Page 35 of Madam, May I

“Happy birthday to you. Happy biiiiiirthday,” he sang, off-key, boisterous, and not caring one bit about it.

Desdemona smiled and covered her mouth with her hands as her eyes filled with the same mirth she felt. She applauded when he finished with one last long note and bowed.

“Wait, you’re spending your birthday being tutored?” Loren asked, his face bewildered.

“I don’t normally celebrate it,” she admitted.

And no one knows it, she added to herself.

“Time to do this one different from the last,” he said, reaching to clasp her hands. “Birthdays should be celebrated.”

Desdemona felt uneasy. “It’s no big deal,” she said, trying to pull her hands from his grasp.

He held on tighter, his eyes locked on hers. “No tutoring tonight. No studying. Just celebrate your life. Being here. Being alive. Being healthy. Damn sure wealthy,” he said, looking around at the condominium. “And for getting wise.”

She eyed him. This young man was filled with such warmth and kindness that he had the power to change a mood with his dimpled smile. “Are you sure?” she asked, her hesitance clear.

“Life is for the living. I’m sure.”

Desdemona took a breath, thinking back to the last time she had celebrated her birthday. “When I was a little girl, before my father passed away, he took me to an amusement park. Just the two of us,” she said. “One of the best days of my life. Definitely the best birthday to date.”

Loren’s eyes were soft as he leveled them on her. “Now go have another one,” he said as he reached for the front door. “It’s one thing for other people to overlook you, but when you don’t claim happiness for yourself that’s worse.”

He left with a wave.

Desdemona caught the door before it closed and stepped out into the hallway. “You’re pretty damn wise for a twenty-something,” she said.

Loren paused and turned. “I’ve been told I have an old soul,” he said, before turning to continue down the length of the wide hall to the elevator at the end of the floor.

Desdemona admitted that she hated to see him go.

His eternal good mood was infectious.

Back inside her condo she put away her study materials and walked over to the window to look out at her view just as the sun was beginning to set. “Thirty-five years old,” she said. “I deserve to be celebrated.”

For so long her life had been tied to everything but her happiness. She stroked her diamond butterfly bracelet. “Transformation and change,” she said as she looked down at the butterflies in midflight.

As she looked out at the water in the distance, her instincts made her run through every single thing that could wrong if she took her eye off the ball for just one second.

What if . . .

What if . . .

What if . . .

Her eyes focused on her reflection in the window, and she reached up to stroke her ornate tiara. “Life is for the living,” she said, before turning and picking up her iPhone from the coffee table.

She called Denzin.

“Boss. How can I help you?” he asked when he answered.

She hesitated. Trust was not easy to give. Relying on someone else could become a liability.

“Denzin, I need you to be available for me tonight and tomorrow,” she said, rushing the words and speeding past the fear. “Nothing major. Just if I call you to go somewhere. To check on someone. I need you to be ready at the drop of a hat. Possibly jump on a plane to get somewhere. Can you do that for me?”

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, smiling at his show of concern. “I need to handle something. Can you do this for me?”

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