It was Dean’s birthday yesterday, and it sucked that I couldn’t celebrate with him.

I was quite mean though.

I didn’t give him any present, I was busy working and I didn’t really care who he had dinner with.

Well, as far as Dean was concerned, that was all he knew.

But he was sooooooooo calm and understanding. “It’s OK, you’re far away. We’ll celebrate again when we see each other, OK?” he assured me when I apologised to him. As if he was the one comforting me! His patience was really tested and it made me realise (yet again!) what a mature man he was, not bothered by all this hype about birthday celebrations. To him, it’s just another day.

I apologised anyway, because he had a pretty dull day and I felt really bad!

But I realised I was a pretty good actress because in actual fact, I had planned a surprise dinner for him. I had booked the restaurant and ordered for the birthday cake to be delivered there. The cake store warned me that delivery address couldn’t be changed.

I created a Facebook event last month and got everything sorted out in time for his birthday.

I even told everyone to say they were not free, in case he organised his own dinner. True enough, he booked an Italian restaurant and planned to invite a few close friends. He even booked the restaurant right in front of me on Skype. Oh dear. What do I do now?!!! How to convince him to go to the original restaurant?

I just smiled at him calmly, but he couldn’t see that my fingers were furiously typing out BBMs to Stella telling her about this “problem”.

“What?!! Why didn’t you stop him? Everything is set already!” She scolded me.

“I couldn’t! It will be too obvious!” I wailed. “Nvm, tell everyone to say they’re not free.”

I got some help from Gf No. 1 (Yas) to somehow convince Dean to have dinner at the planned restaurant. “I heard it’s really good. Let’s try that! I booked already,” she must’ve said to him. It succeeded.

When Dean told me he was having dinner at this new restaurant he’s never heard of, Yas chirped in the background, “Tell Vivy to check out their website!”

I wanted to laugh so bad. Suddenly, we’re all up for the Emmy Awards.

So, the 2 main ladies who helped execute my plan were Stella and Yas. Stella had told Dean she wasn’t free, so Dean wasn’t expecting her at dinner. Stella’s task was backstage; to organise and get everyone together in the restaurant before Dean came. And Yas’s task was to handle Dean and get him to think he was having dinner with just 2 other people. This was trickier in the sense that she had to be very careful not to make him suspicious.

Gosh! So much work for this guy!

When he arrived at the restaurant, he didn’t have a clue. He saw one of his close friends, and then spotted Sofia and Mazzy at the same table. He told me his thought was, “Wow, they are all having dinner and they didn’t even invite me! Some friends they are!” Awww, so kesian.

But then, “SURPRISEE!!”.

Escorted by his best friend, Nick.

Sofia and Mazzy!

Some of the boys

Dean and 5 girls; made his day!

Yas and Stell; you guys are awesome!

Best friends

I ordered an aeroplane cake for him. For 2 reasons; he is going to graduate with a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering in a couple of months. And it symbolised our LDR that it only takes one plane ride to reunite us.

Yeah, he didn’t really get it.

But when he read the message on the cake, he understood.

I didn’t expect it to be this big!!! And I told the cake store to design it in a “Malaysia” concept, not British Airways or anything. But my god! Even the MAS logo was there! If this isn’t product placement, I don’t know what is. MAS should be happy and give me a free ticket to London.

He came home and saw presents from me. Yay!

And he showed me a card from Sofia and Mazzy.

They are hilarious, those 2.

They purposely left some stickers for Dean to stick on the trees himself.

And they told him that he was very pretty.

Anyway, Dean told me this was an unforgettable birthday. From a boring day, it became one of his happiest days.

What I learn from Dean today is that we should never expect something. If it comes, we’ll be sooo grateful and shocked and happy. But if it doesn’t, we won’t be disappointed.

Dean thanked me for my efforts, organising this from a different continent altogether.

“Yeah, yeah. I just can’t get over the fact that you wore the same sweater for your birthday last year!” I said, pointing out to his sweater.

There was a long silence. “OH YEAH I DID!” Dean said, laughing.

“I know it’s your favourite sweater, but my god, this is getting embarrassing! 2 birthdays in a row?!! People will think you have no other clothes.”

“So what if they do?” Dean ended the conversation, laughing at his contentment.

Confirmed.

Opposites do attract.