James Grippando - Born to Run

“Your thirty-ninth birthday,” said Theo as he filled two shot glasses with his best tequila anejo. “Cheers, dude.”

Jack belted back one with him, and then Andie intervened, promising to make it well worth his while if he remained conscious tonight. Theo talked him into one more when Andie wasn’t looking, but Mexican brain-blaster number two put Jack in a serious, reflective mood.

“What are you thinking?” said Andie, as she returned to the bar stool beside him.

“Forty has been a pretty wild ride so far.”

“You can say that again.”

Theo came over in need of quarters for the pool table. “Dude, got any coin?”

Jack glanced at the cash register behind Theo’s bar, but the point seemed too obvious to make. He emptied his pockets onto the bar top. The engagement ring poured out with his loose change, the diamond sparkling beneath the white LED lights. The sight of it nearly stopped Jack’s heart, and he snatched it up. Theo grabbed the coins and, as he walked away, Jack buried the ring back in his pocket.

“What was that?” said Andie.

“What was what?”

She smiled. “That sparkly thing you just shoved back into your pocket.”

“I didn’t just shove any sparkly thing back into my pocket.”

Her smile turned seductive, and with an inquisitive tilt of her head a wisp of long dark hair fell into her eyes the way Jack found irresistible.

“Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I see it?”

“Nothing to see. Really.”

“I want to see.”

She reached for his pocket.

He grabbed her wrist.

She grabbed his elbow. “Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to let me see? Or am I going to have to break your arm?”

“I-uhm…”

A saxophone bellowed, and Jack turned to see Theo coming toward him, his uncle’s old Buescher 400 in hand. A jazz solo quickly morphed into his rendition of “Happy Birthday.” The crowd began to sing, and suddenly Andie was leading Jack around the bar to a big cake with forty blazing candles.

“…happy birthday, dear Ja-ack…”

Andie came close and put her lips to his ear. “Come on, Swyteck. Just let me see it.”

“Happy birthday to youuuu!”