Page 331 of Eternal
“Because I do.” I tilt my head toward her. “Tell me.”
“It’s in a month. July fourth.”
I blink. “Seriously?”
She finally glances over. “Yeah. Why?”
I shake my head, trying to do the math. “So… we met just after.”
She shrugs, eyes back on the water. “Guess so. I wasn't in Vegas for it, though. Not last year.”
“You weren't with Vik and Kat?”
“No,” she says, voice lighter now, but distant. “I had a job."
I nod slowly. “And no one did anything?”
“Vik and Kat called me and they sent an iris bouquet at the hotel I was staying in ,” she says, like it’s enough. And I guess it does. For her.
I don’t push, but something in me clenches. The idea of her somewhere far from here, alone, eating some food on her birthday. She should’ve had cake and bad singing and instead probably spent it cleaning blood off her sleeves.
She shifts slightly, turns toward me. “And you?” she asks.
I look at her for a beat. “May 31st.”
Her brows knit. “It was two weeks ago! You didn’t say anything.”
I give a little shrug. “Didn’t matter.”
Her face goes cold. “It does to me.”
Does it to her?
“I don’t even know if that’s really my birthday. I was a newborn. I don’t remember anything. All I know is, my mom dropped me at the orphanage with a note that said ‘Damir.’ That’s all they had. So that day simply became my birthday.”
“Still counts. It’s yours.”
I don’t answer right away. I’m looking at her mouth, her eyes, her hands wrapped around the burrito like it’s keeping her anchored to something real.
She sets it down suddenly, brushes her palms on her thighs, then stands up in the sand like she’s made a decision.
“What are you doing?” I ask, watching her.
She clears her throat, stands there in the dark with her hair all over the place and my jacket drowning her, then she starts singing. “Happy birthday to youuuu…” It’s off-key, way too loud, and she’s grinning like an idiot.
“Azra…”
“Happy birthday to youuu!”
I’m laughing now, can’t help it. She keeps going, spinning in a slow circle like she’s on some imaginary stage.
“Happy birthday, partner! Happy birthday to you…”
I cut her off with a loud, amused “Nope.”
She laughs, stumbling as she drops back onto the blanket beside me, warm and ridiculous and perfect.
“Happpyyy birthday to youuuuuuu, Damir.” A beautiful smile. “There,” she adds breathlessly. “Now you’ve had one.”
