Flame Game

Love is a game that two can play and both can win.

February 14, 2018

Patricia slammed her hand down hard on the snooze button to get the alarm to shut up.

7:15

She let out a sigh and closed her eyes once again, and she was so close to falling back asleep too, but the alarm sounded again.

"What a great way to start the day," She mumbled to her self, finally accepting the fact that she was going to have to get up.

Patricia tried to leave the bed, but then she noticed Eddie's arm wrapped protectively around her waist. It never seized to be there.

She rolled her eyes as she quickly turned to face him. "Wake up Weasel," she said, trying to shake his grip.

Eddie's eyes slowly opened, but then quickly closed again. "Ten more minutes."

"Well could you at least let go of me?" She demanded.

He silently turned the other way, stuffing his face into the pillow, and freeing Patricia.

She got up and made her way over to the closet, grabbing some work clothes and heading for the shower.

Once she felt fully awake, Patricia could barely contain her excitement, because today was Valentine's Day.

But Valentine's Day wasn't so ordinary for Eddie and Patricia. Ever since they started dating, it was known that neither were a big fan of huge romantic gestures, which was what Valentine's Day was all about. So, of course, the two came up with a little game they could play on this specific day. It was simple: go all-out with the biggest romantic gestures you can think of, to annoy the other. It was Patricia's idea, and she was quite good at it. Eddie wasn't so bad either.

The only problem was that every year, a winner was never clearly decided. The day would always end in a heated make-out, and I'm sure you can guess where it went after that.

But this year, Patricia was determined to win. Especially as she saw the delivery confirmation email on her phone. Eddie for sure had a long day ahead of him.

"Eddie, you're going to be late for work!" Patricia called from kitchen, where she was making her coffee.

"I'm ready! Geez Yacker, cut me some slack. I'm not always late."

Patricia choked back a laugh and set a cup of coffee in front of him, before searching for her keys.

"And what did I do to deserve a cup of coffee from my wonderful girlfriend?" He said oh-so sarcastically.

"I figured I should do one nice thing for you on Valentine's Day," she admitted, before heading for the door.

"Wait!" Eddie called walking over to her, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

She turned around to give him a quick kiss, but he grabbed her waist and pulled her closer, for one filled with much more passion.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he smirked, when she was able to pull away. Patricia rolled her eyes playfully, and began to walk down the hall.

"Hope you enjoy your gift!" She called over her shoulder.

"Wait, what gift?!" Eddie yelled back, but it was too late. She was already around the corner.

"And she expects me to plan dinner in advance! It's just one day of the year, and it's not different from any if the others!" Eddie laughed as his coworker, Patrick, ranted about his Valentine's Day dilemma at lunch.

"What are you laughing about Eddie? I'm sure you're in the same boat as us," his other coworker, Henry, pointed out.

"Actually," Eddie started, "Patricia is not like that at all. We both don't really like Valentine's Day, so we don't do anything special, simple as that."

"You're so lucky," Patrick said while sighing, as there was a knock on the door to Eddie's classroom.

"Delivery for Mr. Miller," the delivery guy stated, handing the clipboard to him.

"But I didn't order anything..." He mumbled as he signed his name. It wasn't until the delivery guy moved that he saw about 50 heart balloons, red and pink, along with a giant teddy bear and king size Hershey bar.

"Uh I think you might have the wrong Mr. Miller?" Eddie suggested, seeing as there was no way somebody would send him this.

"No, I don't think so. It's from a Patricia, here's the card." With that said, the guy went on his way, leaving Eddie to deal with all the gifts himself.

"But why would she- oh," Eddie mumbled as he soon came to realization. Their Valentine's Day game, he couldn't believe he had forgotten all about it, and now she was going to win!

"And you said she wasn't into Valentines Day?" Henry laughed as the two of them made their way out the door, back to their own rooms, before the high school's students started to return.

Eddie opened up the card:

I love your smile, your face, and your eyes,
Damn, I'm good at telling lies!

Eddie laughed to himself, as he rushed out the door to go find a rebuttal present during his planning period quickly, "Well played Yacker, well played."

Patricia walked through the halls after her meeting, receiving numerous stares, wolf-whistles, from people in the office she didn't even know. She racked her brain for any reason people would be paying more attention to her than usual, but she couldn't think of any.

She continued to her desk to find a dozen roses and a box of chocolates with a card sitting next to it. There was a picture of a bed with the words "Wish you were here" written across the top.

Patricia instantly felt her cheeks heat up. Eddie had left that card on her desk and everyone saw it.

Great.

She quickly grabbed the card and ripped it up before throwing it into the trashcan.

Eddie was flipping pancakes when he heard Patricia walk through the door. He ran to greet her. "Hey Yacker," he said smirking.

"Ugh, I am not talking to you," she said pushing past him.

"And why is that?"

"You know why," she said plainly as he followed her into the kitchen.

"Come on Yacker it was funny!" He defended.

"Not when the whole office sees it!" Eddie had to stifle a laugh at this. He didn't realize it was that bad.

"Well I made you pancakes for dinner, your favorite!" He said trying to cheer her up.

"I think you mean your favorite?" she said back raising an eyebrow.

He laughed, but that quickly came to a stop when they both heard the fire alarm start to sound. Eddie turned around to see his pancakes on fire.

"Where's the fire extinguisher?!" Patricia screamed as Eddie searched violently through their many kitchen cabinets, finally finding it.

"How do you work it?!" Eddie shouted back.

Patricia grabbed the fire extinguisher from him and put the fire out, but she lost control of the nozzle, and soon the foam was all over the kitchen.
The second the two made eye contact, they both burst out laughing.

"It's all over you!" Patricia said between laughs.

Eddie's smile widened at the sound of her laugh. It was simply contagious.

"You should take a look at yourself!" He laughed walking closer to her.

"Well what do we do now? You ruined the food," she teased.

"We could always finish what we started earlier," Eddie suggested, wiggling his eyebrows.

Before she even had time to think his lips were on hers, moving perfectly in sync, as always. He began to unbutton her blouse, but she pulled away, causing Eddie to raise an eyebrow.

"You have to admit that I won our little game first," she smirked, knowing she had him stuck.

Eddie mumbled a couple curse words under his breath, but somewhere in there Patricia heard a "Fine," so she took the opportunity to bring her lips to his once again, the thoughts of dinner or the foam that covered their bodies completely forgotten.