My Unexpected Valentine

“Who’s ready for some pie?” Sarah asked with a cheerful smile.

“I’m always ready for pie,” Caleb replied, drawing a laugh around the table.

“Sure, count me in,” Nolan agreed. He wasn’t exactly in the mood for dessert, but he could never pass on Sarah’s pecan pie. Especially not when she had so happily told him earlier that she made it tonight, knowing it was his favorite.

Sarah rose from her seat, laying her napkin beside her empty dinner plate. She stepped closer to Caleb and asked him to go help her, as she placed a kiss on his temple. It was such a simple gesture, yet the affection passed between the two of them was a prickly reminder to Nolan that he was very much alone now.

He watched the couple leave off for the kitchen, sat there idly for a few seconds, then reached for his phone. He couldn’t help himself. He pulled up a social media profile he was all too familiar with.

Soon, he was scrolling through her recent posts. Photo after photo of her looking happy. The emotion radiated from her flawless smile and her bright eyes. Here she laughed as she posed in front of a fountain, frozen over for the winter. Here she nestled a cup of warm coffee in front of her face. Here she had her lips pressed to the cheek of a handsome looking man. A man that was not him.

“You’re not looking at her Instagram again, are you?”

Nolan was startled by Caleb’s voice and looked up quickly.

“No,” he lied, putting his phone facedown on the table. “I was just reading something.”

“Bull.” Caleb scoffed as he came back to the dining table. He was carrying a plate of pecan pie topped with whipped cream.

“What’s bull?” asked Sarah, as she followed shortly after with two more identical plates in her hands.

“Nolan’s trying to say he wasn’t just looking at Brooke’s stuff again,” Caleb answered.

“Because I wasn’t,” Nolan insisted more firmly.

“I know that look, man. You always get that kinda sad, kinda pissed look when you’re looking at something about her.”

Nolan frowned. He should’ve known better. Caleb knew him too well. They had been best friends since middle school. They drifted apart for a while during their college years, when they attended different schools, but like friends that were just made for each other, they found a way back into each other’s lives. Nolan had even been the best man at Caleb and Sarah’s wedding.

Now Caleb was looking at him as if he was concerned, while Sarah’s expression was full of sympathy. Ugh.

“Okay, so I was. It’s no big deal. And by the way, I don’t look like that.”

Sarah was quiet as she set a plate down in front of him. She set the other at her own place and reclaimed her seat. Caleb had sat back down too, but he left his pie untouched. He was still giving him that concerned look.

“Yeah, you kinda do. Nolan, listen to me, you need to stop torturing yourself over her.”

Nolan exhaled heavily and crossed his arms, leaning them against the table. He knew that his friend was trying to help, but his words were irritating. He was torturing himself? Brooke was the one constantly posting pictures about her perfect life with her perfect new man. Rubbing it in his face. How could she move on so easily?

“We’re just worried about you,” Sarah finally spoke up. “You guys have been over for like four months already… You shouldn’t keep checking up on her like you do.”

“And why do you even want her back? After what she did? Bro, find someone better,” Caleb added.

Nolan was staring a hole through his slice of pie as he listened, but finally lifted his eyes to look at the others. They didn’t understand. They didn’t know what it felt like to propose to someone and have them say no. It hurt on so many levels. His reality, shattered. His pride, battered. His heart, destroyed. He thought he was on the road to a happy marriage, like they had, and instead found himself on a dead end.

Technically, he was the one who ended the relationship. He planned out a beautiful proposal. He had the soul of a romantic and the creativity of a writer, so of course his proposal was a grand gesture. He envisioned her enthusiastically saying yes. He didn’t know how to take it when she refused him, stammering out excuses. His temper flared, and he told her that if she didn’t want to get married, then there was no point in them even dating.

He regretted it later, but she didn’t. She went and found someone else. Moved on as if the two of them had never been in love.

“Okay, okay. You guys are making me feel like a loser,” Nolan said, leaning back in his seat. Sarah gave him another of those sympathetic looks that he didn’t like, but Caleb laughed.

“Yeah, right. Like anyone would say you’re a loser,” Caleb said, and the comment made Nolan crack a grin.

“Shut up and eat your pie,” Nolan snarked back at him. With that, the dark cloud over the table dissipated. Three forks were picked up and three bites of cream covered pecan pie were eaten. The pie tasted as great as it looked. It wasn’t enough to fix the broken feelings now fresh on his mind, but he put on a happy face anyway.

“Are we still playing a game of Catan after this?” Sarah asked, as they were all enjoying their pies. It was routine for them to play some sort of board game after dinner, whenever they invited Nolan over for the evening.

Maybe a game would help get his mind on better things.

“Of course. I need to see just how many times I can screw Caleb with the robber,” Nolan teased before reaching for his drink. The robber, as it was called, was a hindrance in the game to whoever had it placed on their tiles.

“You asshole,” Caleb chuckled, pointing his fork at Nolan.

“Hey, payback for you throwing me under the bus when we played The Thing.” Nolan shrugged and once again, the table was laughing.

They finished their pie and all had fun playing the game. Nolan carried out his threat, but Sarah was loyal to her hubby and helped Caleb rid himself of the robber. Oh well. It wasn’t like they took any of it too seriously. It was all in fun.

By then, it was getting late. His friends had done well to distract him from his mopey thoughts about his ex. But after the drive home, and his nightly routine before bed, his mind inevitably ventured back to her.

It was hard going to bed alone. He told himself that he should listen to them. They were right. Things were over with Brooke and he needed to move on too. So why did he find himself looking at her profile again?

He really shouldn’t have. There was a new post, that wasn’t there when he looked after dinner. Brooke showing off two tickets. The caption was her raving about her man being the best ever for surprising her with cruise tickets. It was a cruise set over Valentine’s Day. She called it the most romantic thing ever.

Seriously? The most romantic thing ever?! After all the sweet things he had done for her? After that elegant proposal?

He didn’t know what made him feel worse. What she said, or knowing she’d be having an amazing Valentine’s Day while he would be celebrating his alone.

That’s it.

He refused to spend his alone. Caleb was right. He wasn’t a loser, and he needed to stop torturing himself over her. If she was done with him then he needed to be done with her. He’d find someone else and give that lucky woman a Valentine’s Day that would make Brooke the envious one.

Laying in bed, with his cat chilling on the pillow beside him, he decided to find someone using a dating app. He’d had success with them in the past, before Brooke, and it was a guaranteed way to have himself a date quickly. He did a bit of browsing and found a flashy new app called Cupid’s Arrow.

Its description made it stand out from the others. It promised to find people their perfect match. Which, okay, that was a common claim. But what intrigued him was the way the app was set up. It wasn’t a browsing of endless profiles (which turns into everyone fishing for the hottest find) but instead the app did all the work. It paired people up on a blind date.

He’d never seen that approach before. He had to admit, it sounded fun. Even if it didn’t work out with his match, it’d still be an experience. He’d never actually been on a blind date. It was bitterness that started him looking for a dating app, but he was feeling in higher spirits when he finished filling out his profile.

“What do you think, Archer? Think this silly pink app will give me a good match?” he asked his cat, who came to snuggle him. The cat plopped down on his shoulder. His head was leaned against Nolan’s head, and he stretched his furry front legs out comfortably over his chest.

“I think it will. I think this might be just what I need,” he said, lifting his hand to scratch behind the cat’s ears. This was surely for the best. It was awful being alone on Christmas and New Year’s, and he wasn’t going to spend Valentine’s Day that way.