George - Chapter Seventeen: Happy Birthday, Steph - Part One: She's Got This Thing About Her

After going back and forth for several days, I've finally decided to post the three parts to this chapter on three separate days. Today will be part one, Wednesday is part two, and Friday is part three. They're all shorter chapters, but there's quite a bit that happens in each one. I hope you enjoy them and George's surprises for Steph's birthday. Thanks so much for reading!

I've provided the song that not only inspired this chapter, but is a part of it. It's further in the chapter where it occurs.

******

****George****

I needed help and there was only one person I could turn to. As I dialed her number, I prayed that she would answer.

“Hey George.”

“Hi, how are you?”

“I’m good, just looking through a bridal magazine.” It had been three weeks since Ethan and Charlotte had gotten engaged and I couldn’t help but smile at how happy Charlotte was. I had been at Steph’s the night that Ethan had proposed and she had immediately called us afterward. They hadn’t wasted any time picking a wedding date in June, which gave them less than two months to plan. “What’s up?”

“I need your help.”

“Sounds serious.” She joked.

“It has to do with the surprise I’m planning for Steph’s birthday.”

“Oh! What’s wrong?”

“I need to figure out a way to get her clothes packed.”

“Let’s see Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So three days? Or would that be two since you’re leaving on Friday?”

“I think two days and the two nights would be enough. Can you help?”

“You’re in luck! I actually have a spare key to her apartment. I can sneak in Wednesday while she’s at work and pack some things for her. And don’t worry, I’ll pack a variety of different things. I’ll pack several dresses, shirts, everything she’ll need for this weekend.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you! I owe you.” 

“Yes, yes you do. And I just might have the thing that will satisfy that debt.”

I was almost afraid to ask. “What’s that?”

“Be one of Ethan’s best men. I plan on asking Steph to be my maid of honor; that way the both of you can walk down the aisle. Maybe even give you a little practice.”

The teasing from her had been unrelenting since she had found out that I was staying at Steph’s place every weekend for the past month. 

“If he asks me, I will.” I agreed.

“Hey, have you heard anything else about Trev?” She asked.

It had been four weeks since Trev had gone into the rehab facility and I was honestly shocked that he was still there.

“Not since last weekend. Maybe we’ll hear something this weekend. I know he’s still there though; if he left, my friend would have called me.”

“That’s good. I really hope this is the time he gets better.”

“We all do.”

“Yeah. . .” There was a long silence that usually occurred when anyone talked about Trev. Each week that went by we all became more and more hopeful that he was really taking it seriously this time. “Well, I’ll make sure that Steph is packed and ready to go for Friday. And I won’t spoil anything.” She said, finally breaking our silence.

I laughed. “You better not.” 

“I’ll talk to you later.”

We hung up and I looked at my list of things to do. I had three more days to make sure everything was taken care of and in place; three days before my plan for the perfect birthday weekend was to begin. . .

By Friday morning, I was meeting Charlotte in the parking lot of Steph’s apartment. “She’s all set. She won’t have to worry about having anything to wear. So as long as you bought the items she’ll need to get ready, you won’t have to worry about anything. Except her makeup! I almost forgot about that. That’s the only thing she’ll have to grab. There was no way we were going to be able to get all of that for her.” Charlotte explained.

I placed Steph’s bag in my trunk and then closed it. I turned around and was met by Charlotte’s smiling face. “What?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Just that it’s nice to see you happy.”

“I must have caught it from you.” I joked with her.

“I’ll see you soon.” She said.

“Yup.” We hugged goodbye and I quickly walked up to Steph’s apartment. After standing there for several seconds, I knocked and soon heard movement on the other side of the door.

She opened it and stood in the doorway looking stunned. “What. . .?”

I walked in and she continued to stand there completely shocked as I closed the door. By the time I turned back around, she was able to say more than one word. “What. . .? Why. . .? You said you’d be here around five!” She threw her arms around my neck and started kissing me, knocking me back into the wall. 

I knew if I didn’t stop us now, it was going to lead to us taking our clothes off, which normally I was more than willing to comply, but we needed to get going. I pulled back from kissing her and held her hands.

“You need to grab your makeup.” 

“My makeup? What are you talking about?”

“I’m taking you somewhere and the only thing you need to get is your makeup.”

“What in the world are you talking about? What do you mean you’re taking me somewhere? Where are you taking me?”

“I’m not answering any questions right now.” I smiled at her and she looked like she was trying to figure out what was going on.

“What are you up to?” She asked.

“If you want to find out, go get your makeup.” 

She started to turn to go to the bathroom but paused, looking back at me for a moment, before disappearing  around the corner and then quickly walking back again. “Now will you tell me what’s going on?”

“Not a chance.” I said and chuckled. I opened the door and motioned for her to go first. She looked suspiciously at me as she walked past me, and I tried to contain the chuckle that tried to escape from mouth.

I locked her door and then held her hand as we rode down the elevator and then walked to my car. I opened the car door for her and before she got in she stared at me for several second. 

“Can you at least tell me where we’re going?” She asked while smiling.

I figured it was okay to finally give in and tell her. “We’re going to Appaloosa.” She looked surprised but seemed happy with the answer. She finally got in the car and once we were both buckled, we were on our way.

After a nice five hour drive, we were walking into the house and I quickly placed her bag on my bed before heading into the living room. I found her standing in front of the windows, looking out into the back yard and as I stood behind her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and closed my eyes.  I had been planning this weekend since the last time she was here and now that it finally was, I was having a hard time believing that she was actually here.
 

She eventually turned around and put her arms around my neck. “So, are you going to tell me what all of this is about?”  She joked.

I placed my hands on her waist and looked into her beautiful hazel eyes. “With your birthday being tomorrow, I thought it would be nice to take you away somewhere. There’s a specific reason that I picked Appaloosa though.” 

“I’m just happy that I get to be with you.” She assured me. 

I smiled and pulled her over to the couch. “I actually got the idea from the last time you visited.”

“During your grandmother’s funeral?” She looked stunned.

I nodded. “You asked me to read the letters that the both of you wrote each other and there was one thing that she mentioned in the last couple of letters that I made note of.”

Her expression turned serious. “She mentioned me coming to the Hobble ranch and spending my birthday here. . .”

I nodded and as I saw tears form in her eyes I pulled her up from the couch and started to hug her. I hadn’t known how she was going to react when I told her why I had brought her here for her birthday. I had hoped that she would be happy that we would mostly have a whole weekend alone together. But the one thing I had no idea about was how she would react when I mentioned the letters between her and Grandma; that those letters were what made me choose to bring her here for her birthday.

After several minutes she pulled away and looked up at me.  “I. . .don’t know what to say.”

I got worried that maybe I had made a bad decision; that maybe I should have chosen to take her somewhere else. I worried that I had completely ruined her birthday. I didn’t think I could ever forgive myself if I had done that. I was suddenly snapped out of my thoughts by her placing her hands on my face.

“Don’t.” She whispered. “Don’t doubt what you just did.” She placed her lips on mine; gently and slowly kissing me causing me to feel the tug on my heart that I had gotten used to feeling the last four weeks. She slowly pulled away and looked into my eyes. “You have no idea what you’ve just done. I had started to look forward to coming here for my birthday and then, the reality of it was gone. I figured since she had passed away that it was something that wasn’t going to happen. I guess I didn’t realize how much I had wanted it to happen until you mentioned it.” 

 

“So you’re not disappointed. . .?”

“You could never disappoint me.” She said as she looked into my eyes. 

It felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest. This woman really had no idea what she did to me. I leaned down to kiss her and she passionately returned my kisses. As had happened many times during the last four weeks, I lost all awareness of anything but her. We continued to kiss until the clock on the mantle chimed and I pulled away from her. “We need to get ready.” I told her.

****Steph****

I was more than slightly saddened that we couldn’t continue kissing. “Why? Where are we going?”

He shook his head. “You now know where we were going and pretty much why we’re here, the only other thing I’m going to tell you is that when this weekend is over, you’ll have experienced most of the things that Appaloosa has to offer.”

I smiled up at him. “I can live with that. Can you at least tell me what I need to wear?” I wondered.

He grabbed my hand and we walked into the bedroom. “I have no idea what Charlotte packed for you. I told her what we were going to be doing and she told me she would pack what she thought would work. Knowing her, she probably gave you more clothes than you’ll need.” We stopped when we reached the bed and he knelt down to get something from under it. When he stood back up he had a box. “Hopefully this will give you an idea of what you need to where.” I took the box and raised an eyebrow as I saw what was inside, a pair of cowboy boots that were my size.

“Is there anything that you haven’t thought of this weekend? You had Charlotte pack my clothes, you said in the car that you had snooped in my bathroom so you would know what bathroom products I would need. . .and now you’re giving me a pair of cowboy boots to wear tonight.” His ability to not miss any detail was incredible.

He mischievously smiled at me and I shook my head. I watched as he walked over to his dresser and started to search for something to wear. He pulled out a pair of jeans and laid them on the bed. He then walked into his closet and pulled out a checkered, button down shirt and a pair of cowboy boots and that gave me enough to figure out what I needed to wear. I started to pull clothes out of my bag. “There are some empty drawers on the right and there are empty hangers in the closet.” He offered. I smiled at him as I continued to pull out clothes from my bag. 

“How many days did you tell Charlotte I was going to be gone?” I asked him as I kept pulling clothes out of the bag feeling like I had been given Mary Poppins’ bag!

He started laughing. “And that’s what happens when you ask Charlotte to pack. Look at it this way, you’ll have plenty of clothes to choose from.” 

As I got to the bottom of the bag, I started pulling out undergarments and some of them I wondered what she was thinking. The thought of Charlotte picking out lingerie for me to wear in front of her brother made my face turn all shades of red. George noticed my face and walked over and noticed some of the lingerie and smiled.
 

“Just remember, your sister packed this.” His lips went from a smile to being pursed.

“We’ll just try to forget that. . .” He suggested and I chuckled.

I set some clothes to the side to wear that night and George helped me put the rest away. We were soon getting ready to go out and as I inspected my outfit, I started to feel butterflies in my stomach from the excitement of finding out where we were going. 

I took one last look in the mirror at the boots George had gotten me and made my way out to the living room. As I walked out into the room, George turned his head and I stopped to let him inspect me.

“Will this do?” I asked.

I had begun to be able to read his facial expressions and from the look on his face at that moment, I knew that he approved. He strode to where I was standing and pressed his body against mine. 

“You look absolutely amazing.” He declared before kissing me.

I felt myself start to melt from his kiss but before I could complete my meltdown, he stopped kissing me and grabbed my hand. “Are you ready?” He asked me and I nodded, unable to say anything from being out of breath.

We walked out to his car and as he drove us to wherever it was he was taking us, he pointed out various places that were around town that I hadn’t seen on our Christmas Eve morning run. We eventually headed a little away from the main street and down a side road. I started to wonder where he was taking me since I couldn’t imagine anything being down a road like this, but I was proven wrong when we neared a florescent sign. 

“Mick’s Karaoke and Dancing” I read the sign and looked suspiciously at George. “Are you really going to karaoke?” I teased him.

“You don’t think I’m the karaoke type?”

I laughed as I responded. “I think I would have heard about it by now from Charlotte or Trev.”

He parked the car and walked around to my side to open my door. He offered me his hand and as we walked into the bar, I heard a couple of people say hi to him. He politely said hi before diverting his attention to finding us a table. He spotted one quickly and he gently held my hand as we walked toward it. We hadn’t been sitting long before a woman came up to our table.

“Hi Dr. Davila! Haven’t seen you in here in a while.”

“Hi, Martha! I thought I had asked you to call me George?”

“Now why would I do that when you worked so hard to earn all those degrees?” 

George chuckled before introducing us. “Steph, this is Martha Brewer. Martha, this is Stephanie Hathaway, or Steph.”

She held out her hand and I shook it. “You’re not from around here, are you?” She asked me.

“No, no I’m not.”

She smiled. “You’re a city girl, aren’t you?”  I nodded and she turned and looked at George. “That’s where you’ve been. You’ve been visiting this cute brunette in the city.”

He turned his head and grinned at me. “Guilty.” 

“What can I get you youngins to drink?”

“I’ll have a Sam Adams.” George said.

“I should have known.” Martha commented. “And for you sweetheart?”

“I’ll have the same.” 

She looked down at me. “What year were you born in sweetheart?”

I smiled. “Fifty four.”

“And that makes you how old?” 

“Twenty-one.” I offered and I thought it was funny how I had done this very thing at the club, asked people the year they were born and then their age, and if the stumbled I really started to scrutinize their id.

“Good enough for me. I’ll be back with your beers.” She turned to George again. “Are you both going to want something to eat?”

“Yes, please.” George responded and she nodded before moving away to get our beers.

“She’s a riot.” I commented to George.

He nodded. “She’s worked here forever so she probably knows just about everyone in town.”

I looked over at the karaoke machine and tried to picture George singing. “So, you really don’t Karaoke, do you?” I asked him.

“No, but for someone like me who likes to people watch, it’s a very interesting place to come.”

“I should have guessed.” I joked with him. “What about dancing? It said on the sign that there was dancing.” 

“I haven’t had any one to dance with when I’ve been here before.” He admitted.

“What about now?” I challenged him. He looked over at the dance floor and then back over at me, raising an eyebrow. At that moment the music changed to a slow song and he stood up. He walked up to me and offered me his hand and I looked up at him and smiled as I put my hand in his. He led me to the dance floor and put his arm around me and I quickly realized that he was actually a very good dancer.  “And here I thought you couldn’t dance.” I said in amazement.  

“I usually choose not to, but a beautiful woman asked me if I’d dance with her, and I couldn’t resist her.” He said as he smiled down at me and I marveled at how he always knew what to say to make my heart skip a beat. He pulled me even closer and as I laid my head on his shoulder, I closed my eyes.  As we continued to dance, I breathed in the scent of his cologne and wished that we had more opportunities to dance together. I looked back up at him. “So if I asked you to dance some other time. . .” I hinted. He brushed one of his hands across my cheek. “I still wouldn’t be able to resist.” He finished.

I slowly glanced around the room, noticing that there were several people watching us. “Do I stick out that much?” I asked him.

He looked down at me and smiled. “Right now, everyone is wondering who the beautiful woman is that George Davila is dancing with, and then they’re wondering how in the world he managed to snag such an amazing woman.”

“Or maybe they’re wondering how the girl dancing with George Davila got so lucky.” I challenged back. 

He shook his head. “I doubt it, Sunshine.” I smiled as I thought back to the first time he had ever called me that, and if you had said to me that four months down the road we’d be dancing together in a bar, I would have never believed it. I would have secretly wished for it, but I would have doubted it would ever happen. 
 

I laid my head back on his shoulder and like so many other times in the last several weeks, I thought about telling him that I loved him. I could count on one hand the number of times I had heard those three words, and for me they were three of the most powerful words that someone could say.  I never took it lightly when I said them or when someone said them to me and it would crush my heart if I uttered those words to him and he didn’t take me seriously. For weeks I had tried to tell myself that it was better to not know, that as long as I didn’t say it, I could convince myself that there was a possibility that he loved me back.

But then there were moments like right now when the thought of not telling him that I loved him made my heart physically hurt and I felt tears start to form in my eyes. It was as if the love I felt for him was so overpowering, that holding it in was almost too much.  I looked up at him and he instantly looked worried. “What is it?” I put my hand on his chest and felt his heart beating under it. I took a big breath in and looked deep into his eyes. “I love you.” I finally admitted.

****George****

As she said those words to me, it felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs. I reached up to touch her face and searched her eyes, her always expressive eyes, and I wondered how it was possible, but all I saw was the look of love in them. I leaned down and gently kissed her before looking back into them. 

“I love you too.” I admitted to her. The look of shock that spread over her face was undeniable and it made me wish that I had told her sooner. She laid her head on my shoulder again and I pulled her close, staying like that until the end of the song. 

When the song was over, she lifted her head from my shoulder and looked into my eyes. “Really?” She asked searching my eyes. I held her face in my hands and looked deep into hers.

“You know me. I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.” After several seconds, she started to slowly smile.  I smiled back at her and started to lead us back to the table. I slightly glanced around and just like Steph had said, there were several eyes watching us, something that was commonplace in a small town like this; people were always curious about what others were doing.  We sat back down at the table and I scooted my chair closer to hers and as we spent the next several hours sitting, eating, talking, and watching good and bad karaoke singers; I found myself smiling more than I had ever remembered as I came to the realization that this was going to be a weekend that neither of us would ever forget.