It took almost two weeks and some careful maneuvering to convince June to celebrate her birthday this year.
It started with a quiet mention to Sutton when she was at Daytrip, timed to when June was working on her mural. I told her I wanted to celebrate June’s birthday, to take her somewhere and do something fun, but when I mentioned it, she shot it down.
I don’t want to make a fuss over it, Graham. It’s just a birthday, she told me.
But I’m pretty sure I was put on this earth to make a fuss over June Taylor.
Next, Sutton conspired with Claire and Lainey, who informed me the perfect way to celebrate would be to go to Atlantic City, something June has always wanted to do, and, despite living barely an hour from the casinos, has never been. According to Lainey, my lady luck spent all of high school talking about going on her twenty-first birthday, but that year, her grandparents were sick, and she didn’t find the time.
Each year, she’s made her own excuses, but according to Claire, it’s always mostly boiled down to the fact that June doesn’t want to inconvenience anyone.
I personally love when June inconveniences me, though, and I would be fine with inconveniencing the entire world to make her happy.
While she shot the idea down the momentClairebrought it up, we had planned for that. A week later, I offered her a challenge at the Seabreeze’s trivia night a week later: if the boys win, June agrees we all go to Atlantic City and celebrate her birthday. She was in instantly, but didn’t realizeeveryonewas in on it. She got the hint right around when Sutton answered that hermit crabs are from Canada, giving me a burning glare across the bar. When the girls inevitably lost, Claire cheered,We’re going to AC, baby!which definitely was the last straw. June stomped over to me then, Decker muttering anoooh, you’re in troubleas she stood before me with her hands on her hips.
“You planned that, didn’t you?” she asked, but thankfully, there was a smile in her eyes. I returned it.
“Maybe.”
“And you got them in on it, too?”
“I want an excuse to go to Atlantic City, so I was always going to be in,” Lainey said with a shrug. June glared at her.
“Can’t go back on a deal, lady luck,” I reminded her, pulling her in close.
“My god, you all suck,” she said, pouting, but after a moment, she sighed. “Fine.”
Which is how we find ourselves walking into a casino in Atlantic City, June, trying to hide her excitement as she looks around in awe. The smell of smoke is heavy in the air, cheering and bells ringing as I hold her hand in mine, her duffle bag balanced on my suitcase in the other, and guide her toward the front desk. June insisted on sitting beside me while I booked the hotel, knowing if she didn’t, I would probably splurge on something June told me wasabsolutely unnecessary.I smile tomyself as we check in, remembering the last time we went to a hotel together.
That one ended well enough.
“Okay, and I have you…oh, look at that,” the receptionist says, giving June a wide grin. My nerves tick up, wondering how she’s going to receive this. “You’ve been upgraded.”
“Upgraded?” June asks, looking around. “Why?”
“It says here that you were randomly selected. There was an opening, and we put you in one of the high roller rooms. You also will have full access to the hotel buffet.”
“Oh, I think you have it wrong,” she says, and the woman shakes her head, turning the screen toward June. “Graham Hawthorne and June Taylor, correct? This is you?” June inspects it carefully, then a slow smile spreads across her lips. In plain text, it says "Selected for Upgrade."
“No way. Really?”
The receptionist smiles and nods. “Really. Looks like your luck is starting a bit early.”
“It looks like it,” she says, happily, then turns to me, that light dimming. “This wasn’t you, was it?”
I shake my head. “All you, lady luck.”
She smiles the way she always does when I call her that, and my gut churns at the lie.
I told myself I would stop making things work in her favor, but I’m a selfish man. I will never be over the way she lights up when something lucky happens to her, and I desperately want to see it as often as possible. The look of her beaming grin makes whatever small bit of guilt melt away.
There isn’t much I wouldn’t do to get that smile on her face.
She spent the summer trying to make me smile, but she doesn’t realize I’ve been doing the same.
We check in, quickly breaking into the bed in the huge suite before June disappears from our room to get ready with thegirls. I offered to have them use our room, but June told me that while she loves her friends, she didn’t want our room to become the default getting-ready zone, and that if they did, we’d get interrupted“while you’re balls deep because Claire needs her curling iron.”A little over an hour later, the buzz of the automated lock fills the space. I’m wearing an outfit June picked out, a pair of dress pants and a button-down shirt, this one in the lightest blue that she said she hoped wouldn’t send me into anaphylactic shock from the color.
It turns out, while it’s completely passed my notice, since I just wear and buy the easiest clothes for work, June noticed Ionlywear white and black, and is determined to add more color into my life.
