Closer than Ever

Chapter 54 - Wintersweet & Cake

On Thursday, I send Taehyung away to an indoor putting range with Jin and Jungkook while I decorate the condo for his birthday. Wintersweet branches laden with yellow blossoms fill a vase on one end of the kitchen island. I get ingredients to make a nice steak dinner, and bake a cake, which I adorn with strawberries and then frost his name and a trio of hearts onto as best I can. I also pull up a playlist of a bunch of his favorite happy songs, and get it ready to play on the bluetooth speaker.

The pièce de résistance, though, is the birthday card. I fold a piece of drawing paper into a card, and paint an abstract tropical scene on the front. Inside I copy the first stanza of a poem from John Watts: "Your incandescence drew me to your flame / Moth-like, I gravitated to your light. Then feigning nonchalance, I asked your name / The music of your voice set me to flight." I write it out in English and translate it as best I can into Korean, then add my own words of love, and tuck his gift inside.

Tae is slightly tipsy when he gets home, thanks to a birthday whiskey or two with the guys. He is adorably excited about the paper snowflakes, the blue and silver balloons suspended from the ceiling, and the "Happy Birthday, Taehyung" banner that I put up. "Birdie, you made it into a winter wonderland!" he exclaims, doing a little happy dance. "I've never had a girlfriend on my birthday before, to decorate for me!"

I laugh. "I'm so glad you like it, love! It was fun to do!"

We go into the kitchen, where he exclaims about the vase full of his birth flowers, and I have him sit down at the table to talk to me while I prepare dinner. He tells me all about their golf outing, calling me over a couple of times to look at pics on his phone, as I peel spuds for mashed potatoes. We sing along to the happy songs playlist, and I have to stop snapping the stems off the asparagus for a few minutes so that we can swing dance our way around the kitchen when "Sing Sing Sing" comes on. I pop the filets mignon into the oven to broil, mix some bleu cheese butter, and have a little break while everything cooks.

Just then, "L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole starts to play. I grab a wooden spoon out of the drawer to use as a mic and serenade Tae, who watches with a giant open-mouthed boxy smile across his face. I point the spoon at him and we both make the V sign under our eyes every time I sing the line "V is very, very extraordinary!" The song ends and he applauds as we both laugh. Then my timer goes off to remind me to put the asparagus in the oven to roast.

I drain the potatoes and set the table for dinner, with real cloth napkins and everything. "Are you sure I can't help, Birdie?" Taehyung asks.

"Well, since you're the resident wine expert, you could open the wine and do whatever fancy stuff to it like you do," I say, laughing and pointing to the bottle that's sitting on the counter next to the refrigerator. He walks over and reads the label, then nods his approval. "Oh, and could you reach the wine glasses down, too, babe?" I smile up at him.

"With pleasure," he says, laughing. He doesn't even have to say anything for me to know that he's teasing me about being short, so I stick my tongue out at him and laugh. He pats my butt, decants the Malbec, and sets the wine glasses on the table.

I mash the potatoes and plate them, place the steaks on top, then finish with crossed asparagus spears and a curl of fried onion. "Is it fancy enough, babe?" I ask, showing him.

"Almost!" my king of presentation says, plucking two wintersweet fronds and setting one on the edge of each plate. "Now it's perfect!" he declares. I grin at him and lean over to kiss the space between his pecs as I carry our dinner to the table. Taehyung brings the wine decanter and pours us each a glass. He holds up a forefinger to indicate that he's had an idea, grabs a couple of candles from a drawer and lights them, then dims the ceiling lights.