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The kitchen was a mess. The stovetop was splattered in melted butter and chocolate, the bag of sugar had tipped and spilled some of its contents onto the floor, and empty ingredients packaging littered the countertops. Natalia was glad she had requested Tear’s assistance—she couldn’t imagine how she would have handled this mess on her own. The task of making chocolate truffles had been intimidating, but with the help of a friend beside her, Natalia was having a great time. Her hands were covered in chocolate, it had splattered onto her face and clothes, but she was smiling.
“Are you going to give some truffles to Luke?” Natalia asked, placing a ball of chocolate filling onto the cookie sheet, “We have more than enough.”
Tear blushed, taking a little extra time to roll her truffle slowly between her palms. “Do you think I should?”
“Of course you should! I’m sure Luke would love to get chocolates from you.”
Tear hummed and set her carefully crafted ball on the cookie sheet beside Natalia’s. “But we aren’t like you and Asch. The two of you have had something since childhood, but if I gave chocolates to Luke… that would be more like a confession.”
Natalia felt a blush creeping onto her own cheeks. “But Asch and I aren’t together, and I’ve never given him chocolates before, so this is really a first for me, too!”
Tear grabbed another handful of filling. “Are you nervous?”
Natalia thought it was silly to be nervous. After all, it was Asch. She had known him her whole life, had loved him almost as long, and deciding to make chocolates for him had been a spur of the moment idea that she latched onto. But the more she thought about it… she was very nervous. She squished the ball between her palms. “Yes. I am,” she answered quietly.
“I don’t think you need to be nervous,” Tear insisted, “Asch adores you, everyone can tell.”
Natalia couldn’t help but smile. “You do it with me, then. I’ll give mine to Asch, and you give yours to Luke.”
So they made a deal. They dipped and decorated their truffles, packaged them in pink heart-shaped bags, and spent about an hour and a half returning the kitchen to its original state.
Valentine’s Day was just another day for Asch. He drove himself and Luke to school, sat down in class, and went about his usual routine, ignoring the onslaught of couples surrounding him. In his first class following lunch, he noticed a heart-shaped bag of chocolates sitting out on Luke’s desk. That’s a first, he thought, I didn’t think anyone liked Luke.
The rest of the school day passed just as he expected it would. The final bell rang, he packed up his things, and started to make his way out to the parking lot. He was almost to the front doors when he heard his name called out in that familiar voice.
“Asch!”
He turned around to find Natalia hurrying down the hall. He stepped to the side of the doors until she caught up to him. To his surprise, when she reached him, she thrust something into his hands.
“I wanted to give you this,” she said, her face burning.
Asch felt color rise onto his face, as well. Natalia was right in front of him, giving him a Valentine’s gift, something he hadn’t even known he had been hoping for. He looked down into his hands to find a heart-shaped bag of chocolates—the exact same chocolates that Luke had had on his desk. Natalia was giving out obligatory chocolates. He felt stupid for momentarily getting his hopes up.
“Right,” Asch said, letting out the breath he had been holding. “Thanks, Natalia.”
Natalia kept looking up at him, as though expecting something more. Asch felt uneasy under her searching gaze. “What?”
“Um, nothing,” Natalia said quickly, looking away from him. “You’re welcome.” Her face was still red. She walked past Asch through the front doors.
What was that? Asch followed her more slowly, watching her walk down the path to where her father’s car was waiting for her. Asch shook his head and walked out to the parking lot to meet Luke at his car.
As soon as he got home, Asch went up to his room, kicked off his shoes, and let himself fall onto his bed. He had never received chocolates from Natalia, so he hadn’t expected anything different this year. Should he have been happier to receive obligatory friendship chocolates from her? She probably put her soul into those chocolates, like she did with everything. Of course, it was stupid to hope for anything more, when Natalia was already doing her best. He was glad to receive anything from her. It meant she cared about him, after all.
He sighed and turned onto his side, closing his eyes. Natalia had given him chocolates. That was a nice feeling. That was the last thought on his mind before dozing off.
He was awoken by Luke’s obnoxious pounding at his door. “Asch! Dinner’s ready!”
“Alright already! I’m coming!” Asch shouted back at him, sitting up and combing his fingers through his hair. He yawned and made his way downstairs to the table. Luke was already sitting in his usual place.
“Did you get any sweets today?” Luke asked haughtily.
“Yeah,” Asch replied flatly, “You going to eat your chocolates after dinner?”
Luke’s proud demeanor faltered. “How did you know I got chocolates?”
“Natalia gave them to everyone, idiot.”
“What? I didn’t get any chocolates from Natalia.”
That was strange. Natalia and Luke were good friends, she wouldn’t have excluded him if she was giving out gifts. “Who did you get that little bag from, then?”
“Tear gave that to me.”
Slowly, everything fell into place. If Luke truly hadn’t received obligatory chocolates from Natalia, then that had to mean that her chocolates were exclusively for him.
Asch stood up, just as his mother and father were sitting down. “I’m not hungry,” he announced.
“What?” Susanne’s concern-filled eyes were on him. “Are you feeling ill?”
“He probably filled up on sweets,” Luke interjected.
Asch glared down at his brother. “Yeah, I filled up on sweets,” he said dryly, “I’ll be in my room.”
He rushed back up the stairs, closed the door, and carefully opened the little pink bag than he had set on his nightstand. He took out a truffle, being sure to appreciate it fully, and placed it in his mouth. In reality, it was just a decent chocolate at best, but this was something Natalia had made for him. Only for him. She had worked hard on it, he was sure, and he had dismissed it as obligatory and merely uttered his thanks.
He impulsively picked up his phone, pulled up Natalia’s contact, and then hesitated as his thumb hovered over the call button. What would he say? Could he really make the assumption that these chocolates meant all that he thought they did? After all, his first assumption had been wrong, so who was he to assume anything? He restlessly ran a hand through his gelled bangs, and hit call before he could convince himself otherwise.
The line rang once. Twice. Thrice, and then Natalia’s voice resonated softly in his ear. “Asch?”
“Natalia. Can you meet me at the park by your house?”
“What? Um, of course I can. Right now?”
“In fifteen minutes.”
“Sure, yes. I’ll be there.”
Asch sprung into motion. He quickly pulled a brush through his hair, threw on a jacket, grabbed the bag of truffles and dashed downstairs two at a time. “I’m heading out!” he called to his family, still sitting at the dinner table, and didn’t wait for their reply. Natalia’s house was only a block away, so rather than take the car, he ran. His heart was pounding when he arrived at the park. It had taken him less than fifteen minutes, but he had thought it better to give himself more time rather than risk making her wait on him. That was a mistake, as now the minutes dragged by in his anticipation to see Natalia.
He sat down on the bench they had always met at as kids, clutching the chocolates in his hands. At last, he spotted Natalia coming down the park path. He stood to meet her.
“Thank you for these,” Asch blurted out before she had the chance to greet him, holding up the little bag.
Natalia smiled, her eyes laughing at Asch’s tactless greeting. “My, you already thanked me earlier,” she said, though she was clearly happy to hear it again.
“But I didn’t know… I thought you gave some to Luke, too.”
“To Luke?” Realization dawned on her expression, “Oh! No, Tear helped me make them, so she gave some of hers to Luke.”
Asch nodded. “I didn’t know,” he repeated.
Natalia’s cheeks turned pink. “But now… you do know?”
“I… think I know.”
“You’re the only one I made Valentine’s chocolate for, Asch.”
Asch could feel the blush creeping up his neck. “Why just me?”
Natalia sighed exasperatedly and covered her face in her gloved hands. “You have to ask?”
“I just don’t trust myself to make assumptions anymore,” Asch said, a bit too loudly in his embarrassment.
Natalia slowly lowered her hands from her face. “We’ve… always sort of had something, haven’t we?”
Had something? “I mean… I’ve always felt something, I just didn’t know that feeling went both ways. I thought you were closer with Luke than with me.”
Natalia looked at him with such warmth, it stopped his breath in his throat. “Luke is a good friend,” she said softly, “but I’ve loved you since we were kids.”
Asch’s head was spinning. All this time, she had felt the same way? He gaped at her, and she giggled, taking a step closer to him to take his hands. “I was really nervous, giving those to you.”
“I’m sorry I was so dismissive before.”
She shook her head. “It’s fine. You ran all the way here when you figured it out, and that’s… even better, maybe.” Embarrassed by what she was saying, her hands in Asch’s, she leaned forward to hide her face in his shoulder.
Asch’s face heated up considerably. “Natalia…”
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she said into his shoulder, almost inaudibly.
Asch was sure that from where she was, Natalia could hear his heart pounding. He closed his eyes for a moment, then placed his hands lightly on her shoulders to guide her away from his chest. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he repeated back to her, leaning in so that their faces were inches apart. Natalia’s hands rested tenderly on his biceps as she closed her eyes, lips parted in anticipation. Asch closed that precious space left between them and kissed her, the feeling of electricity coursing through his body. For years, he had dreamed of kissing Natalia, but this was far too real to be another dream. It was soft, but didn’t go as smoothly as he had imagined it would. Their noses bumped a little, and their inexperienced lips were a bit clumsy, but the passion they both felt made up for it all.
After a bizarre stretch of time that felt both too short and too long, Asch pulled his lips away from Natalia’s. She was so beautiful, her golden hair framing her soft features. He had always known her to be beautiful, but he had never had the opportunity to appreciate her at such close range.
“I love you,” he whispered, and watched as giddy emotion filled her gorgeous expression.
“I love you, too.”