Blair’s parents looked at each other and gave one another a knowing look, then her mom subtly nodded at him before smiling back at Erin. “If you insist, we’ll leave you two to do this, while we take Moon for a walk.”

Erin watched as she quickly left the room with Blair’s dad following close behind. After they were gone, she turned toward Blair again. “Whatever you got him, you should take back. This is too much.”

Blair furrowed her eyebrows as she studied Erin’s face. “Too much because it’s not what you want or too much because you’re worried about me?”

It was definitely the second one. “Does it really make a difference?”

Blair nodded. “Definitely. If it’s because you want me to back off, I’m more than happy to do that. Not because it’s what I want, but because I never want to make you feel uncomfortable or as if I’m pressuring you into something.”

“You’ve never once made me uncomfortable. I can promise you that. I just don’t want you to ever feel like you have to do all of this. The last thing I want is for you to think I’m taking advantage of you. I like you even without any added benefits.”

Blair smirked and lifted an eyebrow. “What added benefits are we talking about exactly?”

Erin snorted out a laugh because that was the last thing she was expecting Blair to say, even though she really should’ve seen it coming. She playfully pushed Blair’s shoulder. “You know what I mean.”

“Oh, I know exactly  what you mean.” Blair wiggled her eyebrows, but then became serious once again. “But anyway, I wanted to get this for Nolan. It’s honestly kind of a gift for both of our birthdays, since it was a bit selfish on my end. When we were at the zoo, I noticed they had a two-hour up close and personal giraffe experience, so I’m going to take him to that. I didn’t get the actual tickets yet, because I wanted to figure out what day works. I hope you don’t mind that I was just going to have it be me and him. We’d obviously love to have you, but I figured this could be our special time since we don’t really get that now that I’m not his babysitter.”

There was so much to pick apart there that Erin didn’t know where to start. One thing in particular had really caught her attention, though. “Wait. You said a gift for both of your birthdays. Is your birthday coming up soon?” Erin couldn’t believe she didn’t know this, especially after everything they had been through and talked about with each other.

Blair nodded slowly, as if she was hesitant to admit that to Erin. “It’s actually two weeks from yesterday, on October 10th.”