(4) Valentine's Day, Who Needs It?

Toby smiled to himself looking at the small white envelope he had found in his briefcase this morning. The pink crayon scrawled out Daddy, letting him know that Sasha had slid it into his case the night before when they were making the cards out for her classmates. He opened the envelope and pulled out a card with a monkey wearing boots on it. Be my Valentine said the purple font. Again Toby smiled, twice in five minutes that had to be a Dunder Mifflin record for him.

The back was filled out in a crayon matching the envelope. She had finally mastered her name and enjoyed writing it over and over. His daughter had made his day, he found a tack and was pinning the card next to her picture when the door leading from the kitchen swung open and Kelly stormed in, muttering to herself.

"Stupid holiday that isn't even a real one. Cause I don't have to watch Jim and Pam flirting every other day of the week, now I get to see it in pink." Toby was in awe, watching the top of Kelly's head moving back and forth from behind the divider.

"Kelly… you doing okay?" Toby asked meekly.

"No. I hate this stupid day."

"I thought you loved Valentine's Day." He ventured around the partition and leaned against the now empty desk that Ryan left behind. She was wearing absolutely no pink, which was a bit shocking considering that the majority of what she owned was some variation of the color.

"When I have a Valentine, totally. Tonight I have Ben and Jerry."

"Sara Lee." Toby shrugged. Kelly laughed. "Sasha is actually my Valentine, but her mom has her tonight."

"That sucks." Again he just shrugged. They fell into an uncomfortable silence until Toby disappeared behind his side of the partition again. A few minutes passed before he heard his computer beep, informing him of a new e-mail:

To:

From:

Toby Flenderson, you have been e-Vitied!

Where: Kelly's House

When: Tonight, on this most unholy of days

Why: Because it beats drinking alone, Ben and Jerry would like to meet Sara Lee.

Would you like to R.S.V.P?

Toby froze for a minute. Was this really how he wanted to spend Valentine's night? For the most part he and Kelly didn't socialize much outside of the office. She was so much younger; they didn't have that much in common aside from work. Of course, at the same time, she was very sweet and it certainly would beat going home, having a beer with one of the pink cupcakes he had gotten for Sasha, and going to bed. With one quick click his evening plans were sealed.

A few seconds later he received a second e-mail which he read, printed out and put away in his desk for later. They didn't really speak for the rest of the day. It was about as quiet as the annex had ever been. The two ate lunch in the break room together; Toby flipping through the book he had received for Christmas and Kelly skimming one of her monthly magazines.

"Do you like your book?"

"Very much, thank you."

"Good… I'm glad you like it…" Toby just nodded. It was the book she had given him for Christmas, right before kissing him then running off to throw up. Problem that followed wasn't a shared awkwardness over the kiss. It was the one sided awkwardness that Toby felt because she either didn't remember or didn't want to discuss what had happened.

"Hi guys." Pam greeted, coming into the room wearing a bright pink sweater that really just annoyed Kelly at this point. "I had a bunch of left over cookies, did you want any?"

Kelly looked at the plastic tray; it was covered with heart shaped cookies. Despite herself, she grabbed one and put it on a napkin. Toby shook his head, not caring much for sweets.

"Thanks." Kelly put on her usual smile until Pam walked away. Toby watched the smile fade away as she picked up the heart cookie and broke it in half. She was really taking this day hard. He thought again about the invitation she had sent to him. Again he was wondering if it would be the worst thing in the world to spend the evening with Kelly… how many men like him could say that they spent Valentine's day with a woman half their age… Michael couldn't, that made Toby smile a little… he had been moping around all day in the same way that Kelly had…

Toby had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice that Kelly had finished her cookie and stood up, ready to go back to work. He watched as she threw away her trash and picked up the magazine she had been reading. It was strange not seeing her like this. There was no chatter, no giggling, no smiles… it was freaking Toby out a little bit.

"Hey Kelly." He called as she was about to walk out the door.

"Yeah?"

"I'll see you tonight." That's when it happened. A smile broke across her face.

"I'll see you then. You got the directions?"

"Yup, printed them out. I'll be over around 6?"

"Great." She continued out of the break room, back into the annex. Toby sat still for a few moments. A strange sensation flooding his consciousness… he had made her smile. The only other person he could make smile was Sasha, but that usually provided him with a different feeling. This was something he hadn't felt since he first started dating his ex-wife.

"Hey Toby." Jim greeted, entering the break room with his brown paper bag.

"Hi."

"You okay?"

"Yeah… fine. Just gotta get back to work."

"Doing anything for Valentine's?"

"Yeah, I'm hanging out with a friend." With that Toby returned to the annex, wearing a smile of his own. At the moment he didn't care about the stupid holiday because he decided that tonight he would kiss Kelly… and they would both be sober when it happened.

------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------

That's all for this one, next one should be up soon because I've already started it. Thanks for the reviews as always.