The Night After Valentine’s Day

Well, here is something for August–from February, posted in September. This is not a late post, but timely–I think–for the writer, for reasons only he could know and I could only assume. Oh yeah, I did not write this. Kuya EJ did, as a response to my late-night ranting, which I do not wish to talk about now. So all right, just read on.

By the way,

I dedicate this to her. (=

*****

“Really? I can go?”

“Absolutely.”

“That’s great! Thank you so much!”

At that point, I left as soon as possible before he can change his mind.

Flowers. Food. Film. OK, OK, I know I sound like a character from Dora the Explorer. But those three items make up “The Plan”. You can’t get any clearer than that.

Inside a nearby flower shop, I sheepishly asked for a nice bouquet of roses. The attendant gladly fulfilled my request even though they were about to close for the day. While she was arranging the bunch I ordered, I looked around and chanced upon the owner of the store.

“You’re late. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day.”

“Well, I just got paid today. Though I really wanted to do something special.”

“I see. Don’t worry, you picked a nice bouquet.”

I just smiled, unable to formulate a verbal response. When the lady finished with the arrangement, she handed it to me and got my payment. There was a twinkle in her eye as I glanced at her after reviewing my selection.

” I hope she likes it”, she said.

“Me, too.”

And I was off to buy food.

There’s a nice pizza and pasta place in our vicinity and I didn’t hesitate to order a Viva Venezia and a Tuna Mushroom for the two of us. If there were leftovers, her housemates will certainly take care of that. It took about fifteen minutes to cook and package everything. While waiting, I wasn’t able to avoid the cashier’s curiousity.

“Hmm…what’s that?”

Wasn’t it obvious? “Just flowers”, I said.

“For your girlfriend?”

“Not really. It’s kind of complicated.” I couldn’t believe what I just said. But we both laughed it off and I tried my best to convey without words that the conversation was over.

“Well, here you go. Enjoy your date.”

“Thanks!” And I argued with myself whether what she said was somehow true.

I rode a taxi because I didn’t want people staring at me, a semi-bald guy holding a bouquet in one hand and a box of pizza in the other. Plus, I needed to preserve my freshness after two detours. Ten minutes and I was knocking on her front door. But it wasn’t she who answered it.

“Oh! Come inside. She’s upstairs.”

“Thanks!” And I made my way into familiar territory.

I placed the food on the table and refused to take a seat until she showed so that I could hand her the flowers. As she was descending, I looked silly with both of my hands behind my back obviously trying to conceal something.

“Hey, what’s up? You surprised me.”

“Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Then I handed her the flowers.

She was speechless for a moment. The huge smile on her face told me that I did something right that night.

“Wow, thank you.”

“Belated Happy Valentine’s Day! I also brought food. And if it’s alright with you, I’d like to take you to the movies.”

I don’t want to go into too much detail. I know you’re wondering what transpired for the rest of the night. It was a great night, let’s leave it at that. The memory of that evening is still fresh in my memory. I can’t remember everything and some of the dialogue you just read might just be fabricated for the purpose of entertainment. But the essence of this moment in time was certainly captured. You might know nothing about this or you might have eaten a slice of the pizza we ate. All of these boil down to one realization.

I just realized I went on a date.

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