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"Hey, what are you doing here?" she asked.
He pulled his hand from around his back, holding up a cupcake with a lit candle.
Her jaw dropped in surprised.
"Happy Birthday, Chloe."
"I can't believe you did this. How did you even know? Did Joel tell you? Did he send you over here?"
Decker hesitated. "No. But I heard he got hung up in New York, so someone else might have mentioned you like lemon cake with white frosting. It actually took me two bakeries to find it, and then some woman named Valerie said it must be for you."
"I really am predictable," she said. "It was very nice of you to do this. Since you know my favorite cake, then I'm guessing you talked to Hannah."
He shrugged. "My source is confidential. Are you going to blow out the candle?"
He'd no sooner said the words when the candle flickered out in the breeze.
"Damn," he muttered. "That wasn’t supposed to happen."
"It's kind of the way my day has been going. Please come in."
"I'll relight it," he said, as he followed her into the house and over to the dining room table.
"You don't have to do that."
"You need to make a wish."
"I really don't."
He gave her a sharp, doubtful look. "I don't believe that you are a woman who doesn't make wishes."
"Well, most wishes don't come true, so maybe I should stop."
"Or maybe your wish comes true in a way you didn't expect."
Now, she was the one to give him a doubtful look. "Is that like saying everything has a reason, and you just have to find it, because I don't know that I believe in that, either."
"Okay, you're a little more jaded than I thought. Or is that just on your birthday?"
She made a little face at him. "Fine, light the candle, and I'll make a wish."
"Make it a good one. Nothing small or boring. No wishing for Leo to pick up his dirty laundry or sleep in for five more minutes."
She smiled. "Those are actually really good wishes."
He shook his head. "I want you to think bigger."
He lit the candle, and as she stared at the flickering flame, a really ridiculous wish came into her head—that this moment might last forever. But that wouldn't happen. The flame would burn down in a few seconds. And Decker would be gone not too long after that.
"Come on, Chloe, you don't have much time left," Decker said. "Don't overthink it. Just wish."
Love, she thought. Unconditional, heart-stopping, fiery, passionate, ridiculously big, always-there kind of love. It was an impossible wish, but she stopped thinking and blew out the candle.
"Good job," Decker said approvingly.
She smiled at him. "It won't come true."
"You never know."
