A/N: I'm showing texting with a dash in front of it. If it's confusing, please tell me. This will be a multi chapter thing, but no promises on updates.

"Come on, guys! I forgot my keys, okay?" Alexander found himself yelling.

There were some murmuring on the other side of the apartment door. Alexander groaned. "Fine," he heard one of his roommates, Laurens, "You can come in. You're lucky I'm so nice," he opened the door.

Alexander jostled him, only a little, shoving his way through. As it turned out, all three of them were standing at the other end of the door, perhaps plotting some plan for the third time he had left them at home that week.

"Why do you look so happily?" Lafayette, who had only just moved from France, asked him.

"It's happy, and I don't know what you're talking about," Alex replied, finding his keys on the kitchen counter and shoving them inside his already ragged wallet.

"No, he's right," Herc put in, "Were you lying about where you were? Because we all thought you were at the cemetery."

Alex walked back over to the couch which he plopped down on, "I was. I went by this flower shop, picked up an arrangement, talked to the owner and cashier there, gave her my number. Nothing out of the ordinary," he told them.

Laughter rippled through his companions, "I see," Lafayette replied, "You couldn't bear to be single on Valentine's day,"

"So soon after me?" Laurens took up the pretense of being offended.

"Last time I checked, you dumped me," Alex replied, throwing whatever was in his back pocket in his general vicinity, which turned out to be a pen and three stretched out hairbands. It had been a rare case of exes being able to just be friends after it ended.

Herc had to add: "Even if Laurens did the dumping, he still cried more."

Laurens snorted, "Thanks. Alex, what flower shop was it? I didn't think they were even that popular anymore. It's nice that hers stayed open."

"I can't believe we ever thought you were straight," Lafayette told him, but turned his attention toward Alex to hear his answer.

"Eliza's Flowers, over by, um-" he was cut off.

"Did you get a last name?" Laurens asked, sitting up suddenly.

"No, why?"

"Because it's Schuyler, you idiot. Like the law student you've been flirting with's little sister," he told him, "She owns a flower shop or something like that, it has to be her."

"The senator's daughter," Alex breathed, "Oh my God. Angelica doesn't count, right? Like, I didn't just blow her off for her sister?" He answered his own question, "No, we're both flirting with a few people. Maybe each other the most seriously, but that doesn't matter. We're not dating."

There seemed to be a moment of silence before the other three started laughing again, "So the tomcat still can't keep it in his pants?" Laf asked, "Can't handle being single for too long, can you?"

Eliza had changed the moment she got home, into flannel pajama pants and a sweatshirt, finding the pint of mint chip she had picked up on the way home. It was a long standing tradition for her and her two sisters that if they were single on Valentine's day, they got to pamper themselves.

Still, she would have preferred to be changing into a cute dress for a date, or receiving a box of chocolates from someone cute. She was a sucker for romance. Did people falling in love onscreen intertwined with incredibly corny lines count? It would have to suffice.

She ate the ice cream with little gusto, barely watching the movie, and opting instead to draft texts to Alexander. He seemed clever, so she would have to be witty, but not mean. Sweet, which wasn't hard for her considering it was an actual trait of hers. Was it too soon? She could text under the pretext of giving him her number. 'Being early and showing that you're interested is better than trying to be cool and waiting', was the advice Angelica had given her when she had her first relationship as a sophomore in high school, and it had stuck with her. She liked it, because she was excitable and wanted to show them her true self.

-Alexander, its Eliza. How are you?

She read it over and over again, deciding that it was too generic. What if this was one out of a dozen sending him this text? Besides, they met that day, asking him how he was would just be strange.

-Hi Alexander! It's Eliza from the flower shop. Enjoying your day of love all alone?

Eliza erased that almost immediately. From the flower shop? Did she have no self confidence? Besides, he went to a cemetery, he wouldn't have been enjoying himself.

-Hey, it's Eliza. Knowing what a singles Valentines look like, I imagine you're alone and on Netflix. I'd like to be in those old sweatpants, if you know what I mean.

She laughed at herself, knowing that she could never send that. Eliza dropped her phone while deleting it, turning to watch one of her personal favorite scenes. She felt her phone vibrate by her a minute later.

-Wow, a raunchy florist. Who would have guessed. :)

Eliza gasped. She sent the bad pickup line of all things. And he didn't mind. Or so he said.

-I didn't mean to send that! Though, if you don't mind…

Eliza waited with baited breath for his reply.

-Not to end the convo, but would you like to get coffee sometime?

Her heart fluttered in her chest. Yes! Yes, she would.

-I'd like that :)))

She sent it, but all the mouths on the smiley face felt stupid thirty seconds after. Well, he couldn't take it back now, at least.

-Do you know the one that's sort of by your shop, a block away from King's College? What does your work schedule look like? Your shop's open a lot, so I don't know when you're going to be available. (I talk a lot in every format- know that now) :)))))))))))

Eliza's grin somehow grew. He topped the absurd smiley face she had sent. He was perfect, she found herself thinking, before even knowing him. That was one good thing about being alone on Valentine's day. Everyone became a lot more willing. Still, she hoped there would be more than that.