Page 41 of The Romantic Agenda
Summer immediately begins singing the “Happy Birthday” songon-key. No one ever sings that song on-key. She sounds so good Joy doesn’t want to ruin it, and by the looks of it neither does Malcolm. He must not have known about this hidden talent of hers either.
When Summer finishes they all clap, and she says, “Blow out your candles!”
While Fox does, unable to help herself, Joy quickly sings three lines from the chorus of Stevie Wonder’s version of “Happy Birthday.” It’s her family’s tradition—she has to. Jazz hands and all.
Fox turns to Joy. “Is this the cake you were making earlier?”
“Mmhmm. Three-layer marble cake with buttercream frosting and raspberry ganache.” The cake itself turned out pretty okay. It slopes slightly to the right and the buttercream accidentally has a pinkish tint to it, but Joy has faith it’ll taste the way it’s supposed to. Not too sweet, but still flavorful with a good, moist texture.
“It was for me?” He says it with such surprising tenderness, it stuns Joy into silence.
What kind of birthdays were he and Summer used to that they didn’t even expect a cake?
“That’s why we went to the store earlier.” Summer hands him a knife. “I wanted to get you something and all the cakes were bad. Joy volunteered to make one instead. Fromscratch.”
That isn’t entirely true, but Joy lets it stand. Hey, if Summer wants to give her credit, she’s in no position to turn it down.
“Thank you.” Fox is practically bleeding sincerity. It’s truly a sight to behold. “Both of you.”
“En-joy.” She grins as Malcolm loudly deflates.
Birthday Cake Time isn’t on the agenda. He was being a good sport about the interlude, but Joy’s pun seems to have pushed him over the edge. The solid line between his eyebrows that only appears when he’s frustrated is out in full force. Did Summer not being the center of attention for five minutes really upset him that much?
Doesn’t he realize Joy incorporated yellow cake for him because it’s his favorite? When he eats it, will he notice how she held back on the sweetness for him too? That she chose tangy raspberries over ripe strawberries? This cake is for Fox, yes, but it’s also for Malcolm. From Joy to both of them.
“I’ll get some plates.” Malcolm, still slightly frowning, reaches behind him and opens the cabinets.
Maybe Fox is right. Maybe Malcolm really does take her and the things she does for him for granted.
Joy tries to shake the thoughts away, pasting a smile on her face. It’s not Malcolm’s moment. She isn’t going to let him ruin this. Not everything in her orbit needs to be about him all the time. She bumps into Fox with her shoulder, leaning into him. “Happy birthday.”
And then, Fox smiles at her—Joy almost doesn’t believe what she’s seeing. Even when he laughs, the low grumbling scoffs andreluctant chuckles she manages to pry out of him, he keeps a near perfect straight face.
And now he’s actuallysmiling.
At her.
And he hasdimples.
Nighttime routine complete, Joy turns off the lights before getting into bed.
That was a mistake.
When there are no city lights beaming in from the outside, pitch-black hits different. It instantly transforms into the kind of dark sleep paralysis demons and shadow people like to hide in.
Joy clicks the light back on to get her bearings, staring wide-eyed at every corner of her borrowed room. Her phone is charging on her nightstand. She brilliantly decides to leave the screen on all night, brightness turned all the way up. A MacGyvered night-light being better than nothing at all.
The second her head hits the pillow, she closes her eyes, but sleep refuses to show up. Instead, she replays the day over and over. Her memories mostly get stuck around Fox being surprisingly wonderful and Summer blurting out that’s she’s asexual.
In a perfect world, people would just say, “Okay. That’s cool,” but so far that hasn’t been the case. Education goes hand in hand with coming out over and over and over...
What Summer did wasn’t anything new. Her brain is just using it as an excuse to dredge up older trauma, forcing her to relive those moments.
After her hashtag miscalculation flung her right into the spotlight, aces from all over the world began leaving encouragingmessages on all her posts, her follower count quadrupled, media outlets contacted her for interviews and guest posts, modeling agencies reached out to her—Malcolm had to help her sort through it all.
But everything wasn’t all roses and cake. Trolls came out of the woodwork to harass her. Some even made videos about her, rating her pictures using disgusting made-up scales. A religious community even tried to make an example out of her, which was just weird.
Then, there were the comments that nearly took her out—the ones from other aces whohatedher. Joy was “setting a bad example for the movement” and “confusing people” and “making it worse.” She was “problematic” for taking her clothes off because “real aces don’t act like that.” She was faking and making it up for clout.
