A/N: This is it's own little story unrelated to all my other works. Enjoy!
I Heart You.
"I'm really surprised you wanted to go out to dinner tonight." Andrea told Mike as they walked to the Lucky Inn. It was small bistro that was in walking distance of their work which meant they tended to eat there at least once a week given their hectic work schedule.
"Why? what's wrong with tonight?" Mike asked her.
"It's Valentine's Day." Andrea said actually surprised at how obtuse he was being. He seemed so observant about so many things and yet the glaringly obvious just went by unnoticed.
"No it's not." Mike argued.
"It's February 14th." Andrea told him bluntly.
"Is it?" He asked, genuinely struggling to understand that it was Valentine's day.
"Didn't all the signage give it away?" Andrea asked with a chuckle as it was too amusing. The streets and shops were decked out in Valentine's decorations, the radio played love songs non stop. Couples walked everywhere hand in hand.
"That crap has been up for months. I was in the supermarket last week and saw Easter eggs." Mike argued, his cheeks going slightly red as he hadn't realised at all that today was Valentine's day. In fact he'd been buried in paperwork to really register the significance of the date. What was worse was that he'd written the date several times today and it didn't click once.
"You bought yourself those creme eggs didn't you?" Andrea asked him teasingly.
"No," Mike lied, but it was true; he had a couple bags in his desk drawer. Shamelessly he told himself that he was allowed the indulgence given the amount of crap he had to deal with on a day to day basis.
"Uhuh. Admit it you have a addiction to them. We all have our weaknesses." Andrea told him, Mike glowered at her and said nothing as he opened the door to the pub they frequented. It was doing a roaring trade as 'Love Shack' by the B52's played over the music system. The ceiling was buried with heart shaped balloons, the red strings dangling down brushed past Mike's head just denoting how tall he was. The whole place was decked out Valentine's decorations to the point Mike felt like recoiling from the overexposure to hearts and half naked babies with bows and arrows.
"Hi! Welcome to the Lucky Inn where on this night we almost guarantee you'll get lucky on this special day." The hostess said in a perky manner, she practically danced through her introduction she looked so happy dressed in a red corset dress with a flared skirt and wings on the back. They flapped cheerfully as she bounced on her feet.
"What?" Mike asked as he wasn't sure he heard the girl right. She was barely 18 and talking to him about sex, it was just wrong.
"Table for two." Andrea said, cutting down conversation as she was wondering if Mike was going to survive dinner given how tortured he looked at the moment.
"Oh don't worry we knew you two would be in and reserved you a table. Right this way." The hostess said as she pulled two menus from the wall behind her and gestured for them to follow her. Andrea couldn't help but smile as the girl practically skipped to their table. They took their seats and took the menu the girl offered them.
"Thank you." Andrea said as Mike murmured the same as he took the menu and frowned at it. It was definitely not the normal menu. It was a bright red heart with black and white script informing them of the menu choices and prices. Everything had a romantic theme to it.
"You're both welcome, your server will be with you in a moment." the hostess said before disappearing.
"What the hell is with the balloons?" Mike grouched as the strings from the balloons settled on his head. He brushed them off only to move the balloons above them and brush more onto his head.
"It's Valentine's and maybe you should duck down?" Andrea offered as calmly as she could given she just wanted to burst out laughing and before Mike could reply their waitress another perky blonde with wings appeared at their table.
"Hello! my name is Theresa and I'll be your server tonight." she said with a smile that made Mike's teeth hurt just looking as she was over the top happy, then her eyes went wide as she looked between the two of them. "Oh my god! you're in matching outfits, that is so adorbs! I wish my boyfriend would do the same but I guess I gotta wait until he puts a ring on it." she said, she even wiggled her left hand fingers to emphasise her point. Mike looked down to realise that the waitress thought they were married as they both still wore their wedding rings and well, the girl was just a moron as Andrea and Mike were in uniform not doing some matching couples outfit exercise. He felt sorry for the future if all girls had her I.Q.
"Which I'm sure will be soon." Andrea assured her with confidence just feeding into the moment as Mike grew annoyed at the superficiality and overindulgence of 'love' in the room. She wasn't going to burst the girl's bubble of genuine happiness or eagerness.
"Fingers crossed for tonight after my shift." She said with a grin as she crossed her fingers to emphasise the point before she got back to business. "Can I start you off with anything to drink while you look over our menus of Love?" she asked them as she gestured to the menus with pride.
"Guinness for me and where are the normal menus?" Mike asked as the menu in front of him offended him on may levels.
"It's Valentine's day so tonight we're only serving the Menu of Love." She said with a dreamy sigh as she looked between them presumably playing some fantasies about their love story.
"Make it two on the Guinness and when you come back we'll be ready to order." Andrea said before Mike said anything that might upset the server as he looked ready to serve the woman with a dose of reality. Andrea was a softy, she liked people believing her life was something better than it was. Right now it was lonely, with too many hours at work and zero social life. Unless she counted dinner with Mike but even so it was usually a spur of the moment because they both worked long hours and they were friends.
"Ok, I'll be back in a jiff." Theresa said before she bounced away off to put in their drink orders.
"She's going to make it far in life." Mike remarked drily.
"Oh, give her a break. She's young." Andrea said with a chuckle as she looked at the menu to see what was on offer.
"She must be high on something." Mike challenged as he brushed away some of the balloon strings with a frown.
"Love" Andrea said with a smile. He glowered at her. "I'm still surprised you didn't know it was Valentine's day." she remarked with amusement as he was completely clueless.
"I didn't make the connection." Mike said defensively as he gave up looking at the menu. He just wanted a steak and chips, he was sure the kitchen could manage it.
"You're married. Didn't you celebrate Valentine's at all?" She asked. Mike frowned.
"Yeah, but Christine put a reminder in my calendar." Mike grumbled as he could remember all the other important dates except this one as he just didn't think it was important to celebrate a holiday that Hallmark created purposefully to put him in the dog house when he didn't remember it.
"Just one?" Andrea asked mockingly. Mike wanted to make a quip about Bill but held back as he knew it would hurt Andrea. He was in limbo waiting for his family to be found while Andrea knew where her's were. It wasn't fair that either of them had to suffer as they did. Andrea; her horrible loss and he stuck in limbo and the loss of his son. He didn't even know what state his marriage was in and if he could salvage it after all these months but he did like seeing Andrea smile and hearing her laugh.
"More, one a week beforehand and on the day. But she'd drop major hints from mid January onward." Mike told her, Andrea laughed at him but he smiled nonetheless as it got the response he wanted. His friend looked happy and that made it worth the joke being at his expense.
The waitress returned and placed their drinks on the table. She stepped back and smiled at them expectantly.
"We'll have two Steaks special medium rare and medium with fries and vegetables as our sides." Mike said, he watched as her face fell and Andrea hid half her face behind her menu obviously amused with him.
"Oh um, the steak on the menu for 'Take a Piece of my Heart' is 1kg of beef it's to share between lovers." Theresa explained to them as she gestured to Andrea and Mike being 'Lovers' and upset that they wouldn't order a meal to share.
"He said it wrong. We'd like to have the our steak cooked medium with the same sides." Andrea told her, it made the girl's lips pull up into a smile and her eyes sparkle with happiness.
"Fantastic choice. Do you want to choose dessert now or later?" Theresa asked them.
"Oh, we'll be skipping dessert as he's taking me to the ice cream parlour down the road. It's where we had our first date." Andrea said as she placed a hand on Mike's just to put on a good show. Mike looked at Andrea wondering what she was playing at but let go as a happy waiter meant a good meal.
"Awh, that's so sweet." Theresa said placing a hand over her heart with a goofy smile on her lips. "I'll go put your order and let you two enjoy." she said before she flounced away with happiness. Andrea looked to Mike and smiled for a moment just enjoying the humour before it sunk in she was still holding his hand.
"Sorry." she said as she retracted her hand from his.
"It's ok, as long as you're enjoying yourself." Mike said with closed lip smile. He had to admit it had been a long time since someone held his hand and even had a good jest. They'd all been working long hours and the Navy had strict rules and regulations to control interpersonal physical contact. He like Tom kept themselves separated from the crew and even when they returned to St Louis he'd only shaken hands and only for the allotted time as he didn't really like getting touchy feelly with strangers.
"I am, though are you ok?" Andrea asked him as she unfolded her napkin placing it on her lap just to occupy her hands.
"I will be, the decor is offensive." Mike commented wryly.
"It is a bit of an eyesore. Is there any word on your family?" She asked him changing the topic, Mike shook his head.
"No, I don't think I'll ever find them. It's been over a year, I keep wondering when I'll hit my limit and stop looking." Mike said with a sigh of resignation but they both knew he wouldn't stop looking, never stop paying for people to find them. It wasn't in his nature to give up when it came to family, something Andrea and he shared in common.
"A lot of people that were displaced and still trying to get home." Andrea offered, it wasn't much but it was the best she could come up with. As harsh as it seemed, she felt in some respect she was lucky because she knew her family were gone. It didn't make her grief or guilt ease but it was easier to know the truth than being in Mike's position. Though there was something desirable about not knowing as it meant there was hope. However small a glimmer it was, there was hope his family was alive.
"But I'm not that hard to find." Mike pointed out, he'd stayed in one place and the Nathan James was famous. It wasn't like there was a way his kids and Christine could miss noticing it on the news. They knew he was on board the Nathan James and it was currently stationed in St Louis for repairs.
"I'm so sorry." Andrea said with empathy.
"It's ok. How are you?" Mike asked.
"I'm going well." She assured him, they turned the conversation towards work as it was easier to ignore the crappy world they lived in. Time passed pleasantly between them and soon enough Theresa returned and laid the food down on the table. They were given plates of their own, in the middle was a large steak with two steak knives sticking out of it on plate of it's own. The side dishes flanking it.
"It's heart shaped." Mike stated looking at the plate like he was afraid the steak would jump off the plate and attack him. Andrea covered her mouth as she smiled at the table. This dinner was all kinds of wrong from the decor, the music and now to the food. "It's just unnatural." he added.
"I'm sure it's delicious. You want me to cut it?" Andrea offered.
"No, I'm good." he said as he cut the heart shape steak in half, his lips slightly curled in disgust as there was just something incredibly off putting about cutting a heart shaped piece of steak in half. Andrea smiled as she halved up the sides admiring how the grilled zucchini was cut into heart shapes among the other vegetables.
"This is just so wrong." Mike said as he picked up a heart shaped zucchini with a fork.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" Andrea asked half laughing as she couldn't hide how much she was enjoying Mike's discomfort. She knew there should be some weird nervousness of them thinking the other was reading into this. But there wasn't, it was that they just didn't see one another that way.
"No, it still tastes the same." Mike grumbled before he stuck the zucchini piece in his mouth.
"How is everything!?" Their waiter as she seemingly popped out of nowhere and made herself known. Mike nearly choked on the zucchini heart he'd been eating.
"Perfect." Andrea assured her and it was. This was better the one time she and Bill went out for Valentine's dinner and Bill's arm had been set on fire by candle lighting which nearly led to the restaurant going up in flames. At the time it hadn't been funny but now it was hysterical. Now watching Mike look like he was about crawl out of his skin to escape was just gold.
"Great, can I get you something more to drink?" she asked them in a chirpy manner, the girl was all sunshine and rainbows on speed.
"Another round would be nice." Andrea said, after the girl was gone she turned to Mike. "You ok?" Andrea asked him.
"I think this day is trying to kill me." he said in a strained voice before he downed half of his beer. The rest of dinner luckily went more smoothly for them and the food enjoyed. Mike managed not to choke on anything or grouch too much when his second bear came out with love hearts in the froth. He really didn't like all the love being through around but then Andrea knew like her; it stemmed from them not being with their spouses. Valentines' was now this day that made them blatantly aware of what they'd lost and how incredibly precious it was.
"That was a lovely dinner." Andrea said as they escaped the pub fairly unscathed and with the bill paid.
"If you like eating heart shaped food then sure. I can't wait for them to go back to normal. I don't like my beer froth with love hearts in it." Mike commented drily as he pulled on his cap.
"It's only one day of the year." Andrea said diplomatically, Mike made a grunting noise of disgust and relief. "So we going to the ice cream parlour?"
"What?" Mike asked as he remembered her telling the waitress but figured it was all just a joke.
"It's where we could have our first date." Andrea said as she brushed a hand down his arm, a sly smile on her lips. She kept in character as she watched Mike blink in slight shock not entirely sure how to handle the situation.
"Wha- Well- ah" he stuttered as his brain was short circuiting, but Andrea couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Psych!" she told him, Mike's face dropped in a dark look at her dirty trick.
"I'm going to get you demoted." he told her darkly.
"No, you won't." she assured him with a chuckle. She pressed her hands to her heart. "Because you're my Valentine." she drawled in a gushy feminine voice which made Mike glower at her as she laughed.
"If only I knew how to use my phone to record this." Mike lied with wry smile as he did know how but just hadn't thought about recording her until that moment. But then he like her had a hard ass reputation that they preferred to keep.
"There's always time to learn for next year." Andrea said with a cheeky grin.