“Hey, Sheila! Do you want to go to the break room with me to get a snack?” asked Dani.

Sheila continued typing away, pretending that the volume of the music in her earbuds was too high to hear her, even though she wasn’t even listening to anything.

It was Sheila’s thirtieth birthday and she explicitly told her friends on the social committee that she absolutely did not want to celebrate this year. She was the only single one out of the hordes of married friends she surrounded herself with who were now starting their own baby boom in her social group. She felt like they were throwing her singleness in her face with their love and happiness and she was seriously beginning to resent them.

On top of that, she was still working as an associate in her office, just one step up from entry-level and about a thousand or so steps down from where she wanted to be financially at this stage in her life. She as still living in a shabby apartment with two male roommates and an amalgamation of used furniture. In her mind, none of the areas of her life exactly added up to success.

It didn’t bother her so much when she was in her twenties. She told herself that those ages were the years she was meant to truly find herself and when she hit thirty, everything would have already fallen into place to perfectly that she wouldn’t have even noticed when or how it happened.

But that morning, she woke up in the same old bed and got ready in the same old bathroom and got dressed in the same old clothes and rode the same old train to the same old job in the same old poorly lit office where she sat at the same old desk where she fought the same old urge to bash her head against the monitor for eight hours, except that she was thirty.

“Sheila? Sheils?” Dani said as she tentatively tapped her on the shoulder.

Sheila pretended to flinch in surprise at Dani’s touch. She pulled her earbuds out and swiveled around in her chair.

“Oh, hey Dani. Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. I’ve been listening to Rhianna on loop today,” she said.

Dani laughed and danced a little, “Ah, Rhi-Rhi! The only girl in the WORLD! No worries. Want to go to the break room with me? Snack time is officially calling.”

“Dani, this better not be a birthday party trick. I told you that I don’t want cake!” Sheila said, still sitting at her desk.

Dani held her hands up in surrender and said, “Hey now! No cake! Cross my heart.”

“And hope to die?”

“Stick a needle in my eye.”

Sheila sighed and stood up. “Fine. I don’t fully believe you just yet, but all I had for lunch was a measly kale salad and I’m dying right now.”

“If only the good lord would hashtag bless us with some pizza,” said Dani, closing her eyes and pointing her face toward the heavens.

“PREACH!” exclaimed Sheila.

They made their way to the break room making their usual three pm small talk about how slowly the day was going, why there wasn’t any pizza, who was wearing that weird green dress, what time they could successfully sneak out without being noticed, and when they got there, the door was closed and the lights were off.

Sheila turned to Dani and said, “I swear to god, Dani!”

“Oh get over it. It’s too late now! Everyone can see you! Just go in!”

“Stick a needle in your EYE!” Sheila said as she opened the door.

The lights came on and the room was packed to the gills with her work pals. Streamers were hung, balloons were placed in the corners, elegantly floating in place, and a mermaid shaped cake was in the center of the table.

“Surprise!” everyone shouted in unison, offering her a beer as they ushered her in and closed the door.

“You guys,” she started.

“For she’s a jolly good fellow! For she’s a jolly good fellow! For she’s a jolly good fe-heh-LOWWWWWW! And nobody can deny!” they sang.

Sheila raised her hands and said, “Okay, okay, okay! You got me! Let’s drink.”

They sat together eating the mermaid’s face and drinking their beers. She confided in them about her worries about her future, her concerns about becoming a spinster, and her fears about becoming jaded.

“Oh please!” said Dani, “Thirty is like the new twenty-five. No big! Cool it, girl!”

“Actually…” said Noah, which really surprised everyone because he mostly kept quiet during their get-togethers. They all turned to look at him. Not for the first time, Sheila admired his symmetrical features.

Noah’s face turned red. He looked at his hands and said, “Actually, I think you’re really smart and beautiful and intimidating. Always have. And I’ve always wanted to take you out. But I never knew how to ask.”

Sheila smiled and said, “I’d love to go out with you.”

“Oh snap! Shine bright like a DIAMOND!” Dani shouted and they saluted Noah and Sheila’s possible romance.

Sheila thought maybe thirty wouldn’t be so bad.