Happy Birthday to Me Again (Birthday Trilogy, Book 2) (10 page)

“There’s like
ten tables in this restaurant,” I interrupted. “How many chefs you have back
there? One, plus a talented rat?”

The man didn’t
seem to understand my
Ratatouille
reference. “Monsieur, I promise you, you will not be disappointed. You ordered
our finest dish.”

He pointed at my
beef dish, which I thought would look like the finest slabs of meat on top of
warm, buttered noodles. Instead, I was met with dried strips of black char,
surrounded by soupy red wine sauce.
 

This is what the Devil’s vomit would look
like,
I thought.

“Honey,” Liesel
said, already annihilating her dish, “just take a bite. If it’s half as good as
this, you’ll be happy.”

Speaking of the Devil…

I peered up at
my fiancée, who appeared entirely red. Even her face had taken on a rouge quality
in the last hour sitting in this uncomfortably warm restaurant. As I tinkered
with my fork to take the first bite of my dish, I watched as Liesel continued
to eat with her mouth open, talking about her exciting escapades from last
night, a large piece of filet squirting a bloody substance out from her mouth
to the side of the table.

“Soooo good,”
Liesel said. “This is amazing. Take a bite.”

I veered my
attention down to my plate of death. As I dragged my fork through the steaming
hot red wine sauce, I could see the six pieces of beef forming into the
haunting visage of Mrs. Gordon.

“Let her down
easy, Cameron!” the librarian shouted at me from the dish. “Easy, now!”
 

I knew I needed
to destroy the sight of her. I slashed both my fork and knife through the beef
and reluctantly took a bite.

“Good, huh?”
Liesel asked.

“Mmm hmm…”

“Cameron…”

“Yeah?”

I lifted my head
up to see Liesel smiling at me in a sincere manner. She took another sip of her
wine and brought her shoulders down to the table. “Nothing. I just… I just
wanted to say, there’s nowhere I’d rather be right now… on my birthday… than
here with you.”

I leaned
forward. I was going to say something similar, when a strange sight caught my
eye.

I didn’t need to
turn my head at all. The figure moved after a quick second, but I was almost
sure I had seen her. I could’ve sworn I saw Hannah, of all people, staring at
the two of us from outside a small window across the room. I blinked and looked
again, seeing nothing but an ominous street lamp shining light against the
window. But I felt positive I’d seen her.

That’s when I
looked back at my dinner plate, still seeing Mrs. Gordon’s hideous face. She
was raising her eyebrows, the way she always did when she caught me macking on
Charisma’s face in the library during my senior year of high school.

“Don’t make her
angry,” Mrs. Gordon whispered.

“Cam?” Liesel
asked. “Are you feeling all right?”

I looked up at
my bride-to-be. “Yeah, I just need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back,
OK?”

“OK.”

I stood up and turned
once again to the waiter. “Excuse me, where’s the bathroom?”

“Les toilettes,
monsieur?”

His French
pronunciation was so bad I thought I was invading a Monty Python sketch. “Uh
huh.”

“Down the hall,
to the right,” he said.

I rushed to the
bathroom quickly, slamming and locking the door. I just needed a moment alone,
a moment to breathe. I splashed some water in my face, ten times or more, until
I could feel the top of my collared shirt becoming appropriately drenched. I
bit down on my bottom lip and backed up against the wall. I looked down at the
toilet and decided, despite my claustrophobia and a tiny bit of nausea, that I
didn’t need to throw up.

Don’t do it,
Cameron,
I thought.
Don’t screw up the one thing
in your life that’s going right. Don’t listen to all these people, these
voices. They’re just trying to sabotage this whole thing, this great
thing.
 

I paced the room
for another minute, knowing that soon Liesel would become worried. I didn’t
want that. I needed to make my way back to my seat pronto.

I’m allowed to be happy. I can be happy
with Liesel. She’s the one. Be happy, Cameron. Please.
 

I sucked in a
ton of air, like it was the last breath I was ever going to take, and I didn’t
exhale until I stepped out of the bathroom and started making my way back to
the table.

“Feeling any
better?” she asked.

“Yeah. Too much
wine, I think.” I tried to laugh, but what came out was more of a grunt.

“That was so
good, Cam. I don’t think I have room for any more…”

I had been waiting
for it, tensing for it, abhorrently anticipating it all day. But I still wasn’t
prepared for it.

Worst of all, I
had to listen to the song in
French
.

“Bon
anniversaire, nos vouex les plus sinceres, que ces quelques fleurs…”

Four
waiters—two male and two female—started marching toward us from the
back of the restaurant, singing the slow, melodic French version of the “Happy
Birthday” song. Everyone in the cramped space stopped their chitchat and turned
to see the four singers screaming their poor French accents into the air for
the entire world to hear.

But while I
wanted to plug my ears, Liesel couldn’t have looked more overjoyed. She was
beaming, realizing that this big show was all just for her. She smiled big,
revealing her stunningly perfect pearly whites, as the waiters surrounded our
small table and finished the song.

“…nous soyons
tous reunis, pour chanter en choeur: bon anniversaire!”

They set down a
hot plate of molten lava cake, warm chocolate fudge oozing out from the inside.
A single lit candle sat on top of the cake.

I turned to
Liesel, ready for her to make that dreaded wish, when the unthinkable happened.

“And now,” one
of the two female waiters shouted, “in English!
Everybody
!”

I actually
thought I felt my heart stop as I listened to everybody in the restaurant start
singing the song that would haunt me for the rest of my days.

“Happy
birthday to you…”

I cracked my
knuckles and tried to remain calm. I looked up at the ceiling, wishing for a
moment that Reno’s first earthquake would occur, bringing this entire
establishment down harshly to the ground.

“…Happy birthday
to you…”

Cameron, sleep on it. Don’t make any rash
decisions tonight. Let’s think about this and talk to her at a more appropriate
time, not with all these people around. We don’t want to create a scene. Come
on. You’re just aggravated.

“…Happy birthday
dear Liesel…”

I attempted a
smile as I watched my fiancée grinning at each and every person in the
restaurant. She was glowing, looking as if nothing could make this perfect
night any better.

“…Happy birthday
to you!”

The waiters
clapped, as did most everyone else in the small establishment. I raised my arms
up in the air and clapped loudest of anyone, mostly to signal to the other
patrons to move on with their night.

The overweight
waiter stayed and saluted Liesel, like she was a member of the army or
something. “Happy birthday, Liesel. Enjoy…
les
dessert
!” He tried to make those last two words sound French, but what came
out was, ‘lez desert.’

“Thank you,”
Liesel said. “That was so sweet!”

The man walked
away, and Liesel leaned across the table to kiss me. I didn’t really have a
choice. She pulled on my collar and kissed me so hard I thought she’d rip the
skin off my lips.

“You didn’t have
to do that,” she said.

“Of course… uhh…
I wanted to.”

She pulled the
chocolate cake up to her side of the small table and took a deep breath.
“Well?”

“What?”

“What should I
wish for?”

I brought my
hands to my cheeks and set my elbows down on the table. “Just don’t wish me to
get old again, please. I don’t know if I can go through that again.”

“Smart-ass,” she
said, even though she made jokes referencing my little brush with death all the
time.
 

She brought her
lips to the candle and blew. The lone candle’s flame disappeared, only to be replaced
with a thin stream of smoke.
       

“What’d you wish
for?”

“I can’t tell
you,” she said, taking a bite of the cake. “Oh, Cam, you have to try this.”

I did. It was
orgasmic. But it didn’t make me feel better. I needed to vent. And I knew I
couldn’t wait another second.

“Liesel… we need
to—”

She giggled,
accidentally dropping some of the cake from her mouth all the way to the floor.
“I’m such a klutz,” she said, reaching down with her napkin and picking up the
crumbs.

I waited for her
to compose herself. It took her longer than anticipated.

But before I
could start my sentence again, she said, “Cameron, I need to tell you
something.”

I had just
opened my mouth. Nothing came out of it for a moment. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“I know I
haven’t told you very much about my history, but I’m ready to change that. I
think it’s finally time… you know… in the next few weeks, that I come clean
about my past. About… well…
everything
.
The good and the bad.” She looked away for a moment, and then looked back at
me. “But there’s something… something big… I want to tell you now. Because you
deserve to know.”

I brought my
hands together and tried to ignore the sweating under my armpits. I leaned
forward.

“Cameron…
there’s someone… how do I say this… someone I haven’t really talked to you
about…”

“Liesel…”

“Cam, the thing
is—”

“I don’t want to
get married.”

Liesel’s fork
stopped in front of her lips, and it didn’t move for a moment. Her eyes locked
in on mine. “What’d you say?”

“Liesel, hear me
out…”

“You don’t want
to get married?”

“Yes, I do. Of
course I do. I just think we might be rushing into this too fast…”

She started
shaking her head, her eyes tearing up. “Do you want to break up with me?”

“No, that’s
not—”

I grabbed her
hands, but she pushed me away. “Don’t teach me!”

Her voice
rattled the nearby patrons, and I could sense things were only going to get
worse.

“Liesel. Listen
to me. I
love you
. I want to be with
you. I don’t want to break up.”

“The wedding… it
was all… it was
your
idea…”

“I know it was.”

“And now… you…
what… just want to go back to dating and pretend like the engagement never
happened?”

“No… I just…”

“You’re just
what
, Cameron?”

Liesel’s eyes
turned cold. I felt a chill hit every inch of my body, as I looked up to see
the light bulb above us flickering.

Uh oh.

“I just…”

“
What
?”

I brought my
hands down to my sides. I shrugged. “I’m scared.”

Liesel didn’t
take her eyes off me. Now she really did look like the Devil. Her face was
bright red with anger and embarrassment, disgust and disappointment. She looked
like she wasn’t going to let me out of this restaurant alive.

“You’re scared?
That’s what you have to say to me? After everything that’s happened between
us?”

I didn’t
respond. I just tried not to pass out. Liesel’s staring contest was making me
woozy. Worse, I thought I was going to pee my pants.

No, Cameron. It can be worse. A lot
worse.

The large light
bulb above us exploded, and our table started to shake.

“Is everything
all right over there?” one of the waitresses asked.

The air turned
even colder, and wind started to brush up against me, even though not a single
window was open in the restaurant.

I just started
shaking my head. “Liesel… no…”

“You know what
you are, Cameron?”

She leaned
forward, her lips quivering, her eyes burning a hole through my forehead. She
looked like she wanted to use her powers to disintegrate me.

But she had
something else in mind.

“You
are such a
baby
!”

The flame on the
candle re-ignited as Liesel jumped up to her feet and stormed out of the
restaurant, madness in each one of her steps.

I stood up to
follow her, but the waiter blocked me at the front. “Sir, you can’t leave the
restaurant if you don’t pay.”