Page 73 of Sublimate
“Vivi, come into the kitchen. What do you think?” Cadence asked me. She pointed at the color swatches painted on the maroon wall. “Which is your favorite?”
I studied the three different shades, all of which looked a lot the same to me. “I guess…the middle one? I like green a lot, too.” I touched one of my Christmas earrings.
“Green isn’t right for this kitchen,” Beau told me. “We want a creamy, warm white, since it faces north. I agree, Cady, the middle one is best.”
“I agree, too,” she told him. “You have such a good eye.” He smiled back at her and we all stood for a minute in silence. Maybe we were supposed to admire the paint selections? I nodded at the wall but they looked happily at each other.
“Oh, is that the time?” she suddenly asked. She pointed at the microwave. “Wow. It’s later than I thought and I don’t knowwhat to do for dinner. There’s certainly nothing to eat in this house. Due to your previous statements, I’m aware that Nolan is busy tonight so Vivi, would you like to go out with us?”
“I told you that Nolan is busy? Well, ok,” I answered, but I was cautious because she sounded so weird. She had also picked up a curl to twirl, although she’d been trying to quit that habit. “Where do you want to go?”
She said that she had a place in mind. “Let’s all ride together in my car.”
And if I hadn’t known that this was Cadence and she was trustworthy and my friend, I would have been even more on my guard. As it was, I held onto my bag (I still had the knife, just in case) and got into the front seat while Beau squeezed himself into the back. He wasn’t as tall as Nolan, but it was still tight.
But he insisted. “It’s a special…never mind.”
After we had driven for a while, I started to recognize our route and got a little nervous. “We’re kind of near Kolter’s old house,” I said. I had driven past his place after I’d seen him in the grocery store and I’d also driven past his mother’s. Both were empty and looked abandoned, even worse than they had before. I figured they really had decamped for another state but I still didn’t want to be in their former vicinity.
“We’re not going there,” she promised. Instead, we approached the little hamburger restaurant where I used to sit and drink endless cups of water (and then also use their bathroom a lot because of all that hydration).
“This place has great fries,” I mentioned. That was what I’d asked for the first time Nolan and I had come here: one order of them, and he’d gotten enough food for three or four people instead…
I stared at a car in the parking lot as we pulled in. “That looks like Nolan’s,” I told them, and I thought it was weird that there were hardly any others. “Is he here, too?” I asked, even more suspicious.
He was. He opened the door of the restaurant and waved us in from the snowy lot. I ran, slipping on the ice. “What’s going on?” I asked him.
“This is for you, Vivi.”
I stepped inside and then stopped, amazed. The whole restaurant was decorated with balloons and streamers, signs with my name, and more that wished me a happy birthday. There was no one else here eating, because it had been turned into a private celebration. For me.
“Happy birthday!” Cadence told me. She bustled past me to get out of the cold. “Surprise!”
“Did you do this? For me?” I asked.
“All three of us did. Vivi? Are you ok?” she wondered.
I had started to cry, for absolutely no reason. “This is amazing,” I told them. “I never had…I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” I told Nolan.
“Is this your first party?” he asked and I nodded as I hid my face against his chest. “Happy birthday. Welcome to the beginning of a long line of parties we’re going to throw.”
It got even more amazing. We had cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes, and then Nolan brought out a cake that he had made and decorated. “I’m a beginner,” he cautioned, but I thought that it was beautiful. He had tried to write “Vivienne” and it had almost fit! It was delicious and I had two slices.
They also had presents. “We just had Christmas!” I protested, but still. Beau and Cadence got me the most beautiful, softest sweater that he said was cashmere and was the perfect color for me, and she gave me something else, too. It was a flat, rectangular package that I opened slowly, to savor it.
“It’s Nolan!” I exclaimed, staring at the picture in the frame. “You painted him?”
“He was worse than babies at staying still,” she said. She had gotten two more commissions from guys on the football team, so she knew what she was talking about. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” I answered and gently touched the glass. “Thank you! It’s exactly him.”
“Actually, Cadence did me a lot of favors. I have something for you at home,” he told me. “I’ll give it to you later.”
I didn’t need anything else, probably not ever. “This was the best party and the best cake, and these were the best presents,” I said. “Thank you!” I didn’t want it to end but everybody had work the next day, me included because I was employed for real now. I would get a paycheck every two weeks with money taken out for taxes, and there was a lunchroom with a few notes taped up about washing dishes and cleaning out the fridge. It was great.
We walked together into the empty lot and Cadence hugged me again. “Happy birthday,” she repeated. “I’m glad you like the painting. He was very embarrassed that I wanted to do it, but I said that it would mean so much because he was important to you.” She glanced over at where he stood with Beau. “I guess I am starting to think more like an artist in how I notice detail. Once I started to study his face, I realized how different it is.”
“What do you mean?” I thought that Nolan was as handsome as ever, if not more so.
