Chapter 7
"Chloe, I've reheated your food three times now, your meat has gotten all dry. When are you coming home? I thought you'd be here before me tonight. Send"
Rachel placed the cake bell over Chloe's plate in the kitchen and turned off the light.
In the bedroom she put on her reading glasses and picked up the yellowed original edition, an heirloom from her father, who had died a few months ago.
Chloe and her had flown to Arcadia Bay right when Rose's call came, but he was already too sick and died a few hours before their plane landed.
Rachel kicked the blanket around her feet and pushed all the things that had remained unspoken between them far from her thoughts, and yet she could still find herself listening to the old clock ticking in the living room and reading the same page over and over again until the ink looked strangely blurry and wet and she finally noticed that she was crying.
"33" !!! one of the balloons literally shouted at her.
She took it by the string and tied it to the back of her office chair so she wouldn't have to see it.
A large bouquet of brightly colored flowers, especially jasmine, made her smile.
Because Chloe was on the early shift, Rachel hadn't seen her that morning. It didn't really matter which shift Chloe signed up for though, because her wife had recently changed to a management position and now took on significantly more responsibility and therefore often left the house early and came home late.
Rachel searched everything thoroughly but found no card, then Sidney appeared.
"I hope you like them," he cheered, leaning against the doorway of her office. Everyone chipped in for you girrrl. Happy birthday Rachel."
"Oh," Rachel said, trying to hide her surprise.
The flowers weren't a gift from Chloe at all.
"I ... um, I brought cake."
"Nice," said Sidney and took it from Rachel to sniff it and put it in the kitchen.
"Thank you."
"Since you're going to be here for a short time today, Emerson has a case to discuss with you."
"No no, on the contrary Sid, I'm planning to work an hour or two overtime. My wife is not home anyway, so ..."
"Oh, uh, okay. Is everything alright between...?"
"Yes of course." Rachel clapped her hands to get him moving. "Get to work Mister, nobody has gotten rich from standing around."
Her colleague disappeared and Rachel called the new intern she had been assigned.
"Happy birthday Mrs. Price."
"Thanks Lynn, do you have my files?"
"Yes, ma'm."
"Since you will probably be celebrating tonight, I wanted to ask you something, so uh ..."
"No, I'll work the full number of hours, maybe longer."
"Oh."
"Lynn, if you have plans for today, please act on them, but also allow me to say that hot pants are not suitable for this office. No offense. You look good but not professional."
Lynn blushed and left the room mumbling an apology.
Rachel sighed. She looked after her, as the young girl full of hopes and dreams, ambitious and full of energy and yet risk taking when it came to appearance, walked away and she thought of herself for a moment, in shorts and cropped tops, it had been a different time, she was thirty-three years old today. Even if she tried, not that she wanted to, she would never be able to force her butt into such tight pants today.