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“A few years ago when we were all hanging out, you were trying to find one.”
“And you remember that?”
“Of course. I’ve been trying to find one ever since. Of course, I got a little sidetracked for a while, but when I finally started looking again, it only took a few months to find one.”
“That might be the sweete—” I quickly cut myself off. Willow did many sweet things for me that no one would ever be able to match. “One of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me.”
Tori’s smile got even wider. “I’m glad to hear that. You deserve to be spoiled every once in a while.”
My thoughts immediately went to Willow’s note and how she said I needed to find someone to spoil me. I decided not to think about that right now because I only wanted to have happy thoughts. “So, what are we waiting for? Are we going to play or not?”
After fumbling around with the wires for a little bit, we were finally able to get the console hooked up to the TV in Tori’s room. Tori blew on the cartridge that was the classic game that contained Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. After playing both of those, we went on to play PaperBoy as well.
“You know,” I said as we played, “I never owned a video game system until I bought myself a Wii at the end of high school.”
Tori’s eyes bulged out as if she couldn’t believe this was true. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yep. My parents thought video games were a waste of time. Luckily, Lisa always had stuff for us to play. We played Nintendo 64 more than anything else, but her parents also had a Super Nintendo and this original Nintendo because her dad really liked video games.” I laughed as I thought back on those times. “Sometimes, I would go over to Lisa’s just to play video games with her dad because she wasn’t actually that into them.”
Tori laughed along with me. “Honestly, nothing about that story surprises me.”
We continued to play until we were too tired to keep our eyes open anymore. Tori pointed back toward her bed then cleared her throat a few times before she spoke. “Do you want to just stay here tonight? I know tonight is probably one of the extra hard ones and thought it might be easier if we just start out together. I hate the thought of you being alone and sad for even a few minutes on your birthday.”
She was exactly right. The last thing I wanted was to be alone tonight. So, I nodded in agreement. “That’s a good idea. Thank you.”
“Of course.”
After we both took the time to brush our teeth and put on our pajamas, we met back in Tori’s room. We wasted no time crawling into bed and taking the position that had now become so normal to us—Tori holding onto me from behind. I had just snuggled into her when she jumped away. “I forgot,” she said as she rolled over. She took an envelope out of the drawer of her bedside table and handed it to me. “Nothing special. Just your birthday card. I know you’re tired. You can wait and read it in the morning.”
“That sounds good.” We had stayed up so long playing Nintendo that I could barely keep my eyes open. I took the envelope and put it on the nightstand by my side of the bed. Well, the side that was mine tonight. “Thanks, Tor. You made this an amazing birthday.”
We returned to our positions from a few minutes before, and I shut my eyes. I could tell by Tori’s breathing that it was only a few minutes before she fell asleep. For some reason, even though I was exhausted, I was having trouble. I slowly reached for the table so I wouldn’t wake Tori and pulled off the envelope. I opened it up to find a card with a unicorn standing under a rainbow. The inside of the card said I hope your birthday is all rainbows and unicorns. Underneath that was a note written in black ink.
Rosemary,
I hope you have the best birthday ever. You do so much for everyone else, and I hope you let us do a little for you this year. I hope this is your best year yet.
Love you!
Tori
Underneath that were more words, but these were written with blue ink as if they were an afterthought.
Ps—Even if I had the highest expectations, you would still meet them.
My heart swelled as I read the words. I knew that was in reference to our talk from this morning, and it was so sweet, I thought I might burst. Tori really did spoil me. Maybe I didn’t actually need a significant other. Maybe Tori was all I needed. I didn’t allow myself to overthink this as I melted back into her warm embrace and just enjoyed the moment.
Chapter 6
October 2022
I paced around the house as I tried to think of what to do for Halloween, which was only a week away. It wasn’t actually Halloween I was concerned about though. It was the fact that Tori’s birthday was on Halloween. She had made mine so special, and I wanted to do the same for her. The problem was that I had no idea how to do that.
“Okay, I give up,” I said as I walked from the kitchen into the family room, where Tori was sitting and watching a movie with the girls.
Tori looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. “Give up on what?”
“Trying to figure out what to do for you for your birthday.” I threw my hands in the air. “I admit defeat. I can’t possibly make it as good as you made mine.”
