Happy 27th birthday, Emaan.

Sorry. 23rd. The balloons said 27, and I’m choosing to believe them. You can explain the four missing years whenever you’re ready.

I’m sorry this is a little late. You deserved this sooner. I know we already surprised you at Unwind, but I still wanted to give you something that was just from me. I wanted you to have all these photos in one place, and a few things I wanted to say properly. You can open this whenever you feel like remembering that night.

There’s one thing I really wanted to say properly: you’re my best best friend. Both bests are necessary. One doesn’t cover it, and I’m not taking either of them back.

I could have sent you this as a message, but I liked the idea of giving you something you could actually open. Something with your name on it, your photos in it, and a letter you can keep. I wanted you to have something to keep from me after all the birthday plans were over. I hope you come back to it whenever you feel like it.

I’m really glad you’re in my life, Emaan. And I don’t want to wait for your next birthday to say that again. I care about how you’re doing, what you’re looking forward to, and what’s bothering you. I want to hear about the good things, obviously, but you can tell me the other stuff too. You don’t need to save it for when I ask.

Thank you for the surprise and the memories at Unwind with our friends. Getting to help surprise you, and then having that time together, meant a lot to me. At Unwind, I wanted you to feel celebrated. I hope the surprise did that. I hope, when you think back to your birthday, you remember that people made an effort because they wanted to see you happy. I’m really glad I got to be part of it. And I wanted there to be something left after the day was over, something you could open again when you felt like it. That’s what this is.

I hope you get a lot out of this next year. I hope there are things you’re excited to tell me about. I hope something you’ve been hoping for works out. I hope you get time for the things you actually enjoy, and that you don’t spend the whole year being too hard on yourself. I hope there are plenty of days when you can just be happy without having to earn it first or explain why.

And if there are difficult days in there too, you don’t have to pretend they aren’t difficult just because another birthday has passed and you’re supposed to have everything figured out. I’m not expecting a perfect version of you. You’re my best best friend as you are. I want you to know you can talk to me, even when you don’t have a neat way of explaining what’s going on.

I also hope we make more plans. More chances to see each other, more photos to add here, and more birthdays I get to put some thought into. I’m not going to try to squeeze a whole year’s worth of wishes into a list, but I do want more time with you in it. That’s probably the most honest way I can put it.

I spent time making this because I wanted to. You don’t owe me a huge reaction or the perfect reply. If it makes you smile, that’s enough. I hope the photos bring a little bit of that night back when you look at them.

So, happy birthday again. Thank you for being my best best friend. I love you, I’m glad we got to celebrate you on your birthday, and I hope you like having a small piece of that birthday to keep.

Anyway. Happy 23rd. Or 27th. I’ll let you pick this once.