How do I do "damage control" for this?

[Indestructible]

This... isn't really a "romantic"/ dating scenario, more of a platonic thing, and it's not really a huge thing, or anything like that, but I'm looking for some input.

So, over the summer, I fell for this girl I've known for a while and had been really hitting it off with, and I asked her out, she gave it some thought, and ultimately turned me down. Things didn't get awkward, and we remained pretty tight. I admittedly still kinda have some feelings for her, deep down, but I understand and respect that she's not interested, but I still really enjoy spending time with her (more than anyone else I've known in quite some time), and I want to enjoy the time I do have with her, because I probably won't be seeing her anymore after December or January-ish.

Anyway, my birthday is coming up in three weeks, and I've never really done anything for my birthday, so this year, I was hoping to get some people together and maybe have dinner, or something. This topic came up a few weeks ago, and she seemed interested in coming along, but when I told her what day it was, she explained that she had made plans with some friends she hadn't seen in a while for that day.

I really kinda wanted her to be there, so I thought maybe do it the day before my birthday instead? My birthday is on a Saturday, so it really doesn't make a difference to me if I go out on Friday or Saturday night for my birthday. Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I told her that I knew she was busy on my birthday, and that I was wondering if she was free the night before. She asked "For what?" and I said "Just to do something for my birthday". She seemed a little awkward and said that she wasn't sure, but that she should be free. I just said I'd keep her posted.

At the time, I wondered why she seemed a little awkward about it, but later on, I realized that I failed to specify that I meant as a group, not just her and me. I kinda thought that was implied, yanno? Then I started wondering if maybe she thought I was asking her out again, even though I really wasn't.

So, now I'm kinda unsure how to "damage control" this. My birthday is in three weeks, and I'm not sure what, if anything, I should say to this girl. I mean, if she'd be willing to come along with the rest of us, I'd really like that, and if I don't bring it up again and just do whatever without her, I don't want her to think I just blew her off after saying I'd "keep her posted". But on the other hand, if she did get the wrong idea, I don't want to bring it up again and push her away even further, yanno? And heck, in the rare unlikely event that she did think I was asking her out again and that she had changed her mind and would do something just me and her, I wouldn't exactly want to pass that opportunity up.

Anyway, just curious about the best way to handle this. To "complicate" matters a bit, today, I was talking to a couple of the other people I'm inviting along, and they assumed I'd be doing whatever on that Saturday, and I just rolled with that, because I didn't want to explain why I was considering Friday instead. I get to spend a bit of time with this girl tomorrow, so I'd like to get this all smoothed out ASAP, since my birthday is only three weeks away now. Not really sure what, if anything, I'll say to her about it, though.

[Gwk]

So just bring it up and say that you're still thinking about doing something on Friday and that she would be more than welcome to join you and your friends to celebrate. That way she will understand it won't just be you and her.

[Gaylord Focker]

Anyway, just curious .

It seems here that you are just perhaps bi-curious? Your deep sub conscious may have sabotaged what would have been a one on one male-female date.

[Indestructible]

It seems here that you are just perhaps bi-curious? Your deep sub conscious may have sabotaged what would have been a one on one male-female date.

Huh? I don't follow what you're saying.

[Indestructible]

So, I kinda brought up my birthday to her again, in general, and apparently she did get the right idea, and is definitely planning to come. Though I'm still unclear if she definitely knows it's that Friday, or if perhaps her plans the next day have changed and she's free that day. I wanted to talk to her more about that, to clarify, but before I could do that, someone got her in a super bad mood, so I just left her alone.