His Belated Surprise

My beau will turn 26 on Monday, and I love birthdays. So you can imagine my disappointment with his "nothing" response when, a month ago, I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate. He hasn't recognized the annual occasion in more than a decade.
As a compromise, I offered to take him out to dinner at the Italian restaurant I'd told him so much about. He's almost loves pasta as much as my sister so I knew he'd accept. Since they only serve dinner Thursday through Saturday however, I had to settle on reservations for Friday (yesterday) at 8pm. A few days later, he told me it was bad luck to celebrate a birthday before the actual birthday, at least in Germany. "Fine," I replied, "it'll be an extremely belated 25th then," His follow-up: "it's about time."Last night, we dined at Olio Pane Vino. We ordered a bottle of fantastically crisp white wine and shared an appetizer of fresh mozzarella with grilled vegetables to start. Of the three pâtes du jour, we chose the linguine with garlic, oil, spicy red pepper for me and the penne with pesto for him. And afterwards, though we were comfortably satisfied, we decided to split a birthday dessert. Our tiramisu (apparently I can't get enough) was honestly only one degree less delicious than the one we'd enjoyed in Rome.
The night would have ended there had Lara not texted me to invite us to stop by her bar for a birthday shot. And who could refuse such a generous offer? It was a beautiful night to walk through central Paris (note the plage below) for a digestif.
But Lara hadn't texted me. She's still in the South of France with family. Instead, I'd made arrangements with my boyfriend's brother to round up a few friends from work. I asked Amy and Lorelei to join, too. And they awaited our arrival al fresco at The Long Hop.
Surprises are my favorite. Joyeux anniversaire, ma chou!
P.S. The photo above was most definitely posed.