It's your birthday so I know you want to ride out WHO Joseph Harding OT Emma Swinton WHAT Finally celebrating Emma’s birthday WHERE Joseph’s House WHEN October 6, 2016; 8:00 PM WARNINGS The kids are with a sitter, so there might be some fade to black action, I'm just sayin' ;)
They’d made plans for Emma’s actual birthday, they really had. But then she’d had to work at the last minute, which was followed by Joseph having to meet a critical deadline for his new novel, the kids starting school, Ana preparing for a new belt in her Tae Kwon Do class, and before any of them realized, it was October. Which, Joseph supposed as he set the table, was okay, because it had given him a little more time to prepare and less time to become a ball of anxious uncertainty.
He had only tried a grand romantic gesture like this once before, when Ana’s mother had told him she was pregnant. It hadn’t exactly gone well, and while he’d been waiting for the right opportunity to reprise it with her, he’d lost the opportunity permanently. Once he and Emma had found a good, comfortable place in their relationship, he’d decided not to waste any time. He’d talked it over with Ana, and with his daughter’s blessing, had gone down to the hardware store to get a copy of the key to their house made. Ana had assembled a keychain for it out of pipecleaners and brightly colored beads, then been happy to get dropped off at Emma’s house where she was spending the night with Tyler and their babysitter.
Joseph had returned home to make dinner, clean up the evidence of Ana’s earlier crafting, and get the place to a point of being relatively presentable. He’d laid out an actual table cloth and place settings, lit a few candles, and had everything cooked and ready just in time for Emma to arrive. At the sound of the doorbell, he shoved the key into his pocket, and threw open the door.
“I know it’s a couple of weeks late - or, you know, months - but… happy birthday finally!” He put a little extra twinkle in his eye as he gave her his best grin. It might have been a giveaway that he was up to something, and he knew that when (not if) Emma caught on to that, she wouldn’t stop until she figured out what it was. For a moment he regretted not putting the key down his pants, if only to make sure there was a reward at the end of her search, but put the thought aside as too juvenile.