Michael honestly would have forgotten about his birthday if Melissa hadn't come over two days before and reminded him. So, since Melissa had kindly put the idea in Michael's head that she was going to give him a fantastic birthday present, he hadn't stopped thinking about it.

But that Tuesday started out as beyond average for Michael. He woke up and did his normal routine of getting Parker ready for school, which was difficult, as always. Parker didn't say happy birthday to Michael, of course, because he really didn't know that it was his dad's birthday. Michael didn't mind that.

What he did mind, however, was that not one of his friends or family had texted or called to say happy birthday. It was like everyone else had forgotten about him too.

Michael tried not to let it bother him. It was just his 24th birthday, nothing special. There was so need for everyone to celebrate Michael making it through another year of his life. Even though he would have appreciated a card or at least some kind of acknowledgement that he was one year older, he was fine. There were other things besides Michael's birthday that his friends had to worry about.

He was late dropping Parker off at school that morning, and that meant that Michael was also late getting to work, and that meant that Matt was upset with him. Matt gave Michael the task of sweeping the floor and unpacking more boxes and putting them on shelves, and Michael didn't even try to use the excuse of "but it's my birthday" because he knew that out of all people, Matt would probably care less.

"You missed a spot." Matt said loudly, walking up behind Michael. He pointed off to a corner that Michael hadn't even begun to sweep in, so of course it was still dirty.

"Okay." Michael nodded. He really didn't want to start any arguments with Matt, not today.

"I'm going to bring out some more boxes from the back, you should unpack them when you're done sweeping." Matt said, walking backwards towards the back of the store. "Then you can sweep again."

"Why do I need to sweep twice?" Michael asked. He was beginning to get more upset now, but he tried not to show it.

Matt always did things like this. He gave Michael unnecessary chores to do that just wasted time. Michael wasn't sure if it was because Matt didn't think he was carpable of more or what, but at this point it was really starting to annoy him.

"Because I said you should."

"Okay." Michael nodded again. He decided not to question Matt any more, in fear that he'd only make things worse for Michael if he did.

One day he would get Matt back for all of this, just not right now. Maybe.

Finally, after almost four hours of sweeping and unpacking boxes and helping customers and more sweeping, Michael got to actually sit down and breathe for a few minutes.

"Why aren't you sweeping?" Matt emerged from his god damn back room again, coming out and inspecting the work that Michael had done.

"There's nothing left to sweep." Michael shrugged.

"I'm sure you could go over there and find - "

"No." Michael snapped, finally losing it. He'd tried so hard to just stay calm about this and do what Matt asked, but he couldn't anymore. "I'm done sweeping, I've swept this place top to bottom at least 10 times for you."

"Then you can - "

"What? Unpack some boxes? How many damn boxes do you have back there?" Michael groaned. He was so tired of doing the same boring tasks and being bossed around by Matt every day. "No one even comes in here, there's no reason for me to constantly restock the shelves when nothing gets bought!"

"Don't question it, man, just do it." Matt said, chuckling to himself. Of course he thought this was funny. What a dick.

"Why do you do this? Why do you have treat me like shit? I've never done anything to you to deserve this!" Michael exclaimed, too upset now to stop himself from saying more. "Is it because of Melissa? Look, I'm sorry, dude, but she's just not into you anymore. Get over it."

"Michael, seriously, just shut up and go unpack some more boxes." Matt sighed. "This doesn't have anything to do with Melissa, calm down."

"I'm not just going to sit around all day and unpack boxes for you!" Michael yelled. "This is so fucking stupid, you boss me around like I'm your god damn slave and I'm sick of it!"

"Alright, fine. You're fired." Matt shrugged. "I only kept you here because that's what Melissa wanted."

"No, I'm not fired." Michael scoffed, ignoring Matt's comment about Melissa. He grabbed his jacket and his keys and came out from behind the counter, walking passed Matt and to the door. "I quit!"

"You're fired!" Matt yelled after Michael as he left.

"I quit!" Michael yelled louder, wanting to have the last word.

He angrily walked to where his car was parked, unlocking it and getting in to the front seat, slamming the door shut. All Michael could do was let out a big groan, because he knew that he was really screwed now. He was back to having no job, no way to pay for anything on his own.

Plus, he'd gotten fired on his birthday, so now it was officially the worst day ever.

Michael took out his phone and scrolled through his list of contacts, stopping on Melissa's number and typing a new text to her.

Boyfriend!!: where are you

Girlfriend!!: grocery shopping

Boyfriend!!: where

Girlfriend!!: at the grocery store...

Boyfriend!!: I want to see you right now

Girlfriend!!: kinky

Boyfriend!!: no mel not in a kinky way :( I'm sad

Melissa didn't answer for a few minutes, which only made Michael feel a lot worse. He sat alone in his car and stared out the windshield in front of him, not knowing what else to do. After a few minutes his phone started to ring, and Michael quickly answered it.

"What's wrong?" Melissa asked right away, not even saying hello.

"I got fired." Michael sighed.

"You what?" Melissa gasped, like she didn't believe it. Honestly, Michael kind of saw it coming. He didn't exactly think that he'd get fired this soon, but knew that it was eventually going to happen for one reason or the other.

"Matt fired me." Michael said blankly.

"Why? What did you do?" Melissa questioned. "Did he say why? Are you there still? Let me talk at him, I'll fuck him up."

"I yelled at him and then he just said that I was fired." Michael mumbled. "I mean, technically I quit, but really I was fired."

"I don't understand." Melissa chuckled. "Do you want me to go in and talk to him? I'll do it. He's scared of me, he'll do whatever I tell him to."

"No. I don't want my job back, that's not why I'm so upset." Michael sniffed, wiping his runny nose with the sleeve of his jacket.

"Then why are you upset?" Melissa asked.

"Because now I'm totally fucked. I don't have a job and I have to pay for all of this shit like food and the apartment and stuff for Parker. I'm screwed." Michael explained. His eyes were filling with tears now and Michael really hoped that he wouldn't start crying, because that would probably just make everything worse.

"You're not screwed, Michael." Melissa sighed. "We'll figure something out."

"I'm so fucked." Michael repeated, sniffing again.

"Michael, where are you?" Melissa asked softly, obviously able to tell how upset he was.

"I'm still parked outside of the fucking music shop. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now, Mel." Michael groaned.

He actually did know what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to go out and find a new job, a job that he could kick ass at and not have to worry about any cheating ex-boyfriends while doing it. But Michael was just in a bad mood now, and he didn't want to go out and find a new job.

"Do you want to come over for a little while?" Melissa asked. "I'm in the car now, I'll be home in 10 minutes."

"I don't know... You have stuff to do, I don't want to get in the way." Michael said, wiping at his eyes and trying to get himself to stop crying. It didn't work, though, and Michael knew that no matter how hard he tried to stop himself from crying Melissa was still going to hear him.

"Michael, please come over. You won't get in the way, just come here." Melissa said, letting out a sigh. "Don't lie to me and say that you're okay. I can hear you crying."

"I guess..." Michael trailed off, still trying to wipe his eyes and stop the tears from coming.

"Just calm down, okay? Take a few deep breaths before you start driving, you're going to be alright." Melissa assured him, and that made Michael feel a little better.

"Okay." Michael finally nodded, figuring that if Melissa was asking him to come over herself it wouldn't be a big deal. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Alright." Melissa said. "Be careful. I'll see you soon."

Michael calmed himself down by taking a few deep breaths just like Melissa had told him to and then started his car up again, making his way to Melissa's house. He didn't want to get in the way of Melissa while she was "working", and he was afraid that he would just cause more problems if he did. But, at the same time, he really wanted to be with her, and this seemed to be their only option.

He arrived at Melissa's house as she was getting out of her own car, taking a few grocery bags out of the trunk. Michael came up behind her and took a couple bags for her, following Melissa into the house and back to the kitchen.

"Thanks." Melissa gave him a small smile, taking the bags from Michael and setting them on the counter.

Michael mumbled a soft "you're welcome" while looking down at the ground, suddenly a little embarrassed.

At one point, not that long ago, Michael thought that he had his whole life figured out. He had an okay job, a nice girlfriend, a great kid. But now he feared that it was all about to take a turn for the worse, which is what usually happened to Michael.

"Come here." Melissa said quietly, holding her arms out for Michael. He didn't even hesitate and walked forward, letting her wrap her arms around him. Michael buried his face in the crook of Melissa's neck, as if he was trying to hide from everything else.

"I fuck everything up." Michael mumbled into her neck.

"No you don't." Melissa sighed, rubbing her hands up and down Michael's back to comfort him.

"Yes I do." Michael argued. He truly believed that he did. He always managed to take the good things in his life and find way to ruin them in some way.

"No you don't." Melissa protested.

"Yes I do." Michael said, letting out a small chuckle at the fact that they were actually arguing about this.

"Michael." Melissa chuckled as well. She grabbed the sides of Michael's face, forcing him to look at her. She stood up on her toes and quickly kissed Michael on the lips, giving him a small smile. "You don't fuck everything up. You're going to be okay."

"No I'm not." Michael sighed, shaking his head. "God, I'm such an idiot. If I had just kept my mouth shut none of this would have happened."

"You'll find a new job." Melissa assured him. Her hand traveled down to his own and she laced their fingers together, giving it a small squeeze. "I'll help you."

"Fuck, this isn't supposed to be happening." Michael mumbled, frustratedly running his hands through his hair. "I'm supposed to have my life all together, I'm not supposed to be 24 with a kid and no job."

"Okay." Melissa let out a big sigh to herself, because obviously her tactic of making Michael feel better had failed. "Why don't you go sit down on the couch, Michael? I'm going to finish putting these groceries away and then I'll make some hot chocolate or something for us and we can talk some more."

"Alright." Michael nodded. He gave Melissa's hand another squeeze before letting go of her and turning out of the kitchen, heading towards the living room.

Michael curled up on the end of the couch, tightly clutching a pillow to his chest, his mind swimming with thoughts. When it all came down to it, Michael just felt like a failure.

After a few minutes Melissa came back into the living room, two mugs of hot chocolate in her hands. She passed one to Michael, who at up a little straighter and smiled at the sight of it.

"You're going to be alright, Michael." Melissa assured him again.

"I just don't understand how all of this happened." Michael muttered to himself, shaking his head. He tried to take a sip of his hot chocolate but he just burned his tongue on it, so Michael set it down on the coffee table in front of him.

"What do you mean?" Melissa asked.

"I-I don't know. I guess I just don't know why I made some of the decisions that I did. Like, when I found out that Beth was pregnant with Parker I immediately decided that I was going to drop out of school, but I don't know why. I'm so stupid, didn't I realize that I was going to need to go to college and get a job so I could pay for everything?" Michael rambled on. "I never got a job, I relied on my parents to help pay for my apartment and I relied on Beth to pay for just about everything else. Even when she left, I still relied on other people, like Calum and Ashton and my parents, again, to help me pay for things."

"Yeah, but there's still time to try and fix this, isn't there?" Melissa asked. "You can find a new job, Michael, I'll help you."

"No. I'm fucked, okay? I'm fucked." Michael shook his head. "No one wants to hire a college drop out, I only got the job at the music store because you have personal connections with the owner."

"Well, then I'm going to help you pay for or all of this stuff until we can figure something else out." Melissa said simply, not even taking a moment to think this over.

"Mel, I can't ask you to do something like that - " Michael said quickly. He didn't want to put pressure on Melissa about something like this, he couldn't make her pay bills for him, that was asking for way too much.

"You're not asking, I want to. Besides, I have a lot of extra money that I don't have anything to do with. Like, I get paid almost $300 a week for watching Katie everyday and her mom doesn't make me pay to live here or anything, so I basically have thousands of dollars in my bank account that I'm never going to use - "

"Thanks for bragging about all of your money." Michael pouted sarcastically, folding his arms across his chest.

"Michael." Melissa whined. She set her mug of hot chocolate down on the coffee table in front of them and crawled across the couch, closer to Michael. "I want to help you."

"I know you do, and I really, really appreciate that. Seriously, babe, you're the best. I just don't want to rely on other people for things like this. I need to learn how to take care of myself, and Parker, on my own." Michael explained, letting out another big sigh.

"Okay, I get it. I really, really get it. I just want to help you for now, okay? Just until you get a new job." Melissa said, reaching over and grabbing Michael's hands in her own. "Then you can do everything on your own. You can ignore me if you want. You'll pay for everything and make every decision by yourself, and I promise that I'll just sit there and keep quiet. Does that sound like a plan?"

"Well maybe I don't want to do everything alone..." Michael mumbled, finally cracking a small smile.

"That's fine too." Melissa shrugged. She gave Michael a big, cheesy smile and jokingly batted her eyelashes. "But you'll let me help you, right?"

"I mean, if you have to." Michael said, jokingly rolling his eyes at her. "You don't need to, though, I can always call my parents or Calum or - "

"Michael." Melissa said, cutting him off. She pouted and furrowed her eyebrows at him, frustrated that Michael kept trying to argue about this. "Stop."

"Okay, sorry." He nodded quickly, finally deciding that maybe it would be okay for Melissa to help him out. But only a little.

"It'll be okay." Melissa said softly, bringing her hands up to the nape of his neck and pulling towards her. She leaned in and pressed her lips to Michael's, catching him off guard.

Michael smiled a little into the kiss and grabbed Melissa's waist, pulling her closer to him before falling back onto the couch and bringing Melissa down on top of him. They stayed like that for a while and it honestly made Michael feel a lot better, which was weird. He liked it, though, so it was okay.

Just when Michael thought that he was going to get his special birthday present (he hadn't completely forgotten about that), Melissa stopped.

"I have to do something." She said, sitting up and placing her hands on Michael's chest.

"What?" Michael groaned. He knew that Melissa had stuff to do around the house, that was her job after all, but he thought that maybe she would be able to spend a little more time with him. He was feeling needy today, he just couldn't help it.

"It's a surprise." Melissa giggled to herself, climbing off of Michael's lap. She straightened out her shirt, which Michael had stuck his hands up a few minutes earlier.

"Are you going to go put on a sexy maid costume?" Michael questioned, a hopefully smile on his face.

"Oh, so now you want to get kinky?" Melissa scoffed, running her fingers through her hair.

"Just a little." Michael shrugged.

"Later." Melissa said blankly, turning away from Michael. "I have to do laundry."

"Oh, that's no fun!" Michael whined. He sat up, realizing that they weren't going to go any further for right now. "Fuck laundry, Katie's mom can do he own!"

"I'll get yelled at if I don't do it." Melissa looked over her shoulder and pouted at Michael as she left the room.

"You know what? I think I should talk to this lady." Michael said boldly, standing up from the couch and following Melissa. He was feeling a lot better now. "She makes you do the stupidest things, and it's not fair! Cooking dinner every night, grocery shopping, laundry! What's her job, anyway? Why doesn't she have time to do any of these things on her own?"

"She's a lawyer or something, I don't even know." Melissa sighed, trying to wave the whole conversation away. Michael followed her into the laundry room (which was really nice, wow) and leaned against the dryer.

"Well, I think she's a pathetic bitch." Michael said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Michael!" Melissa gasped (but she smiled too), turning around and slapping Michael on the chest.

"What? She's not here, she can't hear me." Michael scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"I think she has this place wired." Melissa said, looking around the room and up at the ceiling.

"Fuck!" Michael yelled loudly, making Melissa turn around and slap him again.

"Stop it!" She laughed, turning back to the laundry.

"I'm serious, though, I think I should talk to her. What she's doing is really pathetic, actually. She practically makes you do her job as a mother and that's not fair to anyone." Michael continued. He had a very strong opinion about this, he had since the very first time Melissa talked about it. "I especially hate the way that she doesn't spend time with Katie. I mean, I'm not the perfect example of a good parent, but even I know that spending time with your child is important. Katie's mom basically ignores her."

"I know, Michael, it's not the best situation, but I really can't do anything." Melissa sighed, her back still to Michael.

"But why not? You love Katie, you do a better job taking care of her than anyone else ever could. I think you should do something." Michael insisted. In his opinion Melissa should just permanently have custody of Katie, but he knew that would never happen.

"Like what? Report her mom to child services? I know that it really, really sucks that this is happening but she's not actually doing anything wrong, there's nothing we can do." Melissa glanced at Michael for a moment before turning around again.

"I just don't understand why people have kids if they don't actually want them." Michael mumbled to himself, staring down at the floor.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Melissa scoffed. "Trust me, Michael, if there was something that I could do, I'd do it."

"Yeah." Michael sighed. "I just feel so bad for Katie, she's four and she never gets to see her parents, I can't even imagine how shitty that must feel."

"I know, it's sad. Everything will turn out okay in the end, though." Melissa said, turning around and leaning up against the washing machine next to Michael.

"Do you really think it will?" Michael questioned. He wanted to believe what she was saying, but it was hard. Melissa had just told him that there was nothing that they could do to help, he wasn't sure how everything would turn out okay if they weren't planning on doing anything.

"Oh yeah, I won't let it not turn out okay." Melissa nodded, a smile making its way onto her face.

"I just really care about Katie, I want what's best for her." Michael said, sighing again. He wrapped his arms around Melissa's waist from the side and pulled her closer, hugging her tightly. "It's not fair how she's treated."

"I know." Melissa nodded again, looking up at Michael.

"You do a really good job of taking care of her." Michael mumbled, his lips now pressed to Melissa's forehead. "You're better than her own mother."

Michael was going to compliment Melissa some more (he hoped that maybe she'd agree to the sexy maid costume if he was super nice), but they were interrupted by the phone ringing in the other room.

"Voicemail?" Michael asked hopefully, still holding Melissa tightly against his chest.

"I should get it." Melissa said, wiggling away from Michael. He grabbed her hand, trying to pull her back.

"What if it's, like, a telemarketer or something?" Michael whined. He stayed standing where he was before, trying to drag Melissa back to him.

"Michael." She giggled, continuing to walk out of the room. Michael forced himself away from his spot on the dryer and followed Melissa into the kitchen.

"If it's one of those God damn recorded messages then I swear I'm going to be so mad..." Michael trailed off, wrapping his arms around Melissa's waist from behind as she answered the phone.

"Hello?" She asked into it, ignoring Michael and how whiney he was being. "Yeah... Yeah... Yeah... I'm with him now. No! Yeah... Yeah... No, definitely not. Okay. Bye"

"That was interesting." Michael said, mostly to himself, after Melissa had hung up the phone. He leaned down and pressed a few kisses to her neck, enjoying the fact that she was still in his arms. "Who was that?"

"Oh, no one." Melissa said quickly.

"Are you serious? It was obviously someone that I know. You talked about me." Michael groaned. He knew that Melissa was talking about him on the phone but he didn't know why she had to keep it a secret. He was right there, she couldn't just not tell him.

"It's not a big deal." Melissa shrugged. She turned around and wrapped her arms around Michael's neck, standing up on her toes and quickly kissing him on the lips. "Let's go upstairs."

"No." Michael pouted. He didn't want to do anything with Melissa until she told him who she was talking on the phone with.

"Michael." Melissa whined, kissing down his neck. "Please, baby, let's go upstairs."

"Was it Matt on the phone?" Michael questioned, ignoring Melissa and her baby comment.

If he wasn't so preoccupied with the thought of Melissa talking about him to someone on the phone he would have bent her over the counter and fucked her already, but unfortunately he was.

"Why would Matt call me?" Melissa asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"So he could brag about firing me." Michael shrugged.

Melissa just shook her head, laughing quietly to herself. "Let's go upstairs." She said, running her hands up and down Michael's chest.

"I don't want to go upstairs, not until you tell me who was on the phone." Michael said stubbornly, stepping away from Melissa.

"Are you serious?" Melissa scoffed. "I'm finally agreeing to do kinky stuff with you and you don't even want it?"

"I don't want to do anything kinky until you tell me who was on the other end of the phone." Michael said, trying hard to keep a straight face as he spoke.

"Why are you doing this? It's not a big deal, Michael, I mentioned you for, like, 2 seconds." Melissa laughed, walking towards Michael as he backed up against the counter.

"Who did you mention me to?" Michael smirked, feeling as if he's finally cracked her.

"None of your business."

"Damn." Michael sighed, his plan had failed.

"Okay, if you don't want to go upstairs then I guess you can help me clean the house!" Melissa said with mock excitement, clapping her hands together.

"I think I'd rather just sit on the couch and watch TV." Michael shrugged.

"No. You either clean the house with me or we go upstairs. Your choice." Melissa said, giving him another big smile.

"Fine, then I'll clean the house with you." Michael crossed his arms over his chest, purposely trying to annoy Melissa. He knew that she really didn't want to clean the house, and she'd eventually give in and tell Michael what he wanted to know so that they could go upstairs. See, he had a plan once again.

"Fine." Melissa said, turning away from Michael and walking out of the room.

"Fine!" He called, following after her.

For the next hour they went around and cleaned almost every room downstairs. There was a lot of arguing (mostly about who was on the phone) and Michael even sprayed Melissa with the stuff that they used to clean off the kitchen counter once or twice, which just made her even more upset. At one point Michael decided that he regretted his decision of staying downstairs to clean, and he made the mistake of telling Melissa.

"Hey, babe, I think we should go upstairs now. It doesn't matter who was on the phone. Let's go do some...stuff, come on." Michael said, a cocky smile on his face. This was after he'd sprayed Melissa with the cleaning stuff and she was beyond irritated with him.

"Michael Clifford!" She yelled, covering her face with her hands. "We are not going upstairs!"

"Then will you tell me who was on the phone?" Michael begged, trying not to let Melissa hear that he was laughing at her.

"No." Melissa snapped. She let out a big sigh and uncovered her face, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"Okay, okay, fine." Michael surrendered, going back to dusting the furniture in the fancy dining room.

When they were finally done cleaning they both sat down on the couch, a little worn out. Michael thought cleaning his apartment was hard, but this house was even worse. He checked his phone for the time, not even knowing how long it had taken them to clean everything.

"Oh shit, we have to go pick up the kids." Michael gasped, standing up from the couch. They were late, but honestly, what's new?

"No we don't." Melissa shook her head tiredly, grabbing Michael's wrist and pulling him back down onto the couch.

"Uh, yes we do." Michael argued. He showed Melissa his phone, which displayed the time, proving to her that they were indeed late.

"Calum's picking them up." Melissa said, smiling back at him.

"No he's not." Michael scoffed. "You're such a little liar, Mel, what are you trying to do?"

"That's who I was on the phone with." Melissa said, a very serious tone in her voice. Michael still didn't quite believe her, he needed proof.

"No it wasn't." Michael said, shaking his head.

"Michael, I swear to God!" Melissa groaned. "He's who I was on the phone with!"

"Then why couldn't you tell me that before?" Michael asked, throwing his hands up in the air. It really wasn't a big deal that Melissa was talking to Calum, he trusted her, he just didn't understand why she couldn't tell him who it was an hour ago.

"I don't know." Melissa shrugged. "But Calum's picking up Parker and Katie from school and bringing them back to your apartment. You're welcome."

"Why is Calum doing that?" Michael questioned. He could tell that Melissa was trying to just end the conversation there, but Michael wasn't going to let her off that easy.

"Because." Melissa said, shrugging again.

"Because?" Michael raised his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I have a plan." Melissa smirked. She stood up from the couch and grabbed Michael's hand, pulling him towards her and then leading him out of the room.

"Oh my God, you're ruining my life." Michael groaned playfully, following Melissa up the stairs.

"Good!" Melissa laughed loudly, dragging Michael behind her.

"I'm going to call Calum." Michael said sternly, pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialing Calum's number.

"Why? Don't you trust me?" Melissa scoffed. She took Michael into her room and then shut the door behind him, grabbing his shoulders and turning him around so he was facing the wall.

"You're acting suspicious." Michael said, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked down at his phone.

After a short conversation with Calum ("Why are you doing this?" "Because." "That's not a good enough answer." "Yes it is." "No." "It's a surprise, bye."), Michael finally decided that Melissa was telling the truth. Michael turned away from the wall and faced Melissa, who had moved and was now standing behind him.

"You know, Calum didn't even say happy birthday to me..." Michael trailed off, realizing again that it was his birthday and everyone was refusing to acknowledge that. "You didn't say a happy birthday to me either."

"Happy birthday!" Melissa said excitedly, throwing her hands up in the air and smiling.

"Yeah, it's too late for that." Michael pouted.

"But I got you presents!" Melissa said, walking over to Michael and grabbing his hands. She pulled him over to her bed and made him sit down on the edge of it.

"Liar." Michael continued to pout, folding his arms over his chest.

"I'm not lying!" Melissa argued. She bent down and quickly kissed Michael on the lips before turning away and quickly walking over to her closet on the other side of the room. "I'll go get them right now!"

"Are you going to put on a sexy maid costume? Is that my present?" Michael asked blankly, not believing that Melissa had actually gone out and gotten him presents.

"Why do you think I own one of those?" Melissa asked from inside of her closet. "We have to go to one of those shops for something like that, Michael, I don't just have one hanging in the back of my closet."

Melissa emerged from her closet a few seconds later with what looked like a billion boxes in her hands. She set them down next to Michael and then ran off into the closet again, coming out a moment later with a huge teddy bear.

"Is that for me?" Michael questioned, his mouth open wide. It was probably the coolest thing he'd ever seen, and it was probably half the size of him.

"Uh huh." Melissa nodded.

"Oh my God, that's so cool." Michael giggled. He took the bear from her and sat it down next to him, making it sit up. "It's bigger than Parker!"

"It's cute, isn't it? Katie told me to get it for you." Melissa laughed at how excited Michael was about this. "Open the rest of your presents."

Michael tore into his presents like he was a little kid on Christmas morning, a giant smile on his face as he opened each present. Melissa got him such great gifts (CDs from his favorite bands, a few gift cards to his favorite stores, a new dress shirt because he'd mentioned needing one, and lots of candy) and Michael almost felt bad. He was going to need to get her a really great Christmas present to make up for all of this.

"You're seriously the best." Michael said, still in shock, staring up at Melissa.

"That's not all, you'll get more later." She chuckled, looking pleased with herself for getting Michael such great presents.

"Oh my God, you're spoiling me!" Michael laughed, standing up and pulling Melissa in for a big hug to thank her. "You know how some girls have sugar daddies that buy them a ton of stuff? You're like my sugar... mommy."

"Don't ever call me that again." Melissa said, quickly pulling away from him. "Try your shirt on."

Michael nodded and took the shirt he was wearing off, letting it fall to the ground next to him. He put on the new shirt, which was just a simple white button up, eyeing himself in the mirror across the room.

"I really needed a new shirt like this, mine was starting to get small on me." Michael chuckled to himself, allowing Melissa to button the shirt up for him. He looked at himself in the mirror propped up against the wall in front of him. "I look so fancy, wow."

"Does it fit alright?" Melissa asked, playing with the ends of her hair.

"Yeah, it's perfect." Michael smiled, leaning over and giving Melissa a quick kiss on the lips. "Thank you so much, Mel, for everything."

"See, I told you I was going to get you good presents." Melissa bit down on her bottom lip, running her hands up Michael's chest.

"I honestly thought you were kidding." Michael chuckled to himself. He kind of thought that Melissa's big birthday present for Michael was going to be sex, but oh well.

"Well, I wasn't." Melissa smirked, standing on her toes and pressing a few kisses to Michael's neck. "And like I said, there's still more."

Oh. So maybe Melissa's big birthday present for Michael was going to be sex.

"When am I going to get these other presents?" Michael asked. He brought his hands to Melissa's hips, pulling her closer to him.

"Well when do you want them?" Melissa laughed. She walked backwards until she bumped up against the edge of the bed, then pulled Michael down on it with her.

"Whenever you're willing to give them to me." Michael shrugged. He leaned in and kissed Melissa on the lips, using his hands to support himself above her.

"Okay, how about now?" Melissa pulled on the collar of Michael's shirt, kissing him again before he could say anything else.

Michael nodded to himself and rolled over so Melissa was on top of him, gripping the backs of her thighs. She undid a few of the buttons on Michael's shirt, her lips working their way down his neck and chest.

"I feel like we're being watched." Melissa joked, glancing over her shoulder and looking at the bear sitting on the edge of the bed. Michael just laughed and kicked it, watching the giant teddy bear fall to the floor.

Melissa ran her hands up Michael's chest again and kissed him on the lips, tangling her fingers in the ends of his hair. Michael cupped Melissa's cheek in one of his hands, keeping her pressed against him.

Michael finally took a minute to actually be thankful for Calum picking the kids up from school, because this wouldn't be happening right now if he hadn't.

But of course, just when Michael thought that they were actually getting somewhere, Melissa's phone started to ring again.

-

this was boring tHE NEXT ONE IS GOOD