Her Birthday Celebration Was My Exit novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Valentine's

I read the three words twice.

Then I went down to the kitchen and stuck the invitation to the fridge with Sunny's garnet magnet.

Tommy came in from his shift and saw it.

He read it. He read the bottom. He took it off the fridge and held it over the gas burner.

"Don't."

"Lali, she's laughing at you."

"I know. Put it back."

"You're not going."

"I'm going."

He stared at me with the card an inch from the flame.

"Why?"

"Because she wants me to hide in Alaska and let her tell that room whatever she wants." I took the card out of his hand and put it back under the garnet. "She wants candles. I'll bring candles."

Tommy looked at the card for a long time.

"Then I'm making the cake," he said. "For after."

"After what?"

"After whatever you do to her."

Sunny found out about Valentine's Day four days before I did.

I found out because she handed me a schedule.

It was written in purple marker on notebook paper, folded into a square.

FEBRUARY 14.

5:00. Sunny goes to sleepover. (ARRANGED.)

6:00. Ilaria comes over.

6:30. Dad makes dinner. (DON'T BURN IT.)

7:00. Candles.

After that. Not my business.

"Sleepover where?"

"A girl in my class. Her mom said yes. I called her myself." Sunny folded her arms. "I'm ten. I can use a phone."

"Does your dad know about this?"

"He signed the permission slip."

"What permission slip?"

She produced it.

It was also in purple marker.

At the bottom it said "I, Ryder Haldane, agree to have a nice night."

Under that was his signature, very small and stiff.

On Valentine's Day I walked over to the small blue house at six o'clock.

The snow was coming down slow and fat. Every porch light on the street was on.

Sunny had answered her own door that afternoon to wave me off, overnight bag on her shoulder, her friend's mother idling at the curb.

"Seven o'clock," she'd called down the steps. "Candles. Don't forget."

I wore the dark red sweater dress she'd made me buy at the mall in January.

"It's the color of a garnet," she'd said. "Probably."

Ryder opened the door in a blue button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows.

He'd shaved the edges of his beard. He'd ironed the shirt. I could see the iron mark on one cuff.

He looked at the dress and stood there with his hand on the door.

"Close your mouth, Captain," I said. "You'll catch a moth."

"Your father said that."

"He says it to everybody."

"He says it to me."

The house smelled like garlic and something just about to go wrong.

"I'm making Pop's lasagna," he said. "He gave me the recipe on the phone. It took an hour. He made me read it back."

"How's it going?"

The smoke alarm went off.

Ryder ran.

I followed him into the kitchen.

Black smoke was rolling out of the oven door.

He grabbed the pan barehanded, swore, dropped it on the stovetop, and grabbed it again with a dish towel.

The top was black. The edges were black. The middle was frozen.

He stood there holding it while the alarm screamed.

I climbed on a chair and pulled the battery out.

The kitchen went quiet.

"It's caramelized," I said.

He looked at me. He looked at the lasagna.

Then he started laughing. The low one, the one that sounds pulled out of him.

He put the pan in the sink and leaned on the counter and laughed until he had to wipe his eyes.

"Pop's going to kill me."

"Pop's never going to know."

"Sunny's going to tell him. She's going to call him tomorrow and tell him."

"Probably."

We ate cereal at the kitchen table.

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend