A KISS For Valentine's Day

The Second Date

I pulled up to Tommy's house, taking a deep breath before stepping out of my car and walking up the path to his front door. I had no reason to be nervous, we had been dating for years at this point. We spent the night with each other so often we practically lived together and had been talking for awhile about just moving in together. But even still, I hadn't spent the night at his place in almost two months now, and he always seemed to be busy when I asked him to come over to my house.

Letting out a soft sigh, I raised a fist and knocked on his door. I stood on his step waiting for what felt like an eternity but was probably no longer than two minutes before he pulled open the door. There was a brief pause before he gave me a smile. "Hello," he said. "A hike today, right?" he asked. I nodded, returning his smile and taking his hand. "Yep! I figured it would be nice to take a little hike in the woods and stuff! Since there's still snow on the ground and stuff and the trees look really pretty with the snow and all that," I said, face going red for no reason.

He gave my hand a squeeze, shutting his front door behind him and walking with me to my car. "I'm looking forward to it! I'm sure it'll be really nice," he said, kissing me on the cheek before sliding into the passenger seat. I drove off, heading for the little forest on the edge of town, trying to reassure myself things were fine. After all, if he wanted to break up with me why would he agree to come on a date, right? Unless of course he was planning to dump me after the date. Or maybe even during, maybe he'd break my heart and leave me in the forest.

"You good babe? You went kinda quiet," Tommy said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Oh! Oh no yeah I'm fine, just kinda let my mind wander for a bit there. Anyway um...Valentine's Day is coming up, did we...I dunno, you know, it's Valentine's Day. So did we want to...?" I trailed off, getting embarrassed as he gave me a baffled look. "Did we want to what? Just spit it out!" he said with a grin. "I don't really know. Do something special, I guess. Since you know. It's like a day of love or whatever," I mumbled.

He shrugged, staring out the window. "Ah, maybe. We'll have to see," he said, his face going red too. I felt my heart sink. The only reason he wouldn't want to do something with me on Valentine's Day was because he didn't want to be with me anymore, that was the only thing he could've meant. "Tommy you're not--" I started, and he turned to look at me. "I'm not what?" "You're not gonna--" I faltered, stumbling over my words. "You're not gonna be bored taking a hike, right?" I finally settled on.

"No, I like hiking! Besides, I'm going hiking with you, how could I be anything but happy?" he asked. I opened my mouth to tell him I was just asking since he had been getting more distant by the day before deciding to just bite my tongue and smile. "Well I just wanted to make sure. I don't want to do anything to make you unhappy." "I know you don't. Which is part of the reason I love you so much," he said, leaning over and kissing me as I parked near the trail. Smiling, I kissed him back, stepping out of the car. He picked up my hand, pulling his jacket tighter around himself.

"I like your headband today," he said as we started down the trail. "Thanks! It's the one you got me for Christmas a few years ago. The same day we had our first kiss and kinda started dating," I said. Tommy gave me a fond smile, ruffling my hair. "And you look as good in it as you did that day, maybe even better. I know I love you just as much. Mm no I think I love you even more," he teased, kissing me on the nose. "Aw stop you're making me blush," I mumbled, cheeks growing pink.

"Good! I like seeing you blush, it's cute. You're always cute though," he said, giving my hand a squeeze. I let out a happy sigh, leaning against him. "Too bad it's cold enough outside we have to wear gloves. I like holding hands where it's just your hand," I said. He shrugged, swinging my hand gently as we walked. "Well, that's what we get for living in a place that has snow until April," he said with a shrug.

We walked in silence for awhile, admiring the forest around us. There was snow in soft drifts all across the ground save for the trail that had been shoveled through it. The branches were laden with snow and icicles, sparkling in the sunlight as it peaked through the gray clouds. It was also still, a peacefulness only brought on by the muffling blanket of the snow. A robin suddenly landed on a branch, singing merrily.

"Mm, first robin of spring. That's good luck," Tommy said absentmindedly. "Yeah, and this relationship could use all the luck it can get," I said under my breath. "What'd you say?" he asked, and I flinched. "Oh, I was just saying I don't need luck, I'm lucky enough to have you!" I lied quickly. He smiled, giving me a kiss. "Bet I'm luckier though." We kept walking and I could feel my face growing colder with every step. Tommy was shivering a bit but neither of us seemed willing to turn back and head home. "So um...really, what do we want to do for Valentine's Day? It feels weird to not do anything, you know? Like this is gonna be our third Valentine's Day together, it feels like we should do something!"

"Well what did you have in mind?" he asked, once again looking everywhere but at me. I just shrugged. "I dunno. Probably not get married like Eric and Bruce did though." "Yeah, it wouldn't be too fair to steal their special day. But I'm not sure, we'll figure something out though I'm certain. We've got time, don't worry about it," he said. I frowned a bit at his response before just shrugging. "Yeah that's true, we've got time."
Not too much time though.

Two days down, twelve to go.