Luckless Lover

chapter 17

Steff's pov

Tuesday went by fast for Steff. That night she stayed up till midnight, pretending to sleep and checking the time every few minutes.

Finally, the clock turned to twelve and she sat up. She planted a kiss on Zake's lips. He blinked awake and kissed her back harder.

"What time is it?" He said moving the hair that fell in her face behind her ear.

"Midnight." She smiled.

He groaned. "Why did you wake me up at midnight?"

"Happy birthday." She giggled. "That's why."

He looked up at her confused. "My  birthday?"

"Yeah. It's September 21st." She giggled again. "Silly."

"Oh!" He laughed. "I forgot."

"How did you forget your birthday?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I just never celebrated it. I got too busy."

"Well, from now on we celebrate every birthday." She said planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Being with you is celebration enough." He hugged her.

"No it's not." She hugged him back. "It's nice but not enough."

"You think so lowly of yourself Stefanie Heart."

"Elaine."

"What?"

"My middle name is Elaine." She laid back down.

"Stefanie Elaine Heart." He said out loud, thinking. The way he said it made it sound beautiful. "I love it." He kissed her. "Now go to bed I'm tired."

"Okay." She smiled and kissed him one more time. "Goodnight Zake."

"Goodnight Steff."

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Zake's pov

He was really tired when he and Steff went to bed. He spent all day Tuesday looking for a job. He didn't want to ask Steff because he felt like he was a big enough burden as it is.

He fell asleep with Steff's head rested on his chest. She moved a lot in the night but he slept through it. He suddenly felt her sit up. She kissed his lips hard to wake him up. He thought it was morning until he looked out the window. He asked for the time and groaned at her answer.

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He felt the bed rise and fall then a small body sat on his stomach. "Happy birthday daddy!" Aly sang. He opened one eye and felt the bed by him for Steff. "Wake up! Steff has a surprise for you in the kitchen. Let's go." She pulled his finger.

"I'm coming." He tossed the blanket off and followed Aly to the door.

"Close your eyes." She said and he obeyed. She led him down the hall and into Steff's kitchen. His nose was filled with the scent of maple sausage. It smelled sweet. "Open!"

He opened his eyes and saw the table filled with food. Eggs, sausage, Bacon, pancakes, toast, juice and milk. It looked like a meal for a party. "Wow" he breathed. Aly ran to her room to get something.

"This is only the first gift that I'm going to give you today." She took his hand and sat me by the table. "My mom made a brunch for every birthday and birthday child gets first serve."

"This is sweet." He said, tears threatened to fall out of his eyes. He blinked them back and stood. He took her hands and turned her around in a waltz. She laughed and he pulled her to him when he stopped spinning. She set her hands on her chest and tried to catch her breath. He kissed her as soft and gentle as he could.