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“Heather got me flowers too?”
“She, uh, she did.” Something about the way he says that makes me look up.
“Is something wrong?”
“I didn’t want to disappoint you, but Heather called. She has a fever. She can’t go with you today.”
“Oh.” I feel the excitement deflate. This is exactly the feeling I’m trying to avoid in not making a big deal out of my birthday. The disappointment.
“But I can,” he adds quickly. He shoves his hands in his jean pockets and rocks back on his heels.
“You’re serious?” I look up at him, genuinely curious.
“Unless you don’t want me to go,” he says, smirking, a bit of playfulness in his tone.
“No, of course I do.” I smile. Sean wants to go with me. I’m reassured by his smile and lighthearted teases.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Close your eyes again.”
This time, I’m less nervous. I hear him get up from beside me. He’s done a pretty good job so far. So I do as I’m told until I hear the familiar sound of a glass being set against the marble countertop.
“Coffee,” I practically scream, taking a sip immediately. “Wow, this is really good.” He nearly made it right, but I don’t say that part out loud. It’s the thought that counts. And he seems to have put a lot of thought into this morning.
He huffs a laugh. “Okay, drink that, then we can go. Do you need breakfast?”
“I’m having it.” I take a long sip of my drink, feeling happier than I have in weeks.
That happiness doubles as Sean drives us to the farmer’s market. I know I originally planned today with Heather, but I’m actually excited it’s him I get to spend today with instead.
Not that I’ll be telling Heather that version of the story.
The farmer’s market is beautiful. The main big red barn stretches across the open acres, surrounded by corn fields and haystacks that look like something out of a movie. A long white picket fence separates the pumpkin patch from the rest of the activates, but we’re definitely going to have to make time for both.
“What do you want to do first, birthday girl?” Sean asks.
“I want to eat all the food,” I tell him, unable to keep my cheeky grin in check. We walk down one of the corn-lined pathways towards the ticket stand. I can smell the funnel cakes from here, my stomach grumbling.
“Naturally.” He reaches over to grab my hand and my heart flutters. “What else?”
“Well, we have to get a pumpkin. And do the hayride. Oh, and drink apple cider.” There is so much to do I usually come here twice.
“You’re easy to make happy, huh?” He gives my hand a little squeeze.
I beam up at him as we wait in line. Sean buys our tickets, despite my effort to slip the lady my card first. This seems to be a running theme for him.
“Where do you want to start exactly?” Sean asks as he scans the grounds.
There is a lot to choose from. Even from the food alone, we have multiple options. I’ll admit, it is a bit overwhelming if you haven’t been here before. But this is my favorite fall farm.
“Pastries first,” I say decisively. This is the very reason I didn’t have breakfast.
We walk hand in hand to the end of the line of food trucks parked at the edge of the grounds. I love fall food. I love festival food. I love food in general. I bounce on my toes as I look at the things people have bought before us. Everything looks so good.
One woman carries a box of what looks like frosted donuts and another hands her kid the most delicious looking candy apple.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so excited,” Sean laughs, tightening his grip on my hand.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited,” I admit. “Oh my god, look at that.” I point to the display case of pastries that we can now see from our spot in line. “Ugh, everything looks so good how am I going to decide?”
