Happy birthday

[Vivienne Daniels]

Vivienne woke Cyrus up with a soft kiss on the lips, she had the evening planned for her surprise but she wanted to make sure the whole day was entirely about Cyrus. She had breakfast in bed for him when he woke up.

He returned the kiss quickly, and softly. He seemed surprised that she had brought him breakfast as he sat up in bed, rubbing sleep from his eyes and registering the smell of scrambled egg and lightly buttered toast, with a glass of chilled apple juice. She had learned that Cyrus’ needs were extraordinarily simple. He never expected anything fancy for any meal, including breakfast.

He received the silver tray with a smile, placing it on his lap.

“Morning, Kitten,” he said. “Sleep well?”

“I slept amazing. Happy birthday.” Vivienne beamed, handing him a small wrapped package.

“You remembered?” He sounded surprised.

Few people ever remembered Cyrus’ birthday, but it was likely following him on social media after their first encounter had burned the significance of May 19th into Vivienne’s brain. He unwrapped the gift carefully, another thing he wasn’t accustomed to receiving very often, so hers was infinitely more special to him. Inside was a small wristband with leather and what looked like a sound wave engraved on it.

“It’s what ‘I love you’ in my voice sounds like. So you can always hear it.”

Cyrus smiled as he slipped on the wristband, and kissed her again, slow and passionate, thanking her without words. She moaned into the kiss as she held him gently breaking the kiss after a moment, “I have the whole day planned.”

“I’m all yours, Kitten,” he said softly.

“So I have breakfast for you here and the boys are finishing up their breakfast. Then I was thinking they could give you their presents and we can drop them off with Mai.”

“Sounds good,” Cyrus smiled.

As Cyrus ate his breakfast, Vivienne got the twins dressed and ready for the day as well as got them to grab their presents to wait for Cyrus to come out of the bedroom. Cyrus savoured the breakfast, especially knowing how lovingly it was prepared. He had developed a love for Vivienne’s cooking; skills she’d obviously learned from her mother. He came and hugged his two boys as they ran to him, his grin wide.

“Birthday!” The twins cheered happily holding out a paper bag covered in messy crayon drawings to Cyrus. Opening the bag Cyrus found a small canvas that was clearly painted by the boys that was their family with poorly drawn people and dogs. Cyrus thanked each of the boys in turn with a kiss on the forehead, before packing their drawing away safely in his bags to carry home.

The boys tried their hand at singing happy birthday as off tune and not entirely understandable but it did have the right rhythm. Vivienne grabbed the care bags for the boys as the group made their way down to the lobby where she and Mai exchanged some pleasantries before taking the twins, and leaving the couple. Vivienne took his hand and led him to catch a carriage to the next location on her itinerary, the Louvre.

“You can’t come to Paris without visiting the Louvre,” she told him excitedly.

Cyrus knew little about the Louvre that hadn’t been learned through natural cultural osmosis. As soon as they arrived, Cyrus instantly understood why Vivienne was so excited, visiting a royal palace made her feel even more like a Princess. The art museum was far too impressive to visit properly in the span of a day, so they bought multiple day passes, since they were here until Wednesday anyway. For the time they had they walked around looking at some of the great painters as they walked hand in hand. Vivienne seemed thrilled to be around all the beautiful art. Cyrus didn’t consider himself much of an art lover, but Vivienne’s enthusiasm for it was infectious. Seeing her so filled with joy being here, filled him with his own joy.

“Careful, Kitten,” Cyrus smiled, “They might not let me leave here with you.”

“What do you mean?” Vivienne asked, confused. “Why would they stop us?”

“‘Cause you’re such a work of art yourself, Darling.”

That had caused Vivienne to blush hard and kiss him passionately but held back from falling so deeply under her own emotions from causing a scene by begging him for sex right there.

As lunch time came around, Vivienne got them a ride and a reservation at the Eiffel Tower. Just the sight of the structure seemed to fill Vivienne with electricity. She asked someone to take their picture in front of the structure before they made their way to the macaron bar to have lunch inside.

Apparently, Warren had once raved about their exclusive and exquisite macarons and romantic atmosphere here, and so Vivienne was eager to taste for herself. They even made out in the elevator ride up to where they had lunch. It was one of the most romantic lunches Vivienne had personally experienced in her life, the atmosphere alone was enough to give her a warm, pink glow as she lost herself in Cyrus’ brown eyes more than once. Previous fiancés had had little time for romance or her, but with him, everything had changed. The French cuisine was to die for and the view made her excited. They even took a little time after lunch to go up as high as they could. Vivienne was not normally a fan of heights but standing there, looking down at the city of love with her soulmate made her feel safe.

After that they had sampled some expensive champagne, they walked over to the Mur des Je t'aime - the love wall, as Vivienne had translated for him, he didn’t speak a word of French. Vivienne smiled at seeing the many different ways love was written on the wall and felt connected to the human experience of love. The way that Cyrus mended her heart in a way so few had made her feel whole. She hoped seeing it written in all the languages made Cyrus feel how special they were too.

Then a short cab ride to Palace Of Versailles to look at the castle and walk through the gardens. Here, they remained hand in hand and Cyrus silently reflected on how at peace and at home Vivienne always seemed in every garden they had ever visited together. Her ease had a wonderful, almost therapeutic effect on him.

“Ya sure you don’t want to take Dawn’s advice and honeymoon here, Kitten?”

“It’s a lovely place. I’m not going to deny that. But I’d love to see more of the place you grew up.” Vivienne smiled up at him.

“Okay,” Cyrus smiled. “I suppose it’s fair, you showed me around Madison a couple of months ago, after all.”

As the sun got close to setting they made their way to the boat tour to the Temple Romantique. Vivienne explained that they were going to the Isle of Reuilly, an artificial island situated on Lake Daumesnil, in the Bois de Vincennes, just outside Paris.

“Queen Marie-Antoinette, the last Queen of France, ordered the architect to develop, design and build the structure. It was built to celebrate the love of the Queen and the King, and the consummation of their marriage,” Vivienne explained as they sat at a small table on the private boat. “Couples from all over the world visit the Temple of Love, believing that sharing a kiss at the center of the temple strengthens their love and relationship.”

“Can I admit something, This is pretty much the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

“It’s the best birthday you’ve ever had?” Vivienne beamed at him, “Really?”

“Yeah, growing up we didn’t really celebrate it,” Cyrus said. “Even as an adult, I can count on one hand the number of people who gave enough of a fuck about me to make sure my birthdays meant something. This is the first time in a long while that anyone has made a real effort and for that I just want to thank you, Kitten.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry people haven’t made an effort before. You deserve to have a good birthday. You’ve made my life better and I just want to celebrate how much you mean to me.”

“I appreciate that, Kitten, I really do.”

The romantic dinner on board the boat, whilst watching the sunset on the way to the Temple Romantique was enhanced with some music as they made their way across the river. As the boat docked Vivienne took Cyrus’ hand and walked through the gardens and took in the sights before making it to the temple itself. The entire romance of the place seemed to fill Vivienne with a happy spark as she turned to him, somewhere maybe across the river, outside in the garden or from the boat itself the sound of someone singing La vie en rose as Vivienne reached up and kissed Cyrus right in the center. All her love and happiness with her choice made clear.

Cyrus cupped her cheek as he deepened the kiss soft and passionate, pulling her in by the waist. He held her tight and let her feel that his love for her was absolutely sincere and genuine. He didn’t entirely believe the myth that Vivienne had told him, but it wasn’t important. All that mattered most was that Vivienne believed it and it gave her a sense of security, happiness and belief in the absolute strength of their bond.