Ron, gets to celebrate Valentine's Day for the first time in a relationship, but his boyfriend might not like the idea - or will he?
This story was contributed by Dolly Grand.
I always wanted to spend a special Valentine's Day with that special someone. Growing up, I thought that it wasn't a choice for a closeted gay like me. Every year I watched as my friends took their girlfriends out on nice, romance-filled dates, while I stayed home alone. Some guys said they didn't care about it, but still bought chocolate for their girls.
Every year, I tried to pretend that it didn't matter to me, that it was just a holiday invented by companies who wanted to make cold hard cash at the expense of these love-fools. I was being smart and didn't fall for that. No sir...
But then the next Valentine's Day came around, and again, I found myself watching my friends pamper their loved ones with chocolates, flowers and hotel nights, feeling that familiar emptiness in my soul when walking past all those roses and heart-shaped decorations.
Not this year, though. This year I walked past the rows of chocolate, not even noticing how my pace grew slower as I studied the cute little boxes with ribbons and hearts all over them and didn't feel that emptiness inside me. I turned to look for the guy in a red hoodie – in my hoodie – and spotted him a few aisles ahead, waiting for me.
I gave the chocolates one more look, before hurrying my steps to my special someone.
"You like Valentine's Day?" Derek asked with a raised eyebrow when I stopped next to him.
"I've never celebrated it before," I shrugged, hoping my answer was good enough for him.
"Hmmh..."
The only problem this year was that Derek wasn't the kind of guy who enjoyed things like Valentine's Day. Or romance in general. He was a great guy and I loved him to bits, but love confessions made him uncomfortable, so I often held my tongue. I understood him and his reasons – he had a rough childhood because of his sexuality, and he was still slowly learning how to love and be loved.
He wasn't even open about his sexuality yet, only a few of his friends knew about it besides me. We didn't hold hands in public or be openly affectionate towards each other, but I didn't mind since he had his own ways of showing his affection. Like stealing my hoodies. He would often go find one of mine even when his own was right there within his reach. He was a man of few words, but his actions spoke louder, and I knew he loved me.
That meant a hell of a lot more to me than Valentine's Day. Although there probably was no harm in buying him a box of chocolate. He loved chocolate, after all.
The next day I stopped by a grocery store after work and went to do just that. I spent some time selecting something I knew he would definitely like before heading to the checkout, but when I walked past a table full of roses, my pace slowed down to a halt. I tried to decide whether or not to buy one – or a dozen – but Valentine's Day was tomorrow, and I had nowhere to hide them in our apartment. Chocolate was easy since I could just leave the box in the car, but the flowers would probably die in there.
I decided to get the flowers anyway. A dozen big red roses. Just being able to buy them felt so good... I wasn't letting myself get overly excited over Valentine's since the chances were that Derek would get uncomfortable, but he wasn't going to get mad at me either, so I let myself get a little excited.
Derek wasn't home when I got there, so I quickly hid the flowers in our guestroom, behind the long curtains so they'd get enough light. We usually didn't go there so that was the best place to hide them.
I smiled at the roses before I left the room. Now all I had to do was to wait for tomorrow.
And what a long wait it was. I tried to act all casual the rest of the night, but Derek kept giving me the "I know what you're up to" looks every now and then. At least he didn't say anything, which gave me hope. Maybe he was up for celebrating Valentine's Day as well? Just a little bit?
I was jealous of Derek the next day since he had a day off, and I didn't. I hoped he didn't find the roses while I was away... I doubted he was interested enough to go look for them. The day at work lasted at least two hundred hours, but four o'clock finally arrived and I nearly jumped away from my desk and grabbed my stuff before heading to the parking garage. I wasn't the only one either – a lot of my coworkers seemed to be in a hurry to get home to spend the day with their loved ones.
And now I was one of them... I had a small smile on my face all the way home. After parking the car, I grabbed the box of chocolate and headed to the front door. I felt a bit nervous while standing in the elevator that took me to the fifth floor, and it got worse when I stepped out.
Why was I so nervous all of a sudden? I had known Derek for four years and we started dating eight months ago, and still, I was nervous. Not as bad as on our first date, but nervous enough.
I opened the door to our apartment and stepped in with a hello. Derek popped his head out of the kitchen. "Hey Ron," he said with a smile, and I could immediately tell it was now him who was up to something – his usual lazy smile was now replaced by a boyish grin.
I squinted my eyes at him when he came to give me a kiss, but he didn't let me speak.
"Sorry, you're banned from the rest of the house for now," he told me, turning me around to face the bathroom.
"What? Why?" I asked while he opened the door.
"You'll see – but now, I want you to take a nice, long bath."
The bathroom was squeaky clean. And filled with candles. I stopped to stare at it, and then looked at Derek over my shoulder.
"You're not allowed to come out for at least an hour, okay?" he spoke, checking his watch.
"What are you up to?" I asked, suddenly feeling warm and bubbly inside.
"Watching porn – I need some privacy," he said without batting an eye – lying, obviously.
"Uh-huh," I said while taking my jacket off. "An hour, you say?"
"Or longer," he said, peering towards the kitchen.
He was hovering right behind me the entire time I put my jacket and shoes away, not letting me take a step away from the bathroom door. I was dying to know what he was doing, but I wasn't going to ruin his plans – whatever they were.
Before I stepped into the bathroom, I stopped to give him a big kiss. I had the feeling he was going to earn a lot of those tonight.
I lingered in the bath as long as I could, enjoying the warm water and the candlelight, secretly trying to hear what Derek was doing. He was being awfully quiet. I could hear his footsteps and occasional sounds of the oven, but nothing else.
Once I was finally allowed to get out of the bath, I dried myself and wrapped the towel around my waist. The second I opened the door, however, Derek was waiting right outside, refusing to let me out.
"Here are your clothes," he said, giving the pile to me and basically shutting the door in my face. I chuckled and started putting on the black jeans and the blue dress shirt he had given me. As soon as I was done, I knocked on the door, asking if I was now allowed to come out. I didn't get a reply.
"Derek?" I called out, opening the door slowly. "Honey?"
I peered through the gap but heard nothing. The hallway behind the door was dark, and the only source of light came from a single candle that was placed on a dresser. I pushed the door open and stepped out, calling for Derek again as I made my way to the candle.
There was a note under it, and with Derek's handwriting, it said Living Room.
I smiled at it, feeling butterflies in my stomach. I walked to the kitchen, but it was empty and dark, so I continued my way past it to the living room.
There, I ground to a halt. Derek stood there, in his finest suit, in the middle of the room, right next to the small table that was supposed to be in the dining area. Now it was covered with a red tablecloth with our finest tableware on top of it. The rest of the room was lit up with dozens of candles and there were several heart-shaped balloons in the corners.
"Wow..." I breathed out as I looked around. "You did this?" I asked, laying my eyes on him.
"I saw the look on your face when we walked past those chocolates," he spoke softly, slowly making his way to me. "I knew I had to give you a special Valentine's Day because you deserve it."
"You didn't have to do this," I said nonchalantly, but he shook his head, taking my hand in his.
"When we met, I was a mess. A drunken mess with no job or apartment," he said quietly, his voice raspier than normal. He rubbed my fingers gently as he continued, "I may still be a mess, but not drunk, not homeless, and I have a job now. You gave me the base to build on, and I am this man today because of the unconditional support and love you've given me. So yeah... Maybe I didn't have to do this, but not doing this didn't even cross my mind."
By the time he stopped speaking, I was getting emotional. I smiled at him and hugged him tightly, feeling his strong arms pulling me even closer.
"You deserve everything you've ever wanted," he whispered. "And I'm so goddamn lucky to have you."
"Me too," was all I could force out of my mouth while I tried my hardest not to cry. "I love you, Derek."
"I love you too," he murmured.
We stayed there for a moment, wrapped in each other's arms in our happy little bubble, but then, he cleared his throat and pulled back to see my face. "The food is getting cold," he said and smiled.
"I'm starving," I told him, secretly drying the corners of my eyes, and he placed his hand on my back, gesturing me towards the table.
It was the perfect date night. Good food and great wine with the best company... It was everything I could've wished for. He even conjured a plateful of rainbow-shaped cookies out of nowhere. We talked and flirted and joked around, and I was so incredibly happy that he was enjoying himself as well. We hadn't really had proper dates before. I brought that up and immediately regretted it since his smile faded a little.
"I know I'm not the most romantic person there is," he said quietly.
"It's fine – it's totally fine," I hurried to say.
He stared at me for a moment, then reached over the table to take my hand in his. "You like romantic stuff. And... This is nice," he said, and the smile returned. "We should definitely do this more often."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure," he said reassuringly. "And to prove to you that I can be romantic as well..." he trailed off, stood up, and pulled me with him.
"What?" I asked as he started to lead me towards our bedroom.
He just winked at me without saying a word. We stopped behind our bedroom door, and he pulled me into a short kiss before opening it.
"My God..." I whispered when I saw our bed. It was covered in rose petals, and there was a big, heart-shaped box in the middle of it. And more balloons.
He stepped in, trying to pull me with him, but I asked him to wait for a second. I hurried back to the front door where I had left my bag, grabbed the chocolate I bought for him before heading to our guest room to get the roses.
He gave them a curious look when I returned to him. "What's this?" he asked.
"Happy Valentine's Day," I said, giving them to him.
"You got me roses...?" he asked, a small smile appearing on his lips.
"And your favorite chocolate – nougat," I said, tapping the box.
He gave me his brightest smile and pulled me into a kiss. "Thank you," he whispered once he let go of me. "No one has given me flowers before..." he muttered with a light blush, looking down at the roses with a gentle expression on his face.
I could only stare at him. After all this time, I just learned something new about him. I always thought he didn't care about flowers... I felt like crap for never asking about it.
"You'll be getting them from now on," I promised.
He put the roses and the chocolate away to kiss me again. Before I knew it, I was lying on top of the petals on the bed, Derek hovering over me, kissing every inch of my skin... As the clothes started coming off and the air in the room turned hot, I smiled.
It really was the best Valentine's Day I could've asked for simply because I got to spend it with Derek, the heart of my heart.
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Dolly Grand writes gay romance and fantasy for young and new adults, adores cheesy things and cute love confessions, and has dedicated herself to writing as many happily ever afters as possible. Read more from Dolly here.