Happy Valentine's Day lovelies.

Love at First Height (I can only apologize for this terrible pun.)

Friday night.

Madge's date is six minutes late. He has exactly five minutes to show up, or she's out of here.

She plays with the charms on her bracelet and counts down the time.

After two minutes she feels a presence behind her, and turns. Her annoyance dissolves at the sight of him; all six-foot-five, olive-skinned, grey-eyed, high-cheek-boned Adonis of him.

She's so shallow.

"David?" She asks at the very same time he says "Chloe?"

The smile on his face drops. "Ah, that's a shame." He takes a seat at the bar beside her. "I'm Gale."

"Madge." She smiles at him. "Blind date too?"

He nods. "They're the worst, aren't they?"

"The absolute worst," she agrees. She sneaks a peek of him, admiring his profile. He glances up and catches her. "What's the worst blind date you've ever had?"

Gale thinks about it for a moment. "I went on a date with a girl I met on Tinder. She told me that I look white in my profile picture and should make it clear in my bio that I'm not."

Madge's mouth drops open in shock. "Oh my god."

"Yeah, she couldn't understand why I was so pissed. I left before the main course was served." He shakes his head ruefully. "What was yours?"

Madge grimaces. "Oh, well, I had one guy yell at me because I was wearing these shoes." She wiggles her her foot so that Gale can see her four inch spiked heels. His gaze lingers on her bare legs. She doesn't mind.

"Uh," he clears his throat and drags his gaze back to meet hers. "What was his problem with those shoes?"

"His bio said he was six-foot, but he was five-ten at best. I'm five ten in my bare feet, and when I wear these I'm over six foot. He was not happy that I made him look short. He told me I had misrepresented myself and had purposefully set out to emasculate him."

Gale shakes his head. "Dick."

"Right! So now I wear them to every first date. You wouldn't believe how many dicks I've uncovered on the first date just by being taller than them."

They both pause as the replay Madge's last sentence, then snigger.

"That sounded wrong," she says with a blush. "I meant; a lot of guys act like a douche when they realize that I'm taller than them. They can't handle it when they're shorter than a woman. I did an experiment once and changed my height on Tinder to six foot and nobody swiped right."

"I find that very hard to believe," Gale says with a dubious tone. "Did you change your picture too?"

"Nope. Just my height." She shrugs. "Would you date a girl taller than you?"

"Sure. I mean… I've never met a girl taller than me. Not since I was fourteen anyway. But I don't think I've have a problem with it. I definitely wouldn't rule out dating a girl over six foot. I mean, you lose Gwendoline Christie for starters."

"Right." Madge slaps her hand on the surface of the bar emphatically. "I don't want anything to do with a guy who doesn't get a boner for Gwendoline Christie."

"I have had many boners for Gwendoline Christie," Gale says with the utmost sincerity.

They both laugh until a voice breaks through.

"Madge?"

She turns to face the guy who has spoke her name. "Mm hmm?"

"I'm David." When she looks at him blankly. "David Gloss, Clove''s friend."

"Oh." Her blind date. "Right." Damn. "Hi."

"I'm so sorry I'm late. I thought the table was booked for seven-thirty, but the hostess has just told me it was seven. They can seat us now, if you want to go through."

"Sure, um… of course." She turns to Gale who is watching with a neutral expression. "Well, thanks for the company. It was nice meeting you."

"You too."

Madge slides off the stool and faces David. "Ready."

She has about in inch on him. She sees his expression change as he scans down her body to her feet. "You're tall," he says.

Madge glances at Gale. See, she wants to tell him.

He makes a sympathetic face. "Enjoy."

She doesn't. David is boring and the date sucks. All she wants to do is go back to the bar and keep talking to Gale. She wonders what his date looks like and if it's going well and if Gale is into her. She tries to spot them in the restaurant but she's sitting with her back to the room and she can't see him without being really obvious.

As she's leaving, she spots Gale sitting in a corner and considers writing down her phone number and asking the hostess to give it to him. But then she sees his date. The woman is drop dead gorgeous. Madge immediately loses her courage.

She bids David goodnight, and goes home alone.

Tuesday lunchtime

Four days after her so-so date with David, Madge takes advantage of the warm Spring sunshine and eats her lunch on the plaza beside her office building. She's hoping it will cheer her up, because she's been in a funk since Friday night.

Too late she realizes that it's Valentine's Day, and the plaza is swarmed with couples trying to have a romantic moment on their lunch break.

Not in the mood to watch loved up couples, Madge wolfs down her chicken salad and decides to take a walk instead. She strolls towards the river bank where she buys a hot chocolate and watches a family of ducks bobbing around in the water.

She almost doesn't notice the person who comes to stand beside her until he nudges her gently with his elbow.

"Hi."

"Gale!" She exclaims happily. Far too late to play it cool now. Keeping the smile off her face would be impossible anyway. "Hi."

"Hi," he says again. "How did your date go?"

She searches around for a word, and instead settles on a sound. "Meh. Yours?"

"The same, meh." They watch the ducks a little longer, then Gale turns so he's facing her. "Thing is, it probably would have gone a lot better if I hadn't met you first. You set the bar very high and she had no chance."

Madge feels her cheeks heat up. "Ditto." She's smiling so hard now that her cheeks hurt.

Gale is grinning too. "Shit. I have to get back to work, but can I get your number?" He passes her his phone and she taps it in. "Maybe we could grab dinner tonight."

Madge sends a message to her own phone, then returns the phone to Gale. "It's Valentine's Day. Everywhere will be booked out."

"Right, yeah, shit." He runs his hand through his hair, mussing it up adorably. "If you don't mind the non-fancy route, we could just grab something in a bar. There's a place near my office that does really good food."

"That sounds perfect. Text me details."

They linger for a few moments more, but they both have to get back to work, so they part company to go their separate ways. Madge skips the whole way back to her office.