Page 114 of Old Habits
I push up onto my arms. “Hold on, now. It’s not serious.”
“You buttered me up.”
“No, I didn’t,” I lie.
“Yes, you did. You made me all smiley and euphoric with talk of on-demand sex and spare bedrooms only to yank the rug out. Can’t we just pretend it doesn’t exist this year?” she whines. “Things are going so well. We’re moving in together! Didn’t you hear that part? That part was nice.”
“We’re also newly engaged, or at least, the town thinks we are,” I say. “If we don’t make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day then they’ll get suspicious.”
She grunts in defeat. “Fine. What’s your plan?”
“Go to the dance with me.”
“That’s it?”
I nod. “That’s it.”
Her brow furrows in hesitation. “Do I have to?”
“Jovie...”I stare her down. “You’re a member of the party planning committee and you had no intention of even showing up?”
“Hell no.”
“Why not?”
“Because I hate dancing.”
“Old Jovie hated dancing,” I say. “New Jovie loves it.”
“No, she doesn’t.” She fidgets beneath me. “I’m pretty sure that’s the one thing old and new Jovie are in full agreement on. No dancing. I’ll hang a few balloons and hire a band but my involvement ends there.”
“Please.”
Her eyes study me and she squints. “You’re really looking forward to this, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Because…” I shift onto my side, “I don’t want us to batten down the hatches every February. I want us to forget about what it used to mean to us and redefine it into something we look forward to all year round just like every other normal couple. Now, do you think you can handle that?”
“Maybe,” she says out of the corner of her mouth.
“Can you try?”
She nods with a smile. “Yeah, I can try.”
“And…” I shrug, “I guess if it explodes in our faces, we can always go back to pretending it doesn’t exist next year.”
Her brow bounces. “Assuming we even make it out of this one alive.”
“Naturally.” I nod.
“Okay,” she says, her voice a little more confident. “We can do the Valentine’s dance this year… but no gifts. I’m too broke.”
“Smallgifts,” I counter.
“No gifts,”she repeats.