Page 31 of Worth of Waste

Sometimes that was just how shit worked.

They didn’t get any say in that at all.

Karen

“HERE, you take the cake,” Corrine said, handing the platter over to Karen.

Somehow, she managed to get the camera in her hands sat down on the table, and balanced the cake at the same time, without losing it all over the studio floor. Her boss—Corrine—did one last check of the cake to make sure it still looked perfect. The face of Junior’s favorite cartoon character had been piped with colorful icing while the words “Happy Birthday, J!” had been written in fancy scrawl across the bottom.

“Ready?”

Karen nodded. “Light the candles and I’ll take it in.”

“I’ll get lots of pictures, promise.”

She almost laughed.

Getting enough pictures was not her concern today. She had two wonderful photographers she worked with that she was lucky enough to also call her friends. And when the week before, Karen had admitted she hadn’t planned anything for Junior’s first birthday, the women took control of the situation and promised to do something for both Karen and her son that would be memorable.

Messy, but memorable.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted to do something for Junior’s birthday, but really, Karen didn’t know what to do. Outside of work, she didn’t have a lot of people that she spent time with on a personal level. She hadn’t made friends with any of the parents at J’s daycare center, and the one-year-old boy didn’t have much interest in other kids.

What exactly could Karen do for a party or something of the sort?

No, she had just planned on getting Junior a cake, some balloons for him to play with, and a gift or two for him to open. Just him and her together.

That’s what their whole life had been, anyway.

Corrine quickly lit the candles on the cake, and then shooed Karen toward the studio room where Junior was waiting with Kathy, the other photographer they worked with.

Instantly, the baby’s eyes found his mother when she walked into the room, and he lit up with a wide, toothy grin. He still wasn’t walking quite yet, but he got around just fine by crawling, so that was what he did. The toys and Kathy, lost his attention as he scrambled toward his mother and the cake she held.

“Momma!”

“It’s your happy birthday,” she told him.

Junior grabbed onto the legs of her dark-wash jeans, using her body to steady himself as he stood. “Ma, Ma, Ma.”

Each one of his crows was punctuated by a small tug of his hands to her jeans, and he bounced on his heels. The cute little red bowtie he wore helped to set off the dress pants and white shirt ensemble that was about to be stained and ruined.

Karen smiled, unable to help the joy she always seemed to feel whenever she was in the presence of her son. He had a way of making her feel like she was the most important thing to grace his presence. As though she was the one person in the world who made him happy, and he didn’t need anything or anyone else.

“Okay, J,” Kathy said, snatching him up, even when he howled at her for taking him away from his mother. “Time for a sugar high, little man.”

Karen laughed. “I doubt he’ll eat that much of it.”

“Never give kids enough rope to hang themselves, as the saying goes.”

She wasn’t quite sure that was how the saying went, but then again, Kathy didn’t have kids so she was the type who spoiled everyone else’s children and then gave them back when she’d had enough.

Kathy sat Junior in front of the large birthday backdrop, and the baby instantly tried to go back to where his mother was standing. The baby and the adult wrangled back and forth for a good minute before Corrine came into the room, her camera already at the ready to catch the action first hand.

“We ready?” Corrine asked.

“I don’t have to clean the mess after, right?” Karen questioned.

Corrine shot her a look from the side. “You clean the baby. We’ll handle the rest of the mess.”