I have a valentines story for all of you.
Back when I was very sick and felt on the verge of dying at any minute, I started going to bars for a couple reasons. One is I liked the noise. It took my mind off what I was experiencing just a bit. There was the added benefit to where if I keeled over I wouldn't be found a week later on the floor of my home having been partially eaten by cats. The other benefit was for whatever reason becoming drunk or partially drunk helped with the constant dizziness.
Anyway I went to this one bar with an attractive bar tender. I paid her little notice other than to order drinks. About the 2nd time I showed up, some time in October I think, she told me how her boyfriend had taken them out and gave me a dollar amount of how much he had spent on them. Apparently she was expecting more of a reaction then I gave. I simply said something like, "thats nice to hear," and went on about finishing my beer. She kept talking and eventually told me the amount had included another couples bill that had joined them as well. At the time I thought this was her way of telling me she had a boyfriend. Perhaps because I was coming to the bar so often she thought I was there to see her. Not sure of this but this is what I deduced. So I made a mental note and decided to act even less interested than I had around her to begin with. Which amounted to less than nothing.
A little later in the same year I was there texting my friend of whom I had recently reconnected with and she grabbed my phone out of my hands and read my messages. Now, I am a laid back person and I had also deduced she probably thought I was talking about her to someone. Im sure she was surprised to find out I was not. Other things happened that led me to believe she was interested in me. And, I may have pursued to some extent had she not initially made such a show of telling me he had a boyfriend when we first came into limited contact with each other. Im not sure about this though. However I am sure that with the knowledge she had a boyfriend I put a cap on any such musings.
After valentines day passed the next day I was at the bar again. She asked if I had received anything from anyone to which I said I had. My nephew 4 at the time had given me a card. We never had much of a conversation in large part to me keeping my mouth shut. Somehow she was always mentioning money in one way or another in hers. The last I saw of her she was telling another customer that she was cutting her schedule way back and giving specifics as to what days she would be there. Clearly done in a way that I would overhear and clearly done for that purpose. So, I made a note not to show up on those days but to show up on others. I let a month go by and showed up on one of the days she said she would be there. As I sat down I heard her say to another with a weak enthusiasm, "Hes here."
I stopped going to bars pretty much after that. I had lost my job about a year before and was running out of money to burn. I never saw her again.
Beautiful valentines story isn't it?
I suppose I should add...
About 8 months ago I decided to look for her on Facebook because honestly, its so easy. I found her. She had a picture of her and a boyfriend (Im fairly certain not the same she mentioned to me) and looked happy. I found some amount of happiness in the thought shes happy.