Happy Birthday, Mi Amor
A week later (October 16th)
(Denzel’s POV)
Today was Ollie’s birthday and I didn’t want to mess it up. I quickly sent her a birthday text and called Sterling as early as 6am that morning. When he picked up, I could hear him muttering cuss words at me and I was the least bothered about it.
“Dude, what the hell; It is 6am! I swear to the heavens, if this isn’t something good, I will strangle you when I see you,” he said groggily and I rolled my eyes at him for being such a prick.
“It’s Ollie’s birthday today and I don’t know what to get her!” I said, trying so hard to hold in my nervousness.
Sterling: “…….”
“Hello, Sterling, are you there?” I took the phone out of my ears and double check to make sure that he didn’t hang up on me.
“Yeah, so it is the 16th already?”
“Yes, it is,”
“Honestly, I don’t know what to tell you right now because I don’t know what she likes; you are her boyfriend, shouldn’t you know what she likes and what she doesn’t? Why are you asking me?” he said, I could just envision his expression and it angered me more.
“………”
The more words came out of his mouth, the more I fumed in anger.
“Give the fucking phone to Phoenix right now; you are of no use to me right now,” I seethed in anger.
“Alright, alright, no need to bite my head off; I am not the one dating her,” he said, before hearing him call out to Phoenix faintly then I heard her tiny voice.
“Hello,” she said, sleepily.
“Hey, Phoenix, I am so sorry for calling this early but I needed both your helps but it turns out that your hunk of a man is even dumber than I am,” I ruffled my hair with my fingers, as I laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling and counting my luck.
“Oh hey, Denzel, what’s up?” she asked
“So, it is Ollie’s birthday today and I don’t know what to get her as a gift,”
“Oh shit, it is the 16th already?”
“Yes, it is!”
“Okay, I have an idea; why not tell her that a cousin of yours wants to start up an Interior Décor company? Tell her that your cousin already has the building she wants to use to start up the business and that you need her to decorate the place. Tell her that she and your cousin are almost of the same age, so she should decorate it according to her taste. Also tell her that since it is a gig, your cousin will pay her upfront. That way, when she is done, you will present that to her as your birthday gift to her at the surprise party! All you have to do now is to get a befitting building space for it and then send her over there to start working on it. I know that she will be upset and will want to decline it but persuade her into doing it. Since she already has some contacts that can help deliver whatever she needs to glam the place up, it shouldn’t be that tasking. So, you have to get a building before 8am; meaning, you have less than 2 hours to sort that out so that she can start working on it before 10am, that way, she will be busy while we plan the surprise party for her. Trust me, at the end of everything, she will be so happy that she would start crying,” Phoenix said, chuckling.
After she was done talking, I realized that it was a brilliant idea!
“What an idea! This is so perfect. I will get right on it and as for the building, my family owns multiple complexes, so I will just take one and change the right of ownership to her name,” I said, excited to get started.
“If that is the case, then just do the other parts and let me know when she finally leaves for the job; then I can start planning the surprise with the help of the other ladies,” Phoenix offered to help with the surprise party and I was so glad that she did, otherwise I wouldn’t have known how to get started.
It made me realize that having friends who had your back when you needed them the most was one of the most important thing in the world and with that, I hung up and called Ollie.
She picked up record time and it made me wonder if she was with her phone the whole time.
“Babe, were you with your phone the whole time?” I asked, chuckling
“Something like that; I was just waiting for something to happen,” she responded with a sigh.
“Hmmm, I see, but something like what?” Teasing her gave me such thrill.
“It‘s nothing. Are you going to keep asking me questions all day or do you have something to tell me?” I could imagine one of her eyebrows raised immediately she asked that question.
“You’re so sure that I have something to tell you, huh? Either way, you are right but before I tell you what I have for you, I am just going to wish you a happy birthday one more time; Happy Birthday, Mi Amor,” I said, and smiled from ear to ear. Tsk, now I know why Sterling has always been so happy ever since Phoenix came into his.
“Awwwww, now you are going to make me blush,” I laughed when she said that, I just hoped the laughter didn’t seize from her mouth the moment she heard what I had to tell her.
“Don’t blush babe and I also have something important to tell you,” I hissed lightly while holding my breath.
“Okay, what is it?” She asked and I began my walk into doom.
“So, there’s the cousin of mine who just flew into the country from Spain after being away for so many years,” I paused to weigh her reactions.
“Oh, that is great! Do I get to meet her too?” She questioned me and then I realized that I hadn’t even said anything drastic.
“That’s not even the point,”
“Okay, so what is the point?”
“The point is that she needed an interior décor to glam her new interior décor company today. She needed recommendations and I recommended you because I know that she will pay upfront and because I know that you are so good at this, naturally,” I held my breath.
“That is a sweet offer but babe, today is my birthday and if I accept this job, I won’t get to spend time with you and the gang,” she complained right into the phone and I just wondered why she couldn’t go with the flow on this one.
“Babe, don’t worry about it, I got you and beside, even if you don’t want the payment, just think about what that money would do if you gave it to your parents; think about all the renovations that that money would get done in your mom’s bakery and even at home too,” I pressed further.
“That’s true too but urrgghh, must the job be done today and how much are we even talking about here?” She murmured and I was happy that she was finally accepting it.
“Uhhh, yeah, the job must be done today and I trust you very much to get it done before evening and the payment, that should be about $10,000 in cash and I am with the money right now,” I sat straight on the bed as this was the minute I needed an answer.
“That’s a lot of money but fine, I will do it, when do I start?” she finally answered and I was tempted to scream out of excitement but I kept my cool.
“If you can start by 10am, so you can finish up on time, I would be most grateful. I am going to make a transfer of $20,000 to you right now to pay for whatever you need to glam the place up,”
“Sure thing boss but how do I get to the place and also, how do I get the key to the building?”
“Yeah, about that, I will text you the address to the building right now and also, the key to the building is under the worn out flower vase at the entrance,”
“Okay then, I guess I have a job to get done, so I am just going to go and get ready and also make a few calls to get some more helps, bye,”
Before I could say anything, she hung and I knew that she wasn’t too happy about the development. I sighed and got up from the bed.
**********************
(Olivia’s POV)
This wasn’t happening! How do I get to work on my birthday?! Now that I had people to celebrate my birthday with, work shows up from nowhere. Tsk, I wish I could just strangle this cousin of his so bad.
I groaned and got up from my bed and headed straight to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee before showering and getting ready to make an incredibly huge amount of money for a day’s job.
I called Phoenix and the girls on a video conferencing call to complain to them about how I was being shipped off to go and work on my birthday. I honestly needed the sympathy.
When the call connected, I was slammed with a chorused Happy Birthday from all of them.
“Happy birthday, Ollie,” Liyah said, adjusting her nerdy glass which looked great on her with her messy bun and huge shirt.
“Happy birthday, bitch” Debby yelled and everyone hissed lightly before laughing.
“Why don’t you bring down our roofs with your voice, huh?” Phoenix asked Debby before directing her gaze at me, “Happy birthday, my darling,”
“Thank you all so much and I am so sad that I won’t get to spend the day with you all! Denzel told me about this urgent gig and I must admit the pay is good but still,” I shrugged
“Girl, how much are we talking about here?” Debby asked me.
“$10,000?” I responded.
“Woman, get your ass out there and get the job done. I mean, if it were my birthday and this kind of urgent job came up and the pay was this juicy, I’d take it in a heartbeat,” Debby said and the others concurred.
At that point, I knew that nothing else mattered and that my opinion wouldn’t count because I wasn’t going to be getting that sympathy I needed anytime soon.
