The Party Girl's Valentine

There was a strange man in Alyssa’s bed. She realized this when her foot collided with his skull and he yelped.

As the blankets churned at her feet, she came fully awake with a jolt, her heart pounding as she scrambled for something – anything – to use as a weapon. That distinctly unmanly sound had not come from her boyfriend, and who the hell else would be in bed with her? Seizing a fistful of pillow, she swung with all her might.

Whap. The pillow collided with its target. Unfortunately, accurate or not, it didn’t make a very good weapon.

“Ow!” An indignant squawk came from the foot of the bed, and the man who’d invaded her peaceful slumber raised a hand to the side of his head.

“Stephen!” Alyssa said through clenched teeth. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The intruder was none other than her boyfriend’s twenty-five year old nephew.

Though he was a good foot taller than her, he cowered, apprehensively eyeing the pillow she held.

She had half a mind to beat him with it. He was tall, but lanky – almost spindly. She’d never really considered which of them would fare better in a physical fight, but now that she thought about it… She could take him.

“Don’t!” Stephen cried as she raised the pillow, preparing to bring it down on top of his head.

“Why not?” she asked, arching a brow and trying to look as dignified as she possibly could while wearing an old sleep t-shirt, plaid pajama pants, and suffering from a serious case of bedhead. Though she wore her sable hair sleek during the day, it had a tendency to tangle into something resembling a bird’s nest overnight.

“I didn’t touch your feet,” he said, raising his hands in a plaintive gesture.

“Why would you be touching my feet, Stephen?”

“Uh…”

She sat down on top of her heels, tucking her toes beneath her body and away from Stephen’s beady gaze. “Never mind. What are you doing here?”

“Gracie kicked me out again.”

He and his wife, Grace, fought more often than not, about anything and everything. She typically kicked him out of their house at least once a week. Usually, he came here, to his uncle Devin’s place, to wait out Grace’s rage. That was nothing new, but waking up with him curled at her feet definitely was. “And you crawled into bed with me why?”

“I was cold,” he said, wrapping his arms around himself for emphasis. He was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. “It’s February!”

She still held her pillow high, poised to pummel him with it.

“Come on, have a heart!” he cried.

She swung her down-filled weapon and he lunged, flying off the side of the bed and rolling across the floor.

She lowered the pillow and glared daggers at him. “Just wait until I tell Devin about this.” It was hard not to feel disappointed that she’d missed her target, but Stephen’s helmet of heavily-gelled hair probably would’ve deflected the blow anyway.

His eyes got bigger and bigger. “Why would you do that?”

“Because you snuck into bed with me while I was sleeping!” Her temper snapped and she flung the pillow at him, hitting him full on in the face. “Don’t you realize how creepy that is?” She threw Devin’s pillow next. “Maybe I should tell Grace, too!” It was an empty threat – the last thing she wanted to do was invite Grace’s wrath – but Stephen didn’t know that.

“Wait!” he cried, rolling across the floor in a desperate attempt to dodge the second missile. “I’m sorry! I brought you a present!”

“I don’t want it!” A shiver of distaste raced down her spine as she imagined what sort of ‘present’ the often lavicious and always idiotic Stephen might have in mind. Much to her surprise, when he rolled, panting, to the side of the bed, it was to thrust a box of chocolates at her.

She was so taken aback that she snatched the package out of his hands. “This isn’t from you,” she said, reading the tag attached to the beribboned box. “It’s from Devin!” Sure enough, her boyfriend’s tidy scrawl read To Alyssa, with Love. XOXO See you tonight.

Stephen seemed to sense that he was in real trouble. “It’s the thought that counts,” he said, backing away from the bed slowly and awkwardly, still on his knees.

She clutched the box so tightly that it crackled, the sides flexing beneath her iron grip. “Get out of here, Stephen.”

He scrambled, grabbing a blanket off the bed and wrapping it around himself. As he ran out the door, it flapped behind him like a cape.

With a sigh, Alyssa collapsed back onto the bed and glanced at the alarm clock. It was seven thirty – time to get ready for work. Devin had already left for his job at the rec center. She wistfully stretched an arm over the empty place on the mattress where he’d lain the night before. Lately, her party planning business had really picked up. While she was grateful for that fact, her workload had prevented her and Devin from spending as much time together as they would have liked. That was why she’d stayed the night at his house – something she found herself doing more and more often lately. She vividly remembered the heat of his body and the feel of his kisses from the night before, but his side of the bed was cold now.

Rolling out from beneath the blankets, she clutched the box of chocolates to her chest. Tonight would be different – it was Valentine’s Day. She had an early event to organize, and after it was over she’d be free for the evening. Devin had made reservations at a nice restaurant, and said he had a surprise for her. Whatever it was, she couldn’t wait. Just spending time with him would be a treat.

Something stuck to the bottom of her foot as she strode across the room to Devin’s dresser, where she’d stashed a few of her own outfits shortly after they’d begun dating six months ago. Raising her foot, she peeled the object away.

It was a handmade paper valentine. A ripple of anger struck her as she tried to smooth a few creases out of it – Devin had probably left it on the pillow beside her, where she would have found it if it hadn’t been for Stephen. It was hard not to be happy when she read the valentine, though. The words ‘I love you Alyssa’ were emblazoned across the paper heart. She laid it carefully on the dresser and, still smiling, popped the box of chocolates open.

Apparently, Stephen had gotten there before her – several candies were missing. She bit a cherry cordial in half with a little more force than was strictly necessary. Stephen’s antics aside, this was going to be a fantastic day. She had Devin’s surprise to look forward to, not to mention an important event to oversee. Nobody was going to ruin her Valentine’s Day.