The Rules of Dating(84)

“You’re Billie!”

“I know, but besides my name. Who do you think I am?”

She bounced a couple of times. “You’re the girl my daddy loves. You’re his Princess Jasmine!”

Lara’s mouth fell open slightly, and I loved it.

“Where did you get that idea?” I asked Saylor.

“Daddy told me.”

Wow. While Colby had definitely become more affectionate with me in front of her, I hadn’t realized he’d told her he loved me. “When did he tell you that?”

“We were watching Aladdin. He told me he loves you like Aladdin loves Princess Jasmine.”

“Well, isn’t that lovely?” Lara chimed in.

I hadn’t even remembered Lara was standing there. The way she’d said lovely made me think she was taunting me, though. I squinted. “You serious?”

She blinked in confusion.

While I couldn’t help calling her out, I left it at that, reminding myself that Saylor was next to me. But I wanted to tell that fake-ass bitch where she could put her lovely.

Once everyone sat down to do the face painting, I assumed that Saylor would want an animal on her face like last time. Instead, she had a different request.

“I wanna paint my arm like yours, Billie.”

“Really?”

She nodded.

Gosh, that was sweet.

So I gave Saylor her very own sleeve, painting lots of colorful animals and other designs on her arm. The paint didn’t exactly look like ink, but her arm was covered just the same. The best part, though? All the dirty looks these women gave me for trying to make her more like me. I’m sure they all thought that was a terrible mistake.

But she wanted to be like me. And I considered that a huge compliment, so they could all go fuck themselves.

***

The entire way home, I couldn’t wait to tell Colby all about my experience with the Momsters. I’d probably keep what Saylor admitted to me about Aladdin to myself, though. That was a private moment between them, even if it had involved me. So I’d just keep it close to my heart.

Saylor and I went back to the apartment, and when I knocked on the door, I almost wondered if Colby wasn’t home since it took a bit longer than usual for him to answer.

When the door finally opened, it wasn’t Colby in front of me. It was…everyone. Literally everyone—well, everyone who meant anything to us. Deek and his boyfriend, Martin. Justine and her husband. And of course, Holden, Brayden, and Owen.

“Surprise!” they all yelled.

Then I turned to my left and saw my beautiful man handing me a gigantic black balloon with gold speckles.

“Happy birthday, beautiful.”

“Yay! A party!” Saylor squealed.

“What the…” My hands shook. “My birthday isn’t until Monday.”

“I know. But I wanted to surprise you on the weekend when everyone could make it.”

When he wrapped his arms around me, I felt enveloped by love. “I can’t believe you managed to surprise me. This was the entire reason you wanted me to take Saylor to Mommy class?”

“Guilty.”

Saylor jumped up and down. “Happy birthday, Billie!”

“Thank you, sweetie. Did you know about this?”

She shook her head no.

“I kept Saylor in the dark,” he said. “I don’t think she would’ve been able to hold it in. She would’ve been too excited.”

Saylor held out her arm. “Daddy, look!”

“She requested that specifically,” I felt compelled to say.

“That’s awesome, honey. You look just like Billie now.”

“I know!”

I handed her my balloon so she could play with it and made my way around the room to hug everyone. After, I looked around at all their smiling faces. “This was an awesome surprise. Thank you all for being here.”

“Are you kidding? We wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Justine gushed.

Colby had ordered a huge array of my favorite sushi. It was all laid out on the table in a gigantic wooden boat. We all sat down to an amazing lunch. After the meal, Holden insisted we do tequila shots, with each person toasting in honor of me first.

He began as he lifted his glass. “To Billie, the best tattoo artist in the land.”

Then Brayden spoke. “To Billie, the woman who makes my best bud here happy.”

“To Billie, for indirectly getting me to leave work early two times now.” Owen smiled.

Deek was next. “To Billie, the person I can truly count on. You make my world a better place.”

“To Billie, for putting up with Deek’s shit half the time, so I don’t have to,” Martin teased.

Justine then lifted her glass and said, “To Billie, someone who will always tell it like it is.”

“What about you, Saylor?” Colby said, handing his daughter a plastic cup of lemonade. “Can you say something nice about Billie?”

She turned a little red, looking bashful, then finally said, “Billie is my best friend.”

Everyone collectively awwed.

I walked over to give her a big hug. “Thank you, sweetie. That means so much to me.”

“Your turn, Colby.” Deek smiled.

Colby lifted his tequila. “To Billie…” After a pause, he looked into my eyes and said, “The love of my life.”