The relative flood of people, two of whom had flowers and one of whom had food, caught Errol off guard. At least he recognized Fred; he tried to make eye contact with her, but she veered off to look at books, and he'd missed seeing if she'd noticed him as Beauty informed him that it was her birthday, which explained the visitors bearing gifts.
"I didn't know," he said. After a pause, he added, "Happy birthday." Before, birthdays were just a metric. He'd known that they used to be celebrated, but this was the first time he'd had the opportunity to see a celebration of the occasion first-hand. He ducked his head. "I would have got you something if I'd known."
He gave Dinah and Lestat brief smiles in turn. "Pleased to meet you," he said. And, with a slightly wider smile, he looked over to where Fred browsed and said, "Fred? Is that you?" He looked over to Beauty, still smiling. "Fred was one of my first friends here." His normally calm voice was ever so slightly tinged with relief. It wasn't that he didn't like meeting new people--he never would have sought out a job where so many came in and out every day if he did--but some days he felt overwhelmed, and having more than one familiar person nearby felt bolstering.