.
“A week tomorrow,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll be twenty eight, it’s so close to thirty, it’s a little scary.”
“Why is it scary?” he asked and I shrugged.
“Time just passes so quickly, we’re almost halfway through September but July feels like yesterday,” I replied. It was true, I had known him for over a month now and it simultaneously felt like I had met him a week ago and that I had known him for years.

I set my knife and fork down on the empty plate, just like he had.
“You’re not planning on giving me your car, are you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Unless you want it.” Admittedly, I had gotten used to driving his car but I missed my old car. And I was determined to be stubborn on this matter.
“No, it’s your car.”
“Which I can’t drive,” he said. And he had never liked driving too much in the first place.

“When’s your birthday?”
“I don’t celebrate it,” he said, shaking his head slightly.
“Well, I’m going to feel bad if you get me something for my birthday and I don’t get you something because you won’t tell me when it is,” I said, laughing a little. It was true, I would feel bad and I desperately hoped his birthday hadn’t passed while I had known him.
“November 13th, happy?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said with a smile on my face. Now I knew his birthday and two months was ample time to try to think of a gift for him.

“But your birthday is first,” he said and I sighed.
“It is, yes.”
“What do you want to do for your birthday?” he asked and I was surprised. I wasn’t expecting anything special.
“I don’t know, it’s never really been anything special,” I said quietly. He reached across the table and took my hand.
“We can change that, if you’d like,” he said. I squeezed his hand as I nodded.
“I’d like that.”

After taking the plates to the kitchen, we ended up sitting in the living room. It was quiet and I had the feeling that he was thinking about the wendigo murders. It was bothering most of the pack, myself included. All three of them had worked at the family butchers within the last year.

“What were you thinking of doing for my birthday?” I asked, curious if he was keeping it a surprise.
“I don’t know, I have the feeling you aren’t the type for parties.”
“Not really,” I said as I rested my head on his shoulder. It was comfy. “Not for myself.”

I didn’t hate parties, it was fun to go to other people’s birthday parties. Usually it was a hunter’s birthday party and I would be the designated driver for whoever I would end up dropping off at home. It had been nice to see the hunters so relaxed and normal instead of serious and focused on hunting down werewolves. Parties for myself wasn’t something I was fond of, especially not now I had lost so many people. If we held a party for my birthday, I had the feeling there wouldn’t be many guests.

“What about museums or zoos?”
“I’ve been to most of the museums I’m interested in and…” I hesitated, not sure of whether to tell him why I didn’t like zoos. “I’m not really fond of zoos, I just feel bad for the animals in the  cages,” I said. He just smiled at me. I understood that some zoos helped with animals going extinct or were at risk of becoming extinct but I still felt bad for them.
“You’re a very caring person then,” he said softly. “It’s sweet.” I just blushed and hid my face with my hands out of habit.

“Do you know any nice restaurants we could go to?” I asked.
“Maybe,” he said with a smirk. “Is that what you want to do?”
“Yes,” I said after considering it for a moment. “Just us though, if you don’t mind.” Inviting the pack would just cause problems. Everyone would have to be invited, despite certain people’s dislike for me. Not inviting everyone risked offending someone which was another problem.
“If that’s what you want then we can do that.”

I smiled and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. You can pick the restaurant if you want, I don’t really know fancy restaurants or anything.”
“I’ll pick the restaurant then.”
“Okay,” I said. I trusted him to pick a good restaurant, he seemed like the type to dine at fancy restaurants but I wasn’t sure if I thought that because of him in general or because he was wealthy.

It was weird, in a week and a day I would be twenty eight and not twenty seven. It also meant my birthday was on a Saturday so…

“It’s Friday the 13th today,” I gasped. He groaned.
“Please tell me you aren’t superstitious about that,” he muttered and I laughed.
“Why not?”
“Tasha is terrible, she won’t do anything remotely dangerous on Friday the 13th, in case she gets hurt or someone else does,” he said. He sounded tired of the behaviour, if anything. “It’s irritating, even worse when the full moon happens on that day too.” It was hard to believe that Tasha, the same Tasha who had been barely civil with me, was scared of doing something risky on Friday the 13th. And she was worse if it was a full moon.

Which reminded me…

“When is the next full moon?” I asked. I didn’t have a lunar calendar and I didn’t have the effort to try to work it out.
“It was on August 22nd, right?” he asked. I hummed as I thought and then confirmed that the full moon had been on August 22nd. “I’m afraid you won’t like it.”
“Why?” I asked, furrowing my brow.
“It falls on your birthday.”

I groaned.
“Really?” I asked. “Why does it have to be on my birthday?” It felt like I was whining but it felt unfair.
“It’ll be alright,” he said softly. “I’ll book the restaurant for the afternoon instead of the evening. It might be a little less busy too. And I’m not going to let anything bad happen.” I looked at him and smiled. I believed him.

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