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Girlfriend
. That has an awfully
nice ring to it.
“This is definitely a surprise,” I say, looking around at all of them, so full of
appreciation.
Poe appears, wearing a face mask, a scrub cap, and gloves, and swings a pair
of tongs in the air. “Hey! Food’s almost ready!”
We sit down, keeping a safe distance between all CFers. Stella at one end, me
at the other, and Poe in the middle with Hope and Jason on either side of him.
Mya and Camila sit on the opposite side of the table, securing the distance
between Stella and me. I smile, looking around the table at everyone as we dig
into the salad and the bread. My heart feels so full, it’s disgusting.
I look across the table, smiling at Stella, and mouth a “thank you.” She nods,
blushing and looking down.
Girlfriend
.
• • •
Poe serves the most beautiful-looking lobster pasta dish I have ever seen,
garnished with basil leaves and fresh Parmesan and even truffles! Everyone
stares at it in complete awe.
“Where did all this come from?” I ask him as my stomach grumbles noisily.
“Right here!” Poe says, gesturing behind him to the kitchen. “Every hospital
has a VIP kitchen where they keep the good stuff for celebrities, politicians.” He
shrugs. “You know, the important people.”
He grabs a glass off the table, raising it. “Tonight, birthday boy, it’s for you!
Salud!
”
Everyone raises their glass.
“Salud!”
I look across the table at Stella, winking. “Too bad I’m allergic to shellfish,
Poe.”
Poe stops dead midserve and slowly looks over at me. I crack a grin, shaking
my head. “Kidding, kidding!”
“I almost threw a lobster at you,” Poe says, laughing.
Everyone laughs with us, and we all dig in. It is by far the best pasta I have
ever eaten, and I’ve been to Italy. “Poe!” I say, holding up a forkful. “This is
incredible!”
“You’re going to be the best chef in the world one day,” Stella says in
agreement, and Poe gives her a big smile, blowing a kiss in her direction.
Pretty soon, we’re all swapping stories. Jason tells a story about how we
convinced our entire school to wear nothing but underwear the day before
summer vacation two years ago. Which was especially impressive considering
we’d get detention if our tie wasn’t straight.
That’s the one thing I don’t miss about school. The uniforms.
Stella starts talking about all the mischief she and Poe used to get into here at
the hospital, from trying to steal the milk-shake machine in the cafeteria to
holding wheelchair races in the children’s ward.
It sounds like I’m not the only one Barb nearly killed on a regular basis.
“Oh, have I got one for you guys!” Poe says, looking over at Stella. “Halloween
that one year?”
She starts cracking up already, her eyes warm as she shakes her head at him.
“We were, what, Stella? Ten?”
Stella nods, taking over the story. “So, we put on sheets and . . .” Poe starts
making ghostly
OOOOHHH
sounds, holding out his arms and floating around
the room. “We snuck into the dementia ward.”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I start coughing because I’m laughing so hard. I slide my chair back from the
table, waving my hand for them to continue while I catch my breath.
“No!” Jason says. “No, you didn’t.”
“Oh, man,” Poe says, wiping away a tear. “It was absolute pandemonium, but
it was by far the best Halloween ever. We got in so much trouble.”
“It wasn’t even our idea!” Stella starts to say. “Abby . . .”
Her voice trails off, and I watch her struggle to speak as I apply some Cal
Stat from my travel bottle. She meets my gaze from across the table, and I see
how hard it is for her.
“I miss her,” Camila says. Mya nods in agreement, her eyes teary.
“Abby was wild. Free,” Poe says, nodding. “She always said she was going to
live wide open because Stella wasn’t able to.”
“And she did,” Stella says. “Until it killed her.”
The room goes completely quiet. I watch as she meets Poe’s gaze, both of
them sad but smiling as they share a moment, remembering her.
I wish I could’ve met her.
“But she lived big. A lot bigger than we do,” Poe says, smiling. “She would’ve
loved a clandestine party like this one.”
“Yeah,” Stella says finally. “She really would have.”
I hold up my glass. “To Abby,” I say.
“To Abby!” everyone else chimes in, holding up their glasses. Stella looks at
me across the table, the look in her hazel eyes by far the best birthday present I
could ever get.
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