Zac and I returned home at lunchtime. Kris and Ginger were in the kitchen making sandwiches when we walked in. "Hey guys, where've you been?" Ginger asked. I looked at Zac. We'd been out all morning and with all the time we had to talk, neither of us thought about where we were going to say we'd been. I was fine telling Kris I'd gotten a tattoo, but I wasn't fine with saying I was out getting an engagement ring.
"Getting inked," Zac explained.
"Oh, well, next time you do that take me along," Ginger said. "I could always use another one."
"Ging, babe, you've got four of them," Zac said. "You don't need any more." Ginger shrugged.
"Whatever. Let me see." He lifted up his sleeve to show her and she crumbled immediately. I could see her eyes fill with tears and she put her hands over her mouth. "Oh, Zac�" she said, her voice filled with emotion. She hugged him tightly. He smiled as he put his arms around her waist. "I don't see how that took three hours, though."
"Oh," Zac said, "well�I wasn't the only one who got something done." Ginger looked over at me and I looked away.
"Taylor?" she asked. Kris looked up at me.
"You got a tattoo?" she asked. "You? Let me see!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, looking back at her. "I would never get a tattoo."
"My ass! What'd you get?" She got up and began pulling open random parts of my clothes in search of it.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" I insisted. "Zac's the one who got something done�" Kris looked over at Zac and he tapped his left shoulder. She pulled up the sleeve on my left arm and gasped.
"Oh my God you did!" The skin around it was still red but it looked all right. It wasn't going to be completely black and dark for another week or so, which was what Zac had told me when he got his cross. "Oh honey�I like it. Did it hurt?"
"Not as much as I thought it was going to," I said. "I mean, Zac said it hurt like hell but he's got the sorriest excuse for a tattoo I've ever seen. It's not even filled in! At least mine is filled in."
"Thanks, Tay," Zac said.
"No problem," I said, smiling. "Anyway, we should really get back to packing."
"Taylor, it's your birthday! You can't spend the entire day packing," Kris said, not letting go of me. "You should be�partying or something."
"Well as fun as that sounds and even though it is my birthday we're still going to New York tomorrow and I'd like to bring as much as possible with us this trip." I left the room. Zac walked out with me. The girls stayed in the kitchen to have their lunch. Surprisingly since yesterday we've gotten a lot of things packed. Of course we wouldn't be able to finish packing and shipping everything by the time we leave for New York tomorrow, but I want to get as much as we could so when we come back down here we won't have so much to do.
Zac and I went upstairs to my room. There were boxes all over the place, some of them full but most of them empty and unassembled. "How did you and Kris manage to get the master bedroom when Ginger paid for the house?" Zac asked, looking around.
"Ginger insisted," I explained. "When we got here Jenny wasn't born yet and Ginger just didn't see it fit to have one person stay in here and two people stay in one of the smaller rooms." Zac shrugged.
"How long have you guys been living here?"
"Six or seven months," I said.
"You know it seems kind of pretentious of me to have you all move to New York when you haven't even lived here for a full year. I mean, especially you! You were at home, then you moved into the apartment and you were there for what, three months before you went to Europe for two, then you moved here, and now you're moving to New York�"
"You know I really don't mind," I said. "It's not like us to be in one place for a long period of time. We're always moving around."
"True." A thought popped into my head.
"Oh my God!"
"What?"
"We could be snowbirds!" I said. Zac gave me a questioning look. "You know how there's always people who only spend the winter here and have another house up north for the summer?"
"No�"
"Well Ginger and Kris complained about them all the time during the winter. We could be those people who have a winter home down here. We don't have to necessarily move out of here." Zac looked around.
"It is a nice place�" he said. "But I don't know if I could do that, what with my job and all."
"It can be me and Kris's winter home."
"That could work. I mean I could always try to work something out where I'm down here in the winter, or I do talent scouting around here in the winter or something. I know Kris and Ginger wouldn't want to be away from each other for a whole season, especially when that season involves Christmas and New Year's and stuff."
"We'll see. It'll just be easier that way. I've always wanted to say I have two homes. I mean we'll still have a lot of stuff to pack and all�" Zac nodded. I passed by the mirror and caught a glance of my tattoo. I stopped and pulled up my sleeve. "I still cannot believe I got a tattoo."
"Happy birthday, by the way," Zac said. I turned to him.
"Huh?"
"Your tattoo. I was the one who paid for it."
"What?"
"As if that guy was going to give it to you for free. When I called for the appointment I knew that if you came along there was a very good chance that you would walk out of there inked up. So I told the guy I'd pay for it."
"Sneaky," I said, smiling.
"Yeah. It just shows you how much I've got going on." I smiled.
"Well thank you."
"Hey, no problem. I had very little time to think of a gift so I'm glad you like it." I think he did a pretty good job. I got to pick it out and he paid for it; it was the best kind of gift a person could receive.
"So I'm going to run the whole 'winter home' thing past Kris and Ginger," I said. "But I'm not entirely sure I want to do it if you and Ginger can't come with."
"I'll see what I can do," he said. I nodded and left the room.
That evening we went out to dinner before the concert; the concert itself wasn't going to start until nine. It was seven-thirty and if all went well we'd be at the concert on time. "Okay, four and half hours to go," Zac said, looking at his watch. "I haven't ruined anything yet. I'm not drinking, I'm not handling the cake, and you know I don't see any transvestite hookers anywhere."
"What?" Ginger asked.
"His eighteenth birthday," Zac explained. "That wasn't cool."
"I could imagine," Ginger said.
"I'm sorry, he looked like a woman!"
"Just shut up now, Zac," I said. He did. He was counting down the minutes until my birthday was over so he wouldn't ruin it, but I'm sure he would. It was just something he did. I didn't hold grudges or get really upset�well I usually got really upset when it happened, but the next day I'm over it.
"Anyway�"
"Taylor?" My breath caught in my throat. Zac, who was sitting across from me, bit his lip and looked away. I rigidly glanced behind me, caught eyes with the chick who'd spoken, and I turned back to the table quickly. "Oh my God, it is you! Hi!" She stepped beside me.
"Um, hi Heather," I said a bit nervously. "How are you?"
"I'm just great! It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Yeah�" Maybe Zac didn't have to ruin my birthday. Maybe I was going to ruin it for myself. Heather was the one girl I've ever been out with more than once, and that was because she was unbelievable in bed. She knew about me and what I do. From what I've heard from Zac, she wasn't at all surprised when after a while I got tired and never called her again. I remember Zac had asked me why I moved on. Out of all of the girls I've been with, Heather was definitely the prettiest. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, a perfect rocking body, and a smile that could melt glaciers.
"So how have you been?"
"You know, Heather, I'm kind of in the middle of dinner here. You see, it's my birthday, and it's kind of a family�"
"It is your birthday, isn't it?" she asked. She looked around the table. "Oh, hi Zac!" She waved at Zac and he gave a small wave, but caught eyes with Ginger and immediately put his hand down. "You're that British romance novelist, aren't you?" Heather squeaked at Ginger.
"I'm not British."
"Whatever. So, Taylor, is this the girl you're sleeping with now?"
"Heather, I really think�" Heather crossed her arms, giving me a look of poisoned honey. "No. This is Ginger, Zac's girlfriend, and this is Kris, my girlfriend."
"Oh, so you're the one he's banging now�"
"No," Kris spat, "I'm his girlfriend. Now if you don't mind, we're trying to have dinner here. Please go the fuck away."
"Ooh, she's feisty, Taylor," Heather said, lightly pinching my sleeve.
"Heather, go away," I said as plainly and bluntly as I could. She smiled.
"All right. Call me when this falls apart. I'll be around," she said. She walked away.
"Oh my God," I said, sinking low in my chair. "Shoot me now."
"It's okay, Taylor," Zac said. "You've been with so many women you were bound to run into at least one of them again."
"That doesn't help, Zac," I said. "Maybe we should just move on."
"That's just kind of odd, isn't it?" Ginger said. "Of all the restaurants in all the cities in all the world we had to run into one of them here." I put my hand over my eyes. Meeting Heather again officially ruined my birthday.
"Well it's Zac's fault," Kris said. "He was the one who wanted to come here. Ginger and I almost begged to go to Shells but no, we had to come here because Zac thought it would be the best."
"So, in a way," Ginger said, "this is all Zac's fault!"
"No! No, no, no it's not. No. No. This is not my fault. I did not know she was going to be here, I didn't ask her to come over and embarrass the hell out of Taylor. No. It's not my fault," Zac said. "No."
"Well you didn't know that hooker guy was really a guy, but that still qualified as ruining Taylor's birthday. You were the one who said we just had to come here�" Despite the fun we were having deciding whether or not Zac actually ruined my birthday, I noticed how quiet Kris had become. Zac and Ginger were fighting about it; Ginger had a smile on her face while Zac was completely serious. It wasn't long before they'd forgotten about Kris and me.
"Baby?" I asked, leaning in. "Are you okay?"
"So," she said, her voice low. "That was one of them, huh?"
"I'm sorry," I told her. "I'm so sorry�"
"Why'd you break up with her?" Kris asked, looking away. "She's obviously beautiful."
"I love you," I told her. "I love you and just you. I'm not going to lie about who I was and what I did and all that because I've never lied to you. And frankly, Kris, Heather isn't as half as beautiful as you are." Kris snorted.
"Well you are good at making things better," she said, a small smile on her face. "And I kind of expected tonight not to be a good night anyway."
"Hey, tonight's going to be an awesome night!" Zac said. "And I did not ruin anything."
"Whatever, Zac."
We went through dinner with little conversation. Although things were better, it was still a little tense around the table so nobody really said anything. We'd finished eating when it was decided that Zac really didn't ruin my birthday. "Thank you," Zac said. "That was an indirect ruination."
"Ruination?" I asked.
"It's a word!" Zac huffed. "Anyway, I'm going to the bathroom before the cake gets here." I opened my mouth to stop him; there was a woman with the cake in her hands coming to the table. Zac got up anyway, not seeing her, and ran straight into her, knocking the cake out of her hands and onto the floor. "Oh, fuck," he said, loud enough for all the people in the tables around us, including one with a few children, could hear. A parent's eyes widened and she put her hands over her little girl's ears.
"Sir," the waiter beside the woman with cake said. "We do not allow that kind of language in our family restaurant."
"I'm sorry�"
"I'm going to have to ask you to please leave immediately."
"Oh my God," Zac said. "You are not serious."
"I'm afraid I am." Zac looked back at the table. Kris and Ginger both had their hands over their mouths, trying very hard not to laugh.
"Fine," Zac said. He left.
"Was that really necessary?" I asked the waiter.
"Yes, it was. This is a family restaurant and we do not tolerate any kind of rude and offensive language here, especially not directed towards a lady and when children are present."
"That wasn't directed to her, it was an honest mistake!" I said.
"If you feel that way you may leave as well. I'll have someone bring you your bill immediately, plus the added charge of getting our rug cleaned."
"What a pompous asshole," I said as the waiter walked away. Someone brought the check and told us to go to the front desk to pay it so we wouldn't disturb the rest of the guests. I paid it quickly and we went outside. We found Zac leaning against the car looking pissed off but most of all thoroughly upset. "Hey," I said.
"Did they kick you guys out too?" Zac asked. I nodded. "I'm sorry."
"It's better than sitting in there," I said. "They're too stuck up for us. I tried to defend you and the guy turned on me. Who wants to take shit from a little prick like that anyway?"
"As colorful as this conversation is, we do have a concert to go to," Kris said. "We don't want to miss it, now do we?" We all got in the car.