Intermission - an important date.

While Oliver went to check on the house on his own, the girls took the opportunity to gather behind his back. It was an important matter, one that shouldn’t be discussed in his presence, and once more, Diana’s house served as the perfect place since there would be no one to rat them out. Except if Oliver suddenly developed the ability to talk to animals for real, then Red would definitely talk.

They all sat around the living room, a heavy silence hanging over them. In just a few hours Diana would have to leave for work again, and though they had her permission to stay if needed, they really had to figure things out while she was with them.

“Seriously, he’s such a pain in the ass!” Sarah groaned, rubbing her face. “Who DOESN’T like celebrating their birthday!?”

Yep. Turns out Oliver’s birthday was coming up in just a few days, and they never would’ve found out if not for Isabelle going out of her way to explicitly tell them.

“He really was going to let it be just another day, huh?” Grace asked, arms crossed and shaking her head.

“Well, you heard Isabelle,” Noelle said. “I can sort of understand where he’s coming from.”

According to their intel, Oliver didn’t have good experiences with his birthdays, at least not since he was around 8 years old. Isabelle admitted to having some responsibility in that. Twins, remember? Same birthday. And with one of them having more friends than the other, the parties always ended up becoming far more about Isabelle than about Oliver. Then, when the two siblings became distant, Isabelle would celebrate her birthday on her own while Oliver would stay in his bedroom like it was just another day.

“All the more reason to do something special!" Mila said, growing more irritated the more she thought about it.

Birthdays are supposed to be fun! It’s a person’s one day of the year that should be all about them! Eating cake, partying with friends, the gifts, the good vibes! No person should even have to spend their birthday alone.

“I get where you’re coming from, I do,” Diana said. “But you know he’s not into big celebrations. We can celebrate here at my house, amongst ourselves.”

“I’m sure he’d be happy with that,” Grace said with a sigh. “But…”

“I think we should do more,” Alice said. “We can have sex whenever we want, but… I’d like this year to be different for him. Very different. He’s not a friendless guy who spends all his time in his room anymore. He has plenty of friends, even not counting us, who’d be happy to celebrate with him.”

“Should we get Thomas in on this?” Noelle asked.

“I hear he has a lot in his mind lately,” Diana said. “His talk with his parents about moving in with Maria didn’t go too well.”

“Ah.”

“I think we can do something simple and keep it short,” Grace said. “I doubt he’d enjoy a whole night of having to play host, even if he likes everyone invited.”

“How about we take him out to dinner with everyone else?” Sarah suggested. “We make reservations somewhere nice, we celebrate, then we take him someplace else and…”

“You know, that sounds good to me. No need to set everything up, either. I get the feeling Oliver isn’t one for balloons and ‘happy birthday’ banners.”

“Where do we go, though?” Diana asked, bringing out her phone. “The best food I can think of is the hotel we work at, and we’d have a room right there, too, but…”

“But yeah, you work there now,” Alice said, grimacing. “It’d be awkward to be served by your colleagues.”

Grace let out a sigh. “Hey, everyone? If we’re inviting Oliver’s friends… Would you mind if we invited Fernanda?”

“I know you well enough to know that’s not the exact question you want to ask,” Alice said with a small, amused smile. “You want to know if we’re okay with either of them making a move.”

“I mean…” Grace’s cheeks reddened and she turned her eyes away. “Wouldn’t it be a nice gift?”

“I’ve been okay with it for a while,” Sarah said. “And from what I hear from you, she’s doing better.”

“Yeah, if she’s up for it, I don’t really mind. She seems nice,” Mila said. “I do want to get to know her a little better, though.”

“Same here,” Noelle said. “I didn’t get to talk to her much during our trip.”

“We’ve all made it clear we’re open to Oliver exploring new relationships,” Alice said. “Well, all of us except…”

All eyes turned to Diana. She was the one who was most hesitant about it, and nobody really blamed her. If Oliver started courting another woman just a month or so after he got together with Diana, it would’ve felt very wrong. But what about now? Was it still too early?

“I’ll get them both drunk if I need to,” Diana said bluntly. “I swear, it couldn’t be more obvious that they like each other. I respect how careful they’re being but it’s high time they do something about it. Dip their toes into it, if nothing else.”

“Okay, I didn’t expect that,” Grace said, giggling. “You have a soft spot for her, don’t you?”

“Maybe,” Diana admitted. “And you don’t?”

“...Maybe.”

“Okay, I definitely need to have a chat with her,” Mila said.

They spent some time looking for restaurants with good reviews, and after picking three, Mila, Grace, Sarah, Noelle and Alice split up to check them out while Diana went to work.

She was tempted to tell him what they were planning because he wasn’t very good with surprises, but she figured he’d survive it.

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