A long lane at night

1.EXTRA 1. VALENTINE

For reference: this is their first Valentine's Day as a couple. It takes place a month and a half after they started living together, since that was New Year's Day. It was written on Valentine's Day, 2021, more than a year after I had written the original book.

** ALLAN **

I THINK I SPENT A GOOD LONG HOUR STARING AT THE small wall calendar that Brian kept next to the en-suite bathroom door. The sun was starting to set outside the window and its light barely hit the highlighted number thirteen that was haunting me for so long. Tomorrow was Valentine's Day and the date called for something special. But what was there left to do? Fancy dinners? Check. Moonlight kisses after his favourite opera? Check. The more I searched my mind looking for something big and meaningful that we hadn't done yet, the more I stared dumbly at that light-blue number on the calendar.

Was Brian planning anything? Come to think of it, we hadn't discussed the date. At all. Was he the one doing something? Was I? Were us both? Were neither of us? Well, this calendar was obviously not going to give any kind of insight, no matter how hard I looked at it. So, on to the big guy with our problem.

I closed the bedroom door as I left it and crossed the small distance to the living room, where Brian had absent-mindedly spent the entire day after lunch playing. I made myself comfortable on the couch closest to him and allowed him to keep playing. He finished that song and played another one. And the next after that went almost uninterrupted, but when he was close to end that one, he finally spoke.

'One song normally means you want either a quick kiss or to tell me you'll be out for a few hours,' Brian said nonchalantly as he played the final notes. 'With two, you either want to change my mind about something, or you want to tell me you broke something. Now, for the life of me, I can't imagine what is it you want sitting there for three full songs. Talk to me, Allan.'

I gasped for a second and was close to object that I don't break stuff, but I decided it would be pointless to argue.

'Who of the pair of us is supposed to plan this year's Valentine's Day? It is our first.'

'Doesn't preparation involve talking about it sooner than ... uh ...' he took a glance at his watch, 'five hours before it is too late?'

'Does that mean you are?' I asked, hopefully.

'No, it does not,' Brian answered with a raised brow. Okay, now I was panicking. 'To be fair, you work tomorrow and I have classes until six, so I didn't give too much thought about Valentine's Day. I know it's our first one, but it's also a Monday. I think even our pizza parlour will be closed.'

'Brian,' I said. 'Restaurants don't close on Valentine's Day, it's one of their most profitable nights of the year.'

'And how was I to know that? I never dated anyone el— Hang on, how do you know that?'

'I work in commerce, Brian,' I said, staring at him with even higher brows than the ones he had. He wasn't the jealous type, so it was kind of nice to see that side of him come out every once in a blue moon. 'Even the shop where I work is having this sale of souvenirs for couples to seize the day.'

'Oh,' he said and, if I saw it right, it was to disguise a sigh of relief. I had to suppress a chuckle myself.

'Still,' I pressed on. 'It's not just because it's Monday that we can't do anything. I just wanted it to be special.'

'Quite hard to find something special when most of our nights already consist of going out for dinner,' he said.

'EXACTLY! That's why I've been racking my brain the whole day. I try and think of all the sweet things couples can do, but most of them are stuff we do so often that they just don't feel special.'