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Valentine's Day. Shane hated this day more than any other, for various reasons of course. One reason is because it's just a way for companies to make money off of lovesick fools. Another is because it's too lovey dovey for him to handle. Yet neither of these reasons are the true reason as to why he despises the holiday. The real reason is because he knows he can't be with the one person he wants to be with, Ryan Bergara.
This year, the horrid holiday fell on a weekday. This means that Shane is forced to spend a little bit of it with Ryan. Taking in a deep, Shane trudged through the building to his workspace.
"Morning, Shane!" Ryan greeted him. There was some sort of excitement lacing his voice, that was usually never there in the morning time.
Shane grumbled a "Good morning, Ryan." and continued to set things in their proper place. This left Ryan a bit confused. He knew Shane wasn't a morning person, but he usually wasn't this grumpy.
"Why are you so cranky this morning? And on Valentine's Day of all days!" Ryan was leaned against the desk with his arms crossed, he was getting an answer one way or another.
"I'm not cranky, I hate Valentine's Day, and I just want to go home and sleep." Shane looked anywhere but Ryan, he was trying to avoid eye contact. This made Ryan very suspicious.
After a few minutes of somewhat awkward silence, Ryan spoke up. "Oh god, you're in love!" Shane stared at the Boogara with wide eyes. Both seemed to be frozen until Ryan grinned.
"You are! I knew it! Who is it? Do I know them?" As Ryan rambled on with his questions, Shane stood frozen with fear. What if he finds out? This will ruin everything!
Being pulled back out of his trance, Shane simply shook his head. "I'm not in love, there's nobody, and I hate Valentine's Day." With that, the conversation was dropped, but not forgotten.
~•~
They both worked steadily throughout the morning until someone interrupted the routine. "Delivery for Shane Madej?"
Shane turned quickly to look at the delivery man. "Uh, that's me." With a confused smile, Shane looked at what the man held. A flower? Why just one? And who would even-
His train of thought was cut off when he realized the delivery man was waiting for him to take his gift. Shane stood from his seat and took the rose, "Um, yes, thank you." The man gave him a nod and a left to go make his other deliveries.
Ryan walked over to Shane and looked at the rose. "A salmon colored rose? That's a bit untraditional, wonder who could've sent it." Shane shrugged at this and sat back down in his seat.
Shane waited for Ryan to get back to work before he looked up anything. Once he saw Ryan completely distracted from him, he pulled up trusty ol' Google.
Search: what does a salmon colored rose mean?
Shane waited impatiently as his search was loading. A few seconds felt like forever! He drummed his fingers against the cold desk and glared at the screen. His drumming came to a stop when the read the first thing to pop up.
A long definition about what yellow and orange flowers meant was presented before his eyes. As he kept reading, he finally found what he was looking for.
Salmon roses can indicate many things, but their overall meaning is desire.
With wide eyes, Shane reread the sentence. Desire. That one word began to fill his mind. Desire, desire, desire, who would desire me? What kind of cruel joke is this? His thoughts were interrupted, yet again, by his coworker and best friend, Ryan.
Ryan cleared his throat with a cough and offered a small smile. "I was wondering if you wanted to take a break and head out for some lunch?"
Shane quickly closed the tab on his computer and looked at Ryan. "Uh sure, yeah, let's go get some grub." Gathering his things, Shane stood with a fake smile plastered on his face.
"There's this restaurant I've been wanting to go to recently, mind if we eat there today?" Ryan asked casually as they began walking to his car.
"That's fine with me, I could go for a change." Little did Shane know, this was going to be somewhat of a big change.
~•~
The car ride was a short distance away from their work. Shane saw that as a benefit considering as soon as they'd get back he could just grab his things and bolt. Ryan had other plans though.
As they entered the restaurant, Shane took note of the people as they waited to be seated. They were all dressed very formally, which made him feel very underdressed. He also took notice of the vibe that could be felt. It was calm and comfortable but at the same time quick and invigorating. As he looked around at the dark red walls, wooden floor, and dimmed lighting, he saw a light blush on Ryan's face.
The hostess intervened before Shane had time to think about why his friend was blushing. "Right this way, you're table is ready." Silently, they followed her to the booth in a more lit corner of the restaurant. "Your server will be with you shortly."
As the hostess left, a comfortable silence fell over the two. Neither knowing what to say, they were both relieved when their server came to take their orders. As Shane looked over the menu, he noticed how expensive everything was. After a moment of surprise, he found the cheapest thing and ordered that, and Ryan seemed to have the same idea.
After their requests had been taken and the server went off to give them to the cooks, Shane turned his attention back to Ryan. "So tell me again why you wanted to come to such an expensive place?"
Ryan tried to control his blush, but it didn't work very well. "I thought you'd like to try something new. Plus, the reviews were great, so I thought why not." He finished with a shrug and looked out of the window.
"Well, I guess trying new things can't hurt, can it? What do you have planned for Valentine's Day?" Shane asked trying to be as subtle as possible.
"I have no one to spend it with. The person I want to be my Valentine is too big of a doof to realize it." Ryan chuckled at his own response and countered the question back to Shane.
"I'm probably going to go home and just sleep the evening away." Before Ryan could formally ask Shane out, their food arrived.
Silence fell over the two once again, but they didn't mind it, they were too engrossed by the delicious meal in front of them. Minutes passed before either of them spoke. "I have something back at the office for you." Ryan smiled nervously and looked up from his plate to see Shane pause.
Shane looked at the man across from him. "You are unpredictable, Ryan. I'm a bit scared." This caused Ryan to bust out in a fit of giggles. Shane couldn't help but laugh, Ryan's giggles were always so cute.
The rest of their lunch went by quickly, and before they knew it, they were already walking back to the car. "Thank you for such a nice meal, Ryan." Shane spoke as he got into the passenger seat.
Ryan looked at Shane. "I'm glad you liked it. Maybe we could- uh... do something like this again sometime?" This was his way of asking Shane out.
Shane being as oblivious as he is, "We go out to lunch all the time, but yeah okay." This caused Ryan to sigh in defeat.
Without another word, Ryan started the car and prepared for the short ride back to the office complex.
~•~
"Prepare yourself, you're going to be surprised!" Ryan said excitedly as he stood on his tippy toes to cover Shane's eyes with his hands.
"Ryan, you scare me more than ghosts scare you." The Boogara chuckled at the taller man's statement. They walked a short distance and then stopped abruptly.
Uncovering Shane's eyes, Ryan stood in front of him with a grin on his face. "Okay, open your eyes." Shane did as told, he slowly opened his eyes out of fear and excitement.
In front of him stood Ryan holding a huge card, and behind Ryan sat a bouquet of salmon colored roses and a huge dinosaur stuffed animal. "What is all of this?"
Ryan rolled his eyes as he gave the card to the blundering man. "You're so oblivious sometimes. I've been trying to ask you out for days now! I wanted to be your Valentine, but you always changed the subject before I got to ask. So, Shane Madej, will you be my Valentine?"
As Shane gathered his thoughts, he sat the card on the table and pulled Ryan close to him. "I'd love to be your Valentine, Ryan Bergara."