Happy Birthday

"It's my birthday today."

Natalie was very confused when the text message from a number she didn't recognize popped up on her phone.  She clicked it to bring up her messaging app, intending to reply with something like "Sorry wrong number."  But when the app loaded, it showed her a past conversation with this number.  It had been the only response to her drunken gatling gun fire of new year messages.  All she knew about this person was that they had a brother named Greg and apparently their birthday was January 31.  She considered ignoring this new information as she allowed herself to feel embarrassed that this stranger had her number at all, but ultimately she figured why the hell not and typed back, "Happy birthday!"  And then after a brief moment of hesitation wondering if she even wanted to know the answer to her next question, or if she would get an honest response at all, she decided to go all in and asked, "How old?"

"Thanks.  31."  Came the combined response.

She smirked as she typed back, "31 on the 31st huh?"

"Only time," was sent back and it took her half a second to realize they meant this was the only day the day of the month would correspond with the number of years they were turning on their birthday, assuming of course they were even telling the truth.

"Already passed my only time.  Was 24 on March 24 few yrs ago," she replied before she could think better of revealing this personal information to a stranger.

There was a longer pause this time with a bit of typing and apparent retyping before her mystery friend decided to simply send, "I'm Aaron btw".

Natalie took a moment for herself after that.  Should she share her name?  If this person was being honest, if it was a guy turning 31 and she admitted to being a woman in her late 20s, could that get awkward?  She didn't want this to be awkward, but then again why should she even care?  She had started this on a whim anyway, and she had no obligation to be honest about any of this.  Heck, she didn't even know if he (assuming it really was a he) was being honest.  Still, she couldn't bring herself to lie.  With a sigh, she replied, "Happy Birthday, Aaron."

"Thx" was the shortest reply yet, followed by silence.