Chapter 2: Valentine's Day, huh?"
"Um, Hello Jack, I'm Nichole."
Jack leaned awkwardly against the counter, looking uncomfortable. "I've neveah been to good with goils," he thought.
"Hi"
Silence.
He looked at her, noted her general apperance, then looked away. When she didn't say anything, he looked again. Everytime he looked, she blushed and this pattern continued on for far too long.
Finally, Jack broke the chain and asked, "So, why youse hereh?"
Nichole blushed harder, then reached into a little pack she'd been carrying and extracted something red and frilly.
"Um, hereh."
Jack looked at the thing he'd just been given. It was a picture of a kid angel carrying flowers surrounded by doves and more flowers and placed amongst fancy red ribbon. The back was covered in lace. The cherub kid was holding a ribbon heart that read "To my Love, Jack."
It was far too sugary, lacey, and girly.
Jack got what the message was, but what was with the get up?
Nichole must have noticed Jack's confusion, "Its,um, its Valentine's Day today."
Jack looked up with an expression of "huh?"
She blushed, "yeah, you'reh, um, suppose ta give a card to da one youse, um, likes."
Realization dawned on Jack, and he nearly lost his balance. He covered this casually by unleaning himself from the counter.
Before he could say anything, Nichole interjected, "I gots somt'in' else for ya too" and began digging in her pack again. Her hair slid in front of her face, hiding her expression from view. Jack had a feeling she taking much longer than she needed to to try and get the red out of her cheeks. She rummaged to the bottom and finally found what she was looking for, extracting a tin and handing it over rather unceremoniously.
It was a tin of hershey brand chocolate segars. Quite a rarity. The baby in the bean on the bottom right corner seemed to wink at Jack of its pure and delicious contents. Jack had never had chocolate before, but his mouth watered none the less. Because of this, what came next was exceedingly difficult.
He stepped towards Nichole, and held out the card and the tin of chocolate segars.
"Nichole..." she blushed "You seem nice, but I gots me someone I like. Sos, um, hereh."
Silence in which the card and tin could've hung without Jack's support.
"Oh. okay." She reached to take her gifts back, but stopped, "Youse keep t'em Jack. They'res for ya anyways."
She turned and pulled her hat on hard and exited before Jack could insist she take them back. Through the window he could see her wiping her eyes as she hurried away.
He shrugged, flipping the card over (horribly lacey), then back to the front (equally horribly lacey). He opened the tin and sniffed. If any more water collected in his mouth, he spit a full glass of water.
He carefully placed the chocolate segars in his pocket, out of sight, to save them for a time when he was alone and didn't have to share, and stuck the card in the same pocket just high enough to be seen.
"Valentine's Day, huh?" he muttered before turning and taking the stairs two at a time, eager to pick up his poker game.
Author's Note:
From what I skim-researched, hershey's was a semi-established company in by 1899, and Valentine Day cards were distributed. I dunno if the associtation of the card with chocolate was there yet, but we'll pretend, kay?