That episode did give me one great idea, though. Jetting off to Mexico might have been a no-go, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t throw him a party. I loved throwing parties! They were a prime excuse for baking. Not that I needed one, but a party did give me a reason to make something a little fancier and more time-consuming than the standard fare we served in the café.
I nudged him. He didn’t move. I nudged him again. Without looking up, he held up one finger. I leaned over so I could see his screen. It was some kind of diagram with rainbow-hued lines zig-zagging across it. Matt used his cursor to grab onto one of the orange lines and drag it the tiniest bit to the side. He changed views, changed it back, and nudged the line over a tiny bit more.
“Okay, what’s up?”
“There’s something I’ve been thinking about, and I wanted to run it by you.” I conveniently left out that I’d been thinking about it for the past five minutes, not five weeks. “What do you think about throwing a big party for your birthday?”
He stared at me for so long that I started to wonder if he hadn’t heard me. Then, very slowly, he said, “A party?”
I nodded, shifting my position on the couch so I was facing him more. Latte army-crawled his way back onto the prime position he preferred on my lap. I stroked his head with one hand and put the other on Matt’s shoulder. “Yes! It would be so much fun! We’d invite your friends over, I could make all the food, we could put a football game on—”
“It’s May, Franny.”
“I know! Your birthday is in May!”
“There’s no football in May.”
I waved him off. “Oh, well, whatever. We can put something you like on. Just think how much fun it will be!”
He looked skeptical. “It would just be four or five guys, Franny.”
I mentally counted up the number of guys he hung out with, and four or five might have been a little high. “Well, not when you invite their wives and girlfriends too. And we could invite some of my friends and people we know in town to round things out. It would actually be really fun!” I was set on this idea now. Completely committed. All I needed was for Matt to agree. “So what do you think?”
“I think it sounds more like a Fran party than a Matt party.”
“Except that it’s for your birthday.”
He looked at me, and I saw the corners of his eyes beginning to crinkle in the way that made me feel like a sixteen-year-old with her first boyfriend again. “How about we make it a combined party for both our birthdays?”
I wanted to protest, to argue that this was something I wanted to do for him, not for myself. I didn’t need a party. I didn’t need to have a gathering of all the people I knew and loved, who’d made my time back in Cape Bay so wonderful. I’d been down and broken when I arrived, and yet my friends—new and old—had made it a better experience than I could have ever imagined. I didn’t need that. But who was I kidding? I definitely wanted it. “Are you sure? I meant this to be something special for you, not a party for me.”
He smiled tenderly and brushed my hair back from my face. “Nothing makes me happier than seeing you happy.”
I studied his face, trying to figure out whether he really meant it or if he was just trying to get me to leave him alone so he could get back to work. At the same time, I fought with myself over whether it was wrong to give in to the idea of a joint party. Finally, I gave in and threw my arms around his neck. “It’ll be great, I promise.”
“I know it will.” He patted my arm and kissed my cheek. “And I know you’re going to be very excited about planning it, but I need to get back to my plans here now, so if you need my input, we’ll have to talk about it later. But I’m sure that whatever you want to do will be great. Especially if you’re catering.” He grinned at me for a second then gestured at his computer. And as quick as that, I’d lost him to his work again. This time, though, I didn’t mind too much because I had a party to plan.
I pulled out my phone to find a good date on my calendar. There was a weekend between our birthdays that would be perfect. I immediately sent Matt a calendar event so he would have that time blocked off. Now that I felt like the pressure was off, I quickly decided I’d get him tickets to see the Patriots... or Red Sox... or Bruins... or whoever had a game coming up I could get tickets to. We could go up to Boston and make a whole night—or even weekend!—out of it.
With that settled, I started thinking about all the delicious things I could make for the party. There would have to be cake, of course—it wouldn’t be a birthday party without cake. Two cakes, since there were two of us. His would be chocolate and peanut butter—or maybe caramel. I’d do something seasonal and fruity for mine. Maybe a play on a strawberry-rhubarb pie. That would be delicious. And, of course, there would be appetizers—bacon-wrapped asparagus, some homemade Italian meatballs, maybe lobster bites. Punch, of
