Valentine's gift for blt_tana on twitter! Happy Valentine's day!


She was never a fan of the Valentine's Day. When she was younger, she used to hate the fact she was always alone on that date meanwhile her friends had someone to celebrate the date with. As she grew up, she started not to care if she had a boyfriend at that date or not, but she started to think the date to be…. incredibly frivolous. And with each passing year, it's losing its meaning. It gets more and more filled with consumerism.

Why there has to be a date to celebrate your loved one? Shouldn't we celebrate and cherish them everyday? And why there's a date to celebrate only your romantic love? Regina started to believe that platonic love, and the love you have for your family should be celebrated just as much as romantic love. Valentines Day should not be the only day we celebrate love and that it shouldn't be about money or gifts.

Now that she's working on a flower shop though, she still thinks it's foolish, but now she sees the advantages of it. It appears many and many people thinks buying a flower is a great way to show your love. And she gets to reap the benefits of it in the end of the month on her bank account.

There are people who comes just on especial occasions, but there are a few regulars, people who comes to her work place everyday or at least every week. The person who's entering now, a very handsome blonde man, comes there every week. She feels butterflies rising up in her stomach, squirming her insides in a delicious way.

She notices he looks different from the other times he appeared in there. He's always smiling and talking but this time he seems nervous, but determined.

He approaches the place where she's standing behind the counter and looks at her.

"I know the chances of you seeing me the way I see you is very small, but I have to try. It's now or never." he looks down and takes a deep breath, and then faces her again. "Regina, would you like to go hang out with me?"

She would think his nervousness was comical and cute if she wasn't starting to be just as nervous too.

"Like... like on a date?"

"No... I mean, yeah... but only if you're comfortable, and only if you want to call it like that."

His eyes locks with hers, and they're so reassuring, like he really doesn't want to force her to do something she doesn't want to, and she smiles.

Oh, how she wants this. Him.

She makes a bold move and leans forward to hold his hands,

"I would love to go on a date with you, Robin."

He sighs in relieve and gives her a big smile then, showing all his deep dimples, his eyes shining.

"Would it be too soon if I asked you to go out with me today?"

"Only if you don't make a big deal of Valentine's day. And I don't want to go out tonight because everywhere will be crowed."

"Fair enough. Can I take you to lunch then?"

Regina takes a quick glance at the clock before answering.

"Alright. After lunch I'm free from work anyway. Can I wait for you in here? It's almost lunch time."

"Absolutely, milady. No problem." he says in a flirtation way and she just rolls her eyes and smile.

He seats on one if the seats available and wait for her. When the time comes, she quickly gets ready in the back of the place she works. Fixing her hair with a comb she finds on her purse, applies deodorant and a beautiful colorless lipstick.

She walks to meet him then, and he is as gentleman as she expected him to be. He open all the doors for her, makes sure to not make the talk all about him, and is interested to know the things she likes.

He drives them to an Italian place, and she can't resist to order one of her favorite meals in the word: lasagna.

She learns he is a teacher, and have a 5 year son. He learns she lives alone, loves music and tv shows and she graduated in Harvard. Her eyes focus on his ring finger when he mentions a son and she doesn't see any ring there. There's a story there she is sure, but she'll wait for him to talk about it when he's comfortable.

"He is at the phase of asking a lot of "why's, and that's very funny and interesting. The other day he asked why the sky is blue and I honestly didn't know what to tell him." he laughs at that and she laughs too.

"Is he very similar to you, physically?" she asks.

"Here, let me show you." he takes his phone out of his pocket and show her pictures of his son.

He is the cutest kid she's ever seen. From the pictures, she can see he smiles easily, and he inherited his father's addictive dimples. His hair and his eyes though, that probably came from his mother.

"He's a very sweet and beautiful boy" she says as she unconsciously moves her head forward to touch the screen of his phone and her fingers touches his.

She lifts her head to look at him and he's looking at her, studying her tenderly and attentively.

She smiles and he leans in to lay a kiss on her cheek.

They keep talking a bit more, and she can't stop noticing how easy it's to talk with him. It feels natural. The waiter appears with their food a while later, and they eat in a comfortable silence, trading silly smiles at each other.

She just can't stop smiling when she's with him.

After they eat, he pays for it and asks her if she would let him drive her somewhere. She narrows her eyes at him playfully but accepts his request.

He parks his car in front of a botanical garden and walks fast to turn around and open the door for her. He takes a key from his pocket and opens the door of the place. As they get inside she's in awe of the variety of the flower she sees there. Roses (white and red), tulips, sunflowers, daisies and many others.

"This is amazing, Robin." she says as her eyes tries to recognize every type of flower in there.

"Thank you", he takes her hands on his and waits for her to look back at him to see if it's okay, and only then tightens his hold on her.

"All those flower belonged to my mother," he explains. "After she passed away I just… I wanted to do something to feel connected to her, and I think it's making me feel better, to keep her legacy. And it keeps me busy."

Soddenly she understands why he stops by her flower shop so often.

"It's a good thing you're doing." she plays with his fingers tangled in her hands while she speaks. "I'm sure she would've been proud of you, and I'm glad you're sharing this with me."

"I'm sorry if this is too personal, it just feel… natural to talk with you, and I can't seem to shut my mouth when I'm with you."

"I was just thinking the same thing a few minutes ago," she shares as she blushes and smile. "You make me feel comfortable, I feel like I can talk about anything with you."

He slowly brings her to him and wraps his arms around her in a hug. He takes a moment to feel her warmth as her smell hits him.

"I feel the same way," he whispers against her hair. "Now I'm actually glad the old flower shop I used to go closed and I had to find a new one. And I was determined to only settle to a flower shop I really like, and since the first time I went to your workplace, you and your kind smile made me want to go back there."

She presses him tighter against her, realizing he doesn't go to the flower shop only because of the flower. He goes there because of her too.