reputation

Birthday Dinner

December 13, 2017.

Five - Taylor

"Emma, I need help," Taylor yelled from the bedroom, tangled in what was either the head or the crotch of the unraveled skein of yarn that someone had the audacity to call lingerie. She listened as Emma's hurried footsteps grew louder and the door opened with a creak.

"What's wrong?" Emma looked around the room until she saw Taylor with her arms twisted uncomfortably over her head. Taylor glared at her, silently begging her to just help and not laugh, but Emma was apparently in the mood to do no such thing. "You know, if you weren't you I would absolutely take a picture of this."

"Don't you dare."

"I won't. I wouldn't do that to you." Emma walked over and started to untwist the fabric from her arms, but stopped suddenly. "I could take it on the polaroid. Can I?"

Taylor sighed. "Why the hell not. Last year on my birthday I took a cute polaroid of me kissing your cheek and this year on my birthday you're going to take a picture of this."

"Next year you can take a cute picture again."

"Next year I'm taking a picture of you like this."

Emma laughed and picked up the polaroid camera off of the dresser. "Deal. Is that a yes?"

"Yes."

The camera clicked and printed out the small photograph. Emma sat both the camera and the photo on the dresser before pulling Taylor's arms out of the fabric and down to where they were supposed to be. She messed with the straps in a way that was too fast for Taylor to comprehend until everything appeared to be in the right place. 

"How did you do that?"

"Lady at the store modeled it for me so I could see what it looked like."

Taylor stared at Emma and looked for any sign of a joke on her face, but she looked as serious as a rock. "What lady at the store?"

"Tall, blonde, pretty. Looked quite a bit like you, actually."

"Emma, you better be joking. If I'm wearing the same thing that you had your mall stripper version of me put on, I swear to god."

"I'm kidding, love. You are the only person I've seen wear this."

"That's not very nice of you to do. Especially not on my birthday." Taylor frowned and shoved Emma lightly.

"I'll make it up to you."

"Damn straight you will."

Emma laughed. "Nothing straight about it, babe."

"You're awful."

"I love you too. Now put something on over that so we can head out. I'm going to go make sure Freddy is ready."

"What? Emma, no. I'm not going out with this on."

"Take it off then. We have to hurry though, it's half past five already." Emma kissed her forehead and then left the room, presumably to find Freddy.

Taylor groaned and got up to find a dress that would cover the outfit enough that Emma wouldn't know she was still wearing it. She put on a sparkly black dress and met Emma and Freddy in the hallway, taking in the sight before her. One of them was wearing the very pretty blue dress she had picked out earlier and the other had a handmade birthday hat on his head and a sour expression on his face. Emma was holding a birthday hat that would surely look silly, but hers wasn't accompanied with childish anger that really made the look ten times better.