almost forgot

Today was your birthday.  I almost forgot after the whirlwind that was the weekend swept over me and left me tired and vaguely functioning.  I forgot that Monday was a holiday, but still imagined I had a workday gap between your special day and the weekend.  So I came in Tuesday (looking a lot like someone who came from a whirlwind that was the weekend) with your carefully selected gift, with the plan to have it wrapped, bowtied, a bit of frizzle here and there, shiny and expensive looking paper, after work, leisurely, and with romantic thought-balloons hanging in the air.

I was wearing this oversized shirt (I've grown thinner and the shirt was sized for US constitutions) and helplessly loose pants (that was less punk, and more honey-I-shrunk-the-kids with a constant threat of indecent exposure) as I ran to the nearby grocery hoping to find a gift-wrapping service.  It was a simple gift, thought-out, and required that the packaging express the preparation involved.  I found the gift-wrapping counter(it was the one with lots of boxes) but to my dismay, only serviced goods bought from the store.  They were kind enough to direct me to the 100yen store across the floor that sold festive paper bags.

The played-down paperbag, in unobtrusive brown with a French blurb legibly written but unintelligible, was a perfect fit.  I shielded it from the sudden Autumn downpour that greeted me as I exited the train station near your office.  I managed to get to your office somehow without looking like a drowned kitty, and made my way upstairs.

As expected, you were hunched over your keyboard with an exquisite mess of hair held up by frustrations and glazed, honey-brown eyes transifixed behind a pair of glasses, quirky glasses.  You hadn't had lunch yet.  I sidled toward your desk, handed you the paperbag, and wished you a happy birthday in awkward Japanese, in suitably corporate tone, with an informal bow, with a rapidly thrumming heart.  You said hi and asked for a minute for you to settle something work-related on-screen, so I said hi to everyone else in the office, and tried to explain casually why I was there for lunch when I was supposedly working in an office 3 train stations away.

We talked on the elevator, nothing serious, nothing broadening, just friendly chatter about the concert you played in, how I think your tenor sax solo was wonderful and went well with the cabaret-themed dancers, how the weather turned to rain again, how we walked towards the shaded staircase near the smoking area, how you've started smoking again, that it is hard to stop smoking when we've got friends who smoke, how the smell of smoke reminds us of good things, and then if you were doing alright, how you celebrated your birthday with your parents at this restaurant near your place, how your mom picked the restaurant and by default paid for the meal, about how our friends teased you about this alleged Filipino custom of birthday celebrants giving gifts out, that that's a crock-of-you-know-what, how I hoped you would like the gift and my fear that you've already bought it for yourself(I had looked up how to say that in Japanese just this morning), that you haven't bought anything lately, that you plan to have dinner with your girlfriend next Thursday, and your hope that she bought a present, and that I thought girlfriends aren't required to bring presents (but it would be sweet if she did), how I had to go since it was almost the end of our lunchbreak.

The sun came-up again as I wished you goodbye, and once again, a happy birthay.  Somewhere in the conversation, I told you I would of course bring a gift. And of course this was because I will always be your friend.  That part, of course, I couldn't forget.