Happy Valentine’s Day! I have collected a few small fluffy stories I’ve written over the years (not all about romantic relationships).
Luke tore a page out of his sketchbook and dropped it in his pile of rejected attempts on the grass beside him. The pile threatened to become his whole notebook at this rate.
Drawing Alana should be easy. He’d done it before, when they were kids and the stakes were lower. He knew her every expression, could close his eyes and picture them all.
But as he tried to capture them on paper, he kept realizing how rarely she was still. Right now, as he drew, she explored the meadow they found on their walk, scrambling a few branches up into a tree, picking flowers, leaping across the field in a flawless jeté just because she could. Even when she paused to examine a bird that flew down from the tree to examine her, Alana’s head tilted, her eyes searched the bird’s, her lips moved in murmured sweet nothings. Trying to snatch one frozen moment out of any of it lost so much beautiful nuance.
Luke got lost in his attempts for a while and jumped when Alana appeared to dump flowers in his lap and place a crown of them in his hair. “Make me one so we can match,” she said.
He took the welcome distraction and a few minutes later arranged the flowers atop her head. Then she got in his space, examining him like she had the bird, too close and too lovely as she searched his eyes, and Luke really had no choice but to cradle her cheek in one hand and kiss her until she melted against him.
When he stopped and opened his eyes to see her again, as she snuggled warm and soft against his chest while he kept himself propped up on one hand, she gazed at him with an adoration that snatched away what little breath the kiss had left in his lungs. And she didn’t move until he shifted to hug her, burying his face in her hair and mussing the flower crown.
After she pecked him on the cheek and skipped away, Luke snatched up his notebook, brimming with new inspiration.
Luke drew Alana adoring him.
It still wasn’t easy. It took several days to get it just right. But he knew from the first try that he could get it right.
When he did, it felt like far too much. He wanted to hide the drawing away and treasure it, hoard that look that was for him alone.
But the drawing had been intended as a gift from the start, and in the end he didn’t let himself back out. He tucked it lovingly in a folder, gathered up a carefully chosen bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates, and took it all along for their first Valentine’s date.
“I blame college.”
“For what?” Gavin rubbed his eyes, struggling to both sit up and comprehend what Blaze was going on about. It was something like 4 in the morning, way too early even for him, and Blaze’s phone call had jarred him out of a disorienting dream. The panic in Blaze’s voice didn’t make him less disoriented.
“I’ve been up all night trying to finish a stupid paper that’s due today. I’ve been busy with it all week. I finally got it done and crossed it off in my planner and the planner says today is Valentine’s Day.”
Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose. “So?”
“So I forgot!” Blaze wailed. “I have no plans. No gifts. Last week Jen asked what we were doing today and I said she should come over and I didn’t even realize that’s why she was asking!”
That woke Gavin up a little. “Oh. That’s bad.”
“You see???”
“I see.”
“I meant to ask you what I should do for Valentine’s Day, because I have absolutely no clue, and I procrastinated until I forgot. What do I do, Gavin?”
“Okay. Well.” It was too early to think like this. Especially since he didn’t know Jen that well. “She’s coming over?”
“Yeah. This afternoon. I think. I didn’t know it was a plan plan, so I didn’t pay attention to the details.”
“You have some time then. Find a store. Flowers and chocolate aren’t exactly creative, but they’re staples because most girls do like them, as far as I can tell.”
“But then what? What do we do? Should I take her out to eat?”
“You could, though you’ll probably have a very long wait since you don’t have reservations anywhere.”
“Do I tell her I forgot? That just sounds like an excuse.”
“Yeah, but women know things. She’ll be able to tell if you’re faking having everything under control.”
Blaze groaned. “It’s our first Valentine’s Day. I wanted to do better than this.”
Gavin sat back against his pillows. “Going by my dating experience so far, I think it’s safe to say Jen is probably more interested in having you pay attention to her than the specifics of what that looks like. Big gestures and fancy things are nice, but you don’t need them to make someone feel cared about.”
He didn’t get a response, and he could imagine Blaze nodding distractedly into the phone. “Blaze?” he said.
“Hmm?”
“You’ve got this. But I need to get back to sleep. And you apparently need to get to bed.”
“Yeah… Thanks, Gavin. I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“It’s okay.” He felt a little honored, actually. “Let me know how it goes.”
Blaze met Jen at his front door, in his best shirt and slacks, clutching a bouquet of roses. “I have a confession to make.”
“You forgot,” she guessed.
“How did you know?”
“It’s a logical conclusion. And you sounded distracted when we talked about today.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I can give you my whole pathetic explanation if you want it, but I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses. But everyone else is out, and I don’t have anything to do for the rest of the day except pay attention to you. We can go out to dinner if you want. Though I was thinking it might be fun to go buy groceries instead and try to cook dinner together.”
Jen was smiling, and she took the roses and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “I think that sounds great.”
“What do you think, Mica?” Librarian asked. He examined the bookstore’s shelves of notebooks with the same thorough, thoughtful attention he gave everything. It could test one’s patience, but today they had lots of time.
She’d already picked out a fat notebook with a soft leather cover and unlined pages for Mica. Finally he pulled one off the shelves, white with pretty purple flowers, spiral-bound, taller and skinnier than most of the other options. “This one, Mama.” Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe he already knew her taste in notebooks.
“It’s lovely, Mica!” Hopefully he could tell she meant it. “Shall we check out?”
“I want to pay for it myself.”
She handed over the money.
Freshly purchased notebooks in hand, they strolled to a nearby coffee shop, one that sold the best hot chocolate imaginable, even for two imaginative people. Chairs and couches and paintings probably purchased from yardsales cluttered the space. Librarian and Mica chose a table in a cozy nook near the fireplace that took up most of the rear wall.
When Librarian asked Mica if he would go on a Valentine’s Day date with her, he suggested a writing date. She’d done her best to figure out what that looked like. So far Mica seemed pleased.
They swapped notebooks and settled in, scribbling with their chosen writing utensils, one mechanical pencil for Librarian, a whole box of neatly arranged colored pencils for Mica. He couldn’t write much beyond his name yet, but that didn’t stop him, and he filled page after page with scribbled lines interspersed with drawings.
After two rounds of hot chocolate, he moved to sit on her lap, and they read their stories to each other. Mica might not have written actual words, but he clearly knew what he wanted the scribbles to say, his narration matching up exactly with his illustrations. Librarian pressed her cheek against his and cuddled him close as she listened.
She took his small hand in hers after they gathered their things to leave the coffee shop, and she asked, “Do you think we can have another writing date next Valentine’s Day?”
“Yes,” he said firmly.
tuesdaynews 