The card, to my surprise was fairly romantic. It had two cherubs on the front, shooting arrows at one another. Maybe that wasn’t so romantic after all. Inside it read, ‘Be My Valentine’ and he had signed it simply, ‘Sam’. He had added one kiss though, so that was something.
The gift however, was a complete surprise. It was a silver, heart-shaped locket, and inside sat a photo we had taken together in a photo booth on Fairlight Bay pier just the day before. I had wondered why he was so adamant about having our photos taken in that booth and whether or not he remembered we’d had our photos taken there before. Now I had my answer. Alongside the photo in the locket was another photo of us both, taken ten years earlier, in the same photo booth.
I was utterly astonished. I had kept my copies of the photos we’d had taken that day all those years ago. I had no idea Sam had kept his copies too.
I put the necklace on, vowing never to take it off again. Except to shower, and maybe before I went to sleep.
I’d bought Sam a dancing heart, that did little back-flips when you wound the spring. Not quite as romantic. But I hadn’t expected a real gift from him. Just a jokey token. This was a complete surprise.
And that wasn’t the only surprise I was to receive. Except the next one wasn’t from Sam.
I had seen the florist’s van pull up in the car park opposite – because I was looking out for Sam’s return. It was just my luck that he drove up on his bike, as the florist was leaving the front door, having delivered a massive bouquet of two dozen red roses … from Ted.
I’d decided earlier that morning – before I’d opened the gift from Sam – that although I might never love anyone as much as I loved Sam, if I could find someone like Ted, I might be able to be relatively happy.
I wanted a home, a family, a wedding.
Sam would never give me those things. He’d made that abundantly clear.
But someone like Ted might. And now, having read the rather gushingly romantic card accompanying the roses, before I had seen Sam return, it seemed Ted wanted to give me those things. He’d realised how much he’d missed me. And how much he cared about me. And the note with the card informed me that, on his return from Portugal, we would go out to dinner where he intended to ask me a very particular question. I was fairly certain it wasn’t about my taxes.
I considered trying to hide the roses, but Sam had clearly seen the florist, and also the bouquet I was holding at the door. I could hide the note, but what was the point? Sam wouldn’t care. So instead, I went back inside, leaving the door ajar for Sam to enter, and I put the roses in a vase and placed the vase on the counter with the gushing card beside it.
Sam didn’t look happy.
‘Were those flowers for you?’ he asked, as soon as he stepped inside the front door. ‘Ah. I see they were.’
‘They’re from Ted,’ I said, seeing no benefit in lying. ‘He’s had a change of heart and he wants us to have dinner when he returns from Portugal. He says he has something in particular to ask me.’
‘Oh does he?’ Sam said, sounding none too pleased.
‘I love this locket,’ I said, holding out the heart shaped locket Sam had bought me. ‘And I can’t believe you kept those photos from all those years ago.’
He furrowed his brows, and glared at the massive display of red roses.
‘I assume you didn’t.’
‘I did. I can’t believe you kept yours.’
‘Why wouldn’t I?’ He shrugged, still glaring at the roses as if they might attack him any second.
‘Because it’s romantic. And you don’t believe in love and all that stuff.’
‘I didn’t say I didn’t believe in love, exactly. I said it doesn’t last. My parents, and even yours are proof of that. Along with thousands of others who’ve got divorced. Okay. Maybe I did say I didn’t believe in it. So, Ted wants you back, does he?’
‘It would seem so.’
‘And?’
‘And what?’
‘Will you go back to him?’
I shrugged. ‘I honestly don’t know. We get on well. And I know he believes in love and marriage and kids and all that. But…’
‘But what?’
I looked him in the eye. ‘I don’t love him. Not in the way you should love the man you intend to marry.’
