Birthday Bash

Today is my birthday.

I fire up my computer to get the work day started when there is a knock on my door.

"Come in," I call out.

Mrs. Glover comes breezing efficiently into my office, carrying a large bouquet of colorful mixed flowers.  "These just came for you, Jules."

"Oh, thank you!"  She places them on my desk and leaves my office, shutting the door behind her.  I greedily pull the small white card out of the bouquet and open it, praying they're from Nate.

They aren't.

Happy Birthday, baby sister.  Have a good day.  Love, Will

He's sweet.  Will is the closest to me in age.  I pick up my phone and send him a text to thank him for the flowers then get back to work.

An hour later, there is another knock and Mrs. Glover comes back into the room carrying a large bouquet of pink roses.  "I think you should just leave your door open today, Miss Montgomery."  Her tone is dry and full of humor and I laugh.

"Good idea."

I read the card, knowing these are from Natalie.  She always sends me pink roses.

Happy Birthday, best friend.  We love you, Nat, Luke and Baby

Oh, that makes me cry.  I love them too.  I fuss over the pretty blooms and set the bouquet on the window sill behind me.

By noon I have six bouquets of flowers spread all over my office, with wonderful, sweetly written cards from my family.

None from Nate.

Maybe he'll bring me something tonight.  I shrug.  We've really only been seeing each other for four days.  He's not required to get me anything.

At twelve thirty, Nate comes walking through my door, looking every inch the successful business man in his black suit and red tie.  I hold my smile in when I glance up at him, and I can tell he's doing the same.

"Do you have a moment, Miss Montgomery?"

"Of course."  He closes the door behind him, and I've never been so thankful that I don't have any windows out to the main part of the building.

"Hi," he murmurs and looks around my office.

"Hi," I respond, rising from my desk and coming around to him.  He gathers me in his arms and kisses me deeply, then pulls back and runs his fingers down my cheek.

"How is the birthday girl?" he asks.

"I'm good.  Feeling a little spoiled."  I step back and gesture at all the flowers and he smirks.

"All of your admirers?" he quirks up an eyebrow.

"Yes, my brothers, parents and Nat are my biggest fans."  I smile up at him and his eyes get serious as he sweeps the pad of his thumb along my lower lip.

"I think I rate up there too," he whispers.

"Oh," I respond, mesmerized by the serious look in his eyes.

"I have something for you."  He steps back and pulls an envelope out of his breast pocket.  My eyebrows climb to my hairline in surprise.

"Why?"

"Because it's your birthday, Julianne." He looks at me like I'm stupid and I flush in pleasure.

"Thank you."

"You haven't opened it yet."  He passes me the envelope and I rip it open.  There is a handwritten note inside, in his hand writing and I grin up at him.

Julianne,

I am delighted to have the honor of sharing your birthday with you.  I'm giving you the rest of the day off, and have set up an account at Neiman Marcus that has no limit.  Go shopping.  Replace the clothes I ruined over the weekend, and be sure to find a leather jacket, along with anything else you want.

Happy Birthday, beautiful.

Yours,

Nate

Wow.

I smile and look up into his amused gray eyes.

"This is where I do the obligatory 'you shouldn't have'." I kiss him softly and rub my nose against his.

"And I'll do the obligatory 'but I wanted to'." He grins, delighted with me, and I hug him close.  He's come to be so precious to me in such a short time.  Or has he always meant this much to me and I just couldn't admit it to myself?

"Thank you, so much." I whisper.

"You're welcome.  I wanted to send you flowers, but it wouldn't be appropriate here."

Oh, that's right!  No wonder.

"I understand.  This is a very generous gift."  I nuzzle his chest and hug him tighter.

"You'll get your other gifts tonight," he murmurs and kisses my hair.

"What?" I pull back and look up at him.  "This is too much as it is, honey."

"Don't be ungrateful.  If memory serves, you hate that quality in Natalie."

Oh.  Damn him.

"I'm not ungrateful.  I'm… overwhelmed."

He smiles warmly and kisses me again.  "I have a meeting.  Go have fun.  I'm serious, get whatever you want."

I grin and jump up and down in excitement.  "Okay, you asked for it."

He laughs, a full out belly laugh, kisses me again, and leaves to go back to work.  Holy shit, so this is how Natalie felt when Luke treated us to a day of shopping for her birthday.  No, Natalie hated it.

I'm going to love the shit out of it.