Happy Birthday to Me Again (Birthday Trilogy, Book 2) (12 page)

“You know that’s
not what I meant—”

“I also freaked
out because it seemed impossible for me to be this happy. I knew there was
going to be a snag along the way. I was just waiting for it. I knew the minute
I got in your car last night that you had something on your mind, and I thought
it might have to do with the wedding. I tried to ignore it, but I kind of knew
it was coming.”

I opened my
mouth to say something, but I knew Liesel would keep talking, so I just exhaled
and didn’t say a word.

“And I need you
to understand, too, Cam, that I’m not, and never have been, in need of a man to
make me happy, to make my life complete. I’m not Bridezilla. I didn’t freak out
last night at the thought that I might not get married this month. It’s never
been about the marriage. The marriage, to me, just signified that you were
really serious about our relationship, and that you wanted to be together…
forever. I don’t care about the wedding. OK? I don’t care one bit.”

“Really?”
       

“Really. I mean,
it’s kind of ridiculous when you think about it.”

“What do you
mean?”

“Well, look at
us. We barely have any money. You’re starting college in the fall
across the country
. It’s not the right
time to get married. Don’t you agree?”

I just shrugged,
not wanting to say or do the wrong thing.

“I just… I don’t
know,” she said. “I was really upset last night, for many reasons, but as soon
as I woke up this morning, I realized just how stupid I’d been. And then it got
me to thinking that maybe, you know, I’ve been pressuring you or something.”

“You haven’t
been pressuring me…”

“I’ve been
thinking that I’ve given off some kind of impression that without a wedding
I’ll never be happy, or something. And it’s not true. All that I know… all that
is good and dear and true to me, Cameron, is you. And if you want to be with me,
then I say, to hell with the wedding. Let’s just be together. Let’s take it day
by day. And see where life takes us.”

“You’re
serious?”

“Absolutely.”

I pursed my lips
and looked out at the Truckee River, which was overflowing and rushing at top
speeds. “My turn?” I asked, like I needed permission. She nodded. “Here’s the
thing. When I asked you to marry me, I wasn’t thinking too much about what it
meant. All I knew was that I wanted to be with you, no questions asked. Was it
the right time? Maybe not. We haven’t been together that long. We’re eighteen.”
Liesel’s eyes widened. “And
nineteen
.”
She smiled. “But I don’t know… I wanted to do it. And I felt good about it.”

“And then you
got scared.”

“And then I got
scared. For a week. Maybe less. It wasn’t a matter of, you know,
oh, God, I’m gonna have to spend the rest of
my life with one woman, what am I thinking
. It also wasn’t so much the idea
that you could turn me into a pile of dust in the blink of an eye if I said
something to upset you.”

She nodded, playfully.
“I could’ve done that to you last night. I was a good girl.”

I rose my
eyebrows. “So you
didn’t
set a curse
on me last night?”

“Not
deliberately. I mean, I don’t think I did. You feel any different today?”

“No.”

“Then I think we’re
OK. I won’t lie. For a good, oh,
minute
or two
, I was pretty damn pissed last night. But I’ve been good about
keeping my powers on the down low. You have no idea, Cameron, how hard that’s
been. But that’s another conversation...”

“One which I
really want to have with you…”

Liesel smiled
big as I jumped off the swing and took a step forward. I started caressing her
freezing hands.

“What scared me,
Liesel,” I continued, “was the thought that getting married might change things
between us. Things have been so good… I didn’t want to screw it up. You’re the
best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I can’t imagine a future without you
in it.”

She kissed me,
and I kissed her back, enjoying a moment of PDA as I noticed in the corner of
my eye a group of freshman teenagers with skateboards riding by, all pointing
at us. I kissed her on the cheek a few times, and then we butted our foreheads
together.

“I’m sorry about
last night,” she said.

“Me too.”

“Can we forget
it ever happened?”

“Of course.”

“And we’ll tell
everybody we decided to hold off on the wedding.”

I smiled and
kissed her softly on her cute little nose. “Or… we could just not tell anyone
anything.”

It took her a
few seconds to respond. “What do you mean?”

“We could just…
you know… proceed with everything as planned.”

“You mean…”

“I mean…”

Liesel’s eyes
grew to the size of oranges. “You don’t want to cancel the wedding?”

“Hell, no. I
love you. Let’s get married, Liesel.”

“Oh my God,
Cameron, I love you so much!” Liesel jumped off her swing and knocked me to the
ground. I was thankful to hit dirt instead of cement as Liesel tumbled on top
of me and wrapped her arms around my stomach. She started kissing me on my
forehead, worked her way down to my cheeks, and continued to kiss the top of my
chest.

“I love you, I
love you, I love you,” she said.

“I love you,
too, sweetheart.”

She pulled down
my dark blue shirt a smidge to kiss some more of my chest, and for a moment I
thought she was going to seduce me into having sex with her right there in the
middle of the park. The craziest thing was that I wouldn’t have stopped her.

“Uhh… Cam?”

“Mmm hmm?”

“You goofball.
Why did you shave your chest hair?”

“What?”

I leaned my head
forward and pulled the collar on my shirt down as far as it would go. For the
last six months I’d had a small patch of hair at the top of my chest. It was
nothing impressive, but it was enough to attract notice, particularly by
Liesel.

She gave me a
confused, worried look as I rubbed a few of my fingers over my upper chest. She
was right. There wasn’t a single hair in existence.

I didn’t think
anything of it, and it didn’t really bother me. But I figured it might bother
her. So I decided to lie.

“It was getting
to be a little too much,” I said. “I just wanted to see what it’d be like for
it to be smooth again.”

She laughed and
rested her chin on the exposed skin area. “You dork. I’ve never heard of a guy
who shaves his
chest hair
.”

I shrugged.
“Maybe there’s more of us than you think.”

She smiled and rested
her cheek on my chest, softly stroking the area surrounding my belly button. I
thought she might comment on the newly required stiffness of my chest and
stomach muscles, but she didn’t.

I stared up into
the dark gray clouds, my body resting against the soft, surprisingly warm dirt,
and I started grinning.

Liesel was back.
The marriage was still on.

And this time,
nothing, and nobody, was going to stop us.

---

I arrived home a
little after 11 P.M. that night. Liesel and I had spent the day together, enjoying
a picnic lunch, and then going out for a nice dinner at a new Chinese
restaurant in Reno called Flame. We were able to eat without incident, and I
was finally able to surprise Liesel with her necklace birthday present. She
loved it so much she started macking on every inch of my face yet again. Most
important of all, though, she stayed put in her seat for the entire dinner.
When our fortunes arrived, we decided to open them at the same time. Liesel’s
said, “A Good Surprise Is In Store For You.” That one made both of us smile.
Mine said, “You Are Going to Prove Your Love in a Memorable Way.” We both
kissed each other after I read that one. The night could not have gone any
better. Here we were, three weeks away from getting married, and I couldn’t have
been a luckier guy. My fear was gone, and the naysayers were leaving me alone.
It looked like, finally, everything was going to go our way.

“Hi honey,” my
mom said, sitting on the couch in the family room, as I made my way into the
house. She had tears in her eyes.

“Mom? Are you
OK?”

She nodded and
smiled, wiping her eyes and trying to pretend like there was nothing wrong.
“Yeah, uhh, there was this article I was just reading about a little girl who
was kidnapped and murdered. So sad. How are you?”

“Never better.
You’re up pretty late. For you, I mean.”

“Yeah, I’m not
that tired. I made myself some coffee earlier and I’m starting to think it
wasn’t decaf.”

I leaned over
the couch and rubbed our dog Cinder for a good minute or so, watching with glee
as she immediately flipped over onto her back and stuck her paws and feet up in
the air.

“How was
Liesel’s birthday dinner?” my mom asked. “I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“Oh, it was
good.”

“Did she like
that necklace you bought her?”

“Yeah. She loved
it.”

“Good.” She ran
a hand through her hair and smiled up at me. Her eyes were still red from
crying. “I can’t believe my little boy’s getting
married
this month!”

“I know, right?”

“And this time a
year ago I thought I’d be planning your
funeral
…”

She sat up and
turned off the TV. I finished petting Cinder as my mom jumped up to her feet
and started turning off the lights in the family room.

My mom yawned
and stopped in front of me before she turned off the last light. “You’re sure
about this, huh?”

“What?”

“You know.
Getting married?”

“Of course. I’ve
had a lot of time to think about it. It’s the right thing for us, Mom. I want
to be with her.”

“I know you do.”

“Is Dad feeling
any better about the wedding?”

“You know he is.
He was a little thrown by the whole thing, but he’s come around. I even caught
him checking out his tuxedo in the back of the closet a few nights ago. He just
wants you to be happy, Cam. We both do.”

“Thanks. That
means a lot.”

I started to
turn toward the hallway, when my mom grabbed my head and brought it right back
toward her. Immediately my thoughts turned to that afternoon when my mom
planted her lips against mine. She thought I was Dad then, but she’d have no
excuse this time.

“What is it?” I
asked.

“Huh. Did you
shave today?”

“No. I didn’t
get a chance to. Why?”

“Hmm. It’s just
odd.”

“What is?”

“No five o’clock
shadow.” She tilted me forward slightly and inspected my chin. “What can I say?
I kind of missed the Cameron who could grow a beard.”

I took a step
back and smiled. “You won’t see him for another six or seven years,
unfortunately.”

“I have to wait
that
long?”

“Yes. A long,
long,
long
time.”

“Fine.” She
patted her hand on my shoulder as she turned off the final light and made her
way up to her bedroom. “Nite, Cam.”

“Nite, Mom.”

My journey
across the house to my bedroom started as a leisurely stroll but slowly
transitioned into a sprint. I passed my bedroom and headed to my bathroom. I
turned on the light and slammed the door.

She said she didn’t do anything. Come on,
Cam. You’re just being paranoid.
 

I leaned forward
and analyzed every centimeter of my chin. There wasn’t a single small hair, no
fuzz, no nothing. My chin was as smooth as a baby’s bottom. And I hadn’t shaved
in nearly
forty-eight hours
.

I threw my shirt
off and checked out my body. It looked the same, just a little more toned. But
the one main difference was the disappearance of that small patch of chest
hair. It was as if it had never existed for these last two or three months.

I hope my hair doesn’t disappear on
every
part of my body.

I tapped my hand
against the top of my head, happily, before bringing both my hands downstairs
to inspect some other places that hair usually grew. Things were definitely not
bald down there.
 
Thank God.

“Cameron,
relax,” I said to myself, loud and pronounced to the person looking back at me
in the mirror. “She didn’t do anything, you’re fine. Sleep it off—”

“Are you talking
to yourself?” I heard Kimber say from the hallway.

“Go to bed! It’s
almost midnight!”

“So?”

“Don’t you have
school tomorrow?” I asked, almost paternally.

That silenced
her. She closed her bedroom door, and I didn’t hear another peep out of her as
I brushed my teeth and finished up in the bathroom.