Page 76 of All Booked Up
I take a deep breath and rip open the first envelope. Pulling out the small stack of papers, I let the envelope fall to the floor. This one is from my backup school, out in British Columbia. It’s not my first choice, and much further away from home than Iwould have liked, but still a great school. I speed read the first sentence of my first medical school admissions letter.
“Dear Ms. Pinkfordt, it is with our great pleasure to inform you of your acceptance into…” My breath catches in my throat. “I got in!” I jump up and down, Mom jumping up to smother me in a bone-crushing hug.
“I knew you would, honey!” she whispers in my ear.
“Congratulations!” Ellora applauds me from beside Delaney.
“Drink!” Lane yells from the couch. I pull back from my mom’s arms to give her a questioning look. “Oh, we decided to make your acceptance letters into a drinking game. But with tea, right June?” I roll my eyes as Delaney holds up her own mug of tea I didn’t realize she had. “Open the next one!”
On an acceptance high I tear into the second letter, pulling free the top sheet and reading over the first line in my head. I sigh and shake my head. “Nope. I wasn’t accepted to the second school.” I shrug and let the rejection knock me down a peg. This school wasn’t my first choice anyway, my last of three actually, so I’m not overly upset. At least I have my backup locked in. This final letter though, this one seals my fate into my number one medical school. It has everything I want: a scholarship program to help me pay for my tuition, professors whose work I’ve read about for years, a state-of-the-art research lab that I hope to one day work in, and finally, it’s close to home. With only an hour commute into the city, this school is it for me.
I hold out the final envelope in front of me and look at each face in the room. Delaney is smiling like a goof ball at me with two thumbs up. Ellora is nodding at me as if she already knows I’m a shoo-in. Mom sits with a watery smile and tears brimming her eyes, and there’s Dominic. He’s looking at me like I’m his whole world, right here.
He looks up from his screen and mouths“I love you.” I mouth it back, so grateful to have him and all these wonderful people in my life helping me along my journey.
“Stop making googly eyes at each other and open it!” Delaney yells from her spot.
Here goes nothing.
I slowly tear the seam of the envelope with my nail, pulling it open and retrieving the stack of papers inside. With shaky fingers I unfold the letter.
Dear Ms. Celeste June Pinkfordt, Congratulations! On behalf of the Recruitment and Admission Committee…
Tears burst from my eyes as a flood of relief flows through me. I’m unable to read any further through my blurry vision. The tsunami level of joy and relief after the years of hard work it has taken to achieve this dream comes crashing down on me in an instant. My shoulders shake from the sobs that wrack my body. I feel several pairs of arms wrap around me and hold me tight. These are my people and I couldn’t be any happier than I am at this moment. I hear Mom sobbing right beside me. I feel Dominic on my other side rubbing gentle circles on my back. I open my eyes to see Ellora dragging Delaney away from our pile as she tries to climb onto Dominic’s back to hug my head, yelling something about getting close to my “glorious brain”.
Everyone offers me congratulations and love. Mom pulls me by the hand to sit at the kitchen table.
In a whirlwind, the curtains are drawn shut, the lights flicked off and the beginnings of “Happy Birthday”are being sung off key somewhere behind me. Dominic walks around the table with the most beautiful cake I’ve ever seen, tall candles flickering in the semi-dark. Handmade sugar sunflowers decorate halfthe top of a buttercream cake, with a few more trailing down the sides. Under the sugary petals sits a small stethoscope. On the top of the cake in beautiful cursive lettering reads “Happy Congrats Birthday Acceptance!” I can’t help the belly laugh that rolls out of me as I look around for the culprit of this tomfoolery.
“What? We needed to cover all our bases.” Delaney shrugs and winks at me.
“Where did you even find a cake like this? Or a baker to deal with your shenanigans?” I ask with a chuckle. Dominic raises his hand with a deep sigh and looks to Delaney arching a brow.
“Me. I was on the end of the shenanigans,” he says pointedly to Lane, but I turn quickly to him.
“You made a cake? You bake! Since when?” I ask in shock, taking a closer look at the immense detail. It’s such a piece of art I don’t even want to cut into it.
“I’ve been practicing. I thought I could branch out a little from my cooking and try baking, see how I like it. The pastry chef at Copertina said she’d show me a few things when she has spare time to help me round out my skills.”
I shake my head in disbelief and awe at this man. “That’s incredible, Dom.”
“Okay, blow out the candles and make a wish before we all have to eat wax!” Mom exclaims, hauling over plates and forks for all of us.
I settle in behind the cake, taking another glance around at these amazing people celebrating me. A wish? What do I need to wish for?
I have everything I need right here.
