Hostess

I wanted to add a quick note: I am shocked at the amount of page views this little blog has gotten! Thanks for reading. I'm still trying to lay some groundwork so hopefully the posts don't feel too slow right now. 
As I navigate around blogger I have come across a handful of blogs I didn't know were out there, I have just started reading them and am excited to catch up. I'll add them to blogs I follow here soon. If you have a blog or have any you read that you don't see on the list please let me know!  
Hope everyone is enjoying the blog so far. Please leave a note if you have any comments. Thanks again for reading!  -Juliette 


September  2002


"Happy birthday, to my best friend and best roommate a girl could ask for." Alicia toasted raising her glass of Moscato.

It was the night of my birthday and instead of going out Alicia and I decided to have a dinner party. We thought it would be grown up of us and planned everything out right down to the place cards.  We wrote everyone's name on these adorable little pumpkins and placed them on top of each guests plate. The rest of the table was decorated with candles and a couple medium size pumpkins and pinecones. Alicia and I both have a love for fall. As soon as September hits and the pumpkin spice latte is available we grab one and hit up Hobby Lobby for fall decor. Yes, we were living with our parents before but that didn't stop us from decorating. San Diego was lacking, they didn't have a Hobby Lobby so we hit up the closest Michaels.  Our apartment was now harvest ready down to the little hand towels with acorns and leaves on them in the kitchen.

I'm not sure I mentioned this yet but, I love to cook. Marrying unique flavors was my favorite part of cooking.  Tonight the menu started off with pumpkin bisque topped with browned butter and fried sage. Following was the main course, macadamian crusted halibut, bacon wrapped asparagus and fresh french bread from my new favorite bakery down the street. Alicia lended a helping hand in the kitchen and was taking care of dessert.

"Thank you, and thanks everyone for coming." I raised my glass and then drank. I feel like I should have said more but I already felt slightly embarrassed with all the attention on me. I don't like surprises,  scratch that, I don't like surprises involving a crowd. For my 16th birthday my parents brought me to my favorite restaurant for dinner, upon walking in I spotted roughly 30 of my friends and family members sitting at several tables at the back of the restaurant.  As soon as I saw them I immediately turned around cheeks bright red.  I quickly said "nope" as I walked past my mother and to the exit. After she talked me down I returned and despite my embarrassment when everyone looked at me I ended up really enjoying myself.

"Jules, this fish is amazing, have you ever thought of going to culinary school?"  Shelly asked me. Shelly was my coworker. She started a couple weeks after I did and we instantly hit it off. When I wasn't studying for a class we always went to lunch together.  She was new to San Diego also and had moved here for her boyfriend Allen about 6 months ago. He was very wealthy and had talked her into focusing on school and not working full time while she did.  Unfortunately shortly after she started at the office she walked in on him and the maid in bed. He tried excusing himself by saying they were having a business meeting and the maid forced him to sleep with him. The maid may have gotten her bonus but Shelly was then homeless and had maxed out the credit card he gave her by getting a room at the hyatt for about a month. When her last week was up I offered our couch until she could find something in budget. Alicia didn't mind, she spent most nights over at Dean's anyways.

"I've thought about it, not sure I'd like to work nights and weekends though." I grabbed another piece of bacon wrapped asparagus, it's my birthday I can stuff myself if I want to.

"Mmm, you could go to culinary school then just cook for me, my own private sexy chef." Cal said with a mouthful. I blushed at how much he seemed to be enjoying my food. As I reached for my glass of wine I noticed Dean was placing more food on his plate also and was sporting a wide grin from ear to ear. I laughed to myself, he may always eat us out of house and home but he did always stock our bar with whatever drinks we asked of him.

"Well, I am officially stuffed, but I could save room for cake. We didn't go out so the least you could do is have some birthday cake right?"  This statement came from Gavin, Gavin was Cal's roommate and teammate. He also wasn't my favorite person, but for some reason was Cal's. I figured I would invite him to be nice, however as soon as he got here he stated that the only people he knew who had dinner parties were his parents. I ignored him and thanked God I wasn't dating him and reminded myself it was Cal that mattered.  And if Cal was his friend I would have to get used to him.

"Just a sec," Alicia ran into the kitchen.

"Happy birth....woah," she had kept up the same pace she had running into the kitchen and lost her balance on the way back. She tried to catch her fall by leaning forward and with one hand she grabbed for Dean's shoulder and the other still holding the cake. For a second it looked like she would recover, no such luck she landed right in Dean's lap, and so did the cake. There was cake everywhere, all over dean's face and down Alicia's chest. Alicia looked like she was about to cry and the rest of us just stared not sure what to say. Just when her lip began to quiver Dean bent his face down to her chest and licked the white frosting right off her her collerbone.

"Buttercream, yum!" Dean said. At that we all burst out laughing.  Well Alicia stared at him with a shocked expression, luckily her mouth curved into a grin and she joined in the laughter. Gavin made a stupid joke about wanting to join in on eating the cake off Alicia but Dean and her had already walked away to go cleanup so I don't think they heard him.

The rest of us chatted a while longer until we heard a loud thud in the bathroom, the thud was then followed by moans and giggling. Guess they wanted to take advantage of dessert.

I got up and started collecting dishes to clean up. I was quickly interrupted by Shelly shooing me away and demanding I relax, it's my birthday. I wasn't going to argue so I went in my room to take out my earrings,  bad choice on my part thinking I could wear two dollar earrings from a local tourist trap and not have them affect my ears. They were so cute though, little silver starfish. Living by the beach I now loved all things nautical.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday day to you, happy birthday my Juliette, happy birthday to you." I turned around to see Cal holding up a hostess cupcake with a lit candle.  "Sorry about the cake, this was all I could find in the pantry."

He's so adorable I thought as I kissed him. I blew out the flickering candle and made my wish. Placing the cupcake down on my nightstand I grabbed Cal's shirt and pulled him to me.  He reacted quickly and put his hand behind my head and deepened the kiss. His mouth parted and I eagerly explored. I went to grab for his shirt and pull it off.

"We should go, coach Tony wants us to be there bright and early." Gavin had some nerve interrupting us. He was standing in the doorway with a cocky grin on his face.

I waited for Cal to tell him to leave without him. He looked at me then back at Gavin, something in his eyes told me he wasn't staying.

"I should go babe, last thing I want is to show up late." He gave me another quick peck and waited for me to give him the green light.  It wasn't practice, it was just some team get together but I know how important this was to him so I put a smile on and walked them out.

Guess my wish didn't come true and I'd be spending another night alone.  Right then my phone vibrated on my nightstand. I checked it thinking it was Cal.

Jacob: happy birthday Jujie! Hope your wish comes true!

I surprised myself with how excited I was to see the message was from Jacob. Since the night we ran into each other we've talked a handful of times. He was currently involved with his high school girlfriend, I should say high school sweetheart but there's a little part of me that didn't want to use the word sweetheart.  We haven't met up yet but always mention we should. I have seen his sister Amanda since I moved though, met up for coffee about two weeks ago. The conversation was easy and we caught up on each other's lives. It wasn't until she dropped a bomb on me that the conversation turned south. I rolled my eyes as I remembered our conversation.

"He's married?" I managed to spit out while choking on my blueberry scone, crumbs fell from my mouth and I grabbed my drink to help me recover. Scones are delicious but why do they always have to fall apart when you take a bite? 

"Yeah but he's leaving her, they haven't been happy for years before he met me." Amanda said getting defensive.  Amanda was a year older then I was and and the guy she was seeing was 10 years her senior. 

"Does Jacob know?" 

"Only that I'm seeing an older guy but not that he's married." She pulled her light brown curls away from her face and with a twist she jammed the pen she was holding into her hair. She must have seen the worried expression on my face because she quickly tried to convince me it was ok, Miles (the boyfriend) was incredible and she fully trusted him. They met at her work and after he kept emailing her to have have lunch she finally relented. They hit it off quickly and have been seeing each other for about 7 months. I wasn't convinced, if his marriage was so terrible and he really did love Amanda he would have left his wife by now.
The rest of our meet up went well and we dropped any conversation about Miles.

Bringing myself back to the present I decided to send a message back to Jacob, after typing out a response and deleting it for the third time I finally settled on,
Me: thanks! My wish had to make a rain check but I did have a great bday.

Really is that all I could think of, I hit my forehead and fell onto my bed.

Jacob: don't tell me u spent your bday alone?!

I went to respond when my phone lit up indicating a call was coming in. My sister Kathy was calling.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you waited until 10:30 to call your favorite sister and wish her happy birthday." I greeted her.

"Jules, I'm sorry for not calling earlier, but there's something I need to tell you."