26. BIRTHDAY GIFTS

I quickly changed into my holey sweats and that shirt from the barbecue place with the smiling pig on it. I guess it was nice to be in something so… I don't know, familiar again after the honeymoon and everything that's been going on - "Normal" was a thing of the past, but there were still ways I could hold on to it, if you know what I mean. After brushing my teeth, I got out of the bathroom and padded to the room we were staying in, the one with a bed in it. Edythe was already waiting up for me there in her white nightgown. Her legs were pulled up sideways on the mattress, tucked under her knees. When she saw me, she spread her fingers over her lips and hid a laughing smile behind them.

"You know, I'm still not quite sure how to feel about that shirt." She motioned to me with a flutter of her fingers.

"Well, I can say the same thing about you – you don't even sleep, what do you even need all your fancy little nightgowns for in the first place?" I smirked, scooching in closer beside her.

"They're very comfortable, that's why." She tilted the delicate point of her chin at me, biting back a smile.

"Hey, you know what would be even more comfortable?" I waggled my eyebrows at her.

"Please, do enlighten me." She brought her face up to mine and ran her fingers across the worn jersey fabric stretched over my shoulders, covering up the smiling pig on my shirt with the white lace on her chest. My heart did its weird double-thump thing again and I think she felt it, too. I showed her a grin.

"Wearing absolutely nothing at all." I answered and caught her hand in mine. "And I think I can arrange that for you if you're willing to accept my services." I brushed her hair away from her eyes and brought her face closer to mine, pressing a kiss onto her smiling lips. She pulled herself into my lap, her arms wrapping tightly around my neck.

"You are a very good salesman, Beau." She whispered, crinkling her eyes. We were about to kiss again, but then her gaze flicked to the small digital clock on the nightstand and her lips pulled themselves up into a beaming smile. "Would you look at that. Do you know what time it is, Beau?"

"Time for us to pick up where we left off...?" I ran my hands up and down her beautiful arms. She laughed.

"Try again." She patted my chest twice. I tilted my head to think, my eyebrows furrowing. I looked at the clock – it was midnight. And just like that it hit me right over the head like a freaking brick.

It was September 13th. It was my birthday.

"Happy birthday, Beau!" Edythe cried out excitedly, throwing her arms around me.

"Oh wow, how could I forget?" I chuckled, smacking my forehead with the palm of my hand. I was nineteen now, and I was actually happy about it for once. Older and wiser, right? And I'm gonna need all the wisdom I could get for what's coming up next.

"Beau? Are you alright?" I started at the sound of her voice.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine." I said, touching the back of my neck.

"You're a terrible liar, you know that?" She shook her head and squeezed my hand. I sighed again.

"Just thinking a little bit about the future. Stuff like that." If we even have one still. She brought a hand to my cheek.

"I feel it too. Every day." She rested her other hand on her torso, looking down before finding my eyes again. "But at least we still have today." She stroked the sides of my chin. "Wait here. I've a gift for you." Quickly, she rose to her feet and took off in a blur. She was back in a fraction of a second, holding a small rectangular package in her hand wrapped in blue and green striped paper topped off with a small titanium blue bow. Taking a seat beside me again, she presented it to me with both hands.

"Thank you, Edythe. You know you didn't have to get anything for me th-" She shushed me, putting her cool finger to my lips.

"I wanted to." She smiled, tilting her head. "Open it."

At her urging, I started tugging lightly on the edges of the wrapping paper, not wanting to rip it up too badly. The gift was so perfectly wrapped I felt like I was defiling it by just touching it. I winced when I heard the tearing of paper.

"You know the whole point of wrapping paper is for it to be torn off, don't you? Silly Beau." She shook her head, letting out a bright chuckle. When I finally got through the holographic layer of paper, I unearthed a small golden box, almost like the one my dad had given me with the tie I wore to our wedding. Carefully lifting the lid away, my mouth fell open when I saw what was inside.

"This is amazing, Edythe." I gushed, pulling out a small golden pocketknife whose handle was inset with intricate, metallic filigree patterns - it must have been expensive. When I turned it over, I saw there was an engraved message with our names on it and I read it out loud. "To Beau, with Love. Edythe." I ran my thumb over the inscription, my lips parting in awe. I was cradling the pocketknife and Edythe cupped her hands around mine.

"Carine and I had it specially made. I thought it might come in handy one day if I'm ever not with you. To protect yourself. At least from any other fragile humans, that is. Or maybe if for some reason you ever find yourself stranded in the middle of the forest and get tripped up on a vine or something and I'm not there to prevent it from happening - you know, survival one-oh-one." She shook her head a little bit and looked to me again, letting out a bright laugh at her words. Somehow, both those situations she presented sounded pretty far-fetched to me, but I wasn't complaining. I think she just wanted an excuse to give me something nice, and it really was a beautiful piece.

"You know we'll never be apart." I said with a smile.

She chuckled. "Yes, obviously. But still. Just in case." She pressed my hands even tighter together in hers.

"Thank you, Edythe." I leaned forward and left a kiss on her lips. "I'll put it away for safekeeping." Gently, gently I lowered it back into the small golden box and replaced the lid. I put it away in the nightstand drawer and turned towards Edythe again. Wrapping my arms around her, I brought her to my chest and kissed the top of her hair. She was still smiling when we pulled away.

"As reimbursement, I'd like to take you up on that offer now, Mr. salesman." She grinned up at me.

"Well now, it would be pretty bad customer service on my part if I didn't follow through on my word as a businessman. It would be simply inexcusable." I teased as I started tugging up slowly at the white hem of her nightgown. It breezed easily over her cool porcelain curves and I threw it onto the floor.

"Happy birthday, Beau." She whispered in a shimmery voice.

She turned off the lights and we dove under the covers.

…

I awoke the next morning and let out a long, contented sigh as I stretched out my arms and legs.

"Good morning." I heard Edythe greet me in a musical voice. She was wearing the white lace nightgown again and her fingers were curled against the upper part of my arms. She beamed up at me with a gleaming smile. "Happy birthday. Again. You know, when the sun's up." She crinkled her eyes and motioned towards the window.

"Thanks." I chuckled and pressed my lips to the space between her eyes, cradling her cheeks. But I sat up then, realizing I was still maybe-sorta-kind of naked and quickly, I tossed on my shirt and pulled my sweats over my boxer shorts, the red splotches slowly creeping up my neck and cheeks again.

"Oh, Beau." Edythe sighed, stroking my face. "You mustn't be that way – I've already seen it all." She laughed and narrowed her eyes rather suggestively at me.

"Very funny." I turned away and flopped over on the bed, burying my burning face in the pillows. I felt the coolness of her body press up against my back as she began laying icy kisses all over my exposed collarbone, sending shiver upon shiver down my spine.

"Not gonna work." I said in an embarrassingly shaky tone of voice. She wasn't done yet. She pulled me into a hug, her hands meeting each other over my chest. I gave her wrists a squeeze and finally turned back around to look at her.

"You win." I sighed, covering her lips with mine again.

"I thought so." She laughed.

After pulling away from the kiss, she laid herself down sideways still looking at me, propping her head up with her elbow and pressing her cheek into her fist. Her other hand rested on her stomach.

"He's wishing you a happy birthday."

"What? No way."

"He's very, very smart. I feel the wisps of his thoughts and every last one of them never ceases to amaze me." She pressed her hand even tighter into her nightgown. "And he's extremely active." She closed her eyes and a bright smile played up at the soft curve her lips made. "I feel him moving around a lot inside."

"It's a little too early for that, isn't it?"

"Well, that's where it gets quite interesting, actually. That is, he's plenty like you in that sense - Carine had recently concluded he's growing at roughly the same rate which a normal human fetus would," she shrugged a little and shifted positions, punctuating her technical words with her slender fingers which moved in an almost rhythmic fashion, "but you have to remember, he's also part me, too– that is, he's very, very strong. He might be a lot like you, but I think it's safe to say that he gets that from me." She flashed me a bright, dimpled smile. "He might just beat you at arm-wrestling before he even turns two." She said only half-jokingly, her eyebrows flicking up then down. Wow, was that a blow to my masculinity? I narrowed my eyes at her, pouting. She squished my cheeks between her thumb and forefinger.

"I'm teasing." She laughed and gave me a kiss. "I'm only saying that I knew he was wishing you a happy birthday because whenever you came near us, he just went crazy. He knows it's a special day." She laughed happily. I screwed up my eyes and shifted my jaw thinking about that. "Hmm, are you sure it wasn't just me invading his… um, personal space?" I started with a nervous chuckle, remembering last night and rubbing at the back of my neck again. Edythe's mouth popped open.

"Myth. Old wives' tale. That's not how it works." She gave me a good smacking with the pillow and threw her head back, laughing.

"Okay, okay. I'm sure you have a point." I said and threw my hands up, not particularly wanting to continue with this extremely mortifying conversation even when I knew it was kind of my fault in the first place.

"No, but seriously though, Beau." She urged in a soft voice. She closed her eyes and touched the bottom of her stomach again. Then a happy smile spread easily across her pink lips. She took one of my hands and pressed it gently into the folds of her nightgown, and I felt her cool skin through the fabric. "You'll see." Nodding once, I swallowed hard and waited.

My breath caught in my throat.

What happened to change everything was that a soft little nudge bumped my hand – from inside her body. It was a sort of fluttering; kind of like what I'd imagine it felt like for a butterfly to flap its wings for the very first time after emerging from its chrysalis. It almost even felt like a pulse; just so… alive. I spread my fingers over my lips with my free hand and Edythe pressed my other hand even tighter to her. Another tiny, tiny little movement pushed up against my palm again and met it, like it was greeting me.

"Oh my god. That's… that's amazing." I felt a strange tickle in my throat.

"Isn't it?" She brushed the hair from my cheek with a tender thumb while still pressing her other hand against the top of mine so we could feel that fluttering together. I couldn't speak; just nodded my head.

It was the best birthday gift I never even thought to ask for.

My hand found the back of her head and I pulled her into my chest with the quiet rustle of the sheets between us, pressing my lips to her forehead.

We stayed like that for a while.