AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m not convinced. Harley and Amy, the two youngest, have always had a troublemaker aura to them. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you convince me to celebrate my birthday.”
“Oh, stop that.” Dana pats my hand. “Birthdays are important.”
“It’s not even my real birthday.” My birthday was at the end of July. Work has kept me too busy to celebrate. Not to mention, I always try and put it off until my sisters demand I meet them for brunch so we can all celebrate. Being the middlest child of five girls, my birthday always felt like an afterthought. And that’sjust fine to me. No need to celebrate getting older in my book. Especially now that I’m twenty-nine. Nearly thirty.
Now, Gillian and Dana are already over thirty and I’d never consider them old or anything like that. But they’ve got it together.
Me? All I have is my work. And a boss I fucked at work just a couple days ago.
“You’d think we’re torturing you, the way you talk about your birthday,” Amy scoffs.
“It’s my birthday and I’ll complain if I want to, thank you very much,” I reply.
Saved by the waitress, who returns with all our various drinks. Everyone ordered mimosas except for Dana who is obscenely pregnant and opted instead for fresh squeezed orange juice. “We’ll be here a while, so we’ll put in our food order later,” Gillian says with a smile.
Which then gives way to present time. “I explicitly asked you –”
“Kira! You tell us not to get you anything every year and every year we do, so just live with it and shut up!” Amy snaps and holds out a small box to me.
I take it and begrudgingly thank her. Inside is a gift card to an athletic store.
“You know, since you’ve started running more, I thought –”
“This is great,” I say, forcing a smile. The gift itself is wonderful. But it’s the fact the reason I’ve been running more is because of Orlie. When we were at the cabin, we would run together. And after he left, I kept up the habit. I’ve gotten pretty good since then. “Thanks so much.”
The rest of my sisters give me their presents. Jewelry, books signed by my favorite author, and finally, from Gillian, tickets to a conference for women in STEM I’ve been coveting.
“It was much better than her original gift idea,” Harley says.
Gillian glares. “Harley.”
“What was it?” I ask.
My sisters are all quiet.
“Come on,” I say and lean back in my seat. “It can’t have been ‘reducing the table to silence’ bad.”
“Gillian, since you brought it up, I think you’re the one who needs to say it,” Harley says.
Dana winces. “Really, guys? Is it necessary to be sassy with each other on Kira’s –”
“I had considered getting you a subscription to a matchmaking service,” Gillian finally interjects. “There, are you all happy?”
I usually have nerves of steel when it comes to my sisters calling me out. But that’s…a lot.
“It was – I just thought –” Gillian shrugs. “We’re all so happy. And we want you to be happy too. And I know being in love isn’t everything, but it’s…” She practically glows. “It’s sort of the best. So, I want that for you.”
“Gilly, it’s fine, I get what you were going for,” I say and then hold up the tickets. “This was great. Thanks.”
She smiles gratefully although there’s an apology in her eyes, which makes this all that much worse.
“I told her to forget it, because, well –” Amy smiles. “We still haven’t heard about what happened at the cabin.”
I laugh but it sounds more like a horse’s whinny. “Well, what would you like to know?”
“Um…” Amy scans the table. “Hello! Tell us what happened!”
“Nothing. We were cordial.”
