Chapter 54
As the midnight bell in New York, so did Amanda's phone. Every year on their birthdays, the instant midnight strikes in the birthday girls' time zone, the other one calls. Since they go all out for each other's Christmas gifts, and sporadically send 'just because' gifts, they don't buy each other anything for birthdays. Little did Amanda know, during her birthday call that year, Holly was packing for Virginia.
Amanda and all of the boys were at the burlesque show, including Reed, so she took the call in Anthony and Brian's office. Holly didn't even say hello to her friend when she answered the phone. She just began singing 'Happy Birthday To You.' They talked for an hour, mostly about Jordan and their new business endeavors, when Anthony came in to tell her the show was about to start.
They left the theater at 6 o'clock that morning, only to go out to breakfast. They had dropped Reed off at home first, before heading out for a hearty meal. Though they were all dead tired, the atmosphere was quite jovial. The four of them walked arm in arm back to the condo. "I just love a good 'Sex and the City' moment," Juan sighed.
"Whatever you say, Samantha," Brian rolled his eyes.
Juan was about to say something when a window mannequin caught his eye. Amanda was so tired that she was resting on Anthony's shoulder. They all thought it would be best if she went back to the condo to sleep while they shopped. Anthony put her in the cab, told the driver where to take her, gave her the keys, and then went inside the store where Brian and Juan were waiting.
When they got back to the condo, Amanda was sleeping, curled up with Reed. After updating his and Reed's social networking pages, Juan joined them. Once they were all awake, Anthony and Brian ordered Chinese food and gathering movies to watch. The four of them stayed in their pajamas.
"Now, this is the kind of birthday I like to have: take out, jammies, facial masks, and Molly Ringwald, all with some of the best friends a girl could ask for," Amanda smiled as she plopped down on the couch.
"Aw, we love you too, honey. It would have been nice if your boyfriend was here, though. I know you two weren't on the best of terms when you left, but it is your birthday and between what you and Juan told us, I think you both seriously like each other too much to let some girl who isn't even close to in the picture come between you," Anthony said handing her a drink and sitting down on the couch next to her. Brian and Juan were in the kitchen chatting about their new ideas for their respective businesses as well as fashion.
"I'm here on business, not to celebrate my birthday. Honestly, I don't care that it is my birthday. It's just another day to me."
"Oh, I know. But, it is your birthday so I think it would have been nice to at least get a call from him. Anytime Brian and I are away from each other like that, we try to call as often as possible and there was never an excuse not to call on important days; even if that call didn't take a full minute."
"Well, to be fair, you two are a bit slightly co-dependent. He may be out on a case, we don't know. My family hasn't even called me, so it's not a worry."
"Why hasn't your mom even called?"
"She knows how busy I usually am. She may not even be in a place that gets cell phone reception. She and my step-dad travel and camp a lot. It's not a big deal. I can guarantee that when I go to the post office to pick my mail up that I had them hold for the week, there will be a card from her, my great-aunt, and Jordan."
"That kid is just too cute. If Spencer is the right guy, do you think you'd want to get married and have kids?"
Before she could answer the buzzer rang. Anthony got up to get the food. They all sat around the TV, eating with chopsticks right out of the boxes. Since it was Amanda's birthday, they started out watching 'Sixteen Candles.' "So… Jake Ryan or Duckie?" Brian asked everyone.
"Jake Ryan, without doubt," Anthony answered.
"Ugh, shut your mouth! It will always be all about Rob Lowe. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow… always the hottie," Juan blurted out.
Amanda chuckled before starting to think. "Out of the two, I say Duckie. If we're just going with Brat Pack members, I choose Robert Downey Jr. or Andrew McCarthy. Yeah, sure, they both had their fair share of problems, maybe more, but there is just something about them that's so charming and sweet."
"I still say Rob Lowe. Other than Demi, he's aged the best too," Juan shrugged. Brian went to get the facial masks so they could apply them between the movies.
They continued to watch the teen movies they grew up on for the rest of the night. It was around eleven o'clock when Spencer text messaged Amanda, wishing her a happy birthday. He had wanted to call her but he didn't know how busy she was or if she was even awake, so he figured a text would have been the most polite way to contact her.
They were watching 'The Lost Boys' when Amanda got the text. Her friends instantly knew by the smile on her face that the message was from Spencer. Anthony nudged her with his elbow and Juan did a little dance where he sat.
After Amanda sent a text back saying thanks and that she missed him, she looked up at her small group of friends. "You guys are some very odd ducks."
"You still love us and we love you, too. We're just happy that he got a hold of you. Granted, a phone call would have been better but I'll allow it this one time," Juan said, finishing his margarita.
"Before you go home, we should have a complete beauty day. I already think we're all knockouts, but we'll doll you up so much that Spencer won't remember what breathing is," Brian said.
Amanda laughed, "First off, no one has ever even insinuated that I'm a knockout, so thank you. Second of all, Juan already tried to make me look slutty on a date and nothing happened, don't think that it will happen now."
"We don't want to make you look like slut. We know you both miss each other; we just want to make it a little more obvious on both your parts, by how you look and getting a "Holy heart attack, Batman" type of reaction of out him," Anthony responded.
Amanda busted out laughing, which got the rest of the group laughing. Anthony and Brian were serious, though. They had planned to do so all along. It was originally Juan's idea. By that time it would be a week since Amanda and Spencer had seen or talked to each other. Since they had a small spat the last time they had a date, the boys thought that having Amanda look and feel amazing when she got back would help them get back to a good place in their relationship. They wanted things to work out for her, even though they didn't really know Spencer. The last thing they would ever want for their friend was a broken heart.
