Prologue
Amy pursed her lips together and blew out the candle perched atop the chocolate cupcake. Her eyes squeezed shut as she conjured an image in her head of herself at a large mahogany desk, a floor to ceiling window in the background framing her perfectly combed hair and the starched collar of her gray suit.
She pulled back, opened her eyes and clapped her hands along with the three other women sitting around the table at Rudolpho’s Bar and Grill.
There was a gleam in Julia’s deep brown eyes. “Okay, now we have to tell each other what we wished for.”
“Wait, if we tell each other it won’t come true.” Alice’s argument was not surprising. She had a serious propensity for superstition.
Maya argued the point. “No. Don’t you see? It doesn’t count because we are birthday buddies. We can tell each other.”
It was Amy who’d discovered last year that all four women shared the same birth date, albeit at different ages. As the HR Assistant at E.E.R. Tranquility Candle Co. she had been responsible for posting all employee birthdays on the big bulletin board in the cafeteria. When she’d discovered the coincidence she’d emailed the other three women and they’d all gotten together to celebrate.
This year they were repeating the ritual. Once again, they found themselves drinking wine and eating chocolate at their favorite watering hole. Only this year, Julia and Maya had come up with this wish scheme.
“Aren’t we too old for this?” Amy shifted in her seat. It was a little late for her objection now. She’d already blown out her candle and made her wish. But she did not want to have to out her dreams here and now in front of them all.
“Don’t be like that.” Julia hit her lightly on the arm. “This is a challenge. A grown up woman challenge. We are all committed to making our wish come true before our next birthday. And we will help hold each other accountable. So we need to know what the wishes are.”
“Okay.” Alice sat up straighter in her chair. Amy wasn’t sure if it was the idea or the wine she’d drunk that made her so much more willing all of a sudden. “You go first, Julia.”
At thirty-eight, the VP of Marketing was the oldest and the most successful of them all. “I want a baby.” A deep silence fell over the table with Julia’s declaration. She took a long drink, draining her wine glass. Reaching for the bottle in the center of the table, she poured herself more. “Okay, Maya. Your turn.”
“Wait. We need details.” Maya leaned toward Julia, invading Amy’s space. “I mean. How do you plan to do this? Sperm bank, adoption, do you have a man in mind?”
“Details to be determined. Now you go,” Julia demanded.
“Um, okay.” Maya recovered, leaning forward as if to impart a great secret to her companions. “My dream is to make it as an artist. To do that full time.”
Unlike Julia’s announcement, Maya’s did not come as a surprise. Amy knew the twenty-nine year old was tired of working on the factory floor in order to support her true passion.
“My turn.” Alice bounced in her seat gleefully. A twenty-three year old outgoing sales rep, Alice was young and bubbly, and overly obsessed with men. So it was also no surprise when she announced she wanted to get married.
Then all three women turned to Amy. She blushed, suddenly feeling shy. It wasn’t that there was anything particularly embarrassing about her wish. But, especially with Julia sitting beside her, it seemed a little…odd.
Amy pushed her long blonde hair behind her shoulder and rubbed her chin. Today was a big day, she turned thirty. And she felt so very far behind. Her cousin, Gina, was two years younger than her and had a high-powered job as a consultant. Gina’s older brother, Tim, finished his residency and was now a real heart surgeon. And YaYa, the youngest of the cousins, was playing with the San Francisco Orchestra. By comparison Amy was the family failure.
“I want to figure out what I want to be when I grow up and begin a real career,” she admitted.