It was two weeks to Valentine’s Day, and Agnes woke up angry again. It had been happening a lot that month. When it first happened, she checked her calendar, thinking it had to do with her menstrual cycle, but no, it wasn’t hormonal. After a careful analysis of her life, she decided Tim, her boyfriend, was the cause.
Tim had started acting weird over the past month. He was hiding things from her. Suddenly, his phone had a different password than the one she knew. When he showed her stuff on the phone, he watched over what she was looking at like a hawk. He was anxious around her and claimed nothing had changed. “It’s all in your head,” he had claimed when she brought it up with him.
Agnes had this sickening feeling inside her. Meanwhile, on social media and the streets, business was red. Every company had a Valentine’s Day offer to market. The jokes, memes and all forms of content had something to do with Valentine’s. It put her in a bad mood.
At work, people knew she was dating and kept asking her about her Valentine’s plans, which annoyed her. They didn’t know she was battling her past ghosts and anticipated heartbreak, given how Tim was acting. “Valentine’s is a curse to me,” she thought to herself.
“What are you planning on getting Tim for Valentine’s?” Laura, her best friend, asked.
“Do I want to celebrate Valentine’s in the first place?” Agnes asked Laura.
“Come on, leave such thoughts to the single people,” Laura replied.
“I’m constantly in a bad mood when I think about it. I am reminded of Ian,” Agnes told Laura.
“Why are you thinking about your horrible ex?” Laura asked her.
“Have you forgotten what he did to me on Valentine’s? I hope he is getting his karma,” said Agnes angrily.
Ian was Agnes’ ex-boyfriend. They had dated for close to three years. Agnes was devoted to him. She had seen him through hard times and loss, but he ended up cheating on her. He was manipulative, and for the six months he was cheating on her, he made her think she was crazy and was overreacting whenever she voiced her suspicions. She finally had concrete evidence of cheating on Valentine’s when he cancelled plans with her.
Ian lied that he had something to do at work. Agnes, being the hopeless romantic, decided to surprise him at work. She was the one who was surprised when she found Ian on the way out to the airport with a heavily pregnant woman. It turned out Ian had been dating an intern at his workplace and impregnated her. He was flying her to the coast for Valentine’s because, with the baby coming, they wouldn’t have a chance to do anything fun as a couple for a while.
Agnes knew Ian was hiding something, but she didn’t think it was that huge. He had obviously been cheating on her for close to a year. Additionally, Ian had never done anything that romantic with her. It stung. It crashed her so badly that she almost fell into depression. It took a lot for Tim to win her over after that horrible break-up.
Now, Tim was also behaving weirdly. She hated the secrecy the most. Agnes imagined he was also going to hurt her. As a way of protecting herself, she decided to expect the worst. Agnes anticipated her break up with Tim and started detaching from him. She decreased the number of times she would talk to him. The conversations were also shorter. She avoided all talk of Valentine’s with him. Tim noticed.
“Did you tell Agnes about my plans?” Tim asked Laura, Agnes’ best friend.
“No, I haven’t. Why?” Agnes asked Tim.
“She is acting cold. I feel like she is being distant,” Tim told her.
“She hasn’t said anything to me about you guys having issues, but I also don’t think she knows about your plans,” Laura replied.
“Okay, maybe I am reading too much into it,” Tim said.
“I’ll check in with her and find out,” Laura told Tim.
“I’ll appreciate that.”
Laura asked Agnes out for lunch. Agnes almost cancelled, but she also needed to talk to someone.
“I think Tim is cheating on me,” Agnes told Laura.
“Why would you think that?” Laura asked in shock. She almost got choked by the coffee she was sipping.
“He has been behaving the way Ian was when I discovered he was cheating on me,” Agnes responded.
“Tim wouldn’t do that to you. He loves you,” Laura told her.
“Why are you defending him?” Agnes asked.
“I just don’t see it,” Laura assured her.
Agnes went home, but she wasn’t satisfied. She still felt something was off with Tim. It was a couple of days before Valentine’s, and she decided she wanted to confront Tim about his sudden change of behaviour. In her mind, she knew this could be a break-up conversation depending on how Tim reacted or what she discovered. She wasn’t going to let another man make a fool of her. She had never recovered from the public humiliation of seeing Ian and the pregnant woman. The image was vivid in her brain.
“We need to talk,” Agnes told Tim.
“Okay, we can,” said Tim.
“Are you available today?” Agnes asked.
“No, let’s do it tomorrow,” Tim responded.
“Tomorrow is Valentine’s. There will be too many people in restaurants,” Agnes responded.
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll find a place.”
Agnes tried to push Tim into having the conversation on that day, but he stood his ground. So she thought, “Okay, another break up on Valentine’s!” She shared her thoughts with Laura. Laura sounded so excited about it and started going on about what she put on.
“Is your hair done? What about your nails?” Laura asked.
“Why are you so excited? I’m just meeting my boyfriend, who might be my ex-boyfriend,” Agnes told her.
“Rubbish! I know Tim isn’t cheating. I’m coming to pick you up, and we’re going to do your nails and hair,” Laura told her.
There was something about how Laura talked that made Agnes suspect something else. She couldn’t let herself imagine what Laura was alluding to; a break-up was a better thought. It would save her the disappointment. She didn’t press Laura, but Laura was too excited.
The following day, she was preparing to leave the house for her talk with Tim when Laura video-called her.
“Let me see how you look,” Laura told her.
“I’m not putting on anything too fancy. We’re just talking,” Agnes told Laura.
“Need I remind you that I’m single and living precariously through you? You better dress up for that date,” Laura told her.
“Oh, wow! You’re going to pull that card?” Agnes laughed.
“Assuming you even discover that he’s cheating, you might want to show him what he’s missing out on. Give him a last image of you that he won’t forget,” Laura said. They laughed, and Agnes changed her outfit.
Tim picked Agnes, and they headed to the restaurant. Agnes didn’t know where they were going, but Tim looked so good! She started hoping that her suspicions had been wrong.
“Are you cheating on me?” She blurted out.
“What?” Tim asked.
“The secret phone calls, the phone passwords, hovering when I take your phone? Is there someone else?” Agnes asked. She had tears in her eyes.
“No, babe. I am not cheating on you,” Tim responded.
They got to the restaurant and cut short the conversation. Agnes was wowed by the choice of location. She had wanted to try it out for a while. “Happy Valentine’s babe,” Tim told her.
She felt a tear down her cheek. Laura had been right about Tim. They then proceeded to have their meal. After their main meal, a waiter brought out dessert, but there was an inscription on the plate. As she read it, Tim went to the side of the table and got on one knee.
All of a sudden, the room was full of people she knew. She spotted Laura, too. The secrecy had been Tim planning to propose to her. She said yes to him.
“Well played,” Agnes told Laura later.
“Hardest secret I have ever had to keep!” Laura told her.
“I can’t believe I almost let Ian ruin something else for me,” Agnes said.
“At least you didn’t let it happen, and now you are a whole fiancé!” Laura told her.
They joined the rest in celebration and started thinking of the wedding plans.
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