"Valentine's Day, again," I grumbled into my beer from my corner barstool. "Somebody please shoot me and put me out of my misery."
It's not that I hate the day...well, actually I do. In fact, I pretty much always have, at least since I was old enough to know how it made people act. The only saving grace this year was that I wasn't dating anyone. That made it more bearable.
"It's good for business," the bartender shrugged. I looked at him and shook my head. Franky's comment was so Franky.
"What's wrong with Valentine's day?" The question came from Ray. He was a regular and was sitting three stools down eating a burger and drinking his beer. Ray was a couple of inches below average height, but seemed bigger. There was something about muscles that did that for a guy. "I like it. Women always seem friendlier."
Ray was probably fifteen or twenty years older than my own twenty nine years, but he didn't act like it. He had a full head of salt and pepper hair and typically had a couple days of stubble on his face. Of course, on him it looked good. He was a mechanic by trade and came in for lunch three or four days a week.
"Sure, if you're into psychos," I snorted. He opened his mouth to protest, but I cut him off. "And all women are psychos on Valentine's Day!"
Alice, another regular looked at me and frowned from across the bar. She was dressed in an expensive business suit and her hair and makeup were perfect as always. She was sort of plain, but took care of herself. She was also personable and funny. I liked her. Hell, if Alice weren't ten years older than me I might have asked her out.
She was a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company and spent most of her time on the road. I doubt our little town gave her much business, but she stopped by for lunch every week or so. I figured she came by to take a break from the rat race. I sometimes teased her about her need to 'slum it'.
"Speaking for my entire sex," Alice said, calmly sipping her drink. "Fuck you." I snorted in laughter. It always surprised me when she cursed. Alice just didn't seem the type and probably wasn't usually in public, but the atmosphere of the pub lent itself toward letting people say what they really thought without it ending up in a brawl. It was one of my favorite things about the place.
"Hey, it's not really your fault," I explained. "I blame the dumb bastard who decided to plant a holiday geared toward love right in the middle of the most depressing time of the year. Now there's someone who should be shot! It's downright cruel."
"Man, someone must have ripped out your heart on Valentine's Day and stomped on it pretty hard somewhere in the past for you to hate it this much," Ray guessed.
"Definitely," Alice agreed, smiling at him from her seat. The two exchanged a look and something clicked between them. I could almost feel it. I couldn't help roll my eyes. They were oblivious to my reaction as she continued. "It's a shame really. Valentine's Day can be a lot of fun."
"If you share it with the right person." Ray offered, causing Alice's smile to grow. "It's a great time to make new friends, or get to know some old ones better."
"Seriously?" I groaned, interrupting their wordplay. ""This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Valentine's Day is a curse! It makes people act crazy."
"What?" Alice asked with a frown as if just remembering I was here.
"Please!" I snorted. "You two have almost nothing in common except this pub and you've both been coming here for years, yet suddenly you're attracted to each other? Come on! It's the Valentine's Day Curse!"
"Whoa! Slow down sailor!" Alice retorted, clearly embarrassed. "Who says Ray and I are attracted to each other?"
"I do," Franky interjected bluntly, getting everyone's attention. He shrugged and added, "It's pretty obvious."
"He's not wrong," Ray admitted. "At least on my part." His words drew Alice's eyes back to him and she smiled once again despite her embarrassment.
"Oh brother!" I snapped in annoyance. "You two better be carefully. Valentine's Day will be over in less than twelve hours and then what? I tell you what..."
I was ready to wax philosophical on the dangers of a Valentine's Day romance, but was interrupted when Ginny, the one and only daytime server for the entire room of tables in the back of the pub came out of the kitchen and interrupted us. We seldom got a big crowd at lunch time and most of our regulars liked to eat at the bar.
"Hey boss, there's a phone call for you," she said without preamble. "It's your sister Emily. She's stuck showing a house and wants you to pick up the kids again."
"Great," I grumbled, pushing my glass back. Thankfully, it was only my second beer of the day and it was still half filled. I was in good enough shape to drive. "Tell her I'm on my way."
"Got it," Ginny smiled and turned back to the kitchen with just a touch too much excitement. She had a thing for Juan, one of the cooks and I was sure the Curse was working hard at screwing up their lives today as well.
"Franky, I'll be back as soon as I can," I sighed, standing.
"No rush boss," the bartender replied. "In fact, take your time. Your mood is bad for business."
"You know, I think you worry more about my business than I do," I laughed. Franky gave one of his rare smiles and shifted to the other side of the bar.
I checked my pockets and realized I had left my keys in my office. I frowned in annoyance, but my coat was in the back anyway and it was far too cold to go out without it. I went to grab them. Juan and Ginny were laughing together at something as I passed them. I shook my head, taking my coat off its hook and grabbed my keys off my desk. Ginny and Juan were still at it when I went back out.
"Damn Curse," I mumbled to myself as I passed. It had better not mess up my plans for Ginny. She was relatively new to waiting tables, but she was learning fast. I had hopes of moving her to nights soon. One of the servers there was barely pulling her weight. I didn't need a bad romance between her and Juan. I didn't want her to leave, or him for that matter. "Damn Curse."
I caught sight of Ray sitting next to Alice on her side of the bar as I walked out. I muttered something unkind under my breath, but left them to their folly.
The trip to my nephews' school was uneventful and thankfully short. I parked the car, got out and made my way to the section of the parking lot where the kids would be let out. It was cold, but not as bad as I feared. At least the wind had died down from this morning.
Our town was less than an hour from the big city. We were one of those small middleclass communities that existed just past the suburbs. I hear that in some places if you travel an hour outside one of a big cities you end up in some seriously rural areas. That wasn't us. We had plenty of neighbors on our block. We also had decent size yards that kids could actually play in, unlike most of the suburbs I knew.
My nephews went to the smaller of our two grammar schools and because our town was less than a square mile very few kids were bussed in. I looked around and nodded politely at the parents waiting for their kids. I knew most of them.
"Hey Mike, how's it going?" It was an innocent enough question, but I knew better. The speaker was Carol Hendricks, a newly divorced mother of three and it was pretty obvious from her expression that the Curse had taken hold of her.
"Not well," I replied succinctly. Carol and I grew up not far from each other. We were friends up until high school. I guess we were friends after that as well, but it wasn't the same. She blossomed that year and her newly acquired curves drew the attention of a bunch of upper classman. One in particularly was very persistent. He was a complete asshole in my opinion, but she ended up dating him on and off again for the next five years before agreeing to marry him.
"Valentine's Day, right?" Carol asked with a grin. "I can't believe you still hate this day after all these years."
"No comment," I grumbled, noticing that quite a few people were now paying attention to our conversation. It was embarrassing.
"You really have to let it go," she said, laughing at my expression.
"Let what go?" The question came from Britney Jansen. She was a good friend of my sister's. Her husband Henry was a great guy. We always hung out whenever my sister threw one of her parties.
