George - Chapter Ten: Happy Birthday, George

- Just to let you know, Thursday will be a special day for Listening to My Heart and I will be posting a special that day. :D Thanks so much for reading!




The day after Christmas, everyone left and I couldn’t help but feel lonely. It had been nice to see everyone together again, to be a family again; but the day after Christmas brought a lot of goodbyes and see you soons.  Will and Emily returned to Paradise Island and as the next several months passed, they became less and less patient about meeting their little girl. Mom was set to travel there whenever they called her to tell her the baby had arrived. The rest of us would have loved going but it just wasn’t possible. We had decided to all go together though at some point and take a family vacation, probably sometime that summer.

Trev, Charlotte, and Steph had all returned to Bridgeport and with each week that went by, I grew more and more antsy to see them. I had been able to visit on a couple of weekends, but not nearly as much as I wanted. Whenever I talked to either Charlotte or Trev, they would tell me about what they had done together or even as a group with Steph and Ethan. That was one interesting thing that had started happening since they had returned to Bridgeport, Ethan had started doing things with them. I didn’t know if that had anything to do with the talk that Mom and Will had with Charlotte, but it seemed like an awful big coincidence to not be.

Something else that started occurring since they had all returned to Bridgeport was that Steph and I had talked several times on the phone.  Before they had left Appaloosa, we had exchanged numbers and I had planned on calling her at some point, but she had beaten me to the punch. I had been trying to come up with an excuse to call her and right about the time I would get up the nerve, I would talk myself back out of it. After several days, I had been shocked when her number pop up on my phone. She had called to thank me for letting her be a part of our family Christmas and also for hosting all of them during the first night. Most of the times we talked about what we had been up to and sometimes made fun of Trev and Charlotte. 

One thing that I had realized after she had come to Appaloosa for Christmas was that we seemed to be able to talk to each other easily. It usually took me longer to open up to people but with her, it seemed easier. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she didn’t seem to judge people when she found out not so pleasant things about them, maybe it was her easy going personality; whatever the reason, it hadn’t happened with many people and like with many things with Steph, it had me somewhat confused.

Then there was the whole hand touching incident at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. It had completely taken me by surprise.  Of course I had noticed how pretty Steph was; beautiful would be a better word to describe her, and it was hard not to notice her figure. . .but admiring was one thing, feeling a spark or jolt when just our hands touched. . .that was something completely different and I sometimes found myself daydreaming about that moment.

I was pondering these things while I was home the last weekend of February, wishing that I had the time to make a trip to Bridgeport, when my phone rang. I smiled as I saw who it was.

“Don’t you usually run in the morning?”

“I do but I promised Trev I’d call you.”

“You promised him, why on earth would he ask you to call me instead of doing it himself?” 

There was silence on the other end and I started worrying that something was wrong. “Ummm. . .” Steph said.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. . .shitfire! I just blew it. You’re going to be on alert now.”

“What are you talking about, Steph?”

She sighed. “Stupid me, I was supposed to call you and somehow convince you to come here next weekend; but then I had to go and blow it.”

I laughed. “So Trev’s trying to surprise me? I’m guessing for my birthday?”

“Yes, and of course I blew it.”

“Don’t feel too bad; like I’ve told you before, I’m hard to surprise. I probably would have figured it out anyway.”

“I know, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better. Anyways, are you available next weekend?”

“I am, I had actually planned to come there anyway.”

“Well, try to act surprised, because if Trev finds out that I blew it, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

I chuckled. “I’ll do my best surprised face.”

“Great, I’m screwed then.”

“Hey! I do a great surprised face.” I protested.

“Yeah. . .I’ve seen you fake surprised before, and your surprised look, needs work.”

“Thanks for keeping me grounded.”

“Anytime. I guess I’ll call you before next weekend; iron out the details of when and where.”

“You called me and the where and when hadn’t been planned out?”

“No, and now that I think about it, why did he have me call you if that was the case. We didn’t think this through very well.”

“I’ll admit, it’s very sloppy work. I’m surprised. Trev is usually much better at trying to surprise people. He must be slipping.” I joked.

“Hmm. . .is that what happens in your mid-twenties, must be tough getting old.” 

“Whatever, your time is coming.”

She laughed. “I’m going to go for a run. See you next weekend.”

“See ya.” We hung up and I couldn’t help but shake my head. Trev was really slipping; a couple of years ago he would have come up with some elaborate plan to surprise someone. I was definitely going to have to give him a hard time the next weekend.

I counted down the days till Friday. I had eventually talked to Steph again and she mentioned that Charlotte and I were supposed to meet her at her apartment on Friday. When I had prodded her for answers, she gave in and said that Trev had some elaborate plan where Steph was supposed to pretend to take us out to dinner but when we got wherever we were eating, it was actually a surprise little get together for our birthday. I still couldn’t believe how badly this birthday surprise had been planned. One thing I had learned was that if you wanted something to be a surprise, you didn’t want to involve Steph in it. She was horrible at pretending to be innocent.

As I drove into Bridgeport I went over the sarcastic comments I could make when Charlotte, Steph and I arrived at wherever we were eating dinner. Steph had given up on trying to convince me to act surprised, still trying to convince me that I was horrible at acting surprised. I arrived at their apartment building and saw Charlotte and Steph standing outside. As I walked up to both of them, I couldn’t help but notice the dress that Steph was wearing since it did a good job of showing off her toned body.

“There he is!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Can you believe how bad this surprise is? Maybe Trev needs to have his head examined!”

“It is pretty bad, isn’t it.” Steph admitted. “I feel really bad. I was hoping you two would be surprised.”

“Trev just needs to learn that it’s going to take more brain power and planning to surprise us.” I added.

“You know, I was really looking forward to seeing you both get surprised; I know I blew it, but I kind of feel like Trev set me up for failure. I almost want to get him back.”

“Hmmm. . .how?” I wondered.

“He’s at his apartment right now, He mentioned to me that he was going to be getting ready when I met you two. We could see if the doorman will let us go up there and surprise Trev. . .”

I liked the way Steph thought. It would be so perfect if he had expected to surprise us, but instead, we got him. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to get up there, though. I’ve never been allowed up unless they call Trev.”

“Can’t hurt to try.” Charlotte said.

We all agreed and I drove us to Trev’s building. As we walked into the lobby, Steph suggested that Charlotte and I talk to the doorman.

“Good afternoon, can I help you?” The doorman asked.

“Yes, we’re Trevor Davila’s sister and brother. We were wanting to surprise him and we’re wondering. . .I don’t suppose you’d let us up to his apartment. . .?” Charlotte asked him.

He looked at us sternly and I thought for sure he wasn’t going to let us go up. “I’m not supposed to bend the rules for anyone.” I was about to turn around and admit defeat. “But, I do know from both of you visiting him that you are his siblings, so, I’ll allow it. But don’t let it be known that I was the one who let you in. . .” He warned us and turned the key in the elevator to take us to Trev’s apartment. We all chuckled as we rode the elevator and had to try hard to quiet ourselves as the doors opened. I looked around the hallway and didn’t see or hear any sign of Trev.

“The lights are off in that room, maybe we should hide in there. . .” Steph suggested and Charlotte and I agreed. We snuck off the elevator and walked into the family room that didn’t have any lights on. We had made it about three steps into the apartment when people started jumping out from behind furniture and yelling surprise.

Charlotte and I looked at each other in disbelief. “That was so good! I wish you two could have seen your faces!” Trev shouted as he walked up to us. I was completely confused as to what had just happened.

“I thought we were going somewhere to eat and you were going to surprise us. . .” Charlotte thought out loud.

“Yeah, that was kind of the idea, let you think you knew what was happening, but really you didn’t. I have to hand it to Steph, she was pretty convincing. She had both of you going the whole time. I don’t think I could have pulled it off without her.”

Charlotte and I slowly turned around and Steph was standing behind us, smirking. “What the hell! What kind of a friend are you?!” Charlotte joked.

“One who played both of you.” Steph laughed.

“I. . .what the hell?!” It’s all Charlotte could say for several minutes. I had to admit, Trev and Steph had gotten us good.

“Come on in, we’ve got some food, music, a little alcohol. . .I figured you wouldn’t have eaten since you didn’t get to go out for that ‘surprise dinner’.” He smiled and motioned for us to walk farther into the room. I let Trev and Charlotte walk ahead and stayed back a little bit with Steph.

“You know, there’s going to come a day that you’re going to regret this.” I threatened her.

“Oh, really?”

I smiled and nodded. “You know what they say, paybacks are a bitch.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “You, surprise me? Please. I didn’t even break a sweat trying to surprise you and Charlotte. I’m actually a little hurt that you both believed that I was really that stupid to flub up a surprise like that.” She kidded and then turned to keep walking. I grabbed her arm to stop her and she turned back around and I got closer so only she could hear.

“I will get you back, and when I do, you’ll be bowing down to my awesome surprising powers.”

“You can’t even sneak up behind me without me knowing your coming. . .Tiger.” 

We stood close for a moment longer, both looking into each other’s eyes. I could feel my heart start to beat faster when she smiled at me and for a split second, I thought about kissing her. As soon as I thought it I let her arm go and felt a weird feeling in my stomach. She smiled at me again and then I watched as she walked over to Charlotte and they started talking. I could tell that Charlotte was giving her a hard time about surprising us. I continued to watch them as people casually walked past me and wished me happy birthday. Eventually Steph looked over at me and when we made eye contact she smiled mischievously and I couldn’t help but laugh. She was right, it was our own fault that we were blindsided. Charlotte and I should have known that she wasn’t that stupid. She may have pulled that off this time, but there was no way she was going to use the confused act again.

She focused her attention back on Charlotte and I continued to watch them, mostly her thinking back to moments earlier when I had thought about kissing her. Would she have been okay with me kissing her? Did she want to kiss me? I was one again left with more questions than answers when it came to Steph.

“I’m telling you, I didn’t have to plan very much of this.” Trev said as he walked up to me, interrupting my thoughts.  “I got all of this together, the food, drinks, people; but as far as how to get you two here, what story to come up with. . .that was all her. We all just think we’re good at surprising each other, she really is good. I mean, it was even her idea to do this. I was going to do something for both of your birthdays but when I talked to her about it one night at the bar, she came up with this elaborate plan and it was so genius, I had to go along with it.”

“Yeah, for some reason, I keep underestimating her. I should have known better than to think she was so bad at keeping a surprise.”

“I almost feel like I need to watch out for her. I don’t want to become one of her targets because then she’ll use her mind tricks on me and I won’t know what hit me.” I heard someone laugh and noticed that Steph was walking up to us.

“Mind tricks? I don’t use mind tricks. But you really should still be nice to me, or I will find a way to get you back. . .” She joked and Trev and I laughed. Someone called him over and he excused himself while Steph and I talked.

“I should have known something wasn’t right when the guy in the lobby let us come up here. That should have been a red flag.” I admitted to her.

“I have to admit, that was the one part in this whole thing that had me worried. I was sure you’d figure it out when he agreed. I was hoping your anticipation of surprising Trevor would be so high that you would go along with it and not question it.” Steph smiled. “That, and I think my acting skills were pretty amazing.” She joked.

“I’ll have to give it to you, you did a good job acting, but part of it was also due to Charlotte and I trusting you. Now we know to watch you.”

She smirked again. “I had hoped you were doing that before. . .you know, the whole ‘tiger’ thing.”

This had happened a couple of times since Christmas. We had definitely started flirting with each other but it was a very cautious flirting. It reminded me of when someone wanted  to get into a pool but was afraid the water was too cold. There was always the quick touch with one foot to see if it was safe. That’s what we seemed to be doing, testing the waters to see how the other would respond; going a little further into the water each time, and every time I would hear a small voice in my head warning me about what happened the last time I had let my feelings win over my head; when I had thrown caution to the wind. The voice was getting harder to hear though as we kept going further and further into the water, and just like before when I had thought about kissing her, it sometimes scared me and I would start to take a couple of steps back into the shallow end.

I was trying to think of how to respond when I noticed where we were standing. “Hmm. . .kind of coincidental that this is the first place you accused me of being a tiger.”

She looked around, reflecting on where we were. “Huh, I didn’t even think about that. Shitfire, that’s pretty funny.”

I had to know, I had waited for the right time to ask and this was it. “What is ‘shitfire?’ There’s got to be a story behind that.”

She laughed. “There is, probably not the most entertaining or appropriate story, but there is one.”

“Care to share it?”

“I will, on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“That you get me a drink.”

It was my turn to laugh. “What would you like?”

“Glass of merlot, please.” 

I walked over to the bar and got us each a glass of wine and tipped the bartender. As I turned around to head back to where Steph was, I noticed that she was standing there with a guy and she looked less than thrilled.

I felt something in the pit of my stomach and didn't know what to think about it for a moment. I watched them for a minute while I tried to figure out what was going on inside of me. I was. . .upset, not mad, but worried. I had seen guys hit on Steph before but it hadn't really bothered me until now. I was hoping her expression was an indicator that he was having little success. I circled back around behind Steph and continued to watch them as I approached from behind.

****Steph****

As soon as George had walked over to the bartender a teammate of Trev’s walked up to me. “That was some surprise. Trev was telling us how you planned most of it. That’s pretty impressive.”

“Thanks.” I said as I looked back over to the bar and noticed George was ordering. I had hoped that the guy would follow my gaze and take the hint that I wasn’t interested in him and was waiting for George to return.

“You’ve served us several times at the bar. Your names Steph, right?”

“Yup. That it is.” I looked back over at the bar and noticed the bartender placing two glasses of wine on the bar and I smiled.

“I’m Wes. I play on Trev’s team; cornerback. Maybe you’ve seen me play. . .”

“Hmm? Oh, umm. . .I’m not a big football fan. Sorry.” I thought that my lack of enthusiasm about football would end the conversation but he kept going on. I looked back over at the bar and didn’t see George and I quickly started to glance around to see if I could spot him.

“Are you here with someone?” I wanted so badly to say yes, but the truth was I technically wasn’t.

“Well. . .no. . .” 

He smiled and interrupted me. “Do you want to dance?”  I quickly looked away, wondering where George had wondered off to.

“Here’s your wine.” I heard him say from behind me and I sighed with relief.

Wes looked at George and then back at me. “Oh! I thought you weren’t here with someone. . .”

“Well, we aren’t here ‘together’ but we were having a conversation and now some wine. You’re more than welcome to join us.” George offered and I about spit my wine out on Wes. I had spent the last five minutes wishing that Wes would take a hint and leave and here George was asking Wes to join us.

“No. . .that’s okay. I’ll leave you two alone. Nice talking to you Steph.” Wes said and turned to walk back over to Trev and some of the other football players. Once he was far enough away I pretended to glare at George.

“I spent the whole time you were gone trying to subtly give him hints that I wasn’t interested and then you come over here and invite him to join us?”

He smiled and took a sip of wine. “You didn’t want him to join in on our conversation? He seemed like such a nice guy. . .” I noticed the sarcastic tone in his voice.

“You figured he’d leave even after you invited him to stay, didn’t you?”

He mischievously smiled. “I kind of figured; you didn't exactly looked thrilled. And even if he didn’t, I thought he would have once we started talking again. Probably would have felt left out of the conversation.”

“Was that my ‘payback?’”

“I don’t know what you mean. . .” He pretended to act innocent.

“You purposely asked him to join us knowing that I would get slightly agitated, didn’t you?”

“You were more than slightly. . .and no, that wasn’t your payback. Although watching you squirm was amusing. . .”

I playfully smacked his arm and he again smiled. I looked over towards where Charlotte was and noticed Ethan join her. “I don’t suppose you noticed, that. . . .” I motioned to the right with my head and he looked in that direction.  At that moment Ethan said something to Charlotte and she blushed.

 “When did that start?”

“About two weeks ago; soon after the last time you were here. Ever since we came back from spending Christmas in Appaloosa things have gradually changed between them. Maybe it has something to do with what your brother and mom said to her. Anyway he’s been slowly working on her and it’s been fun to watch. He’s pretty sneaky too.” 

I noticed that his mood changed. “Do you not approve?” I wondered.

“No, it’s about time that she gave him a chance.”

“But. . .”

He looked out one of the windows that had a view of the city. “Ever since Christmas when we were all together, I’ve been feeling somewhat left out. Just kind of reminded me what it was like for all of us to be together.”  He took a sip of wine and then looked back at me. “So, are you going to tell me about ‘shitfire?’”

I took another sip of wine before I started. “It’s really not a very interesting. . .”

“You promised; I get you wine, you tell me about ‘shitfire.’” He quickly interrupted me.

“Okay. When I was about eleven, a family moved into a house that was down the road from us. There was a girl my age and after they moved in, we played together. There wasn’t much to do where I grew up, a lot of desert and open spaces so we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. The day after they moved into town, she and I wondered over to a horse farm and we came across a pile of horse crap. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought much about it but she had never seen a pile of horse crap. She thought it was the neatest thing! Thinking back on it now, I wonder if she had a thing for fire since she pulled out a lighter that she had stolen from her dad and started trying to see if it would light on fire. She eventually got it to light and we stood there for a moment staring at the fiery pile of crap. All of a sudden she started to laugh hysterically and yelled out ‘shitfire!’ I started cracking up at that point. I guess it’s one of those you had to be there moments. So we stood there, laughing for several minutes at the pile of shit that was on fire.  She and her family lived there for a year and she and I were friends the whole time she lived there. Every time something happened and it was exciting or unexpected, one of us would yell ‘shitfire’ and then laugh hysterically. It was kind of our inside joke and after a year of saying it, it just kind of became a habit. Then, after she moved away, I continued to say it. Plus, it drove my Mom crazy so I said it a lot around her. I told you, not a very interesting story.”

He smiled at me. “So ‘shitfire’ literally refers to shit being on fire?”

“Yup. Originally, it did.”

He chuckled. “It makes perfect sense but that is definitely not what I would have expected. In all the years I’ve lived in Appaloosa I’ve never heard of anyone setting horse crap on fire.”

“Like I said, there wasn’t much to do where I grew up.”

****George****

I felt my phone vibrate and I pulled it out to see who was calling me. I saw Mom’s number and figured she was calling to make sure that I had made it to Trev’s okay. I thought about answering it but decided to call her back later. I faced Steph again and we decided to walked over to Charlotte and Ethan.

“So, Trev didn’t ask you to bartend?” I asked Ethan.

“No, I haven’t been bartending as much the last month. My partner has been out of town more and more and I’ve been taking over some of the club management responsibilities.”

“So the two of you split the management of the club?”

“Yeah, I pretty much oversee the bar; schedule employees, order what we need, make sure that area of the club is running smoothly. My partner oversees the other areas; scheduling performers, making sure were current on licenses, more of the business side of the club, although, I can do it too when needed.”

“Who's your partner?” I wondered.

“He actually worked for Scarlett Star on her last tour. He’s been in the music business for several years and was looking for a break, although I’m not sure he’ll be able to stay out much longer. The reason he’s been out of town is he’s been helping her with her upcoming tour. It’s only supposed to be here and there but like I said, he’s been going out of town more often.”

"Really?! That's our aunt!" Charlotte enthused.

"Huh, small world." Ethan said.

“Do you think he’ll give up his half of the business?” Steph asked.

“I honestly wouldn’t be surprised at this point. But we have an agreement that if one of us wanted out of the club that we’d offer to let the other one buy the other’s half.”

“Not to be too nosy, but would you be able to do that?” I questioned.

He slightly smiled and nodded his head. “I have some money saved away.”

I nodded. “Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m starving. I was promised a dinner and I intend to get some food.” Everyone else agreed and we made our way to the food table and continued to talk as we stood around and ate. Trev joined us at one point and as I listened to the all of them talk about things that had happened the last several months, I couldn’t help but feel a little out of place. At one point, I excused myself and walked out into the hallway.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I heard Steph ask from behind me.

I turned around and faced her. I didn’t want to tell her that I was feeling left out so I instead continued to talk about Ethan. “What do you know about Ethan?”

“Is that really what you were thinking about?” I could tell she didn’t believe me, but I was honestly curious about Ethan.

“Partially. I know he seems like a nice guy and he and I have talked several times but now that things seemed to have. . .changed somewhat with him and Charlotte, I’m curious about his past.”

“Well, I do know that he’s from a well-off family. He doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, he and I have talked several times about being only children. Nothing bad, he’s one of the nicer guys I’ve met since coming to Bridgeport.”

I nodded and wasn’t surprised about what she told me. “Now, do you want to tell me what you were really thinking about?”

I chuckled, most people wouldn’t have picked up on the fact that something was bothering me. I found it interesting that she was able to read me so well after only a short time of knowing each other. “I was just thinking about how I wish I was able to come here more often, to see Trev and Charlotte.”

She nodded. “That’s kind of what I figured. It must be hard to take time off.”

“It can be, but if I know in advance I can schedule it; though it is hard to make it back here every weekend, even though I’d like to.”

“Well, at least we were able to convince you to come here this weekend. It wouldn’t have been much of a birthday celebration without you. Which reminds me. . .wait here for a second.” I watched as she went back into the living room and came back with a gift box; holding it out as she approached me.

“What’s this?” I asked as I took the box.

“Just a little something for your birthday. I already gave Charlotte hers.”

I pulled out the paper that was sitting on top and looked inside to see something that had black stripes. I reached in and couldn’t help but laugh when I saw what she had gotten me; a small stuffed tiger. “I saw him one weekend when Charlotte and I went to the zoo. I know it’s nothing big, but it just seemed like the perfect gift, from sarcastic me.”

“I’ll have to put him somewhere that I’ll see it when I need a smile.” I looked at it one more time before placing him back in the box and placing it down on a bench. I looked at Steph again. “You didn’t have to get me anything, but thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” She looked at her phone and then looked back up at me.  “I guess I better get going.”

“Why?”

“Well, it is past one and the party seems to be winding down. . .”

I looked at my watch and was surprised at how late it was. I looked back into the living room and noticed that several people had left.

“I didn’t realize it was that late.” I couldn’t help but admit that I was disappointed that she was leaving. I had had a fun evening spending time with her and everyone else. I once again felt my phone buzz but didn’t pull it out this time. With it being this late there was no way that it was Mom and whoever it was could wait for a couple of minutes. I walked over to Steph and even though I knew she wasn’t a hugger, I decided to take my chances. “Thanks for tonight. I really appreciate it.” I said as I started to hug her. I was surprised that she immediately started to hug me back.

“You’re welcome.” She said as we continued to hug. Several seconds passed as we hugged in silence before I felt her pull back. We stopped hugging but she continued to stand close to me. 



“Happy birthday, George.” She said and then smiled. We were standing inches apart and I looked into her hazel eyes, trying to get a clue about what was going on in her head. We stood there looking into each other’s eyes for what felt like eternity. I didn’t know what to do; one moment I was thinking about kissing her and the next I was hearing the voice of warning. 

She smiled again at me and started to turn to walk away. I felt a sense of urgency and it pushed the uncertainty and warnings aside. Before my brain could tell my hand to stop, it reached out to grab her arm to stop her from walking away. She turned back around with a questioning look as I closed the distance between us. 

We were once again inches from each other and this time, I didn’t think about it. As I started to lean towards her, I realized that she was too. We were about to kiss. . .

“Damnit, George! Have you not been checking your phone?!”