“Are you kidding?” Shelby giggled as I changed the TV to a channel with the movie “Signs” on it.
“What?” I chuckled with a frown.
“This movie,” Shelby rolled her eyes. “Please tell me you remember this movie…” she trailed off and looked up at me. We were both laying on my bed staring at the TV. We were kind of close, but just friendly close. I frowned and tried to remember.
“No…I don’t remember this movie…” I trailed off.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Men.” She mumbled. Before I could get defensive, she began to explain. “Remember? It was Valentine’s Day in 2003 and you were in charge of planning out the night because I was working and you had the day off…”
As she continued on, I began to remember more clearly.
I couldn’t decide what movie to get as I stood in front of a row of movies in the middle of Blockbuster.
“Most of the sappy ones are taken, ya know,” this girl behind me spoke up. I turned around to face her. She looked like a teenager, dressed in a shirt from Blockbuster with a nametag that read: Alex. She had on lots of dark make-up and had many piercings. “Are you lookin’ for your girlfriend?”
“Yeah,” I nodded and shuffled my feet a bit. This was awkward. Why was this girl talking to me? I had wanted to get in and get out in fear of being recognized. I thought this idea was stupid – I wasn’t in the mood for a romantic Valentine’s Day, but Shelby had insisted.
“I always thought it’d be hot if my boyfriend got a scary movie,” she shrugged, putting in her thoughts.
I frowned thinking she had completely lost her mind. “On Valentine’s Day??” I questioned. The girl nodded. I knew Shelby well and I knew she hated scary movies. They were always fun for me because she’d get really scared and cuddle up next to me. But I figured I’d get an earful from her when I brought home a scary movie on Valentine’s Day.
“You’d be surprised,” the girl shrugged. “A lot of girls think it’s cute when their men bring home movies like that on romantic holidays…” this girl was creeping me out. I decided to just go ahead and get the damn movie. Signs just happened to be the movie.
“Shelb?” I called up the stairs to my house. I knew she was there. Her car was in the driveway. I smirked as I saw her clothes strewn across the hallway leading to my bedroom. As I opened the door, I saw her indulged in a piece of chocolate from a box I had left her on the kitchen counter.
“Hey baby,” she smiled and made her way to the edge of the bed. She was wearing one of my Tampa Bay Bucs jerseys and, I assumed, either panties or nothing underneath.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, baby girl,” I winked and pulled her in for a deep kiss, tasting the chocolate on her lips and tongue. “Sorry it took me so long to get here.” I whispered. She was my everything.
“It’s okay,” she smirked. “What movie did you get?” Uh oh. Here was the moment of truth. Would the sales girl be right? “Oooh.” She seemed interested as she looked at the case over in her hands. “Interesting choice.” She raised her eyebrows.
“Have you seen it?” I asked her as I slid off my shoes and got more comfortable in a wife beater and sweatpants. She shook her head ‘no’. “Good. Me neither.” I smirked. “I thought I’d step away from cliché and get a scary movie for today instead of something cheesy and romantic.”
“I like it,” she smiled as she put it on.
It really wasn’t that scary. But Shelby’s afraid of absolutely everything, so it was really scary to her. The entire movie she had a death grip on my shirt and was cuddled up so close to my side, I was positive there wasn’t any space in between us. I had to smirk. I knew tonight would be a night full of sex.
And boy was I right.
“That was an interesting night…” I chuckled, somewhat uncomfortably, as Shelby jogged my memory. She looked at me blankly as if I wasn’t getting it. Then I saw tears form in her eyes. Uh oh. Had I forgotten something important? February 2003…my mind was running in circles. Then I remembered. “That was the night we conceived Lanie…” I mumbled and she nodded.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all mushy,” she tried to giggle to cause her tears to stop. “It just…thinking of her…” I was glad she wasn’t upset with me – that had been my initial thought. And old Shelby probably would have been annoyed with me for not remembering. But this Shelby had grown up – and she was too upset about Lanie to get upset about anything else.
“It’s okay,” I whispered and reached my arm out to pull her towards me. She cuddled up next to my side like she had so many times before and cried. “Bad movie choice. I’m sorry.” I went to change the channel and she stopped me with her hand.
She shook her head. “Not at all. I love this movie. Good memories…” she trailed off and I smirked. Was she flirting? Of course there were good memories behind this movie. We had a daughter. Of course, Shelby’s pregnancy led to much crazier things – our hurried marriage so her parents wouldn’t disown her, our late night fights and arguments over simple things that seemed to life changing at the time, and this moment…right here.
“You’re right,” I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Very good memories…” She turned her head towards mine and for the first time since the moment in the hotel the day before, she kissed me. It wasn’t just a friendly kiss, either. I thought that she had forgotten about our kiss earlier the day before, but obviously not.
“You know how we said we should start over?” She mumbled against my lips as I readjusted so she was flat on her back and I was lifted above her with one arm planted on the mattress beside her to hold my body up and my other hand on her waist. I nodded. “I say we start over with us, too…” she whispered as I pulled back for a moment.
I knew we should probably go slow…that we should probably sit and talk about this like mature adults. I felt like maybe she wanted to have sex with me because Lanie was sick and she needed someone to take her mind of things? Or maybe she wanted to do it to bring back the amazing memories from that Valentine’s Day when we created Lanie? Or maybe (just maybe) she really did want to start over and she might still love me?
I was hoping for the last one.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the next chapter!! Let me know what you think =]
