Together the two women put Ana to bed in the room that she and her mother shared at the end of the hallway. Ana always requested a bedtime story, and she had a new obsession with Alice in Wonderland, so Mari read her the section about the caucus race. It wasn't really a race, and it consisted mostly of everyone running in circles and saying it was good. It kind of reminded her of her music career.

After Ana was in bed Mari went in the kitchenette, where Lori had set up a box of pizza and two glasses of wine. "And now...we unwind," she said, sitting her frame down carefully on one of the old folding chairs. It always squeaked a certain way when she sat down on it, and one of these days Mari knew it would give under Lori's weight, but she hoped today would not be that day. Lori was picky enough about what she ate anyway. She didn't want their collective birthday to be ruined by a bad thought.

"To our birthdays." She raised her glass of wine to distract her. "Happy 29th."

"Happy 27th." They clinked and drank. It was a nice chardonnay that Lori had bought at C-Town the previous day. "Any big plans?"

"No, no, I want to hear about your big plans first."

"Okay, fine." Lori took a deep breath. "So, my day has been...I went to the salon." She spread out her fingers, and Mari marveled at her gel.

"Looks amazing."

"Yeah, they did a good job, even if sadly I couldn't understand a word they were saying."

"That's the new Asian place down off 149th, right?"

"Yeah, across from the KFC/Taco Bell. I like them. And then I picked up Ana from school, and we went to the library for storytime. I got that new A. M. M. Weaver novel that I was telling you about."

"Oh, the one with the ghosts?" Mari couldn't keep track of Lori's reading habits, but she still supported her best friend and roommate.

"Yeah, that one. I need to see if the detective and the Tarot card reader finally kiss or not. Anyway, how was the studio? Do anything in particular?"

Mari grinned, then reached into her backpack. "Oh, maybe."

Lori gasped. "Is it done?"

"It's done."

Lori clapped and bounced so hard her glass of wine almost fell off the table. "Oh, my God. Can I see?"

"Well, you can't listen to it." Mari pulled out a small contraption in a case. "It's literally a tape."

"Wow. You really went and did it."

"Obviously Kevin has the master copies, but we transferred over everything today. Richard hasn't heard it. I have to go in next week to have him listen all the way through before it gets released. But I wanted this copy for my own personal uses."

"You don't even have a tape player."

"Yeah, but..." Mari smiled down at the small cassette tape, clear and plastic save for a sticker that said "Mixtape Vol. 1." "It's an actual tape. I get to have an actual mixtape that has my music on it. That's something really special. It's the best birthday present ever."

Lori smirked. "Are you sure about that?"

"Pretty sure, seeing as how I've only worked on this for the past two and a half years. Why do you ask?"

Lori grinned and reached into her purse, pulling out an envelope. "Thought you might want to have this."

"What is this?" Mari asked as she took the envelope from Lori, then dropped it when she saw what was inside. "¡No me diga! How did you get this?"

"I have sat on that for the past six months."

"But there's only one! Aren't you going to come with me?"

"Girl, you know I am not gonna sit there for two or three hours and listen to that Rico Suave stuff. You go. You have fun."

Mari beamed as she looked down at the single ticket. Romeo Santos sold out every venue he sang at, and he was taking over Yankee Stadium again with a crazy host of guest artists. She didn't necessarily mind that Lori wasn't going with her...she would just have to make new friends there.

"Girl," she said with a grin, "this is the best birthday ever. Not only did my best friend get me the coolest concert ticket ever, I have a finished mixtape! There's literally no stopping me now." She put the two together on the table and took a picture of it on her phone, for safekeeping. "Once Richard clears the final mix, it'll be on SoundCloud and the Collective can promote it. It'll take time, of course, but I can start plugging it at shows and everything."

"That's true," Lori said as she sipped more of her wine. "And then when you're big, that little tape will be priceless."

"I know, right? I'm never giving that tape up for anything. Not even a million tickets to Romeo Santos. It's even coming with me to the concert. This tape is never leaving my side. Not for one minute."