Mia’s hands lifted as her jaw fell open. You idiot! You missed her birthday.
I looked back at Quarry and repeated, “Her birthday is April eighteenth.”
He shook his head, pulling Ash’s birth certificate from the folder she’d left on her seat. “March eighteenth.”
What the fuck?
I distinctly remembered her telling me that it was in April the first night we were lying in the weeds. “What astrological sign is March eighteenth? Aries?”
They both shrugged, so I picked up my phone and did a quick Internet search.
“Pisces,” I whispered at the screen of my phone. “Why the hell would she have lied to me?”
“This is going to cost you big time. You should buy her a car and pretend this was all part of your plan. Make her think you forgot her birthday on purpose,” Quarry suggested.
Mia excitedly nodded her agreement.
It wasn’t a bad idea, exactly, but I was more focused on why she would have lied to begin with than the repercussions of flubbing the date.
For the next ten minutes, I stared a hole in the DMV’s door, waiting for her to come back inside.
Finally, she bounced around the corner, laughing with the once disgruntled DMV employee. “You just let me know when. You can borrow his car anytime,” Ash told the woman, flashing her eyes to Quarry.
“Hey!” He quickly shifted Mia back to her seat and rushed to retrieve his keys. “You pass?”
“Psh, did I pass?” She gave him a disgusted look. “Tonya didn’t even make me take the test. We just took turns pulling the parking brake and sliding into the parallel parking spot.”
Q snatched the keys from her hand. “Shut up. You did not.”
I pushed to my feet and joined them. “You pass?”
“You’re in a suit!” she squeaked.
“How many more times are you going to say that?”
“You’re in a suit.”
Shifting my weight to one arm, I wrapped the other around her waist. “Are you stuck on repeat?”
“I’m not sure. Get naked and let’s see.”
“Jesus, woman. Just answer the question.”
She grabbed my tie and tugged my head down, whispering in my ear, “I think we should celebrate my brand-spanking-new driver’s license by having sex in your back seat.”
I smiled down at her when she added, “This. Suit.” I let out a loud laugh.
Pointedly nodding toward my zipper, she let me know just how serious she was.
“All right. Keep your pants on,” I said, backing out of her grasp.
The woman at the camera station called her name. “I’ll be right back.” She sauntered away, swaying her ass and ensuring that, as soon as I got to the bottom of the whole birthday lie, I’d be using the suit to my full advantage.
“You seriously took the rest of the day off?” I asked when Flint surprised me by climbing out of the car instead of just dropping me off at home.
He unlocked the front door and swung it open. “Yep. I told you. Big deal.”
“You called in after you saw how much I loved the suit, huh?” I made a show of checking him out before walking inside.
“I mean, that didn’t hurt my decision. But I’m more interested in why you’re lying to me,” he replied with a hard edge to his voice.
I spun to look at him. “What?”
He closed the distance between us, stopping only inches in front of me. “Your birthday is March eighteenth,” he stated definitively. “But I can’t for the life of me figure out why the hell you would lie to me about that.”
“Uh, ’cause maybe I’m not lying,” I snapped, taken aback by his accusation.
“Bullshit. I saw your birth certificate when you were taking your driving test. You are lying and I want to know why. Now.”
I loved bossy Flint. I actually even loved angry Flint. But asshole Flint made me want to resort to violence. Fortunately for him, he was still wearing that suit.
“So let me get this straight. You see something that’s different than what I’ve told you and your immediate conclusion is that I’m lying to you? You don’t ask me about it. You just jump straight to liar. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You did lie to me! You point-blank told me that your birthday was in April.”
“My birthday is in April!” I yelled, quickly losing my temper.
“Stop fucking saying that. Your birthday was last week. What the hell are you trying to hide from me?”
I blinked at him. “Are you kidding me here? Now I’m hiding shit from you?” I said, a little bit hurt. Okay, a lot hurt.
“I don’t know! That’s exactly what I’m trying to figure out!”
“There is nothing to figure out!” Taking a step away, I closed my eyes and attempted a calming breath. “Listen, you’re acting like an asshole right now. Let me know when you want to talk. I’m happy to explain, but I’m not sitting here, listening to you toss out accusations.” I turned and stomped to our bedroom, slamming the door behind me.