LOVE . . . Or Something Like It (Entry 4)

February 14

SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

Shortly after moving in with Kai, I decided one day to do something romantic for him. The idea I had was to make him breakfast in bed.

Dear Diary, you should just know that I’m not a cook – well, not in the traditional sense of the word. You won’t catch me in the kitchen making egusi soup or something that involved for you. I like to think of myself as someone who deconstructs. I am that kind of cook who will make stew out of the barest ingredients, and it’ll taste good. This is largely because, when I started cooking for myself and my siblings at home, my mother never actually spent any time to teach me how to cook. So, my cooking was a lot of “make it up as you go along” kinda thing.

So, that morning, I woke up and decided I was going to do something with plantain and bread. The plan was to fry the plantains and then do something fancy with bread crumbs, before serving it as breakfast to my lover who would still be in bed, seeing as he wasn’t a morning person. I mean, he does a lot of romantic stuff for me, and I was thinking that it was time for me to reciprocate.

I woke up that morning and got to cooking. I was puttering about in the kitchen as quietly as I could manage, so I didn’t wake him and give him cause to get out of bed to investigate what I was doing.

However, one moment, I was watching the plantains fry in the pan, and then the next, I was getting out my phone. I had this idea to take a snapshot of what I was doing, but then I got distracted by social media notifications. So engrossed was I in the happenings of Facebook, that I forgot that I had something on the fire, only coming to when the smell of burning alerted me to the very-ruined breakfast.

Yup! I was out here forming “sexy boyfriend who brings his man breakfast in bed,” and my food got burned.

Nice try, Kennedy. C for effort!

I had to go out to Dominos, which was a few blocks away from our house to get breakfast. I still got to serve it to him in bed, but it wasn’t the same without the lovingness that comes with preparing the meal yourself.

Another time, I decided to surprise him with a pair of shoes. I’d seen these sneakers online that I knew he would simply love to have. So, I ordered them. The plan was to not tell him and then, one day, he’d wake up to find the shoes on his computer. I hadn’t even gotten the shoes yet and I was already so excited by the prospect of seeing the surprised look on his face when he beheld my surprise.

On the day I was to get the package, the delivery guy called me to tell me he was outside. I’d hoped that Kai wouldn’t be around, but he was. This meant that I had to pull out all my 007 skills to get the package inside to a hiding place without alerting him. So, I told him that I was stepping out to buy something. He said okay.

Then I went out to meet the delivery guy.

And what do you know? Just as I was signing for the package, Kai stepped out too to take care of something outside. He basically caught me red-handed with the package. He was delighted when I told him it was my present to him, while I was in my mind like: WTF! Can someone not surprise this man again?

Then came a third attempt. I swear, Diary, at this point, I basically wanted to one-up Kai. He wasn’t in any competition with me o, but mehn, I wanted to know the satisfaction of planning something for my boyfriend and have it go exactly like I wanted.

His birthday was coming up in a few days. So, I went to a cake shop close to our place and commissioned the making of a cake, upon which I asked to be inscribed: “Happy Birthday, Babe.”

I would collect the cake on the morning of Kai’s birthday.

Like I said, Kai is not a morning person. This guy can sleep all the way till 10, 11. And so, I knew I could make a quick dash to Allen Avenue, where the cake shop was, and be back before he’d get out of bed. I got out of bed, got dressed and took off for the cake shop, from where I collected the cake which was perfectly done to my liking.

Then I came back home, set it down on the bed beside him and gently woke him up.

“Happy Birthday, babe,” I said as he roused.

And then, his sleepy eyes settled on the cake and they widened with rapturous delight.

That expression was all I wanted. It gave me the deepest joy to see the kind of pleasure that I had put there on his face and in his eyes.

Yes! I’d finally surprised him.

Written by Kennedy