Love and Pride: A Valentine's Day Short Story

Part One: "Valentine's Day, What An Awful Day"

Ollie stood in front of the mirror, running a comb through his curly brown hair. He pulled a shirt on over his slightly chubby torso. His housemate, a excitable woman named Amanda, burst into his room.

"OH OTTO!" She shouted. Amanda made it her goal to never call him by his actual name. "My girlfriend just invited me out to dinner at a real fancy place. Do you think this could be it? When she asks me for my hand in marriage?!" Amanda sighed dreamily, and then squealed. Running off, Ollie figured she'd be back any moment asking for fashion advice.

Of course, Ollie knew that Amanda did this almost every date she went on. And at the end of every one, no ring had showed up thus so far. She and her girlfriend had only been dating three months, after all. Today would be no different, even if it was Valentine's Day.

Ollie had been dreading the day for weeks. The fact that his boyfriend had just broken up with him didn't help, even though Ollie knew he was just trying to use Justin to fill the void Argus had left. Argus. Even thinking his name sent a sharp pang through Ollie's chest. He knew they couldn't be together, but that just made it hurt worse. If dating your coworker was bad, dating your boss was just awful, in the eyes of everyone else. Ollie didn't see what was so wrong with it, but he trusted Argus's judgement over his own.

Worse was the fact that Argus also had a date tonight, with someone else. A woman. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just made Ollie feel weird. Second class, almost, in a way. He and Argus had never eaten out at all while they were together. It was like it would be wrong if someone saw him in public with another guy, but if he was with a woman, everything was just dandy. Ollie cringed, knowing that it wasn't Argus's fault.

"Valentine's Day, what an awful day." Ollie muttered to himself as he applied cologne. Deep inside, he knew he was dressing up, too, trying to impress Argus, maybe make him regret this date, just a tiny bit.

The other thing was that he had volunteered to watch Growlkitty, the tiger shifter. She'd been in a mood lately, trying to run off any chance she got. Lexi, which is the name she normally goes by, also used to truly enjoyed scaring Ollie out of his wits. Once she got to know him, she got over it, but it was quite obvious that Lexi still scared Ollie, just a little bit.

When he had offered, Ollie did not know what Argus's plans were for the evening. If he had, Ollie probably would have said no. Anyways, it was too late to change his mind now.

"Oh Owen! Come help me pick out an outfit! Should I go with the maroon dress, or the neon pink pantsuit?" Amanda called. Ollie gave a look of irritation to his black cat, Mystery, who had sprawled herself across the his bed. The cat returned his look with a thoughtful meow, blinking her gorgeous green eyes.

.............................................................................

Ollie took a deep breath and knocked on the door to Argus's apartment. Rain gently drizzled down, and Ollie was glad for the little canopy over the door.

The door opened, a rush of warm air flooding out into the cold. Argus stood there, smiling softly.

"Come on in." Argus said, leading the way. Ollie gratefully stepped into the warm home. "Thank you so much for doing this for me, Ollie. There's money on the table for the two of you to order dinner. Lexi's in the living room with the dog." He added, stopping to look in the mirror.

Ollie admired him from behind. Argus was dressed pretty casually, wearing a black sweater and dark jeans. It gave Ollie some hope that maybe this wasn't as serious as it seemed.