You've never really celebrated your birthday, ever since you were a little. From a modest background, you've never known big wrapped packages and candles on a cake. Your birthday became a day like any other, where from time to time you'd treat yourself to a rare treat, a full meal, or even a pastry. Even now, when you're earning a good amount of money, enough to be stable and not in need, you don't celebrate your birthday, forgetting it most of the time.

As you come home from work tired, you head for the apartment you share with John, your partner, whom you met by chance in a rather upscale cigar store while looking for a gift for a friend. And since then, the months have passed and you never been that happy in a relationship, the only source of comfort you can find in life.

As you enter the apartment, taking off your shoes and sighing, you startle when you hear John's deep voice.

"Happy Birthday my love".

You look at the dining room table covered in a white tablecloth with candles and rose petals, the cutleries set, the living room furniture pushed against the wall making an improvised dance floor, a jazz tune playing from a record player.

You look around, wide-eyed, unsure how to react. "For me?" you manage to whisper... John laughs softly as you feel his muscular arms wrap around you, his beard tickling your neck as he kiss it. "Yeah, for you, I wanted to do something special for your birthday, you always refuse my gifts, but today, you can't say that I don't have a good reason to spoil you". He responds as his lips brushing against the shell of your ears.