ASHLEY:

10:55 AM

      I pull into my parking slot in front of APFI, and reach over to grab my briefcase before getting out of the car. We're not working in the studio today, so I've decided to come in and take care of some phone calls and paperwork before I have to get ready for my party. I lock the doors and start walking toward the front door, but before I get halfway there I hear, "Hey, Ash, wait up!"

      I turn around and see Lylah heading toward me, carrying her camera bag and a couple of large folders. "Dude, what are you doing here?" she questions. "You're not supposed to be working on your birthday! You should be spending the day relaxing before the party."

      "No big deal, I'm not planning to be here all day," I tell her. "I'm just gonna check in with a couple of suppliers and make sure that the payroll department has all of the tax forms ready to roll out with the paychecks on Monday. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, and then I'm outta here. And now the question is; what are you doing here today?"

      "I have the proofs from the last photo shoot, I was gonna leave them in your office so you could go over them and decide which ones you want to use for the ads. But since you're here, I guess we could look them over now, if you have time. Unless you'd rather wait 'til Ray gets back, that is."

      I pause to think for a second, then say, "Nah, he won't be back until the end of the week. Remember, he went off to Turks and Caicos with his fiancee's family, her sister is having one of those 'destination weddings'. But since her dad is obscenely fucking rich, I guess that's not an issue."

      We get inside and take the elevator up to my office, and I tell her to go ahead and start laying out the pics while I knock out a couple of my calls. I spend a few minutes on the phone getting some issues sorted out with a couple of vendors, then decide to hold off on the other stuff for a little while and decide on the ad layout. Then, just as I get ready to start looking, there's a knock on my office door. "Who's there?" I ask.

      "It's me and Mommy, Mithter Ash!" Shane's voice calls out. "Can you comes to the door, pwease?"

      "Come on in, you two. We're just in here looking at some pictures."

      The door opens, and Shane bounces in ahead of Midori, carrying something in his hands. He dashes over and stands in front of me, then reaches up, so I see that he's holding a small box. "Happy Birfday, Mithter Ash! Here, it's for you! Mommy said you was having yours birfday, so I maked you a present at day camp yethterday!"

      I reach out and take the box from him, then ruffle his hair. "Thank you, buddy, that was very nice of you," I tell him. "But how did you know I was here?"

      "Mommy had to come to get somefin' out of hers desk, and we seed yours car when we was parking. I was gonna gives it to Mommy to gives you at yours party, since she says it's after my bedtime, but since you is here, I can gives it to you my ownself. Open it, and see if you wikes it!"

      I sit down on the corner of my desk and lift the lid off of the box, exposing a suncatcher about the length of my hand, which appears to be a comet, in shades of red, yellow, and orange. "You has wots of stars on you, so I picked that one, 'cause I thinked you'd wike that best."

      I crouch down to his level and give him a hug. "This is really cool, Shane, I like it very much. Actually, I think I'm gonna hang it right here in my window, so I can see it when I'm working. Would you like to help me put it up?" He nods eagerly, so I lift him up and let him hang it from the latch at the top of the window, where it immediately starts casting brightly-colored streaks of light across the carpet.

      After I put him down, he looks around and finally notices Lylah laying out the photos. "Hi, Mith Wywah! Whatcha doin'?"

      "Hey there, cutie!" she responds, giving him a grin. "Mister Ash and I are going to look at pictures from the last shoot, so he can decide which ones he likes best."

      "Can I see too? Pwease?"

      "Sure you can," I tell him. "I tell you what, you can even give us an opinion on which pictures you like, and we'll see if we choose the same ones. I'll even let you go first."

      Lylah has him hold out his hand, and sticks a page flag on the end of each finger, telling him to put one on the edges of each picture he likes, and to only pick one picture of each person. He walks up and down the table for a couple of minutes, and quickly uses all of the flags except one. Then he spends another couple of minutes standing at one end of the table, with one finger in his mouth, before finally putting the last flag on a picture and saying, "There, all done! This one is my faborite one, though."

      I go to the opposite end of the table to start checking the photos, and I'm kind of surprised to see that he's got a pretty good eye, and I actually agree with three of his first four choices. I hand these to Lylah, along with a few of my own choices, and I have to force myself not to laugh as he wrinkles his nose when I hand her a pic of Kelsey. Then I walk down to see which one he's chosen as his "faborite", and realize that he's chosen a photo of Steph in a long-sleeved "Purdy Girl" shirt and ripped jeans, leaning back on her hands against the windowsill, looking as though she was about to burst out laughing. I look at her other shots lying nearby, and realize that they came out remarkably well, considering that she'd never modeled before. 

      But when I think about it, maybe that's actually why they're so good, because she was being completely natural, and that comes across in the pics. I pick up that one, and another of her in a black and white flannel, and as I hand them to Lylah, I say, "Y'know something, kiddo? I think you're right, this is the best one."

      He nods, and inquires, "Is Steph'nie gonna come back again sometime?"

      "Y'know, I think I might be able to talk her into coming back with me one of these days," Lylah replies, and he breaks out into a huge grin.

      "Goody! Maybe she can come back on a day when I comes to work with Mommy!" he says excitedly. Then he informs us, rather solemnly, "I wikes Steph'nie. If I was growed up, I would asks her to be my girlfriend. But I can't, 'cause I's only four."

      I'm not quite sure how to respond to that, and Midori looks rather startled as well. Lylah raises an eyebrow, then grins and says, "Out of the mouths of babes..."

      Finally, I crouch down so I can look him in the eye and ask, "Just out of curiosity, why do you think you'd want Stephanie to be your girlfriend?"

      He looks at me incredulously, and in a tone that indicates that this is the dumbest question he's ever heard, he replies, "Because she's nice, and she don't says mean things to peoples, wike Kelthey does. Isn't that why you wants somebody to be yours girlfriend or boyfriend?" Then he pauses for a second, as if he's considering it further, then adds, "And she has pretty smiles, too."

      After taking a minute to process this, I have to admit that everything he said is absolutely correct. "Yes, I have to agree with you, buddy," I tell him. "She does have pretty smiles, and she's very nice, too. That's why she's my friend."

      "Then since I's too little, maybe she can be yours girlfriend, Mithter Ash," he proclaims. "Yours a grownup, and you's nice, too, so that woulds be good. You could be nice to each other."

      At this point, Midori crouches down with us and says, "It doesn't always work that way, Kosaru. Sometimes people are just friends without being boyfriend and girlfriend."

      "Oh, otay," he mumbles, looking rather disappointed. Then he looks up at me again and says, "If hers goin' to yours party, will you tells her I says hi?"

      "I sure will," I reply. "And since you can't stay up late enough for the party, I'll send some cake home with your mom, so you can have some later. How does that sound?"

      "Yay, cake! Thanks, Mithter Ash!" he enthuses. "Did you hear, Mommy? I gets to has some cake, too!"

      "Yes, I heard, love. But since you've helped with the pictures, we need to go get Mommy's card, so we can go grocery shopping before I take you for your sleepover with Grandy and Baa Baa. And I'm sure Mister Ash has some work to do since he's here on his birthday, so tell him and Miss Lylah bye-bye, so everybody has time to get ready."

      We say our goodbyes, then he and Midori leave the office, and Lylah takes off a few minutes later, leaving me to finish up with payroll and double-check a few things on the website. When I finish, I lock up, then go back to the car and start heading home. Our conversation replays itself in my head, and I shake my head as I exit onto the freeway, thinking:

      If only it were that simple... 

                   *************************************************************

      8:30 PM

      I walk into the entryway of the building that the guys booked for the party, and immediately encounter CC, Tiff, and Jazy standing just inside. "Hey guys, the guest of honor just walked in!" CC yells into the room, while the girls come over to give me hugs.

      I glance up at the clock and say, "Come on guys, I'm right on time! You're not gonna try and tell me that everybody else is already here, are you?"

      "No, not everyone, just about half of them," Jazy answers. "But from what I can tell, there's already been a considerable dent put in the alcohol supply, so you'd better get to the bar if you want to get your drunk on."

      All three of them look totally flabbergasted when I say, "Nah, not this time. I'll grab a drink or two in a little bit, but I think I'll try something new and actually remember my party this year."

      "Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my buddy?" CC blurts.

      "Dude, remember what happened before Christmas," I remind him. "I just don't want to take a chance on getting myself in that situation again. I might not be as lucky as I was that time."

      "He has a point, babe," Tiff chimes in, and after a minute he nods.

      "Yeah, I know, it's just kind of weird hearing it come out of his mouth."

      We all go into the party space, and there are already a number of people there, roaming around the room talking to each other, so I start circulating, saying hello and catching up with some people I haven't seen in awhile. Then more folks start arriving, and I go over to the bar and get a Coke, deciding to hold off on the alcohol until I can put some food down with it. As I start to walk away with my glass, I hear a familiar voice yell, "Hey, Purdy!"

      I turn around and see Jeff George moving my way, closely followed by Danny Worsnop and another acquaintance of ours named Wes Howard, who actually works with Shannon's boyfriend, which is how we all met him. Not one of my all-time favorite people, but he's gotten pretty friendly with Danny, so I'll just ignore him as much as possible.

      "Happy Birthday, man!" Danny calls out. "Looks like they've set you up with quite the blow-out here. Hope someone's got their camera rolling, so they can show you what happens after you end up completely legless."

      "I don't think I'm gonna do that this time, guys. I'm actually going to try out the concept of remaining conscious for the entire night this year."

      They all exchange a disbelieving look, and Jeff pats me on the shoulder as he says, "Yeah, sure thing, Ash. Lets go with that."

      I don't even bother trying to argue the point, because they've definitely got plenty of reason not to take me seriously, so I'll just let them see for themselves. They go acquire drinks for themselves, and we stand around shooting the shit for a few minutes until Wes kind of leans around me for a second, then says, "Hey, dude, we should probably go somewhere else, before you get spotted."

      This makes no sense at all to me, so I inquire, "What are you talking about, man? Spotted by who?"

      "That chick, Ash," he whisper-yells, jerking his head repeatedly to one side like he's having a seizure, and apparently thinking that he's being inconspicuous. "You know, the fat chick, the one you managed to dodge a couple of weeks ago. Apparently she managed to con somebody into bringing her, 'cause she's right over there."

      I turn to look over my shoulder, and I see Steph standing about twenty feet away near the sound system, and I'm actually rather startled by how good she looks this evening. She's wearing a dress with a long-sleeved off the shoulder black top and a lavender and black plaid skirt with a handkerchief-style hem, and black velvet ballet-style shoes. She glances around and waves when she sees me, giving me a brilliant smile.  I wave back, but before I can start to move that way, Alice and Macy walk over to talk to her, and she hurries off with them.

      "Whew, you lucked out that time, man," Wes snickers. "But if you're not careful, she might catch up to you before the night's over."

      Danny and Jeff seem to be almost as startled as he is when I step up to him and keep moving until he's backed into the corner. "Shut your fucking yap, before I shut it for you, asshole," I order. "Unless you want to walk out of here with fewer teeth than you had coming in, you'd better stop talking shit about my friends. She was actually invited, unlike you, and I'd pick her company over yours any day of the week. So if I hear any more stupidity out of you, I'll toss you out myself. Got it?"

      He blinks at me a few times, but finally says, "Yeah, I get it, man! Sorry about that, I didn't realize that you were actually cool with the girl. I mean, after Shan's party, I just kind of assumed..."

      "Yeah, okay, whatever. Just drop it, okay?"

      We stand there sort of awkwardly for a couple of minutes, but then Wes visibly perks up and says, "Oooh, want! See you later, dudes!" He dives into the crowd and we lose sight of him pretty quickly, so Jeff and Danny decide to go grab another drink, and I start moving toward the spot where I saw Steph a few minutes ago. When I get to the sound system, I look around and spot her standing in a doorway a few feet away, so I hurry over there.

      She looks up and sees me, and meets me halfway, saying, "Happy Birthday, Ash! Are you enjoying things so far? You seemed to be a bit upset with that guy you were talking to a minute ago, is everything okay?"

      "Yeah, it's fine," I assure her. "Just a friend of a friend who doesn't know how to stay out of other people's business and not act like..."

      "An ass-monkey?" she suggests, making me laugh.

      "Never heard that one before, but it sounds pretty appropriate," I reply. "You look very nice tonight, Steph. That dress really suits you."

      She looks down at her feet, and I see her face turn pink as she says, "Thanks, Ash, that's really sweet of you to say. You look pretty good yourself."

      I reach out and hook a finger under her chin, lifting her head so she's looking at me. "I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it, y'know. Actually, I was just..."

      My words get cut off by a loud crash, and we turn to see a crowd gathering near the hallway leading to the bathrooms, so we both start moving that way. When we get there, we see that Wes has Macy pinned up against the wall, and he's saying, "Come on, sweetness, give it a whirl, lemme show you what you've been missing. I bet I can change your mind in no time flat."

      Danny and Jeff come barreling up next to me, and I look at them and say, "Don't ever bring this jackass around me again, okay, guys? I'm pretty sure that I'm developing an allergy to stupid."

      Then I feel something brush past my arm, and see a rather startled look cross Danny's face, so I turn to see what's gotten his attention. And when I do, my stomach actually rolls a bit.

      "Fucking hell, we've got trouble now," I mutter, as I start pushing my way through the throng. "Oh well, the cops have shown up every other year, why break the streak now?"