COVID Birthday Swap Pt. 03
This celebration of counselor Kelly's birthday during the pandemic is tamer, slower, more thoughtful than previous chapters as she reconnects with her friend's boyfriend as part of a long-distance pandemic swap. It likely could be read as a stand-alone story. Thanks to my editor and fantastic writer LAHomedog for help getting this done.
Kelly opened the text from Tara as the beat of "You Say It's Your Birthday" exploded into her otherwise silent condo. With every window open to take in the morning 70-degree temperatures, she hoped she hadn't startled any neighbors.
"Coming up, but not for a week and a half -- let me enjoy being young," Kelly texted back.
"You are young -- but definitely an old soul."
"I'm turning 26 -- my 20s are half over!"
"I'll mail wrinkle cream. Seriously, though, you are wise and give great advice in your blog. So how do you want to celebrate?"
"Drive over to my boyfriend Mark's house, and send him to me in a large box with extra air holes?"
"You'll see him when you can travel again. But what would you like to do with my boyfriend?"
This birthday swap coming up the week after next would be the next of their improvised COVID long distance relationship solution of swapping boyfriends to celebrate birthdays. This time Tara's boyfriend Michael, who lives in Austin near Kelly, will be filling in for Kelly's boyfriend Mark, who lives in Washington DC near Tara.
The women arranged the swap early in the summer when Tara read a blog post by Kelly, who is a counselor at a shelter for young women and writes a blog on relationships. After a few emails and phone calls they realized they had quite a bit in common besides long distance boyfriends. They were both worked in fields that required them to be friendly but tough, and they balanced their job stress with lots of exercise -- yoga for Kelly and swimming for Tara.
Over the months they had developed a friendship while working out the logistics of the birthday celebrations and sharing how they stayed connected to their own boyfriends in between. While not ideal, these swaps had kept their own relationships going with everyone able to stay faithful -- well sort of.
"IDK - just normal stuff," Kelly wrote back.
"Why normal? You can have normal when the pandemic ends. My turn to send you a list of a few ideas."
"What will Mark think?"
"He won't know the details -- unless you tell him. But from what Michael and I learned during our first swap it can be better not to talk about that part."
"Can't I just work that out with Michael when he gets here?" Kelly said.
"Sure -- that works. Think of it as an opportunity to explore, feel empowered -- with no risk. Isn't being empowered something you advocate in your blog?"
Kelly responded with a few laughing emojis.
* * *
It had been more than a week, and Kelly had thought of half a dozen ideas for how to celebrate her birthday today. But still she wanted to just wait to see what felt right in the moment once Tara's boyfriend Michael arrived.
Kelly patted herself dry with the thick white cotton towel and hung it back on the rack. She opened the sleek white modern cabinet and slathered on peony-scented lotion, and then released her straight shoulder-length brown hair from its bun.
She normally kept makeup fairly minimal, and even more so with wearing a mask lately. Lip gloss and even tinted moisturizer ended up on the mask. But for tonight she applied mascara, plum eyeliner and light plum eye shadow to play up her blue eyes, probably her best feature. Although Mark always appreciated her full breasts on her otherwise petite frame.
No one had been to her condo since the pandemic started, but she kept it neat so she really didn't need to do any extra cleaning ahead of Michael coming over. Even so, she scanned the room looking for anything that needed to be put away. Finding nothing, she fluffed the pillows on the bed and straightened the white towels on the rack.
Everything around her was white -- counters, cabinets, walls and wood trim. Maybe that's why she choose this apartment she thought as she picked up her white terry robe off the fluffy Sherpa stool in front of the low white granite counter.
White gauze curtains billowed from the open window and white sheers hung from her canopy bed. Could white even be a favorite color? Wasn't it more of an absence of color? Kelly thought she remembered learning white was technically every hue of visible light in the spectrum.
What she appreciated beyond the soothing crisp cleanness was that it made her notice other things -- textures, certainly, but also it made any other colors stand out all the more. Turning her head, she saw the contrast of the green and gold leaves just outside the window, the ivy and herbs in pots and the copper kettle in the kitchen and the red, orange and blue book spines lining the white shelves and the yellow sky against the color dotted mountains in a painting she bought in a parking lot on Oahu's north shore.
By tuning out the background, she could more easily appreciate the details that made her home hers.
She found her pale ballet pink nail polish in her drawer and sat down on the Sherpa bench to paint her nails and layer on more lotion as they dried.
* * *
Kelly glanced at her fit bit and realized Michael would be there any minute. She re-hung her rob, and slid the long white seersucker dress over her head and wrapped her blue pashmina scarf around her neck, draping it over one shoulder just as the doorbell rang.
"Happy Birthday!" Michael said as Kelly stepped back to let him in. "These are for you," he said, raising his arm to hand her the bouquet of white roses.
"My favorite -- how did you--?"
"Mark told me," Michael said.
"You talked to Mark?" Kelly said, blanching at the thought.
"No, he just emailed telling me to take good care of you," Michael said.
"Wasn't that weird?' Kelly asked.
"Not for me." Michael strode briskly past her into the kitchen with the bag.
After depositing the bags on the counter, he glanced from the kitchen through to the dining room and living room.
"I feel like I'm in an Apple store," Michael said. "... if it had a kitchen and living room. When were these condos built?"
"Just a couple years ago -- maybe that was the goal -- to lure tech workers downtown near the music scene," Kelly said.
"It worked for me. Though I was actually lured by a social worker and a humanitarian mission to deliver hot food and birthday sex," Michael said.
"Humanitarian mission?" Kelly said, rolling her eyes. "This place is peaceful and near some of my clients. Speaking of work how is yours going?"
"Well enough -- tech services at least are in demand now," Michael said.
Kelly set the vase of roses on the table and turned to bring out a couple white glass plates and glasses and filled the glasses with lemon water.
"What are you drinking? Margaritas? Or I have white wine," Kelly said.
"How about the wine. Tequila was a little strong last time," Michael said with a wink.
