WE BROUGHT FRIENDS

along home from the fundraiser, because it was the birthday of one of them, and I had made a cake.  Yes, yes, Reader Dear--it was THE CAKE again!  (I have made it six times since I first told you about it.  [I realize that sounds as though I am a bit obsessed with this confection (I am)])!

I had baked the cake with my friend's birthday in mind.  But I had another reason for making the cake, as well.  Other friends, from out of town, were arriving to stay over at the home of the Yard Man and me that very night. I had promised one of them a cake (Conveniently enough, I hadn't promised her a whole cake. [Even though I've been the Baking Dynamo of the Veritable Piece-of-Cake Cake, I have to admit I was delighted to let the one cake do double duty].).*

The out-of-town friends showed up at our house so much later than our first guests.  I had to make a big production of the wine and cheese and crackers and nut mix, stalling for time.  These first two friends were eying the clock and starting to make remarks about their usual bedtime.

And then, the Yard Man left the table and came back with a dragon fruit (gifted to him earlier in the day by a Korean man he'd met.   (Reader Dear, how often have you seen this downright stunning fruit?! In the natural world, this shade of pink is reserved mainly for flowers and sunsets]!)  The Yard man went and got a knife and cut open this exotic edible, and what ensued was nearly a half-hour of exclaiming and raving over it (on my part, I must admit) and tasting it, and...before you know it, in walked the out-of-town friends!

We went straightaway to singing Happy Birthday, and I cut up that cake. It carried us all the way to the end of the celebrated day and into the next one!
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Well, the bonhomie of close friends around a table had a lot to do with transporting us into the early hours, as well.  Even dragon fruit and birthday cake don't hold a candle to the beauty of true and abiding friendship!
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*Cream cheese icing this time.