“What do you think about this one?” Pat asked, pointing to an even less reasonable vehicle. 

“I think the car I have now is fine,” Nicolas replied.

“Actually, Nico,” Pat said, “you don’t have a car. There is a car that you are allowed to borrow from your roommate that you share with five other people.”

“And that’s perfectly normal for grad school,” Nicolas replied. Not that you would know, he thought.

“It’s reasonable for grad school because nobody in grad school has any money,” Pat said, “but we’re going to buy a car for you, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Look,” Nicolas said, rubbing trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice, “if you’re serious about the car, then why don’t we wait to choose one until the others are available later?”

Pat looked at him suspiciously. “Clarissa told you, didn’t she,” he said. It wasn’t a question. People tended to label Pat as the dumb child, but the reality was he inherited the intuition and people skills that had skipped over Nicolas.

“She was trying to help,” Nicolas said, jumping to her defense. “She knows I don’t like surprises.”

“Right,” Pat said, “because after six months as your girlfriend she clearly knows you better than your family who have known you all your life.”

Nicolas lacked Pat’s fondness for arguing, so he decided to change the topic. “How much longer do you need to distract me for?”

Pat signed, rolled his eyes, and made a big show of rolling up his sleeve to check his watch. “Just fifteen more minutes.”

“Alright, then let's just start driving home.”

“That doesn’t take fifteen minutes.”

“It does if you follow the speed limit.”

---

“Suprise!” they all yelled as Pat and Nicolas walked in the door. Friends and family crowded the front entryway, balloons littered the floor, and streamers hung from the walls.

“Oh my goodness,” Nicolas said, faking surprise. “Is all this for me?” As the words came out of his mouth something caught in the corner of his eye. Near the edge of the crowd, Clarissa stood in the NCSA t-shirt, and James stood next to her. Nicolas no longer had to fake his surprise.

Before he could process what he had just seen, his mother swooped him up into a hug. “iFeliz cumpleaños, mijo!” she whispered as the rest of his family piled onto a group hug.