Just after midnight, Phillip wakes me up like he has for as long as I can remember. When we were young, he’d sneak out of his house and come bounce on my bed. He’s thrown confetti at me. Water balloons. Silk butterflies. Skittles. Rubber ducks. Every year is something different.
“Happy birthday, Princess,” he yells, flipping on the light as baby booties shower over me.
“Ohmigosh! Look at all these!” I screech, holding a little pink crocheted bootie with a fluffy white pom-pom in one hand and a furry leopard one in the other. Our bed is full of booties of every size and color. I hold up each one and imagine putting them on our baby. Tears well up in my eyes. “They’re so adorable, Phillip. So teeny. I love them.”
He sits down next to me, wraps his arm around me, and asks me the same old question, “So, do you feel older?”
“Should I answer that the way I used to or how I feel now?”
“Hmm, how you feel now.”
“I’ll always be younger than you.”
“Oh, meanie,” he says, giving me another kiss. “When we were younger, you always told me you did.”
“I was lying. I never really felt older. I will admit though, this year feels different.”
“How so?”
“I’m so happy, Phillip. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my whole life. It’s because of you.”
His smile is genuine. “Why me?”
“I’m living my dream life. I’m married to my sexy best friend. We bought an amazing house. I got to design a building, and now, I’m watching it be built from the ground up. And I’m having your baby. Really, the only thing that is missing from this perfect picture is my parents, but I guess I’ve come to terms with it. They’d want me to be happy. Sometimes, it scares me though, like our life is too good to be true.”
He flops across the bed, half on top of me, and brushes the hair off my face. “You shouldn’t be scared. You and I can face whatever life throws at us. As long as we’re together.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him.
And kiss him.
“Hang on,” he says. “I have something else for you.”
“I can wait to open the rest of my presents until morning.”
“I think you’re going to want this now.” He hops off the bed, grabs my hand, and leads me into our bathroom, which is glowing with candlelight.
“It’s so pretty, Phillip.”
“Close your eyes,” he says.
I shut my eyes and try not to peek.
“Okay, open!”
When I open my eyes, Phillip is standing in front of me with a plate of cupcakes, each with a birthday candle blazing atop it.
“Cupcakes, huh?” I say.
“You should make a wish,” he replies, taking a little chocolate frosting, smudging it across my neck, and then licking it off.
“I wish you’d do more than that,” I say, blowing out the candles.
“Is cupcake sex really what you wished for?” he asks me later.
“No, I was pretty sure that was already going to happen.”
“So, what did you wish for?”
“That you and I would always be together.”
