Well, if it is rude to ask, it must be ruder to celebrate the passage of time when you are as ancient as all that! I’m pretty sure 27 to a woman is what 50 is a man’s years. Possibly 60. So my failure of acknowledgement was just my gift to you, to let you keep pretending you’re just as young and delinquent as all the children you meet having their first bouts of magic.

Anyway, you would forgive me for my rudeness – your mother has been telling me all sorts about how fond you are of me. Just so you know.

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