Blair pointed to the shirt. “That’s only part of the present. On Tuesday next week, your mommy is going to pick you up a little early from daycare and bring you to my house, so you and I can go meet giraffes.”

“Like before?”

“Kind of like that, but even better. We get to be the only two people there besides the zookeepers and we get to pet them and feed them and learn more about them.”

“Whoa.” Nolan’s eyes and his mouth were all perfect circles. “And it’s special, just me and you? No Mommy?”

Blair shook her head and laughed. “No Mommy.”

She turned around and winked at Erin, who quickly flipped her off before Nolan could see.

“Is today Tuesday?”

Blair shook her head. “No. Today is Friday.”

“Tomorrow?”

Shit. Maybe she should’ve waited longer to give him this gift. “No, not tomorrow.”

“Is it the next—”

Blair put her hand up to stop him and took a deep breath. “It’s many days away, but we have a lot of other fun things planned to do before that, so the time will fly by. Don’t worry.”

Erin got out of bed and knelt beside Blair, putting a hand on her knee in the process. “One of those fun things is tonight, when we get to go to Blair’s house. Which means you need to get ready for school so I can pick you up early to go over there.”

“Yay!” Nolan yelled before sprinting out of the room.

When Erin and Blair both stood up, Erin turned toward her and booped her on the nose. “And I will see you tonight, birthday girl.”

Erin had offered to take the day off from work since Blair’s daycare was closed for a long weekend for Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, but Blair convinced her to save her days off for something more important. It wasn’t that Blair didn’t want  to spend her birthday with Erin. It was actually the opposite. If she could, she would spend the whole weekend with Erin and Nolan, which she was sure was exactly what she would end up doing, so she needed to spend some time with her family and Marisol today.

“See you tonight!” Blair turned to walk out of the bedroom, but before she could, Erin grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

“Forgot something.” Erin pulled her closer and placed a hard, but sweet, kiss on her lips.

When Blair walked out of the room this time, she felt like she was floating.

***

“Where’s the birthday bitch?” Marisol shouted when she walked into Blair’s house a few hours later.

Blair left the family room where she had been hanging out with her parents, who had also both taken off from work for the day, and walked to the front door to find Marisol standing there with her arms stretched out wide, waiting for a hug.