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“Hi there,” Jasmine says as I reach them, her hand resting on Cleo’s arm, keeping her close.
“Hi,” I reply, my eyes sliding over to the other woman who’s giving Jasmine a huge grin.
“Adam, Cleo, this is Tonya. She works here with me so if you stop in, you’ll likely see her around,” Jasmine states, introducing us before showing us to the side room again. There’s a table in the back of it that’s full of items and she leads us straight to it, looking as excited as Cleo is, and I love it. Fuck it…I love these girls.
I knew I loved Cleo with everything inside me, but Jasmine somehow snuck her way in there and I can’t imagine not having her as part of my life after this party.
“Let me make some room,” Jasmine says, stacking a few things to give us all room to sit around the end of the table.
Cleo climbs onto the far seat, and Jasmine sits next to her, leaving me the last one, but I don’t mind in the least being able to sit next to her. In fact, it’s the best seating arrangement ever I think.
“Okay, so this is the idea I came up with for the maze,” Jasmine tells Cleo before opening a tablet to an illustration of what looks like a regular door. She flips to the next one and it looks like one of the rooms in the shop, just scaled down much more. There’s a treasure map on the table though, and it points them towards another door that’s marked off with ‘caution under construction’ tape.
Cleo’s excitement grows with every scroll of Jasmine’s finger through the illustrations, and no matter how much it costs, I’ll make sure that they can make it happen. Hell, even if only two other kids show up, Cleo will be happy enough with it by herself to make it worth it.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so cool,” Cleo gushes when the ‘waterfall’ is revealed to be a doorway to the area that’s set up with the cake and food. “What if people get bored with the maze though.”
“It shouldn’t take anyone that long to get through it, but I thought we’d put in ‘magic’ entrances and exits to each area that’ll be shown on the maps. That way if someone gets tired or lost in it, all they have to do is find the magic exit to get back to the main area. Those magic exits will also allow anyone to go back and enjoy a space again if they want as well,” Jasmine explains, and I nod in amazement at her creativity. “Each area will have a little fun activity they can do within them. I thought the jungle area we could do a monkey bar. The floor will be covered with gym type mats throughout to make sure no one gets hurt,” she adds to me.
“Smart.”
“Yup, and there will be a monitor character in each space. Jungle explorer, desert traveler, mountain guide, and temple guardian to keep an eye on them as well,” she says and damn if this girl doesn’t think of everything.
“Do you really think you can get all this done in three weeks?” I ask her quietly while Cleo looks at the ‘camel ride’ idea Jasmine thought would work well for the desert area. The little mountain wall the kids can climb will be great, and it leads to a slide into the temple that is certain to get plenty of use. There’s hidden little spots to crawl through to get in and out of the temple’s treasure room, and damn, if I were a kid, I’d love this.
“Yeah, I have plenty of help that will get it done. Plus if parents see that their kids are burning up energy, they won’t argue nearly as much about the treats and cake. They can also send them back through the play areas if they want to wear them down more before going home as well. Since it’s my building, there’s no time limits or need to get everything taken down quickly to rush them out.”
“You’re amazing,” I state, lifting her chin up a bit more to see her eyes are a glittering silver twinkle today but a hint of that stormy desire is pushing in on the edges, and I love both equally. Seeing her joy and cheerfulness makes me feel good but knowing that she’s also feeling this intensity that’s rushing between us, makes me want to feel even better.
“Thank you. This has been one of my favorite ideas to put together. I had to scale this back big time because what I saw in my head pretty much rivaled a movie. Remembering Cleo’s eyes lighting up as we talked about things made it really hard to pull back, so I hope you don’t think it’s too over the top,” she says, her eyes the tiniest bit worried and I shake my head no at her.
“Not at all, she’ll love every bit of it. I take it that these are some of the things you’ve got to use,” I add nodding towards the stacks that Cleo was happily digging through.
“They are ideas I had to use for it, yes,” she says, before explaining what she thought where they might be most useful in to me and Cleo.
“This is going to be so awesome, Miss Jasmine. I love it. Thank you,” Cleo gushes as we get ready to leave.
“You’re welcome, sweetie. I want you to have the best day ever. Between you and me, I think people with April birthdays are the best,” she adds with a wink to Cleo that makes my brow lift curiously.
“We are,” Cleo agrees with her, laughing happily as she heads for the exit, a skip in her step that I love seeing.
“What’s that about April birthdays?” I ask Jasmine, sliding a hand onto her waist, stopping her from following my niece out the door to follow her.
“I may have mentioned that she’s not the only April birthday girl around here,” Jasmine says with a little shrug and a grin. “My brother and I also happen to have April birthdays.”
“Which are?” I ask, lifting a brow her way she she shakes her head no at me with a little laugh.
“He’s my twin so just one. It’s the ninth,” she adds when I simply lift my brow higher.
“And do you have any plans for your day I can help you with?” I ask, wanting to be with her on her birthday for certain.
“No, I know it’s weird, I plan parties for everyone else, but for mine, I just like to do something low-key. My brother and I usually go out to dinner together on the day and then we celebrate ours and my niece Abby’s with the rest of the family at our birthday family dinner. We haven’t done anything big since we were sixteen because my brothers caused all sorts of issues with some of the boys that attended. So I just prefer something low-key now.”
“So that’s a no to letting me take you out to dinner for it,” I muse making her brow lift a bit in surprise.
“No, I just…we haven’t even had one date let alone know what’ll be happening three weeks and some change from now.”
“Ah, I guess I’ll have to wait for you to catch up then. Maybe by the end of tomorrow night you will be,” I tease, brushing a finger over her bottom lip before moving us from the room to get Cleo and head home.
