Self Service

The Birthday Boy

Priscilla was in the kitchen making dinner for Scott while he was out with his father and all four of his brothers. She had told him that she would prefer the night to be just them, but if he wanted to bring his family, she would be okay with it.

She had sent her mother off to a spa retreat for the night and promised she wasn't kicking her out, but giving her incentive not to be in the house tonight. At least if she went to the spa, she wouldn't feel slighted.

Tonight, she just wanted to devote her full attention to Scott. She knew her mother wasn't really going to be in their way, but she was tired of trying to keep it down. So Mama needed to go.

Looking at the clock, she saw that it was only three in the afternoon and knew she had time. She was making filet mignon with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes with asparagus. She had picked up red wine and what she would need to make her cinnamon rolls.

Hearing her phone ringing, she went to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Are you okay?" Scott asked.

"I haven't set the house on fire," she told him sarcastically, stirring her sauce for the steak. "I'm fine, Scott. You're supposed to be enjoying yourself and not worrying about a grown woman."

"It's not you I'm really worried about."

She rolled her eyes. "I call bullshit. What do you think is going to happen? I vomit the baby up?"

"Bad image," he complained.

This made Priscilla crack up laughing. She couldn't get an image like that in her head, and the fact that Scott could had her in cahoots.

"Your imagination is far too active," she told him, continuing to stir.

"How's the nausea?" he asked, changing topics.

"I've learned what to stay away from. Stomach still churns occasionally, but nothing is coming up anymore."

"Have you tried the ginger tea?" he asked.

"No, Scott. I don't like ginger. Go, get off the phone. Stop fussing over me. I'm fine, the fetus is fine, and you're supposed to be having fun. You'll give yourself a stroke."

"Prisc-"

She hung up the phone. He'd worry over her the whole afternoon if she let him. Three of his brothers had come from Alabama just to spend his birthday with him. He needed to just enjoy his time with them.

She put her phone on the counter, turning her Pandora on, and singing along to Aaliyah as she worked on making a good meal for her fiancé.

Although she was planning to make cinnamon rolls, she still planned on making a cake. It wouldn't be right if she didn't make cake.

Scott called again, and she rolled her eyes to the heavens. "Scott Nolan, how can I help you, sir?"

"Don't vomit the baby up," he told her.

"Please tell me that's not why you called me."

"Hi, Priscilla," Sebastian greeted her, and she managed to smile.

"Hi, Sebastian. How are you?" she asked, putting her phone on speaker.

"I'm good. I'm really happy to hear about you and my son getting married."

"Me too, Sebastian. That way, when the kid is born, I can push him out the bed when it cries at night."

Sebastian chuckled at that, and Priscilla wondered what he thought was funny, because she was dead ass serious.

"How is your mother?"

"See, that's really why you wanted to talk to me," Priscilla told him. "You wanted to ask about my mother whose father you're old enough to be, sir. Your son told me you are seventy-nine years old."

When Scott first told her that, she thought he was out of his damn mind and that he was playing with her. He then proceeded to tell her that Gerald was fifty-eight and he had nieces and nephews close to his age. She didn't understand how the hell this man could have a brother old enough to be his father. His oldest nephew was her age.

She hadn't met all of his nieces and nephews. Just the ones who were still minors, because apparently the ones who were grown saw Hillary as little as possible. Priscilla couldn't blame them for only putting up with that hag on major holidays when the entire family was together.
Sebastian chuckled again. "You're right. I am old enough to be your mother's father. And I will be eighty this October."

"See, look at you, slick. My mother is good and she's not home. I'll tell her that you asked about her."

"Okay, then. - I would like to see you tomorrow afternoon for lunch, if you don't mind."

"Sure."

"Just you and I," he clarified. Her brows furrowed, but she was sure that he had a reason for this.

"Okay. That's fine. Just call me tomorrow morning with the details. I have to finish dinner for your son."

"I never thought I'd hear you say anything like that," Sebastian joked. "Alright, love. Bye."

They hung up and she laughed a little, putting her phone back on Pandora and going back to her meal. Sebastian was a funny man. And although he was older than her grandmother, he seemed to try to understand the younger generations and to understand the times they were living in. She knew most definitely there were things he didn't approve of, but she knew he wasn't super judgmental.

She was glad her phone hadn't rung again as she began to ice Scott's cake. Just as she made their plates, she heard the front door open.

"If your name is not Scott Nolan, go home," she called, setting the plates on her table.

She heard Scott laughing as he came into the kitchen and kissed her. "I've just changed my name to Barack Obama."

"Hey, you can stay too," she told him. "I'm sure Scott wouldn't mind that."

Scott shook his head and leaned down to kiss her. "It smells good, Scilla," he told her, kissing her again.

"I'm glad you think so. Go wash your hands so we can eat."

Scott did as he was told and joined Priscilla at the table. He picked up his fork in one and took hers in the other. "Thank you," he told her, leaning across the table to kiss her.

"You're welcome. - How was your day?"

"I forgot what it was like to be twenty-one and think you know everything. But my nephew sure reminded me today. Thank God I'm not twenty-one anymore."

Priscilla laughed and Scott looked at the glasses on the table then back to his fiancée. "You can't drink, Priscilla."

"Why?"

"Because you're pregnant. How do you keep forgetting that?" he asked, taking the glasses and pouring them out.

"I don't know. Because that's not an easy thing to forget," she told him.

Scott shook his head and got some juice out of the refrigerator. "I'm going to write it on your palm every morning before I leave that you are having a baby."

"No, don't remind me," she muttered, scooping up some potatoes.

Scott sat back down, giving Priscilla the juice. She took a sip of the drink, watching him and going back to her food.

"So it wasn't just you and your brothers and daddy?" she asked, going back to her mashed potatoes.

"No, my oldest three nephews came too," he told her, watching her eating. "Would you like to meet them?"

"I'm good," she said, eating slowly.

"Well, they'll be at the wedding."

"Yay."

Scott chuckled at her dry tone. Not much excited Priscilla and to him that was hilarious. Everything with her sarcastic and dry.

Scott rubbed her hand, before he moved to cut his steak. "Dinner is good," he told her.

"I'm glad you like it. - I baked you a cake."

Seemingly proud of herself, she grinned. Priscilla didn't bake often, but when she did, she acted as if she was the first person to ever operate an oven.

"You made it?" he asked, looking at the immaculately iced cake on the counter.

"I made it." She grinned.

"It looks really nice. Maybe you should go work with my cousin," he suggested, getting up to go over and look at the cake that did look like a professionally made cake.

Scott had to say, he was really impressed. Although Priscilla was a perfectionist, he didn't expect her to make a cake so beautiful. Especially considering she had never baked cake. She was more into the cookies, brownies, and her cinnamon rolls.

Priscilla giggled, getting up to go and stand with him. "Do you like it?" she asked, leaning on his shoulder.

"You're sure you made this?"

"You'd think I knew whether I had made a whole cake or not. Yes, I made the cake."

"I love it. Thank you."

He leaned down and kissed her. She put her arms around him, forgetting all about their unfinished dinner for a moment.

"Well, if you're going to respond like that, I'll bake you birthday cakes more often," she told him. He chuckled, kissing her again. "We should finish the dinner that you worked so hard on," he told her, pecking her lips again.

"You're right. The dinner that you called and tried to keep me from making with your smothering maternalness."

He slapped her ass and she giggled, grabbing her cheeks and moving to head back to the table. "You are such a smart ass, Priscilla."

"I thought it was why you liked me. Remember when I walked into your office?"

He chuckled and she smiled sweetly, batting her lashes and finishing her potatoes before she cut her steak.

When their diner was finished, Priscilla moved to put the 33 candle she'd bought in the cake. "Wait, I want to take a picture before you light the candles," he told her, taking a picture of the cake.

"You're going to put it on Facebook?"

"Yes. And maybe if you stop being so mean and make a few other friends, you'll make one as well," he teased, posting the cake to his social media with a tag that his wonderful fiancée had gone out of her way tonight.

Rolling her eyes, Priscilla cut the light out and lit the candles. Although it was just the two of them, she decided to serenade him with Happy Birthday and urged him to make a wish.

Scott closed his eyes, actually wishing for Priscilla to soon open up the rest of herself to him. He wished for her to let him be her shoulder and her rock.

As if there were more people around celebrating, Priscilla began clapping and cheering. Scott laughed. "You've been spending too much time with Penelope."

"Where do you think she gets it from? I was annoyingly adorable once."

"When? When you were a child?" he asked.

She laughed and playfully pushed him before taking the candles out the cake and setting them on a napkin, passing him a cake knife. "I made cinnamon rolls too," she told him. "So don't go shoving your face with cake."

"Forget the cake. Where?"

Priscilla popped him and gave him a look, only making him laugh again before he cut into the cake. "Your attitude is kind of sexy."

"I hope it's really sexy when I begin to punch you."

"Try it and find out."

When Priscilla swung, Scott moved out of her way and laughed. "Alright, alright. I quit, I'm sorry," he told her, coming around the other side of the counter and scooping her into his arms and kissing her.

Sour, she pushed him off. "Cut the cake, Scott Nolan."

He decided to cut the cake before he really got on her bad side. He had expected it to be chocolate, but to his surprise, it was red velvet, which she had told him she didn't much care for. But he had told her once a couple years ago that it was his favorite. He was touched that she not only remembered, but went out of her way to make it for him. Especially from scratch. There was not a cake box or icing container to be found.

"I appreciate the cake," he told her.

She smiled, pleased with herself. But she wasn't eating that cake. Hence why she made the cinnamon rolls.

"I guess you can invite your family by tomorrow if they'll still be in town and give them some cake. You're not going to eat that whole thing."

"I just might. This cake is better than my mama's and that is saying something, Priscilla Holcomb."

She rolled her eyes, moving to have a sticky bun, which for once since the first time she made them for him, Scott didn't bother with, still eating the cake. Either way was a win to her.

When Scott finished the cake, he moved to have a cinnamon roll. "You still have room for that?" she asked.

"We're not all five-feet-four, 135 pound women."

"See, you could've said yes and ate the sticky bun, asshole."

"An attractive asshole." He winked.

"And you're lucky you are."

He laughed and leaned down to kiss her. "Do you want a bite?" he asked.

"No. I'm full. You finish that. I'll be in the room."

She stepped on her tippy toes and left him. She went to run a bath and poured in an aromatic oil.

Priscilla usually had her baths alone, but she thought it might be nice to take one with her fiancé and she was sure he would appreciate it.

When he came up, she took his hand and led him towards the shower stall. Nothing would allow her to get into her tub without first having a shower.

She stopped just outside of the door and started undressing Scott, her hands working swiftly over his buttons before she pulled the button down over his shoulders. "Hey, you know that song, Birthday Sex?"

"My father knows that song, Priscilla."

"That's awkward. Especially considering he's old enough to be my grandfather."

Scott chuckled. "What about the song, chère?" he asked.

"I'm gonna give you that."

"We have sex every day," he reminded her.

She shrugged. "Touché. Get in the shower."

Scott chuckled, motioning for her to go first and getting in behind her, closing the door. She smiled, standing under the shower head, picking up his body wash.

He kissed her lips softly as she scrubbed his body and he returned the favor. She wrapped her leg around him, indicating her intentions, and he lifted her up as she wrapped her other leg around him, holding onto his shoulders as he guided himself into her, leaning her on the wall for support.

She bit her lip, pushing back into him, intensifying the sensations. He leaned forward to kiss her, feeling her slide down, unwrapping her legs, her small hands against his chest as she panted. "I have something so much better."

Before he had enough time to realize what was happening, Priscilla had kneeled in front of him and took him into her mouth, emitting a groan of pleasure from him.

He was surprised that she was letting her hair be in the stream of water when she was normally telling him she wouldn't get her hair more wet than the humidity that came with showering.

She looked up at him enjoying her. That still gave her pleasure, to know that she had that kind of effect and control. She never saw the act as degrading, even before she loved Scott. He did it for her and he always let her know he appreciated it. Besides, he did her all the time.

Spitting into the stream of water, she got up and kissed Scott, turning the faucet off and pulling him to their bath. It wasn't as warm as she'd like it, but she knew that if it was too hot, she could have a miscarriage. She wanted to get this kid to her husband in eight months. And she knew it would devastate him if she miscarried. So she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that when this thing left her womb it was alive, well, and healthy.

She leaned against Scott, and he held her around the waist, kissing her neck. "It was a really nice birthday dinner," he told her.

"So good you had to share a part of it with your social media."

"It took me ten seconds to take the picture and post it to Facebook. You don't miss those ten seconds," he told her, taking her hands.

She laughed lightly and relaxed into his chest, closing her eyes. After all that work she had just done, she was tired as hell.

Scott knew she was asleep and left her that way, caressing her skin. He looked forward to a lifetime of this woman. Waking up to her and coming home to her. Every time he thought about the fact that his boss told him he was going to be interning a new law student, he was glad his little experience didn't question it. Because Priscilla Jade Holcomb was the best woman that ever entered his life.

Just listening to her light breath, he thanked God for the woman lying in his arms. Thanked God that all she took away from him was two weeks. Because every day of those two weeks, he had missed her. He had awaited her return, hoping that it would come. Because if Priscilla had left and decided he wasn't what she needed, he would have to let her go and find what made her happy. But it would've killed him slowly.

He didn't know how it felt to really be in love until the times he caught himself just admiring the way her laugh filled the air. Until he caught himself mesmerized in her smile. Until he noticed little things about her like the way she would say his name altogether as one and the way she bit her lip and the way she talked with her hands when she was excited.

He liked watching her in the mornings he stayed at her house and watching her dress and putting on her makeup.

It was the little things about her that now that he had them, he couldn't live without them. Because he now began to count on them.

After thirty minutes, he gently awakened Priscilla and wrapped her in a towel before he let the water drain. And she went to bed naked as the day she was born.

Scott knew she was going to toss and turn until he went to bed and decided that naked was fine too. So he climbed into the bed behind her and spooned her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

It was a good birthday. He'd seen his brothers, father, and his nephews. And his fiancée had made him a great dinner and two great desserts. He couldn't have asked for anything more.

Next month, when he got her down the aisle and gave her his life... He would be the happiest man alive. All he needed for her to say was two words and seal their commitment for life.

Priscilla groggily climbed out of bed at midnight to go and pee and came back and snuggled into Scott, her face in his shoulder. "Was it a good birthday?"

"The best so far," he told her, pecking her lips.

"Maybe next year if you don't call me every three minutes, it'll be better, yeah?"

"Goodnight, sweetheart. Just don't vomit up our baby."

She giggled a little and slid her leg between his, falling back into her sleep. Scott joined her, holding her tightly. It was the best birthday yet because he had the greatest gift. A pregnant Priscilla.