Chapter Six
Stefan
I woke up with a bit of a headache, still more than a little bit embarrassed by the almost-tryst I’d had with a twenty-year old in a closet while her father was trying to find her. Hell of a way to jump-start Valentine’s Day. I unplugged my phone from the charger next to my bed and saw I had about half a dozen text messages.
Hey, man, we’re still good for tonight, right? That had come from Mike, one of the guys I was supposed to be going to dinner with, along with their girlfriends. Most of the rest were from the other guys, confirming that we were all good for the evening. Nate added in that his girl was excited to meet my girl, and I groaned, closing my eyes. I hadn’t told any of them about my newly-single status, and I wasn’t about to break the news to them the morning of. Of course, I knew that would just make it awkward when I showed up alone, but if I told them about it ahead of time, they’d just make the whole night into some kind of pity-party for me.
I texted the guys back, telling them that I would definitely be there for the big night and kept going through the rest of my messages. Hey, Stef, I emailed you the schedule for the next few gigs. Let me know once you’ve gone over it. That was from Katie, my manager. I opened up my email on my phone and skimmed the schedule she’d sent me and texted her back that it all looked good to me.
I rolled over onto my back to stare up at the ceiling. The almost-sex with Stacy had been enough to get my motor running pretty good, and I’d thought about going back into the bar after she’d escaped to have dinner with her parents, but I’d known better, even if I hadn’t wanted to know better. So, I’d just gone home and had a long, hot shower, a shot of bourbon, and called it a night.
But lying on my back, the frustration from the night before came right back to me, and I could feel my cock starting to wake up more than my brain had managed to. It had been a few months since my breakup, and it had been weeks since my last hookup with anybody; I’d noticed that while they were all more or less great in the moment, the next day I didn’t feel all that satisfied, so I’d stopped hitting on chicks at the bar and more or less put myself on the shelf until I figured out what I wanted to do.
Right now,, what I wanted to do with myself was hook up. I could feel the tension along my groin, the same as it had been the night before. Blue balls were largely a myth, but I could feel the aching and it seemed real enough to me. Get up and do something, take your mind off it. The longer I lazed around in bed, the more I would want to just get myself off. I pushed myself out from between the covers and swung my legs over the side of the bed, standing up in the boxers I’d gone to sleep in.
As I went into the kitchen, I saw the flowers I’d gotten from my mom the day before and smiled a bit to myself. That girl was cute. What was her name again? I’d met so many women the night before that I couldn’t remember which name belonged to whom, but I definitely remembered the girl who’d been so sarcastic and so hot. I had put my number down on the receipt. Thinking about it, I wasn’t sure her name had even been on the receipt, anyway. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t end up calling me. If she did, and agreed to go with you, you wouldn’t even have to tell the guys you were single. You could just play her off as your girl without comment. But then I would have to get her in on it. Somehow, I thought that she wouldn’t be all that against it, as long as I played it as a kind of joke on my buds.
I got myself some coffee, went back into the living room, and saw the card she’d read to me. I’d known it was from my mom before she’d gotten around to reading it, but it had been fun watching her face as she realized how she’d gone wrong in her assumption. I thought to myself that it would actually be a lot of fun to spend Valentine’s Day with her: with someone who didn’t like how commercial the holiday was. We could do it ironically, get to know each other a bit. It might even be nice to go on a date where I didn’t plan on necessarily getting laid at the end of it.
But she wasn’t going to call me, and I didn’t have her number. I turned the card over and saw the name of the florist’s shop, and in smaller print under that: If you have any questions or concerns about your bouquet, please call us. It had a number, and I grinned to myself. She might not be willing to call me, but I could always call her.
“Sweet Sentiments florist shop, this is Nora,” a woman on the other end of the line said as soon as the call connected. “If you’re trying to order flowers for today, I’m afraid we’re all sold out already.”
“No, I had a bouquet delivered yesterday,” I said.
“Is there a problem with it?” The woman sounded worried, and from her voice, I thought she was probably about my mother’s age; I definitely didn’t want to stress her out any more on a day that I was sure was already pretty stressful.
“No, but I wanted to see if I could speak to the woman who delivered them,” I said.
“Well, we have one delivery girl, Sabrina,” Nora said.
“Is she working today?” I could feel my skin crawling with anticipation.
“Yeah, she just got back, actually, but she can’t stay on the phone long,” Nora cautioned me.
“I promise I will be quick,” I told her. “I’d just love to talk to her.”
“Okay,” the woman said. I heard her call for Sabrina and there was the sound of the phone moving around, background noise of a bunch of people very busily working.
“This is Sabrina, what’s up?” She sounded just as hot over the phone as she had in person—maybe even a little more so.
“Hey, Sabrina, this is Stefan,” I said. “You delivered a bouquet to me yesterday, remember?”
“I delivered about two hundred bouquets yesterday, Stefan,” Sabrina said. “You’re going to have to be a little more specific than that.”
“It was your last bouquet of the day, I think,” I told her. “We had a nice chat about how much you think Valentine’s Day is a con.”
“Oh! Yeah, I remember you,” Sabrina said.
“I was wondering if you gave any more thought to my offer to come out with me and my paired-up friends tonight,” I said.
“I don’t know,” Sabrina replied. “I was pretty much just planning on getting home and getting drunk. Maybe going out with my girlfriends.”
“It would be a really big favor for me if you’d come along,” I told her. “My friends don’t know that I’m single. If you’d help me pull the wool over their eyes, I would be grateful forever.” Really, the main reason I wanted to see her again was because I wanted to see her, and preferably not in her work uniform, but I needed a good reason that wouldn’t trip off her alarms.
“And what would I get for doing you a solid like that? Because unless it’s better than drinks and a movie-marathon…”
“A really good dinner, an amazing dessert, drinks. It’ll be a pretty awesome night, since us guys have been planning it since before Christmas,” I said.
“And it’s all paid for already?” I could hear the temptation in Sabrina’s voice.
“All of it’s either paid for or will be paid for. You just have to show up looking your beautiful self, and play my girlfriend,” I replied.
“Okay, but like I said, I met a lot of people yesterday, and even more today,” Sabrina told me. “How am I going to know you?”
“I’ll have… I’ll have one of the roses from the bouquet you brought me,” I said, glancing around the room until my gaze fell on the arrangement. “Sound like a plan?”
“It does sound tempting,” Sabrina said.
“Come on, beautiful,” I said, making my voice as convincing as I possibly could. “I’d owe you a favor on top of the good food, and my friends and their girlfriends are actually really decent.”
“Okay, I’ll come,” she said finally. “Where is this going down?”
“Why don’t you meet me at Giordano’s at seven-thirty, so we can get our story straight before my friends get there? I’ll have one of the roses from the bouquet, so you’ll know who it is, and then we’ll just enjoy our night.”
“I think I can do that, but I’m going to bring someone with me. She won’t be part of the dinner, but I don’t know you. You could be an axe murderer, for all I know.”
“As long as your friend hangs back, I’m happy to do whatever it takes for you to feel safe,” I said. “Deal?”
“Deal,” Sabrina replied. “Listen, I gotta go. But this is actually shaping up to be a pretty exciting Valentine’s Day. Thanks for that.”
“Thank you for bailing me out,” I said, smiling to myself. “See you at seven-thirty.”
“You got it!” Sabrina hung up at that point and I set my phone down, thinking about what I could do for the rest of the day. It wouldn’t take me that long to get ready, but I should probably try and get a workout in, do a few other things before it came time to start showering and dressing up for the big night. I’d introduce my friends to Sabrina and tell them she was my girlfriend, and maybe at the end of the night, she and I could enjoy ourselves in private.