An entire month had passed since Tank had pressed the reset button.

“Shit. What do I do for his birthday? What I’d thought about doing weeks ago? Or something different?”

My heart was pained. And my nights were sleepless.

“C’mon G-d. Give me some sort of message.”

“Be true to yourself, Randi.” Ah, I knew exactly what I’d do.

I decided there’d be three parts to his gift. Part one was easy: A card mailed to his home. You know the type: the sarcastic kind when one hits 40. I switched the 40 to 41 and sent it off a week ahead of time.

His response? Not one mention about it.

Part two was going to be more difficult. One day, many months earlier, he’d shown me a leather neckpiece he used to wear. The symbol on it had broken in half. He’d said he’d never been able to find a replacement and had been looking for over a year. I’d only gotten a quick glance at it. I thought perhaps it was the zodiac sing for cancer but wasn’t all that sure. On a fluke, one day I was browsing the web and poof! I realized I’d found it.

For part three, I bought several boxes of fortune cookies and removed the fortunes from them with a tweezers. On the back of 41 of them, I wrote one thing I liked about him. NONE of them were sexual in nature. And then I placed them in a small can and sealed it.

The day after Tank’s birthday dinner with his family—sans me—I was flying home from a client that night—he appeared at my door.

I gave him Part Two. He unwrapped the package and didn’t say a word when he saw what was inside. Instead he immediately put it on and reached down to kiss me in a way I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

“Where’d you find this, Randi?”

“I got it online. Is it the right item? I wasn’t sure.

“It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. I can’t believe you found it. My whole family’s been looking. No one’s found it. Thank you. This is really nice.”

“You’re welcome. I also have something else for you.” I handed him the can.

He opened it and stared at me, quizzically. “What are these for?

“Each cookie has a fortune in it—from me. Something I like about you. Open one.”

“No. I’m going to save them for those days when I need a boost. Then I’ll pull one out.”

Then, he took my hand. And walked me out of the family room, through the living room, up two short flights of stairs, down the hall and into my bedroom. He put a DVD into the TV and plopped down on the bed next to me.

I was lying on my tummy. All set to watch the movie. He laid down next to me on his side and put one arm around my waist. His tongue entered my mouth. It tasted so sweet. I took one of my fingers and slowly put it into his mouth. And then into mine. I heard him moan. Against my leg, I felt his cock harden inside his pants.

He turned me on my back and pulled up my dress to expose my thong. When I felt his fingers moving inside of me and his tongue sucking on my clit, I knew I’d done good.