“You never have to pay for anything.” I kissed her shoulder. “Ever.”
I made sure that tonight’s dinner at Sierra Mar would be placed on my card before we walked inside. The restaurant was nestled high into a barrage of cliffs that overlooked the Pacific Ocean; its panoramic windows revealed the entire shoreline of the California coast.
The waitress led us past a full room of white clothed tables and into a private room that appeared to sit amongst the clouds.
My eyes immediately veered towards a table with two sparkling gifts, towards the woman that was sitting beside them.
Hayley?! It couldn’t be...
My sister hardly ever came to San Francisco, even when I begged her to. I always had to meet her in Memphis, or in some other city on the East Coast. She claimed she couldn’t stand “the air” on the West Coast and vowed to never come until she started to work for me.
I stopped walking and looked at Claire. My voice was a whisper. “You got Hayley to come here?”
“Is that not okay? I’m sorry if I overstep—”
“It’s more than okay...” I was utterly shocked. Not much in life surprised me.
“John!” Hayley jumped up as soon as her eyes met mine. “Happy Birthday!”
“Thank you.” I hugged her. “I thought you weren’t coming here until the fall.”
She looked over at Claire and laughed. “I wasn’t! Have a seat, have a seat. I already ordered for the two of you since you’re thirty minutes late. Traffic?”
No, sex...“Yeah...”
She shrugged. “Oh well. Claire, it’s great to finally put a face to the name. How was your—”
I zoned out. I couldn’t believe Claire had managed to get my sister to come to town. I still couldn’t believe that she’d decorated my office earlier or set up a surprise dinner. No one had ever done anything like that for me, and I was trying to determine if it was real or not.
I heard my sister asking me questions as the dinner courses were served, but all I could do was look at Claire and smile as she threw her sexy green gaze back at me. I thought about how much she’d pushed me away in the beginning, how she still had parts of herself that were closed off—completely off limits. I was getting close to her now and she knew it, but she wasn’t pushing me away as much, she was pulling herself closer.
“Are you going to blow out the candles or are you going to wait until your cake catches fire?” Hayley shook my shoulder. “Hello!”
“What?” I snapped out of my thoughts and noticed the three layer cupcake sitting in front of me. There was a “To Jonathan, From Claire” message signed in whipped chocolate on the side of its plate.
Smiling, I blew out the sparklers and looked over at Claire again. “I didn’t know they served cupcakes here...”
“They don’t,” she said. “But when you tell them your date is Jonathan Statham they’ll make whatever you want.”
“Is that so?”
She smiled. “Would you two please excuse me for a minute? I need to take this call.”
“Of course.” I stood up and helped her out of the chair, giving her a quick kiss before she walked away.
“Since when do you celebrate your birthday?” Hayley crossed her arms once Claire was out of earshot. “Do I need to buy you a gift too?”
“No.” I laughed. “She made me do this. What made you come during the semester?”
“Your girlfriend is pretty damn persuasive. She made me fly in yesterday. Is she a lawyer or something?”
“No, she works with me at the company...You talk to dad lately?”
“Unfortunately...He got sent to solitary confinement again last week—contraband. It’s going to be a rough six years for him. You talk to mom?”
“New job. Eastern sea-docks. Five months post-rehab. Decent therapy sessions.”
“Noted...Maybe the thirteenth time really is the charm.”
I picked up my wine glass. “We’ll see.”
“You must really like Claire, huh?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well for one, you two can’t take your eyes off one another for more than five seconds. It’s actually quite nauseating. You also haven’t called to check on me in three weeks. Considering that you usually call me every other day...”
“I have checked on you. I texted—”
“No, Greg texted me.” She laughed. “It’s okay. It’s nice not having to report to my over-protective big brother for a change. “
“Don’t get used to it.”
“Trust me, I won’t.” She looked at her watch. “I’m gonna go now. Bring Claire to Memphis this summer okay? My Scrabble tournament is going to be the last week of August. There’s always a blues festival going on if you want to come some other time.”
“You’re leaving? Right now? You just got here!”
“Yeah...You clearly weren’t paying attention to anything I said over dinner were you?” She shook her head. “I kept asking you two questions and you just kept staring at each other and smiling. You think I want to stick around for another second of that shit?”