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Once we finished eating, Seth brought in some perfect little chocolate cupcakes, one of which held a lit candle They all sang to me, and I sent the same wish out into the universe as the day before when I blew out the candle—can I please just get laid sometime this decade?

Obviously, I didn’t tell anyone what I’d wished for, because it sounded desperate Instead, we all laughed and joked soed the One of the presents was a deep blue V-neck sweater in a fancy departarment to the front ofI can wear it to the hospital’s holiday party tonight”

Flora asked, “Where are they holding it?”

“In soht about it for a moment, then said, “The first one The second one’s a car”

“The Renard is quite upscale,” Flora told me “You’ll probably want to wear a suit and tie”

“Yeah, allup, but I don’t actually own a suit”

Seth perked up at that “Want to borrow one of mine? We must be close to the same size”

I knew hea little Even so, I kept ood”

“You sure? It’s no trouble I’ve got three suits fresh fro in my closet, and you could take your pick” He pointed to the ceiling, or more specifically to their shared bedroom, which was directly above us on the second floor

“But that’s not me,” I muttered, “and I wouldn’t be co to impress?” My brother looked like he had more he wanted to say on the subject, but he let it drop

After the cupcakes were consumed and our coffee cups were drained, we all h I was desperate to make my escape, I politely waited for a suitable aot to my feet and announced, “I hate to scarf down your kale and run, but I have several errands to do before the party tonight Thank you for all of this It was great” I’d been shooting for an hour of socializing after we finished eating, but a glance at the clock on the mantel showed it had barely been twenty minutes Oops

George made me promise one ather up the gifts before saying, “I’ll walk you out”