The night before Jessie's 21st birthday...
The young man with the dark crop of shaggy but perfect – perfectly shaggy, actually styled to be exactly just so shaggy – hair ran his hand through it and looked at Jessie with his piercing blue eyes. Eyes that held a pained look, of depths of sorrow, begging forgiveness.
Jessie looked back at him, furrowing her brow, concerned about what could be causing his despair. Joe averted his gaze to avoid peering back into her enchanting, sensual, almond-shaped hazel eyes. Jessie's full lips began to tremble slightly, anticipating what was coming.
"Jessie, it's not you, it's me."
The world stopped and turned dark. Jessie's heart fell through her stomach and to the floor: a dead and useless leaden weight. The auburn beauty pouted.
She regained her composure. She'd been through this before – many times, too many times – and she knew what to say.
"You want to break up?"
"I'm sorry, Jessie."
"Of course, I understand," she said. Joe looked back up to meet her gaze, but she looked away, afraid that he'd see the very slight misting of her eyes.
"I hope we can still be friends."
"Of course, of course," Jessie replied, as was expected of her. Oh, of all the damnable white lies that society agrees upon, that may be the worst, most purposeless.
"See- " Joe began, stopping and stumbling over his words. "Er, ah. Goodbye, Jessie," he said.
As he left Jessie let a few tears fall down her supple cheeks and turned back to head up to the penthouse.
Sleep did not come easily despite – or perhaps because of – her 21st birthday being the next day.
The day of Jessie's 21st birthday...
Jessie woke up early and washed her tear-stained face. It wasn't that Joe had meant oh-so-much to her, and that he was supposed to be the one or anything – she'd outgrown those feelings – but her track record was miserable. If she wasn't driving away a great guy she was attracting a loser. She looked at herself in the mirror, swearing that she was seeing wrinkles already.
"What's wrong with you, Prescott? Are you going to wind up a lonely old cat lady?"
She exited the bathroom and went down toward the kitchen. She still needed to take care of the kids after all.
When she entered the kitchen, she was surprised to see that Morgan and Christina were there.
"Morgan, Christina! I thought you two were still filming in New Zealand."
"What, and miss your 21st birthday?" Morgan said, smiling.
"Happy birthday, Jessie!" Christina said. "Bertram, since it's Jessie's birthday, why don't you let her sit and you can take care of breakfast today?"
Bertram glared at Jessie for a moment. "On my birthday no one – I mean," he quickly backpedaled. "I would be happy to!"
He scowled when no one could see and began making some omelets. He'd probably need to have some more ready for when the kids came in – or the other kids, at any rate. Even if she was 21 she was still "just a kid" to the 47 year-old-butler.
"Hey Jessie!" Luke cried as he burst through the door of the kitchen. "Guess what I got you for your birthday!"
"Hmm, it better not be another eight-month-old slice of pizza you found under your bed."
"Hey! It was my lucky slice of pizza. And anyway, no. I got you a kiss." The precocious teen began to pucker up.
"OK, you can give me one small kiss on the cheek," Jessie said, pointing to her cheek and proffering it. Luke planted a small and chaste kiss that just an hour ago had been covered in tears. But he didn't suspect a thing, only getting a hint of the taste of the Ross' water.
"Happy birthday, Jessie!" Emma said as she came into the kitchen and sat down. "I think you'll like the present I got you a lot better than Luke's."
"Oh yeah, what is it?" Jessie grinned, forgetting for the moment her despair as she was once again surrounded by people who loved her. And Bertram.
"That is a surprise. I'll give it to you after dinner!" Emma smirked back at Jessie.
"That's fair. I guess they say that good things come to those who wait." They may be lying, she added to herself, silently, but betraying nothing outwardly.
Ravi and Zuri filed in soon after, and likewise wished Jessie a happy birthday. Bertram served all of them their breakfasts.
"Thank you Bertram," Jessie said. Bertram rolled his eyes.
The Rosses had given Jessie the day off for her birthday, a fact which Bertram envied. (The way Bertram worked though was as if every day were a day off for him.) So took advantage of this time – after breakfast she sat on the couch and read a magazine.
Luke came over and sat next to her.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to bother you on your day off," he said. He turned on his Z-Cube 9 and began playing a game – something loud, involving a space marine and possibly zombies. Jessie tried to ignore it and continue reading.
Then Zuri and Ravi came in.
"I can't be the best singer in the talent show unless I practice!" Zuri was telling Ravi.
"Yes, this is true," Ravi replied. "However, I would prefer if you did it outside. As far, far away as possible."
Zuri and Ravi's bickering grew louder, and Luke turned up the volume on his game in response.
"Do you mind?" Jessie said to Luke, sternly.
"No, I can ignore them when I turn up the volume," Luke said. Jessie sighed exasperatedly.
"I think I'm going to take my day off in the park by myself – again," she said.
"Oh! Can I come?" Luke cried. "There's a skateboarding cat show down there today! When she shreds, she really shreds."
"The park! I can sing as loud as I want there!" Zuri said. "Can I come too?"
Jessie sighed again. "All right, all right. Every time, I swear... I'm going to the park by myself with Zuri and Luke. Again. Anyone else want to come?"
"No, it's quite all right," Ravi said.
Later that afternoon...
Luke and Zuri really wore Jessie out at the park. She was beginning to suspect that this wasn't the best use of her day off. Certainly she loved the kids, but everyone needed some alone time. Especially her, since it seemed like she was going to have to get used to it.
Jessie was exhausted even though Luke and Zuri still seemed fine as they rode up the elevator to the penthouse. She was looking forward to sitting down, maybe taking a nap. She wasn't expecting the scene she did see when the elevator doors opened.
"Surprise!" Christina, Morgan, Emma, Ravi, and Bertram cried. The apartment was filled with streamers, balloons, and a banner that said "Happy Birthday, Jesse" on it. (Bertram was in charge of the banner. They were out of ones that said "Jessie.") There was even a cake.
Luke and Zuri beamed. "Ha! We gotcha good!" Luke said.
Jessie smiled back at them. "You two were in on this, weren't you?" she said.
"Yep!" Zuri said. "Did you think I really wanted to sing in the talent show? Puh-leeze!"
"You guys are the greatest. Even you, Bertram," she said.
Bertram smirked. "Ehh, you keep the kids off my back most of the time. I guess I do kinda owe you one."
The celebration was lovely. They had a dinner of barbeque everything, reminding Jessie of home. Then cake and ice cream were served.
After finishing up, they headed into the living room again Jessie sat back on the couch and looked at the people around her.
"The best part of this is being with you guys," she said.
"Really? The best part isn't presents?" Zuri said, gesturing to the table filled with wrapped gifts.
"You guys! You really didn't have to, you know," Jessie said.
"Don't worry, it's included in your benefits," Christina said.
Emma got Jessie a really cute sweater. Ravi and Zuri had similarly thoughtful gifts. Even Bertram gave her her own multi-utensil – a Swiss Army Knife-like kitchen tool. Morgan and Christina gave her a beautiful, elegantly necklace.
"Wow, this is all so wonderful!" she exclaimed.
Later that evening...
The family had gone back to doing whatever they had felt like, giving Jessie some time to celebrate her birthday however she wished, although truth be told she'd already gotten what she could ask for.
After the kids went to bed, Morgan called her into the kitchen.
"Hey Jessie," Morgan said. Christina and Bertram were also in the kitchen, along with a few bottles of wine that sat in the middle of the table. "Here's another gift for your 21st birthday. A friend of ours has a vineyard in Napa Valley. These are bottles of his own vintage."
Bertram poured four glasses of wine, and Jessie took hers. She took a sip.
"Mmm, dry, the way I like it," she said. The rest of the room grinned – come on, what kid has their first alcohol at 21?
They finished their wine, and then Christina, Morgan, and Bertram stood up. "Well, we'd best be getting to bed," Christina said.
"I'm just going to clean up a bit before I hit the sack too," Bertram said, also leaving Jessie in the kitchen. Jessie poured another glass of wine.
About an hour later, Bertram went back into the kitchen. Jessie was slightly slumped over the table, another bottle of wine drained.
"Whoa, hitting the sauce pretty hard there are you?" he chided. He began to clean up a bit of wine that looked like Jessie had spilled when he heard something coming from the girl at the table.
"Are you crying?" he said, as the sound he swore he heard was a sob.
Jessie looked up at him. Her mascara was running and tears stained her face. "Go ahead, make fun of me," she said.
"Why would I do that?" Bertram replied, taking a seat.
"Because you always do."
"OK, fair enough. But I've never seen you this upset. What's going on?"
"I dunno, I just. Joe broke up with me last night. What the hell is wrong with me? I can't get any of the good guys to stay with me, and the other guys I attract are losers. And I can't get an acting gig to save my life. What's wrong with me?"
"Jessie, you are a wonderful, talented, beautiful young woman. There's nothing wrong with you."
Jessie paused for a few seconds. "That's not like you to say. You'd usually say something deadpan and snarky."
"You usually joke around about your bad luck – I thought it was your coping mechanism. When you're actually upset like this... I dunno. I've never seen it."
Jessie reached for another bottle but Bertram grabbed her wrist gently. "Maybe you've had enough."
"Maybe I have," Jessie replied, mumbling. "Anyway, if there's nothing wrong with me, why have I had such awful luck with men?"
Bertram shrugged. "I dunno. Those guys are assholes, though."
"All of them, though?"
"Assholery is sadly fairly common these days," Bertram said. "But you are kind, and sweet, and caring. No one knows that better than anyone seeing you interact with the kids."
"I didn't know you cared."
"Eh, well, I don't really like to show it," Bertram replied. "I've always treated you like a kid sister."
He stood up. "That's enough sharing emotions for me tonight. Please don't make me do it again for a while."
Bertram left, and Jessie dried her eyes and smiled.