Valentine's fool

I wasn't kidding in my last post about not intending to celebrate Valentine's Day, but I changed my mind and decided to surprise Brent. I picked up some sushi and brought that home, along with some chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert. I ran home, set up our balcony, which already has white twinkle lights, lit some candles throughout the living room and on the balcony and waited for Brent to come home. I called him and told him I was starving, so he better come home soon. Brent, having no clue about my surprise, asked if I wanted to go out for dinner or if he should pick something up to bring it home. Not wanting him to get take-out, I told him we should go out. He said he'd call when he pulled up front so I could go out to meet him. Oh crap!, I thought. How am I going to get him to come up without being suspicious? While awaiting his call, I came up with the following options:

- don't answer the phone. He'd then have to come upstairs. But then he might worry about me or worse, get mad. I didn't want to spend Valentine's Day in a fight, no matter how slim the chances of that happening.

- tell him my mom just called and is about to call me back so I have to wait because something sounded wrong. Again, that might just worry him.

- tell him I twisted my ankle and he had to come upstairs. I'm clumsy, but clumsy enough to sprain my ankle in the 10 minutes since we'd talked? No, too suspicious.

- tell him I couldn't find my keys and therefore couldn't lock the deadbolt. He'd buy that AND he'd come upstairs because neither of us wants to lock only one part of our door.

He was very surprised when he came upstairs to find me, along with the following:

Our balcony


Our dinner



And our dessert


Brent, an authority on sushi, said it was some of the best he'd had. And the strawberries were delicious, too.

Sorry, I just couldn't let Valentine's Day pass us by with no celebration. My name is Nanette and I'm a romance-aholic.

"The only abnormality is the incapacity to love." - Anais Nin