My Surprising Valentine Story - a Short Story

As most college kids, Marilyn, my roommate and I had little money and college food was sometimes indescribable. The plans we'd made for homecoming 1961 did not work out. Cramped in our closet was a lonely blue velvet dress and shoes to match. My roommate had a red dress and black shoes. We were studying western civ.

Lynn, the gal in the next room knocked and came in. "You two doing anything tonight?" "No, our plans didn't work out," we said. "Well, I've got a question. My boyfriend called me and two of his buddies are in town. They went to school here last year and Dick asked me if I could line them up for the Homecoming dance. I know both of them and they're both good guys." We looked at each other with big eyes and together we said we may be interested. She gave us the run-down and told us they'd be over in an hour or so if that was all right.

Our day changed on a dime. We instantly shelved our books and grabbed our make-up buckets. About 45 minutes later Lynn knocked on the door. "Come on!" she said.

Wondering just what we'd done, we climbed the stairs and all six of us chatted for about half an hour. "We'll see you guys tonight," Dick said as the three guys got up from their chairs in our dorm meeting room. [Just so you know, one guy was shorter, had dark hair and seemed to have a great sense of humor. The other guy had brown hair, was taller and more quiet.]

We jumped on the bed, laughing and giggly. "Well," Marilyn said. "What do you think?" Again we both laughed and it hit us that we didn't know which one we'd be with. After a hefty ten minute discussion, we both said they seemed nice, we were hungry, we had new dresses and we'd never see them again. We were determined to have a fun Homecoming and would eat heartily.

When we arrived upstairs all dressed in our nines, the shorter guy came over to me and told me I looked a lot different that a couple of hours ago. Immediately it came out of my mouth whether this was good or bad. The following laughter was the beginning of our very comfortable and fun evening together.

When we walked back into our dorm at the stroke of midnight, Marilyn knew she was in love. I knew I'd never see my guy again. Roger and I had a great night and lots of fun, but it was just a friendly type of night. In fact, we chatted about Homecoming, but it was no big deal. The floors of our dorm had one phone at the end of the hall. If you were nearby, you answered the phone and called out for whomever was wanted. We seldom received phone calls in those days. Long distance was expensive.

One Friday night someone yelled down the hall that I was wanted on the phone. "Hmmm, I said to Marilyn, wonder who's calling me?" "Hello. This is Roger." "Yes." He visited the usual stuff a little bit then asked if I'd go out with him if he came back up to school. "When were you thinking?" I asked. We made a date to go to a movie on Saturday night. Marilyn could not believe it when I walked back in the room. "I thought you said...." 'No, I never said I didn't like him, but I figured he had bigger fish to fry than a college freshman who didn't have a Homecoming date."

Roger and I dated for a couple of years and then were married.

It wasn't until after we were married he told me "the guys'" side of the story. Neither of them would say which girl they wanted that Homecoming eve, so Dick suggested they flip a coin. While having a couple of beers and laughing, they flipped for two out of three.

Roger said that when he got home he thought we'd really had a good time. We were a group though and he wanted to ask me out and see how that went. Wouldn't you know, he'd called up asking for me, but he didn't have the right last name. It took him awhile to be brave enough to call Lynn and admit he didn't remember.

Good thing he did. We were married for almost 41 years. Decades after 1961 when we got together with our friends, we'd always laugh about the flipping of the coin.

So although valentine's day was never an important day of our "heart" story, valentine's day was good. He often gave me very special valentine gifts. Some were tiny and silly and sometimes I received beautiful flowers.

Wishing you a very special valentine.