Birthday
Emma opens the door to her apartment in Boston. Under her arm is a bag from Modern Pastry. Tomorrow is her birthday and she doesn't want to celebrate it. Last year was a disaster. Her boyfriend broke up with her on that morning. Although she is not seeing anybody, she still doesn't want to celebrate her birthday. Her friends insist that she gives a party, so just in case she changes her mind she bought cake. There is one thing missing in her life, well actually more than one, but there is only one thing she is thinking of right now. Her son. She gave him up for adoption eleven years ago. But now she is missing him. She looks at the clock and sees that it is 11:59 pm. She opens the bag and takes out a cupcake and puts a heart shaped candle on it. She lights the candle, blows and makes a wish. The wish to find the love of her life, likes she does every year. It is just something she can hold on to. She has a lifetime of disappointment and people leaving her. That wish is just for something she never experienced. That one feeling of true love. Emma calls herself back to reality and decides to go to bed. It is late and in a couple hours she needs to get up.
The familiar sound fills the bedroom. Every morning at the same time. Over and over again, day after day. Emma turns on her side and slaps the snooze button. She slowly opens her eyes and looks at the clock. 7:30. Damn. She doesn't want to get up. Working on her birthday is just shitty. On the other hand, it keeps her mind off things. Well she needs to get up. 45 minutes to get ready. She leaves the bedroom and goes to the bathroom. After a couple minutes she comes back to the bedroom. Her blond hair is a bit wet. She opens the closet and stands a moment deciding what to wear. She takes a blue colored t-shirt and a pair of jeans out of the closet. She looks at the clock and sees that she got 20 minutes left. She puts her clothes quickly on and leaves and goes to the kitchen. She puts her boots on and takes her wallet, her coffee cup, her bag, and the keys. She leaves her apartment and takes off to go to her shitty, boring job. It's a good thing that she doesn't need to work all day. Emma takes the elevator and she's happy that she is alone. Outside the flat, she walks toward her car. She opens the door of her grey Maserati. She loves that car. It's still pretty new. She gets into the car and drives off. She is in luck. No traffic jams, and not a single traffic light on red. Just a moment later she arrives at her destiny. The company she is working for. She loves online marketing, but at the same time she doesn't. It's not a challenge anymore for her. She needs a life change. More action, more adventure and well more everything. Emma steps out of the car and walks into the building. She opens the door to her office and she sees a bouquet roses standing in the corner next to her desk. As usual there is no card, and she also doesn't know from whom they are. Also she honestly doesn't want to know it. She takes her chair, starts her computer and takes her coffee cup. Somebody knocks on the door. "Come in." The door opens and a young, beautiful woman is standing there. "Uhm, sorry I didn't mean to disturb you." "Oh, you didn't Ash. I just arrived anyway. So what is it that you wanted to say?" Emma looks with a questioning face to Ash. "Okay so someone called, didn't say a name, but did leave a message that you should call back. I wrote it down. The meeting for this afternoon got cancelled, so you're done at 3:00. And happy birthday." Ashley smiles at Emma and Emma knots with her head a thank you. Ashley leaves the room and closes the door behind her. Emma's head is resting on her hands. Shit, kill me now, she thinks. Tonight is going to be an absolute disaster. For all she knows her friends are going to set her up with one of their friends. The rest of the day things go as usual. At 3 she is happy that she can go home. She takes her stuff and takes the elevator down and gets into her car. She drives home, but not so lucky this time. Traffic jams, stupid traffic lights, and if it couldn't get any worse she saw her ex. Eventually, she arrives at her flat. She gets out of her car and goes to her apartment. She opens the door and a big surprise awaits her.