My Sweet Valentine (3 page)

“
Where
have you been all day?” Amber asked in an accusing tone.

“
I’m
sorry, but I was nervous,” Greg admitted.

He tucked his
hands into his pockets and stared down at his shuffling feet. The
pose looked awkward on his tall frame and Amber could not help but
smile. Then his words hit her and she wondered what he would have
to be nervous about.

“
Nervous?” Amber questioned her thoughts.

“
Yeah,”
Greg affirmed.

Amber refrained
from rolling her eyes at the comment that did nothing to answer her
actual question. Greg swallowed hard and she saw that he was
shifting his weight from foot to foot as his shoulders ducked down
a bit. Nervous was an understatement, he seemed out-right
petrified.

“
What are
you nervous about?” Amber enquired with a curious tilt to her
head.

“
Well,
you, actually,” Greg confessed with a blush.

“
Me?”
Amber questioned in awe.

“
Yeah, I
wanted to talk to you all day but every time I tried to I would get
all sweaty and my stomach started to flip flop. Then I decided to
heck with it and yeah,” Greg explained as he smiled
lightly.

“
Okay,”
Amber tried with a confused blink.

“
Do you
want to go out to dinner tonight?” Greg finally burst
out.

Amber noted
that he looked relieved. She smiled at him and wondered why he
would be so nervous about asking her out to dinner. They had dinner
at each other’s houses all the time and just because it was
Valentine’s Day did not make their friendly dinners any
different.

“
Of
course, but we have dinner all the time together. There’s no need
to be nervous. Is your mom making pork chops tonight?” Amber
allowed herself a small giggle at his foolish behavior.

He stared at
her for a long moment as if he just spotted a rare and new kind of
animal that should be watched with caution. Amber blinked and
frowned lightly.

“
Um, I
was thinking more of just the two of us. At a restaurant. Alone. On
Valentine’s Day,” Greg managed to get out in stuttering
sentences.

It finally
clicked to Amber on why he was so nervous. He was asking her out on
a date, not to dinner at his house with his family. She suddenly
felt the fluttery feeling in her stomach that he must have been
feeling all day.

“
Oh,”
Amber merely muttered in wonder.

“
So, is
that a yes or a no?” Greg tried to joke as he cleared his
throat.

Amber felt her
heart leap into her throat then start pattering uncontrollably. Her
palms began to sweat and she hoped the books and notes she held
against her chest would not be ruined because of the excess
moisture. Heat rose to her cheeks and she burst into a sunny
grin.

“
That’s a
yes,” Amber tittered and nodded.

“
Good,
I’ll pick you up at 6, okay?” Greg breathed out looking
exceptionally happy.

“
It’s a
date,” Amber happily laughed and gave him a quick hug before
boarding the bus.

Neither noticed
Russell watching from his perch on the raised seats of the bus.
When Amber virtually skipped inside he hunched down into his seat
and watched her pass and sit with one of the girls she normally
talked to. Happy squealing came next and Russell scowled. He glared
at Greg as the other teen high-fived one of his friends and jogged
towards his car with an elated grin on his face.

“
Oh God
what am I going to do about this mess?” Amber wailed to herself as
she looked at her face in the mirror.

Her make-up was
light: only mascara and a bit of lip gloss. The knee-length red
dress had been saved from its wrinkles with quick ironing skills.
Even her shoes seemed to be sparkling along with the simple heart
shaped earrings and heart shaped pendant on its silver chain. The
problem was her misbehaving hair.

“
Mom,
help!” Amber shouted miserably from the bathroom.

She heard
shuffling in the hall and turned in time to see her mother pop her
head into the bathroom door. The older blond burst into a happy
grin and her blue eyes lit in mirth.

“
Oh honey
you look lovely,” mother exclaimed and wrapped her into a
hug.

“
My
hair’s a mess,” Amber bemoaned again and pulled at a strand of
mischievous locks.

Mother pulled
back from the hug and stared at Amber with consideration. She
frowned slightly then gestured for Amber to sit on the closed lid
of the toilet. Amber felt the brush run through her hair a couple
of times then mother set to work with the unruly blond locks with
her hands.

“
You
never should have chopped it all off in one go,” mother sighed
out.

“
I know,
I know, I’ll never listen to my friends again,” Amber moaned in
frustration.

“
This
happened to me too, I chopped it all off at once and it curled just
like yours did,” mother explained as she worked a bit of styling
foam into the curls in front of her.

“
You
could have warned me,” Amber muttered with a scowl.

“
Well I
didn’t expect you to come back with two feet of hair missing. I was
thinking a few inches,” mother sighed out as the curls began to
tame under her hands.

“
I know,
I know, but this is a date with Greg, I can’t look all
wild-nature-chick on him,” Amber groused.

Mother laughed
at the thought and finally smoothed down the rest of the lengthy
curls under her hands. They heard the baritones of two males
talking downstairs and Amber gasped as mother released her
hair.

“
Oh God
I’m late!” Amber exclaimed as she heard her father talking with
none other than Greg.

“
Sweetie,
he’s only just arrived, you’re not late. Now hold still while I fix
your eyes,” mother admonished.

“
What’s
wrong with my eyes?” Amber blinked owlishly at her.

“
Honey,
he sees you with only mascara and lip gloss every day. We have to
add a bit of umph,” mother explained as she picked up an eyeliner
pencil and some glittery eye shadow.

“
Why
didn’t I think of that?” Amber fretted and followed her mother’s
instructions as eyeliner was lightly placed on her lids.

“
Experience dear,” mother chuckled and lightly fanned out the
liner before gently applying a thin coat of eye shadow.

When she was
finished, Amber stared at herself in the mirror. The effect was
stunning, a light touch of extra make-up and she felt like a super
model. Then a curl bounced out of place and she groaned again as
mother chuckled.

Greg nervously
laughed as he glanced down the hallway where he could vaguely hear
Amber and her mother talking in hushed voices. He was used to
talking to Amber’s father but this was different. This was the
night he was approaching him as a suitor, not a friend of his only
daughter. Mike and Steve, Amber’s older brothers were standing
nearby, looking at him with a mixture of amusement and
suspicion.

Mike was 19 to
Amber’s 17, Steve was 21. Both were tall and brawny as most
football players were which made Greg a bit self-conscious about
his lean runner’s frame. He had always wanted to add more muscle
but that would slow him down on the soccer field and on the track.
It would be better for hockey but he all ready had a delicate
balance of speed and strength as it was.

Finally the
clacking of high heels could be heard and Greg swivelled his head
to see Amber come out of the bathroom door. He felt his heart skip
a beat and refrained from wiping his moist palms on his pressed
black slacks. He could not believe this was the same Amber he saw
every day at school and on the weekend with friends.

“
Hi,” he
said sheepishly and tried not to kick himself over the lame
greeting.

“
Hi,” she
repeated back and Greg was happy to note that she
blushed.

“
It’s a
school night so have her back by 10PM,” Amber’s father suddenly
broke in.

Greg jumped and
Mike snickered. Steve smirked and Amber merely nodded.

“
Sure,
yes,” Greg sputtered out.

“
If you
don’t, we’ll coming looking for you. Remember, we know where you
live,” Steve mentioned with a wink as he crossed his bulging arms
over his broad chest.

“
Right,”
Greg mumbled as Steve chuckled.

“
Steve,
don’t be so mean,” Amber chided with a scowl.

“
It’s
okay, I’m used to it. You ready to go?” Greg questioned with a
smile as he offered her his hand.

He hoped it was
too sweaty. He hoped she wouldn’t draw back from the dampness of
his palm with a disgusted look on her face. Then he remembered that
her nose crinkled up cutely when she was disgusted and wondered why
he would even think of that. The sudden placement of her hand into
his own jolted him back to the present and he stared at her.

Her eyes were
glowing in happiness and he noticed the eye shadow on her lids. She
never wore eye shadow to school. In fact, the only time he could
remember her wearing any extra make-up was when she went on
important social outings. He gulped and returned her grin. With a
nod to her parents, he walked her outside to his waiting car, his
stomach curling itself into knots.

Amber seemed
completely oblivious to his plight and he was grateful for that. He
had meant nothing by rescuing her from that creep back in their
first year of high school. But when she had finally turned to him
he was struck by how pretty she actually was. He had a girlfriend
at the time and was happy to be friends with Amber but the other
girl dumped him. Amber began to replace his thoughts of rejection
and he realized how much he actually liked her a few weeks ago when
they were at the movies with their groups of friends.

He had peered
over during a humours part in the movie and her bouncing curls and
twinkling laugh made his heart flutter and his breathing stop.
Luckily the theater was dark and no one had seen the dopey grin he
knew he had on his face. He realized then that he was always
happier with her and made the leap of faith to take their
relationship to the next level. He could only hope that he didn’t
screw things up and she would be by his side for the rest of his
life.

Part 3:
February 12th

It’s
taken me so long to finally catch up with her again. I mean, it’s
only been ten years but she moved around a lot. First she moved for
school and I didn’t know where she had gone. But when she moved
into the big city, it wasn’t hard to find her
husband’s
name. That bastard had gone ahead and
married MY wife.

This year it
changes, just like I said before. This year I’m going to get my
revenge on that bastard and Amber will be mine for the taking.
He’ll finally realize just how big of a mistake he made when he
told me to leave her alone back in grade nine. And she’ll realize
what a life she missed out on. She’ll see how happy I would have
made her. She’ll realize just how much she missed and she’ll regret
not dating me all those years before and finding out sooner. She’ll
regret missing out on all the lost time.

I can hardly
wait to see her smiling face. Those beautiful blue eyes and the
perfect blond hair. It makes me sick thinking of all the time
wasted because of him. It took me so long to get back to her and I
won’t waste a moment of being with her now. She’ll never leave my
side. Ever.

***

Amber sighed as
she pushed the snow down her drive way. She hefted the shovel and
tossed the gathered snow into the growing pile on her lawn. She
yawned hugely and waved at a neighbour as they drove past in their
car. It was 9AM and she was about half way through shovelling the
four inches of snow gathered on her lawn and sidewalks.

She wasn’t
complaining exactly. It was good cardio exercise plus the cold
chill in the air made her feel refreshed. Plus when she was done
she could curl up by the fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate and
read. She frowned lightly as she pushed more snow towards her lawn.
She missed Greg again.

When they
cleared the snow together they would collapse into a snowball fight
sometime during the process of trying to clean snow. Then they
would be soaking wet to finish the chore before running inside. Wet
clothes would be flung down at the door and they would go about
making hot chocolate in the light shirts and shorts they layered
under the heavier clothes. Once the hot chocolate was made, they
would snuggle under the big red blanket and read together by the
fire.

They would
finally venture out of the cocoon around lunch time to eat before
snuggling back into the warmth. Amber would reluctantly get out of
the cozy position in his arms before getting ready for work or bed.
It depended what time she actually worked. She was happier when she
was on the day shift because then she could snuggle with Greg in
front of the fire place until they went to sleep that night.

She pushed the
shovel along the driveway, her earlier enthusiasm gone with the
pining for her husband. She was used to this emptiness as he had to
travel a lot for the company. It never got easier the more times he
did leave and she suspected it never would.

As she piled
more snow onto her lawn she heard snow being crunched under heavy
boots. She peeked out from under her wool cap to see a tall slim
man walking by. His brown hair was tied back in a low pony tail and
he struck her as familiar. She blinked a few times as he continued
down the street.