Amber applauded the idea and joked that I would never notice something like that because I was not very observant. I stood frozen in the hallway holding the expensive cake as if it were evidence in a trial that I had not yet decided to start. At that exact moment my phone buzzed with a message from Dylan that read, “Working late tonight baby. Do not wait up.”
The timestamp showed 3:27 in the afternoon, and I realized he was lying to me while standing only a few feet away inside the bedroom. I could have confronted him immediately and demanded an explanation, yet a strange clarity filled my mind instead of anger. I placed the cake on the kitchen counter with careful movements and opened my laptop at the dining table.
I located the confirmation email for the reservation at Blue Harbor Table scheduled for seven o’clock on the fifteenth, which had required three months of advance booking and included a note requesting a birthday candle presentation.