It looks like someone has become a fan of preemptive damage control. Apparently, Tom Cruise was concerned that people would get the wrong impression when he and wifebot Katie Holmes spent their third anniversary apart, so he made sure that some choice quotes made their way to People:

With work threatening to take Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes to separate places on the globe this week, the couple made sure to celebrate their third wedding anniversary in advance.

On Saturday night, the pair – who tied the knot in a lavish affair in Italy on Nov. 18, 2006 – celebrated the milestone with a romantic Italian dinner at Boston’s Bricco restaurant. Cruise, 47, surprised Holmes, 30, by renting out the entire second floor of the eatery, where the pair dined on house-made pasta, Chilean sea bass (Holmes’s pick) and Wagyu steak (Cruise’s choice).

With 3-year-old daughter Suri at home, “they held hands the entire night,” Ron Leduc, director of operations for Bricco, tells PEOPLE. “They had a romantic dinner.”

The pair were ready for more romance the next night, when they stopped in Boston’s Abe & Louie’s restaurant, a favorite of the couple during their autumn stay as Cruise shoots the upcoming action-comedy Knight & Day.

Surrounded by their security team, Cruise and Holmes sat at a table in the front of the restaurant and finished their meal with two sweet treats: seven-layer chocolate cake and key-lime pie.

Yes, Cruise is such a tough guy that he needs a security team present even while dining out in a public place. Think about that the next time you watch him in an action flick.