Page 33 of It Couldn't Be You
Our friend Marjorie had a big three-row SUV, so she offered to drive all of us girls. We stopped for burgers and fries once we got to the square, all hyper and loud. Then we made our way down for cheesecake, where waiters sang happy birthday to our giggly crew, before finally heading for drinks at the assigned spot.
We were already a little drunk on running around the square underneath the city lights and spotting cute guys—or really just any guys—along the way. So, we made a bit of a silly scene as we settled into a booth at the bar, but we made a scene everywhere we went that night.
I was sitting on the outside edge of the booth and proudly showing my ID to the server while ordering a spicy margarita when someone tall, dark, and mischievously handsome bent down beside me and said, “Hey, birthday girl.”
My heart burned like a birthday candle at that voice. And my stomach dropped in that specific Gabriel way it always does.
“Surprise!” Katie cheered. “I got your favorite person to fly down to celebrate you!”
“I didn’t need much convincing,” Gabe said, scooting in beside me—to my delight. “I couldn’t miss your twenty-first birthday.”
“I can’t believe you made it out. I know you’ve been busy, just moving to California and all,” I said, still stunned.
“Who’s this?” one of our girlfriends asked, interrupting us. She batted her eyes over at my personal birthday surprise.
“My brother, Gabriel,” Katie said, a little proudly, the way she always was with her siblings.
“You live in California?” another girl asked, all curious and coy.
Suddenly my birthday surprise, my favorite guy in the world, was the main attention of a table full of tipsy college girls. I had to sit there and sip my spicy margarita as they asked him questions and flirted. Finally, I sipped the last dregs of my drink and marched over to the bar to order another.
“Another spicy margarita?” I asked the bartender. I could tell he was mildly judging my order. I turned around to find Gabriel standing behind me.
“Another spicy margarita?” He was judging my order too.
“Well, honestly, I don’t know what else to order. And they taste really good. And it’s my birthday, dang it! I should be able to order what I want without judgment.”
“I wasn’t judging.” He put up his hands in surrender. “I thought it was cute. Only you could make ordering drinks cute.”
I blushed. We didn’t usually call each other things like cute. Though I’d always hoped he found me as cute as I found him.
“Are you ordering too?” I asked, gesturing to the bar.
“Nah, I just wanted to check on you. You seemed a little upset.”
“What do you mean?”
“Back at the booth, you were really quiet. You seemed a little distant. I was wanting to make sure you weren’t upset I came and crashed girls’ night. I just wanted to see you, and Katie thought—”
“No, no,” I brushed off his worries. “I’m really happy you’re here. I’m touched, really, I know you’re getting things set up in California. I, honestly…” It must’ve been the tequila lowering my defenses. “I just got a little jealous of all the girls taking up your attention. I’m so excited to see you and then… Am I gonna even get to see you? You’re kinda busy flirting it up.”
“You think I’m flirting it up?” He laughed, noticing my lowered defenses.
“Yeah, a little bit. And it’s my birthday. Shouldn’t you be flirting with me?” I said before I could catch myself. “I mean, if you’re flirting with anyone, it should be me.” I was attempting to salvage my mistaken remark, though it didn’t really fix anything.
He started laughing, moving in closer. “I should be flirting with you, huh?”
“No, no, you know what I mean!” The bartender placed my margarita down in front of me.
“Ahem. I do know what you mean, Em,” he said, but he had a pleased grin on his face as if he’d won one of our playful debates. As if I’d told him he was right about something he’d known all along.
I grabbed my drink and said with warm cheeks, “Let’s just go back to the booth.”
“Wait.” He grabbed my free wrist, stopping me. “Why don’t we just sit here at the bar for a while?”
“Oh.” I liked his idea. “But what about my friends?”
“They’ll be there all night. And I flew all this way to see you.”
