Page 14 of Texting My Valentine

“I’m just saying,” Cleo goes on. “Not everything has to be serious all the time. Just try to have some fun with it. Hey…” Cleo puts her hand on my arm. “I know I seem like the most fun, not to mention funniest, most charismatic person you’ve ever met…”

“I’m sure there’s going to be a point in here somewhere,” I mutter playfully.

Cleo grins. “But I don’t always feel that way. Sometimes, you have to try. Or drink. Either, or.”

She knocks back her drink.

“That wasalmostmoving,” I say sarcastically.

“Keep. It. Casual.” Cleo gestures as though painting the words in the air. “That’s the name of the game. Do me a favor. Call it a Valentine’s gift.”

“Okay, I’ll try. You’re probably right. I’m far too ‘doom and gloom’ sometimes. It can’t be healthy.”

“Sometimes, you act like you’re two hundred and one, not twenty-one,” Cleo says.

“She has her reasons,” Lily defends.

“She’s right, Lily,” I cut in with a sigh. “I’m at a bar on Valentine’s, and I was just…” I stop myself. I was about to say,Saved by a silver fox. “Just thinking I need to make more of an effort.”

“So, time to start texting.”

“Shouldn’t I wait for him to text me first?” I ask. Truthfully, I don’t want to text anybody. Maybe if it was the silver-fox stranger… I didn’t even get my savior’s name.

That thought annoys me. He’s not my savior. I don’t need saving.

But the point is valid. I shouldn’t—I don’t—need anybody else. Do I?

I replay Cleo’s words in my mind. Keep it casual.

“Oh my giddy gawd,” Cleo says, giggling. “Lily, are my eyes deceiving me? Is she really doing it? Is she texting?”

“Hush, you’ll break the spell,” Lily hisses.

I roll my eyes as I type a simple, purposefully casual message.

Tori:I hope you’re not expecting heart emojis, stranger.

“Mine has texted me back already,” Cleo says excitedly.

“What was your opening gambit?” Lily asks. “Wait, let me guess. It was some variation of ‘Meet me around back in five minutes.’”

“Wow, Lily, I’m hurt.”

“I’m sorry. I was kidd?—”

“I told him ten minutes.” Cleo grins.

That gets us all laughing like hyenas. As I wait for a reply, I look around the bar. Some people are still dancing and talking, but many are staring at their phones, smiles on their faces, caught up in the Valentine’s spirit.

The silver fox savior sits with his friend at the end of the bar, looking so dashing I can’t look at him for long. Just the sight of him confuses me. It makes me feel like…

Face facts, Tori. It makes me feel like Mom.

“So, lay it on us,” Lily says, drawing my attention. “What did you really say?”

“I asked him if he thought this was as lame as I do… you know, playing it cool,” Cleo explains.

“But you don’t think it’s lame,” Lily says. “You were the most excited out of any of us.”

---