Valentine’s Day

(John’s POV)

"John, do I really have to keep the blindfold on?"

"It’s not detrimental to your life or health, but in a word, yes."

I snicker as Evangeline reaches out to swat me, but totally misses. She pouts and says, "Just you wait. I’m going to get you back."

"Be my guest. You can even blindfold me if you want."

Evangeline grins devilishly. "You have a thing for blindfolds don’t you?"

"No, I just don’t believe you when you say that you promise not to open your eyes."

"You know I don’t like surprises, John."

"I promise you, that you’ll love this one."

I really hope that she does. Ever since a week ago, when her Mom left, Evangeline has been a little sad. Even though I got her Valentine’s Day present a while ago, I wanted to do something extra special for her. A couple of days ago, I saw an ad for a brownstone for lease, and since Evangeline and I have been throwing around the idea of moving in together for a while, I went to check it out.

So after a nice dinner at Audrey Claire, a Mediterranean restaurant in Philadelphia, I told Evangeline that I had another surprise and blindfolded her. What I wasn’t expecting was the bad traffic, and we’ve been in pretty much the same spot for the past fifteen minutes, which is probably why Evangeline is starting to get antsy.

"I’m taking it off John."

"I hope you’re not talking about the blindfold."

"Don’t quit your day job. You’re no Robin Williams."

"And the lady strikes again. Ouch!"

"And I’ve got more where that came from."

I don’t have a comeback, but I do have a pretty good distraction.

"I completely forgot, I bought you some candy."

"Ooh candy! Where is it?"

I reach over and pull the heart shaped box of candy out of the dashboard and hand it to her. I didn’t actually forget about it, but after buying the chocolate, I felt ridiculous and a little cheesy, so I didn’t give it to her. But thank God for chocolate, and Evangeline’s enormous sweet tooth. The candy keeps her occupied until we arrive at our destination.

I park the car in front of the house and turn off the engine, rolling my eyes as Evangeline whispers, "Finally. I thought we’d be driving around until daybreak tomorrow." I love her, but she can be so dramatic at times.

As we’re walking towards the house, I stop and say, "You have to hold my hand now. There’s about 5 steps up."

"In kindergarten, I almost fell for that at Danny Warner’s birthday party. Luckily for me, his sister hated frogs and she screamed when she saw it in his hand."

"Yeah, well, I’m not Danny Warner. Though I can see why he’d be so desperate to hold your hand that he’d try to trick you into it. You were probably a very beautiful kindergartener."

"John, he tried to get me to touch a frog."

"Hey, at that age, we guys think that all girls dig amphibians. He probably really liked you and I can bet that you screamed and refused to ever talk to him again. Poor guy."

"Oh yeah. I definitely ruined his life. Are we doing this or not?"

"You’re the one giving me a hard time about holding your hand."

Evangeline slips her hand in mine and squeezes gently. "Lead on Lieutenant McBain."

I use the key that the real estate agent lent me to open the front door and then I circle around Evangeline, replacing the blindfold with my hand.

"Okay. I’m gonna count to three and then I’ll uncover your eyes. Ready?"

"Ready."

"One. Two. Three. You can look now."

Evangeline glances around the immense foyer, with it’s high vaulted ceiling and the beautiful mahogany staircase, with it’s carved posts and risers and gasps. "Oh my God. This place is gorgeous, John!"

"Wait until you see the rest of the place."

The foyer led into a huge room with polished hardwood floors, French doors that lead out to an outdoor eating area and herb garden, and a large fireplace.

I point out a random spot in the room. "You’ll finally have space to put your piano."

Evangeline turns to me with an excited smile. "This place is ours?"

"If you like all of it, then you can sign the lease. And if you don’t, we can just keep looking."

"I don’t think that we’re gonna have to keep looking. Just tell me one thing. Is the kitchen big?"

"Why don’t you go see for yourself?"

That is one aspect of this house that I know for sure that Evangeline will love. The kitchen is almost an exact replica of her own, only it’s much bigger and some of the appliances are more state of the art. And as an added plus, it has an island, which is something that Evangeline really wanted for her own kitchen. I don’t really know why, but whatever it takes to make her happy... and from the excited squeal that I can hear from the kitchen, I would say that she is pretty happy.

Evangeline comes running back into the living room, laughing as she slides on the floor. "John, I want it. And I think that you like it too, or you wouldn’t have brought me here."

"Yeah, I do like this place. But don’t you want to see the upstairs before you decide whether you like the house?"

"I guess I was so excited that I forgot that there was more to see. What’s up there?"

"There’s two guest rooms, a bathroom and a master suite."

"Well then, let’s go check it out."

I stand at the bottom of the stairway, watching Evangeline run up the stairs. There’s an almost clear picture in my mind of a little girl that looks exactly like Evangeline running up these stairs with the same joyful laugh, turning around to grin at me and ask, "Aren’t you coming?" in the same way that Evangeline is doing now. A few months ago, the thought of us having children together scared the crap out of me, but now, it just seems like a normal thought.

After stopping at the realtor’s office to sign the lease, Evangeline and I go to her apartment to cool down from the excitement of tonight. But for some reason, that image that I got at the house keeps popping into my mind, and I can’t shake it off.

"Do you want kids?"

Apparently, I asked at a bad time, because Evangeline just took a sip of wine and it comes flying out of her mouth. I pat her back lightly, since she’s choking so hard, she’s turning red.

"Um. Wow! That’s an interesting way to breach the subject. Just pop out with the question."

"Sorry. I wasn’t expecting you to be so surprised or for you to have something in your mouth."

"Yeah, well... why do you want to know, today of all days?"

"When we were at the house, I saw you running up the stairs and this image popped into my mind of a little girl that looked exactly like you. And I’ve seen how you interact with kids. All of your maternal instincts just take over. What’s more important is that I would love nothing more than to be able to have kids with you someday."

"Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend who says that when God handed out sentimentality, he came late?"

I tickle the bottom of her feet, which are lying in my lap. She yelps and pulls her feet away from me and tucks them underneath her.

"I’m serious Evangeline."

She favours me with a look that says plainly, ‘how serious can you be if you were just tickling me?’ and shakes her head.

"It’s not something that I really thought about that much. But yes, I do want to have kids someday. I guess I’m just waiting for the right guy."

Okay. So that was an honest answer. Not exactly what I was hoping that I’d hear, but it was what I asked for.

Evangeline scoots over into my lap with a grin and pokes my cheek lightly. I turn my head to face her. "What’s up?"

"Do you know that you are absolutely adorable when you’re sulking?"

"You know what? You’re not very nice to me. Not only do you hurt my feelings, but you actually called me adorable? Are you kidding me?"

"You can be totally stubborn, and a pain in the neck sometimes, but I love you and I can’t think of a man more perfect to have children with."

"And I definitely can’t think of a woman more perfect to have children with, even though, you do have some tendencies towards craziness."

Instead of glaring at me like I expected, she smiles and says, "You’re right. I must be crazy. I’m in love with you."

"Isn’t Valentine’s Day a day for us to celebrate our love?"

"That’s what we’re doing. Just in a very unusual way."

"Hmm."

We sit silently for a few moments, wrapped in our own thoughts and recaps of the night’s events.

"We’re going to have to start getting boxes and packing up our apartments soon."

"Okay. Maybe if we start packing your stuff now, we’ll be able to move in a couple of months," I say with a smirk.

"I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that."

"Thank you. So other than packing up our apartments, what else do we have to do?"

Evangeline has a look on her face that makes me instantly regret asking that question. The look that she gets when she has a new idea, and there’s no way to stop her once she get’s going.

"We need to... go furniture shopping, since both of our apartments came furnished and we have very little furniture of our own. And we need to decide how we’re going to decorate the place, what colours we’re going to paint the walls. On second thought, we should do that before we go furniture shopping. Then we need to buy the paint and paint the walls before we move our stuff in. Oh! I just had a really great idea! We can have a housewarming party after we move, though of course, we don’t necessarily have to. But it would be cool if we could have all of our friends and family over to see the new place–

She stops short when she notices me grinning goofily, and stands, glaring at me indignantly with her arms akimbo. "Do you find something funny, Lieutenant?"

"I was just smiling at the way your eyes light up, and the way you babble and wave your hands around wildly when you’re excited."

"Oh," she says, dropping herself back into my lap. "Aren’t you excited too?"

"Of course I am. I’m just not really the type of person who worries about furniture and decorating and matching china and silverware and housewarming parties. And it just amuses me how things like planning how to decorate a new home can make you so happy."

"It’s planning on how to decorate a new home that I’m going to share with you, the man I love, that makes me so happy. And since I know how much you like parties, we don’t have to have a housewarming party. But we do have to do everything else."

"That’s sweet, but I happen to know that you love parties. And I don’t mind having a housewarming party after we move, on one condition."

"And what would that be?"

"No cucumber sandwiches."

"You again with the cucumber sandwiches? I’m starting to think that you actually really like those things."

"They’re not so bad, it’s just that they aren’t real food."

"John you decide what real food is according to the meat content."

"For the last time. A Gardenburger is not a real burger. A turkey burger isn’t a real burger. A burger made with hamburger meat, ie beef, is a real burger."

"Don’t knock my Gardenburgers. I happen to know that you like them, for all of your talk about them not being real food."

I try to make my expression as neutral as possible while asking, "Where did you get that piece of information?"

"Let’s just say that if you’re ever planning a surprise for me, don’t tell Michael."

Michael can keep a secret perfectly well. It’s just that when Evangeline wants to find something out from anyone, she does this thing with her eyes. And when she looks at someone like that, you’re either too scared not to tell her what she wants to know, or you feel bad about not telling her earlier and you spill it all. When you add that to the fact that Michael loves to find new and unusual ways to torture me, I’m just begging for it if I leave Michael and Evangeline alone.

"Looks like Michael wants facial reconstruction surgery for free."

Evangeline laughs and elbows me lightly in the ribs. "Leave your poor brother alone. I don’t know why you guys are always torturing each other. Just call a truce or something. On second thought... don’t. It’s sort of funny to watch."

"Just for that, I am going to call a truce."

"Aha! I got you! That’s exactly what I wanted you to say."

Outsmarted by Evangeline Williamson again. My pride is taking a serious beating tonight. Not that I mind. I’m loving every second of it, though I did especially love the look on Evangeline’s face when I took the blindfold off. That’s going straight into the memory box that resides in my head.

"Did you enjoy your Valentine’s Day surprises?"

Evangeline squints at me and shakes her head at me with a ‘shame on you’ look on her face. "Tell me you aren’t serious."

"You did some major damage to my ego, I just thought that you might want a chance to repair it."

"I can’t argue with that. I loved my Valentine’s Day surprises. Guess what part of today I liked the best."

"The flowers I sent to your office?"

"That comes in third place."

"The house?"

"Second."

"I give up then. I can’t think of anything today that you would like more than the house."

"What we’re doing right now."

Now, I’m confused. And I’m starting to think that maybe I am as dumb as Michael keeps telling me. It’s never a good thing when I start to agree with Michael.

"Yeah, you’re gonna have to help me out with that one, because I don’t get it."

"I’m talking about what we’re doing right this minute. We’re sitting in the couch, we’re both in pajamas and I have absolutely no makeup on. All we’re doing is talking to each other and making plans for our future together, and that to me is the best and most romantic part of tonight."

I smile and pull her closer to me, kissing the top of her head. "Well in that case, I guess I don’t have to give you your present then."

She turns to me with an incredulous grin. "Are you kidding? I thought that we were done with the presents!"

"This has been just the greatest 7 months of my life, and I just want you to know how special and important you are to me, not just today, but every day. But today was so ideal for surprising you, because I know that you thought I forgot about Valentine’s Day."

"You’re spoiling me McBain. I hope you realize that you’re setting yourself up."

"I don’t mind. I actually look forward to a lifetime of showing you how much I love you each and every day."

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