text: This Valentine’s Day was going to be a rough one. I was not looking forward to it. My boyfriend had recently moved across the ocean with his family. And while we were keeping in contact, it was straining us, as it would anyone. I was starting to lose all hope that we would make it through this transition. We still had a planned facetime date that we arranged. He was five hours ahead, so it’s been difficult to organize a time everyday or every other day to find time to talk in person, not just leave messages on chat programs or emails. Today, we had arranged to talk at 4pm my time because it was a day where I didn’t have practice. It was almost the end of the school day, so I sent him a picture of me holding a rose out as an offering and a message that read: *Always thinking of you, wish I could give this to you in person.* I sighed for what was probably the hundredth time today. Watching a lot of the other students giving tokens to their significant others, or the hopefuls asking out their crushes was really bringing me down. It also didn’t help that James was being really quiet today; I hadn’t heard from him since before I left for school this morning. So, I was really looking forward to him calling me this afternoon. My mom picked me up after school and suggested we stop by the store to pick up some last-minute Valentine’s gifts. She kind of pushed me into at least picking up some chocolates. I also grabbed a single rose on a whim. It almost made me sadder, but at the same time was comforting. Now I just wanted to go home and lay down in my room listening to music until his call. Even my usual chatrooms weren’t very enticing to me, I was so excited to talk to him. I got home, put the rose and candy on my desk, and was getting more and more anxious. Four o’clock came and he still didn’t call. Then it was four thirty. This wasn’t like him. He might not always be the most punctual of people, but he usually wasn’t this late without at least some kind of message explaining and updating me. But today, there was no message explaining why he was late. My low mood and anxious mind started to think the worst things. The one that popped into my head the most was that he had found someone else to spend the evening with. I couldn’t shake the feeling that that’s what happened. Like maybe it was innocent, someone asked him out for coffee that day, it was Valentine’s day after all, but still... I was so frantic with these bad thoughts that annoyances from the house kept building up. It almost seemed like my mom’s phone was purposely put on loud ringer to annoy the shit out of me and make me jump. I swear she kept getting calls or texts every 5-10 minutes. I didn’t care to listen in. At ten to five, my phone finally started to ring. I picked up almost immediately, so excited to finally see him/talk to him. “Hi James! Happy Valentine’s Day!” My mood immediately rose, but I was still anxious. “Hey Gabe, happy Valentine’s Day.” His face took up the whole screen, I couldn’t see anything around him. I was just so glad to finally see him. “Sorry, I’m calling later than we agreed. Things came up and delayed me.” I heard the doorbell ring, but I knew my mom would get it. “I’m just glad to finally talk to you. I’ve missed you so much.” “I’ve missed you, too,” James said. “Gabe, someone’s at the door to see you!” My mom called from outside my closed door. “Ugh, okay, I’ll be right there, Mom!” I called back. “Sorry, James, I’ll take care of this real quick, but I’ll bring my phone with me.” I groaned. “No worries,” he smiled at me, from the screen. There was a light in his eyes, he seemed really excited. He lowered his phone and I lowered mine. I walked down stairs and down the hall to the front door. I looked up from my feet to see who was standing in our entryway and stopped. James was there with a bag next to him and a rose in his hand. He had the biggest smile I think I’ve ever seen on his face. I nearly dropped my phone, which was still open to the connection with him. I was completely shocked. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Gabe,” he said softly with a warm smile. “Wha- how? How did you get here? I thought you were in England?” I was frozen to the spot. “No hug?” His smile faltered, but stayed on his face. I almost ran into his arms and hugged him, kissed him. “God,” I breathed, our foreheads pressed against each other. “I’ve missed you so much, this is the best thing to happen today. This week. This month.” “Same here.” I opened my eyes, “Now, explain.” He opened his eyes and pulled out of the hug, holding out the rose for me. I took it, looking him in the eyes. He smiled and sighed. “Well, it’s a bit of a story, but basically, since I moved away, I was trying to plan a surprise for you. My parents saw how depressed I was getting, and offered to set me up with a trip back when I wanted to go back. I got your mom’s number and arranged with her some logistics. She’s way more supportive than you’d have thought. And so here, I am,” he explained spreading his arms in a finale. “My mom...?” I said perplexed and looked around only to see her and my sister peek their heads around the corner from the next room, smiles on their faces. I turned to look back at him. “I can’t believe you’re here.” My emotions were all over the place but finally a smile broke across my face as I said, “You’re here!” I threw my arms around him again. He laughed, hugging me tight. “Yes, and I’m staying with you for a week.” “Come in then and make yourself at home then,” I said pulling out of the hug. I put the rose in my belt loops, grabbed his bag with one hand and grabbed his hand with the other hand. He kicked off his shoes with the rest of my family’s shoes. We walked up to my room and he told me how hard it was to keep this a secret from me for the last two weeks. “I just wanted to tell you so bad but I couldn’t, and it was just gah!” We got to my room and closed the door. My music was still playing. I set down his bag, then carefully pulled the rose out from my belt loops and placed it on my desk next to the one I bought earlier with my mom. Now her pressure all made sense to me. She knew about my sexual orientation. Oh my God. SHE KNEW. And she was seemingly okay with it; supportive even. James took off his coat and hung it on the back of my desk chair. I picked up the rose and candy I had bought and held them out for him. “You are here and this is better than I could ever have imagined for how today could go. Happy Valentine’s Day,” I said choking on the words, so happy. He took them only to put them back down on the desk next to his rose for me. He grabbed my hips and pulled me close to him again, kissing me deeply. Then he broke the kiss. “Gabe, our intimacy may be a time-bomb for now, but we will always have our friendship. And for now, we have this and us. We should make this count while we can,” and he kissed me again. We fell onto the bed just making out, making up for lost time, our hands exploring each other over and under our clothes. My family always ate at the same time, so I kept it tame for now, because I knew that they wouldn’t let me skip just because my boyfriend was here, especially since he was staying with us. For now, this would have to be enough. This time, what we could make of it, and how to keep going over the distance, even just as friends. We are young, maybe we will get thrown back together in the future. There was always college and life after that for us to look forward to. For now, he was here, I could hold him, and I was not going to take that for granted.