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“No one’s ever asked me to be their valentine before,”
“What? Are you for real?”
The two are laying in Toni’s bed, cuddling before Shelby has to get up and go to her classes. They’d been talking about Fatin’s over-the-top-but-cute plan to ask Leah to be her valentine when Shelby mentions this. Toni finds it hard to believe.
Shelby chuckles lightly, “Yeah, I mean, back in High School, Andrew wasn’t really the romantic type and with other people I was always the one asking,”
“No way. Has no one seriously ever asked you to be their valentine before?” Toni asks, still in disbelief. It makes Shelby laugh.
“Why are you so surprised?” Shelby asks with a soft smile, hand running through Toni’s curls.
“Cause you’re… you,” Toni says and Shelby goes pink.
“Behave,” The blonde mumbles, unable to meet her girlfriend’s eye.
Toni is about to tease her some more when Shelby’s alarm goes off, signalling that it’s time for her to get ready and go to class. Toni groans loudly, tightening her arms around Shelby’s body.
“Do you have to go?” Toni whines even though she already knows the answer.
Shelby smiles at her and gives her a quick kiss on the lips, “I’d stay in bed with you all day if I could, babe,”
Toni huffs playfully and presses another quick kiss to Shelby’s lips before letting her get up. Toni watches as Shelby gets dressed and walks her to the door of their dorm.
Shelby kisses her at the door, “I’ll see you later.”
Toni hums against her lips, “I love you, have fun,”
“I love you too,” Then she leaves.
As soon as Shelby is out the door, Toni knows what she has to do. She immediately calls Fatin.
“What do you wa-”
“Did you know that Shelby has never been asked to be someone’s valentine before?” Toni asks, effectively cutting Fatin off.
“What?” Fatin responds, obviously having a similar reaction to Toni’s.
“That’s what I said!” Toni exclaims, glad she isn’t the only one that’s surprised.
“Well it kinda makes sense if you think about it. Shelby’s really selfless,” Fatin says. It does make sense, plus Shelby’s a bit of a hopeless romantic herself.
And as much Toni does not want to admit it, she is pretty romantic too. Especially when it comes to Shelby. So, obviously she’s gonna do something to make Shelby feel special.
She’s about to say something about it to Fatin but she gets cut off, “You’re gonna do something right?”
“Well duh,” Toni responds, rolling her eyes as if Fatin can see.
“So what are you planning?” Fatin asks and Toni pauses. What even is her plan?
“Um… I dunno? Bake some cupcakes, get some flowers. I don’t know.” Toni says and she can hear Fatin laugh.
“God, you’re hopeless. Can you even bake?” Fatin asks through a laugh.
“I can try!” Toni blurts and Fatin laughs again. She’s right though, Toni can make a killer pasta but she can’t bake for shit.
“You’re adorable. She’ll love it. Let me know if you need me to distract her if you need some extra time.” Fatin offers and Toni thanks her before saying her goodbyes and hanging up.
As soon as she’s off the phone, she jumps in a shower and gets ready. She grabs her wallet and car keys before leaving for the store.
Once Toni’s in the store, she’s at a complete loss. Where does she even start? She pulls out her phone and texts Martha.
Toni
hey marty
Marty
Toni! What’s up?
Toni
hey so hypothetically if i was gonna ask shelby to be my valentine, how would i go about it?
Marty
No way!! Look at you getting all soft. So cute
Toni
yeah yeah tease me all u want. can u plz help me out?
Marty
Well firstly, you gotta get a card, then maybe some flowers, bake something maybe. But you might need my help doing that lol
Toni
oh shut up ill be fine. thanks for the help tho
Marty
Of course! Let me know if you do end up needing help with baking ;)
She most definitely will need Martha’s help.
Toni pockets her phone and immediately seeks out the card aisle. She looks at all the dumb valentines cards and nothing is jumping out to her, nothing screams Shelby to her. She’s about to give up and just pick one of the corny ones when she sees it. It’s a little card that says Bee Mine on it with a bunch of bee drawings and little hearts. Perfect, Toni thinks.
Toni heads over to the flowers next. Truthfully, Toni’s a bit useless when it comes to picking out a good bouquet of flowers. It’s definitely not her strong suit and that’s why she thanks whatever higher power is looking out for her today because she spots a beautiful bouquet of red and yellow roses. Shelby likes yellow and red roses are pretty cliche. Shelby loves being cliche.
Toni smiles to herself as she walks over to the bakery aisle, she’s surprised with how well this is going, she hopes it’ll make Shelby smile.
Toni realises she doesn’t know any cupcake recipes at all, so she starts looking for the premade mixes. Once she finds them, she settles on a strawberry cupcake mix. Then, she grabs some cute, heart-shaped cupcake cases, an icing mix, some food colouring and a mix of yellow and white sprinkles.
With the main things down, Toni decides to go to the snack aisle and pick up some of Shelby’s favourite candies, along with some valentines themed ones. She also grabs a box of those overpriced fancy ass chocolates that her and Shelby will most definitely finish in one sitting.
After making sure that she’s got everything she needs, she takes her stuff to the checkout and pays. Once everything is loaded into the car, Toni checks the time, 1:10 pm. Shelby doesn't finish her classes until at least 4 pm, she has plenty of time.
When Toni gets home, she immediately gets started. She cleans out a vase for the roses, setting them in it and making sure they look all pretty. Next, she makes a start on all the little snacks she bought. She grabs a cute little basket she’s sure Shelby only bought because she thought it looked nice and starts placing the snacks inside. She puts the fancy chocolates at the back of the basket and then places the other snacks all around it.
Then she decides she’ll make a start on the cupcakes. All she has to do is follow the instructions, how hard can it be? Toni preheats the oven to the instructed time, then she pours the mix into a bowl and starts adding the ingredients. After mixing it all together, she places the heart-shaped cupcake cases out on the baking tray. She pours the mixture into the cases and puts the tray in the oven, setting a timer for 20 minutes.
She starts on the card next. She writes a cheesy little note about how special Shelby is to her and how she feels so lucky, making sure to add a little “God, when did you make me so soft?” in as well. She sets the card up on top of the basket of snacks then starts cleaning up.
After cleaning up, she snaps a pic of the cupcakes and sends it to Martha, captioning it with and you doubted me smh. Martha responds almost immediately.
Marty
I’ll congratulate you if they come out edible
Toni
damn girl have some faith in ur sister
Marty
Somebody has got to keep ur big ego in check!
Toni laughs at Martha’s messages and is about to respond but her timer goes off. She pulls the cupcakes out, pokes a butter knife through one to make sure they’re ready then puts them in the fridge so they cool faster.
She makes the icing while she waits, adding some red food colouring to it once it’s done, then she fills it into a piping bag. While she waits impatiently for the cupcakes to cool, she gets a text from Shelby.
bee <3
Miss you. Classes are boring, I should’ve just skipped and stayed in bed with you all day :(((
Toni grins at the message.
Toni
miss you more
i’ll pick you up from class?
bee <3
Please!!! I miss your pretty face
Toni blushes.
Toni
stop
pay attention
ill see u soon
bee <3
See you soon baby
Toni puts her phone away and checks the cupcakes. When they’re finally cool enough, Toni puts them on the counter and starts icing them one by one. Once she’s done, she’s stuck on what to do next. She doesn’t wanna just leave them plainly iced. Then she reminds herself about the sprinkles and gets an idea.
She individually, one by one, places the sprinkles on each cupcake to spell out BE MY VALENTINE? It’s corny, she knows. But Shelby will love it. By the time she’s done, her hands are all sticky and her back hurts from crouching over the counter for so long.
She cleans the dishes and the counter then she makes sure everything looks good one last time, readjusting the flowers and the cupcakes.
It’s about 3:30 pm when everything is finished, so Toni gets ready to go pick Shelby up. She decides to get them both coffee on the drive there.
Shelby is outside when Toni pulls up and immediately Toni has a smile on her face, just at the sight of her girlfriend.
“Hey handsome,” Shelby says sweetly as she gets in the car. Toni blushes and just hands Shelby her coffee, which makes the blonde smile and ask “What’s this for?”
“Just felt like treating my girlfriend,” Toni says with a grin on her face.
“You’re cute,” Shelby hums, leaning over to kiss Toni, “You know my coffee order,”
“Shut up. Of course I do,” Toni smiles and starts driving, “I have a surprise for you at home,”
“Oh really?” Shelby asks suggestively, playfully wiggling her eyebrows.
Toni scowls at her playfully, “Ugh. You’re the worst.”
“You love me,” Shelby grins.
“Unfortunately,” Toni fires back and Shelby gasps playfully.
They spend the rest of the car ride talking about Shelby’s day and Toni refusing to tell Shelby anything about the surprise.
When they get to the door of their dorm, Toni tells Shelby to cover her eyes, then puts her own hands over Shelby’s to be extra sure.
She leads them inside, and stops right in front of the table and tells Shelby to look.
Shelby practically melts when she sees what’s in front of her, she looks between the gifts and Toni with the biggest smile on her face.
“You’re kidding. Did you spend the whole day doing this for me?” Shelby asks and Toni nods.
Shelby pulls Toni in and kisses her so softly, “No one has ever…” She trails off.
“I know. When you told me this morning I literally could not fathom someone not wanting to treat you. So I did. Look at the card,” Toni says, reaching over and handing the card to Shelby.
“Bee Mine. You’re so cheesy,” Shelby grins and starts reading the card. She reads it aloud and Toni gets beyond embarrassed but Shelby looks so touched at every word and it makes Toni’s heart swell.
“Don’t lie. You’ve always been soft,” Shelby teases, obviously referring to the part in the note.
Toni shakes her head, “Just for you,”
Shelby pulls Toni in for more kisses, smiling against her lips. “I love this. Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. You deserve it.” Toni responds, wrapping her arms around Shelby from behind as Shelby looks at the rest of the gifts.
“You baked for me? Can you even bake?” Shelby asks teasingly and Toni groans into the crook of her neck.
“It was a cupcake mix! It’s like impossible to mess up,” Toni grumbles and Shelby starts laughing.
“No, it's cute. I love them. The flowers too. They’re so pretty,” Shelby hums softly, placing her hands over the ones Toni has wrapped around her.
“Like you,” Toni murmurs into her neck, pressing a few soft kisses.
“Flirt,” Shelby breathes, making Toni smirk against her neck.
They go through the rest of the things Toni bought and Shelby doesn’t stop thanking her. Afterwards, they grab the fancy chocolates and sit on the couch, Shelby’s legs on Toni’s lap with the chocolates on Shelby’s. They stick on a movie and are discussing valentines day.
“Well, since you did all this, you have to let me plan the actual date on valentines day,” Shelby says and Toni shrugs.
“Okay bee, whatever you want,” She hums, reaching for another chocolate.
“Good, cause I’m gonna spoil you this time,” Shelby smiles and Toni rolls her eyes playfully.
“Always gotta out-do me huh?” Toni teases and Shelby shakes her head.
“Never. Just wanna show you what you deserve,” She says softly, grabbing the chocolates and moving them from her lap to the coffee table, then she climbs into Toni’s arms.
“Yeah? And what’s that?” Toni hums, running her hand through blonde locks.
“So much love, Toni.” Shelby murmurs into Toni’s chest, smiling when she hears her heart speed up.
“So do you, Shelby,” Toni replies, a smile on her face and a blush dusting her cheeks.
“I know. You make me feel it.”
“You make me feel it too.”