Sam's birthday party tonight. It's a sit-down dinner for six and she even went as far as making invitations.
Earlier she wanted me to cook stuffed chicken, but this week, she told me a small Red Ribbon black forest cake would be enough. Left early, and thank God I did because the traffic going to Las Pinas from Alabang was heavy. Stopped by SM South Mall to buy the cake Sam requested. Passed by Blue Magic and brought her a throw pillow. I had thought I would get to Sam's place a half hour early. I arrived there just in time thanks to heavy traffic.
Out of the five invited, only three of us were there. There's Lou, a high school friend of ours who's Sam's partner in a wedding coordinating business; and there's Derek, former IT teacher of St. Scho who's now La Consolacion's Dean of Computer Studies - he and Sam both attended the summer theater workshop and both are taking voice lessons. Sam said that I am her partner in watching movies, Lou is her business partner, Derek used to be her partner in drinking but now that drinking's off limits for her he's her partner when it comes to theater and singing, Myrna who hasn't arrived yet is her partner when frequenting cafes, and the fifth one (can't remember her name) is Sam's partner for out of town trips - true to form the last one can't come because she's in Tagaytay which is out of town.
Sam cooked everything we ate. Lou brought the wine. Since Sam started the meal with a salad with too much lettuce, we were too full to finish dessert, and the cake I brought wasn't opened. Since the background music was instrumental, Derek and Sam would break out into song now and then and talk about music which left Lou and I clueless to what they were talking about. It was too much when they played a game of guessing which broadway song was currently playing. We moved to the terrace after dinner to have some coffee or tea, and for Derek and Sam - more wine. Since Lou and I wanted some change in the music, Derek plopped in his Side A cd into the player. It turned out that the lead singer of Side A is Derek's uncle... so Sam wouldn't give up until he agreed to give her the cd as some sort of birthday gift. After all, I rationalized to Derek's chagrin, he could ask his uncle for another copy of the cd since he keeps bragging how he gets the Side A cds for free.
Myrna arrived when we had already spent considerable time on the terrace. Derek lingered for a half hour before leaving around midnight - we think he left early because his girlfriend wanted him to. When Derek left, girl talk prevailed and we had more fun talking.
