INTERIM LOVER, ryan howard.

010 ⋮ heart beats red wine, my toxic valentine

ㅤㅤㅤRachel wasn't the type to celebrate Valentine's Day. It was an arbitrary celebration for people got unnecessarily festive. She believed that if you loved someone, you'd show them every day.

But since she started dating Hayden, her whole life had changed. She was a different person, unrecognisable to most of the office. Most of her conversations involved Hayden in one way or the other and her constant positivity around the office was becoming something of a disease that her coworkers avoided.

The first Valentine's delivery was addressed to her, from none other than Hayden. Rachel couldn't stop smiling as she glanced to the bouquet of yellow flowers at the end of her desk. She couldn't wait until Ryan was in, she wanted to share her excitement about her date with Hayden that night.

Rachel floated into the kitchen in the best of moods to find Kelly, who was equally ecstatic. "Oh my god, Rachel. Last night, Ryan and I totally, finally hooked up. It was awesome."

Rachel's jaw dropped. She wasn't sure whether she was a good kind of shocked or a bad kind of shocked. All she knew was that she could not believe Ryan had finally taken a chance on Kelly.

"It was so funny 'cause we were at this bar with his friends and I was sitting next to him the whole night. In my head, I was like 'Ryan, what's taking you so long?' And then he kissed me!"

By the moment, Rachel felt more and more distant from Kelly. Her heart was pounding inexplicably, but she supposed it was because she was so happy for her.

"So I said, 'Ryan, what took you so long?' Can you believe that?"

Should her heart hurt this much if she was happy for Kelly?

"Oh my God, Rachel, is that embarrassing? I'm embarrassed."

"No," Rachel choked, she hadn't realised the lump forming in her throat. "No, don't be. That's so cute."

"Oh, thank God, because I was nervous, Rachel, you will not believe."

Ryan would never do such a thing, though. He was terrified of commitment, Kelly spoke far too much for his liking. Just two days ago when he was ranting to her about Kelly for hours.

"So nervous," she continued, "but now I have a boyfriend!"

Kelly was squealing but Rachel was more focused on the Temp walking through the office, with dishevelled hair. He took a look at the bouquet on Rachel's desk with a little nod. Coincidentally, he looked up and locked eyes with Rachel's mortified eyes.

Suddenly, he remembered everything that had happened the night before.

—

[Ryan is pulling at his hair, clearly anguished]

RYAN
I hooked up with her on February thirteenth.

—

Ryan really wanted to talk to Rachel. He desperately needed her help, as his best friend, to break up with Kelly. On the other hand, he wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine, so this new relationship with Kelly was actually sort of perfect.

He walked into the kitchen, deciding to play out this relationship for a bit. Kelly was a handful, so he'd learnt on the two dates they'd had. But she did make him feel a lot better about himself.

"Hi, Ryan," Kelly waved from the table, a smile spreading across her lips. "Did you wanna do something tonight?"

Ryan did something extremely uncharacteristic of himself. He passed Rachel, not even sparing a glance at her, and slid into the chair next to Kelly. He took her hand. "Of course, Kelly. Why wouldn't I want to spend Valentine's day with my girlfriend?"