She was out of the elevator within seconds, aware of Will's quick steps behind her as she made the short jaunt to her apartment. The moment that she arrived, she forgot all about the keys in her hand and began banging on the door. "Grace! Zack! Are you in there?" Her calls were met with silence and she felt the tears spring to her eyes. God, this could not be happening…. The silence made her pound the door harder until she felt Will's hands on her shoulders. "Hey… Just relax…"
She turned to him in a fit of anger. "How can you say that? You don't know-."
"Here… give me your keys."
Before she could respond, he took the keys from her and flipped through them. "Which one is it? I always forget. The last time I did this was when… Oh yeah, two years ago when I drove you home from that party, remember? You called me and said you needed a ride home? You must have had fifty glasses of wine that night."
She remembered all right. But even more so, she remembered what had occurred the following night, when she'd come over to thank him. They'd made their way into the privacy of his bedroom and then-.
"It's dark." He whispered, causing the very sexy memory to vanish at once.
"What?"
"It's dark." He whispered, taking her hand. "Come on." He led her into the apartment and began moving his hand against the wall, trying to find the light switch. No one was around and he squeezed her hand as they made their way into the darkened kitchen. Once again he reached for the light but the room brightened automatically.
"SURPRISE!"
Alicia jumped, clinging to Will and she could tell by his trembling that he was just as shocked. The shock was caused by the sudden presence of her children. But it was Will who was even more puzzled by the scene in front of him; the scene that she had not yet noticed.
"Grace?"
"Happy birthday, Will!"
"Yeah." Zack said. "Happy birthday."
"Birthday?" Will asked. "But it's not-."
"I know it's not what you were expecting, but you do so much for our mom and you gave her a chance when no one else would, so we thought-."
Will let go of Alicia's hand and went to the table upon which sat brightly wrapped presents and a cake. Upon closer inspection Alicia noticed that the cake was decorated with a basketball them in the colors of Will's favorite team; the Chicago Bulls. And across the cake in black icing were the words "Happy Birthday Will"
"Wow, this is…" Will began and looked at Alicia once more. "I really… I don't know what to say."
Alicia simply smiled for she had no idea what to say either. She could see her children watching them with wide eyes, reminding her of the way they looked on Christmas morning. But then their smiles disappeared.
"What Will means is…"
"This is okay, right, Mom?" Zach asked. "I hope we didn't embarrass you and we didn't mean to scare you over the phone but we didn't want to give away the surprise. "
Overcome with love for her children, she went to them and hugged them warmly. "I'm not embarrassed at all. I was just worried, but this… I never expected this in a million years. Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, Mom." Grace and Zach said, almost in unison.
At that moment, Alicia had never loved her children more.