Cal appeared to have forgiven Lily, or at the very least swallowed a whole load of humble pie. Neither Ethan or Lily received an apology, but then, they hadn't expected one. But he was noticeably kinder to Ethan, which pleased Lily no end, although what provided her with more relief was the fact there would be no disciplinary action taken against her. Either he had realised he somewhat deserved Lily's ticking off, or Ethan had persuaded him he had better things to do. Personally, Lily strongly suspected that her boyfriend had had a strong influence of the final outcome.

She woke up early on the morning of her birthday; despite the fact she wasn't due in work until nine, when the sun streamed through her curtains at six thirty she couldn't help feeling wide awake. It was a beautiful morning too, white clouds skimming the skyline and the sky a bright blue despite the time. Not wanting to waste the day, she took her book into the lounge, where the large windows let in far more of the sun, and a light breeze when Lily opened them wide. She made a cup of tea and curled up on the sofa to finish the last few chapters of her book. At half past seven, the post fell onto the mat behind the front door. She smiled, she was glad of having a neighbour who worked a night shift. He often pushed her post through the door on the way to his own apartment. A small pile of envelopes sat behind the door. At least half were white and marked in such a way that they could only be bills or bank statements. The others were brightly coloured, obviously birthday cards.

Two from university friends, one form her parents (written by her mother seeing as her father couldn't be trusted to remember when things needed posting to arrive on time) with a reminder that she'd be seeing them at the weekend. As if she'd forget. Unlike her father, Lily was meticulously organised – this Saturday night was neatly marked on her calendar, and had been for weeks. Another card was from her aunt, an extremely caring unmarried woman whom Lily had always seen as a second mother when she was growing up. She always made up for how little her parents congratulated her achievements, and sent a fifty pound gift card in the envelope with her birthday card.

At eight o'clock, Lily heard a car pull up on the pavement outside. Odd, she thought, until she noticed the driver was Ethan. Lily almost flew down the two flights of stairs to let him in, only just remembering her keys in her haste.

"Surprise!" he said as she opened the door. She hugged him, carefully, as he was carrying-

"You brought me presents!" she said excitedly.

"Of course, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't? Happy birthday Lily."

She led him upstairs to her flat, glad that she was a tidy person and didn't have to worry about unexpected visitors. They sat on the sofa and Ethan started passing Lily her presents. The card was written so neatly she did a double take.

"Did you write this? Your handwriting is incredible!"

"I've never quite fitted the doctor's scrawl stereotype, I'm afraid. At least people can read my prescriptions!"

"How did you know I was about to finish my book?" she said as she unwrapped her present, a special edition of To Kill a Mockingbird.

"A lucky guess, plus you've barely put it down this last week so I could see you were nearly done. How close was I exactly?"

"Six pages, well done you!" She leant against him happily as she flipped the book over in her hands to read the back.

"I almost wore my copy out at university, it's just a beautiful book. I was praying you hadn't already read it – I take it you haven't?" Lily looked up and kissed him swiftly on the lips by way of an answer. "Oh, and I brought breakfast too, hoping you hadn't eaten already." She peeked into the brown paper bag, it held two almond pastries.

"You're spoiling me something rotten, you know that? Do you want to come over here after work? We could watch a film and order pizza – I mean if you want to."

"That sounds brilliant," Ethan said, hugging Lily before pulling his pastry from the bag and biting it, dropping flakes of pastry down his suit jacket. Lily laughed, taking hers and making a similar mess.

Before changing into her scrubs at work, Lily found another card tucked into the vent of her locker. It was from Zoe, written in her loose and friendly-looking handwriting. She thought she'd gotten away with nobody knowing it was her birthday, until late in the afternoon, when Ethan crept up behind her in triage with a bouquet of flowers.

"This was not part of the deal!" she laughed, squeezing his hand affectionately. "They're beautiful."

"Like you then," Ethan whispered, leaning into her ear so only she would hear. Managing to wrestle her blush under control, she smiled.

"Will you stop being so good with words? You're making me look like a terrible girlfriend!"

She let Ethan choose the film later on. Unintentionally, she dozed off whilst snuggled against him. Ethan couldn't help himself noticing that she involuntarily tensed in pain every so often. But by the end of the film it had slipped from his mind, so he didn't mention it when she woke up, embarrassed that she'd given him another opportunity to stare at her sleeping form.

"I'm sorry, I've just been so tired lately. I didn't even get to see the rest of the film, damn!"

"Don't worry, its getting late and you've had a busy day," he said, putting her at ease. "I'll see you tomorrow." He kissed her forehead lightly before allowing himself to be shown out. Standing on the doormat, he smiled and confidently kissed her lips, feeling butterflies and fireworks and every cliché he'd ever heard about falling in love.