I roll my lips together, slowly inching closer to the box. It’s obnoxiously big, so much so that it barely fit in the back seat of Gavin’s car, and it’s fire-engine red with a bright pink bow on top.
I slip my fingers under the bow first, untying it and letting it fall open to expose the top lid of the box. And when I remove it, I scream.
A cannon of confetti and glitter bursts when I remove the top, making a loud pop sound as a flurry of red, pink, purple, and white rains down around me. Gavin is laughing uncontrollably as I try desperately not to have a heart attack, and I throw the box lid directly at him, disappointed when he catches it easily.
“Jerk!”
“I’m sorry,” he says, still fighting off laughter. “I didn’t know it would be so explosive.”
That sends him into another riot of laughter, and though I’m starting to laugh, too, I beat my tiny fists on his chest until he drops the box lid and wraps his arm around me.
“Did you look inside?”
“I didn’t have to. The insides jumped out at me!”
He chuckles, nodding toward the box as he shifts me in his arms so I can see.
Inside, there’s a fluffy teddy bear with soft beige fur and a red heart clasped between its paws. There are also at least three boxes of chocolate, a bottle of champagne, and a giant cartoon-drawn card that says will you be my Valentine?
“Valentine’s Day?” I ask, giving Gavin a pointed look when I turn in his arms once more. I thread my hands behind his neck. “You’re joking, right? You don’t strike me as a man who buys into a consumer-driven, romantic holiday.”
“Oh, I absolutely loathe the holiday,” he agrees with a grin. “But I happen to really like you.”
I smile. “Is that so?”
“It is. So you see, I’m in a conundrum, because where I would usually spend the holiday playing video games or making fun of couples posting on social media, this year…” He pulls me in closer, his endless blue-green eyes sparkling in the low light from the parking lot streetlamps. “I’d rather be disgustingly cute and couple-y with you.”
“What if I also hate Valentine’s Day?”
“We can have an anti-Valentine’s Day.”
“And that would entail…”
“Watching John Tucker Must Die and pigging out on our favorite snacks in our sweatpants. No candles, no roses, no romance. Just trashy movies, trashy food, and trashy conversation.”
I laugh, playing with his hair where it meets the nape of his neck. “You’ve got this all planned out.”
“So, are you in?”
His eyes fall to my lips, and when he bites his, desire rolls through me in a drastic heat wave.
Our trip only lasted ten days, but it was magical in every way. Sure, there was the anxiety of not knowing what to pack, of flying to a country I barely knew anything about, let alone had ever visited before, but overall, it was the most exhilarating trip of my life.
We flew into Ecuador without a single thing planned, using our time in the airports to book a last-minute hotel and car. We decided to drive out to a little beach town called Montañita, and the next ten days were filled with perfectly warm days and cool, pleasant nights. We lounged on the beach, danced in the sand to hypnotic local music, ate some of the best food of my life with spices and flavors I’d never experienced, and talked about everything — our past, our present, what we wanted in our future.
And through it all, Gavin never pushed me past where I was comfortable.
I’d be lying if I said we didn’t spend plenty of nights wrapped up in each other, touching and exploring. But we never went all the way. I wasn’t quite ready.
But now, I think I am.
And what better time to give myself to Gavin fully than Valentine’s Day, even an anti-one?
“I’m in,” I answer, and then I press up on my toes to kiss him and seal the deal.
Later that night, back at the condo Jess, Ashlei, and I moved into together after I got back from my trip, I take a long, hot shower and join the girls on the couch for popcorn and reality TV. I don’t even make it through one episode before I’m yawning and debating how early is too early to go to bed. I’ve got class bright and early in the morning, and if I’ve learned anything after just the first two weeks of law school, it’s that there isn’t enough sleep in the world to get me through it.
I somehow manage to make it to nine before I peel myself off the couch and tell the girls goodnight. I brush my teeth and wash my face and sigh with relief when I climb into bed.