Day Thirteen: Birthday
Seth stiffens as the waitress approaches with a plate of cake. "I'm told there's a birthday at this table."
"Right here," Ephraim says, gesturing towards Seth. "Our dear Mr. Knightly."
The waitress tilts her head. "Mr. Knightly? Like in the Jane Austin novel?"
"Yes," I say, smiling. "Exactly like in the novel." Forde snickers and Kyle glares at him.
The waitress places the cake– a layered chocolate confection– before Seth. "This is our house specialty: chocolate sponge cake dabbed with Grand Marnier, with layers of chocolate mousse and dusted with Belgian chocolate shavings."
"Thank you," Seth says. He only relaxes when she leaves. I wonder if he's had a bad experience involving restaurants on his birthday.
"I suppose we'll forbear singing 'Happy Birthday'," Ephraim says, "but in return I want to hear no complaints about you present. Not a thing about how you can't possibly and all that."
Poor dear. He looks pained. Finally, he sighs. "As long as it's not a small country."
"Belgium's not that small." Ephraim winks and then reached for something under the table. A box wrapped in red paper. A little uncertainly, Seth reaches for the box and begins working at the tape on each end and then at the bottom, finally opening the package without so much as tearing the paper. A black case. He opens it and inside is a leather-bound volume with gold lettering. With great care, he lifts the book out of the case and inspects the cover and the spine before opening it. There's an inscription on the inside cover. His eyes just about bulge out as he reads it.
"Ephraim..."
"It's a first edition and signed by the author. I tracked him down."
"You mean your assistant did," I cut in.
"A technicality. He retired from Stanford five years ago. I'm told that book is still considered a classic on World War I history. It's the right one, isn't it?"
"Yes. Yes it's... Thank you."
I reach out under the table and give Seth's arm a squeeze. He looks over at me, smiling.
"So what about your present?" Forde asks me.
"I already gave it to him." This morning I sang him 'Happy Birthday' and gave him a wrapped box with a bow on top. He unwrapped it the same way he did Ephraim's gift.
"Knicks season tickets," Seth says before Forde has the chance to make an off-colour joke. Of course I do have special lingerie I picked up in Paris that I'm going to try on tonight, but they don't need to know about that.