CHAPTER 37: Millie Monroe
Paid Partnership
I need to pick myself up and dust myself off. It shouldn’t hurt this much when it was destined to come to an end anyway.
But it does.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
I’ve wallowed for the last twelve hours, and that’s enough.
It’s Archer’s birthday.
I don’t know this because he told me. I know this because I was looking through the comments on my video. Someone asked if he’s there celebrating his twenty-eighth birthday.
He’s four years older than me as of today.
I want to share in his birthday celebration. Maybe that’s why his teammates came down to see him, but I get the feeling they were here because they were only forty-five minutes away and they had the means to visit a friend introuble.
I take a shower and drag my sorry ass down to the concierge desk in the main tower, noting how much the crowd has picked up seemingly overnight.
Well…yeah. That’s what happens when four pro baseball stars are staying at the resort and it was advertised on social media.
“Hi there!” I say way too brightly to the poor clerk behind the counter. “I’m Millie Monroe, and I’m staying here as an influencer. I’d like to surprise another guest on his birthday, and of course I’d be delighted to share the sorts of things that the concierge desk can do here at this resort.”
“We’d be happy to help,” he says, and I fill him in on my idea, which he tells me he can execute.
“Would you like to include a card?” he asks.
I nod.
“Write what you want on this paper, and we’ll be sure to include it.” He slides a sheet of paper and a pen across, and I stare at it as I try to figure out what the hell to say to him.
I write two words and stare at them a while:Happy Birthday.
It needs more.
I add a line above the period to make it an exclamation mark.
It’s still not enough.
I clear my throat, staring at the blank page.
I think through what I want to say.
I’m sorry.
I should never have betrayed your trust.
Please forgive me.
Do this with me outside of here.
Let’s take the risk together.
I promise I’ll never do anything like that again.
Not a single one of those lines conveys the heart of what I want to say, though. None of it would be enough,just like filling his room with balloons wouldn’t be enough—but I’m doing it anyway. Or, I’m allowing the resort to do it, I guess.
