Worst Valentine's Day Ever: A Lonely Hearts Romance Anthology

by Kilby Blades

  “You’ve worked so hard to get to where you are in your career. Are you sure?” Kira asked.

  “Yep.”

  “You’ve got guts, girlfriend.”

  The taste of bile gathered in her throat. “I wouldn’t call it guts. More like necessity. I have to save face somehow. I ain’t a punk.”

  “You shouldn’t risk it, Rosalind. I say you let the world know the truth of your history with Kevon. Then make a good faith effort to help Kevon find the perfect date. It’ll make you look like the bigger person, and your viewers will love you more. Your ratings will skyrocket. Greg is counting on you getting all tabloid television, but if you become the better person, you’ll one-up Greg AND get your ratings hike.”

  “Mean sounds better.”

  “I know your relationship with Kevon wasn’t the highlight of your life. He did some pretty crappy things to you, not just the cheating. Like when he convinced you to loan him three thousand dollars until his credit improved.” Kira picked up a paper plate and lifted the lid from the bowl of fruit.

  “What a money-sucking leech. And he never paid me back. I was so gullible.”

  “You live and learn.” Kira smiled. “Being kind would be a great way to heal and move on.”

  Rosalind’s pulse went thump, thump, thump, and her eyes smarted. “I’ve already moved on from Kevon. I’ve been moved on for the past three years. I have an entire career to show for it.”

  “Keep telling yourself that tale. See how far it’ll get you.” Kira handed her a Kleenex. “It’s okay to cry.”

  “I’m not crying! It’s seasonal allergies.” Rosalind crushed the tissues in her hand and gnawed the inside of her cheek.

  “It’s not allergy season.”

  “It is for me.”

  Kira leaned forward, placed her warm hand over Rosalind’s cold one. “You can talk to me. I’m your friend.”

  Why’d Kira have to be such a discerning friend? Her eyes alone could unscramble the Greek alphabet backwards. “I’m trying to process everything. I need time. I’m not ready to see him. I hate Greg for setting this whole thing up. And I’m not gonna forgive Kevon.”

  “Why do you think Kevon is reaching out to you?”

  “He must be in desperate straits or something.” Rosalind shrugged. “Well, I’m not loaning him any more money, and he ain’t getting nothing remotely romantic from me.”

  “Good for you, girlfriend. You deserve better for your life. I’m proud of how far you’ve come. You got your career back on track. You’re making way more money than the three thousand dollars you loaned him. And you’re an inspiration to women around America. Whatever you decide with Kevon, revenge or forgiveness or whatever, I’m here for you. I’ll support you all the way.” Kira handed her the plate of fruit.

  “Thanks, sister.” A warm and winsome pulse shot through Rosalind. She’d been living in the public eye so long. Hearing her friend’s kindness was almost disconcerting.

  “I believe your show is on the air for a purpose, to give people a slice of laughter and joy. To help women feel they can do something good with their lives. If you think getting payback on live television will bring joy, then hey, go for it.”

  “Your perspective has definitely complicated this matter.” She mashed a piece of cantaloupe into tiny little pieces with the rounded edge of her spoon. “This is gonna be a mess. I can’t see Kevon again.”

  “Maybe this time, you’ll set things straight…on your terms.” Kira gave her a mischievous smile.

  She really was a true friend. “Thank you.”

  “And once you’ve closed the door, you can move on. Sometimes falling in love is a matter of cupid time.”

  “Cupid time?”

  “The time when love strikes its arrow, and Rosalind meets her prince, preferably before midnight.” Kira squeezed her eyes shut and smooched the cool air with one big mwah.

  “Hasn’t happened for me.”

  “Yet. It hasn’t happened for you yet.” Kira said. “Hey, if you want something, you have to believe for it. You have to prepare for it. You have to work for it.” She gave her two thumbs up and smiled with the conviction of a motivational speaker.

  “I don’t want to fall in love.”

  Kira shrugged. “If you say so.”

  “I know so.”

  “Whatever makes you happy.”

  “I’m happy right now. Happy. Happy. Happy. And I’ll be even happier once I embarrass Kevon in front of the entire country.”

  Kira stopped munching her fruit and studied Rosalind for a moment. “I’m a fan of grace, even when it’s hard. But do you, boo. Do you.”

  No one gave Rosalind grace when Kevon had lied and deceived her. Everyone had told Rosalind that’s what men did, and that she should move on. Rosalind moved on, but the anger never left. It transferred it into…workaholism and getting one-upped at work by her boss.

  Now was the time for payback, for both Kevon and Greg. Two birds, one show.

  Payback still echoed in Rosalind’s mind when she arrived at work the following Monday, ready to meet her nemesis for the walk-through. She was gonna put him through the wringer. Her first step would be a pre-interview interview on why he thought he deserved the perfect Valentine’s date.

  Then when the show went live later this week, she was gonna counter all his answers, so all the hopefuls would see what a douche bag he was.

  Hopefully the contestants would then opt out, leaving him without a date for Valentine’s.

  She stepped into the empty conference room armed in full TV personality battle gear: black suit, matching pumps, studded earrings, perfect makeup, queasy stomach. For all her tough talk with Kira the other day, Rosalind was nervous at the thought of seeing him again.

  Not a good thing.

  “Hey, you.”

  The bass-filled voice thrummed through her, and she hated it. How dare he try to be so casual with her after everything he’d done? She turned. Kevon stood off to the side near the water cooler. Those dark brown eyes sucked her into a cloud-nine vortex.

  Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking.

  She kept looking.

  “I didn’t think you’d show up.” Kevon buttoned his perfectly pressed navy suit jacket. “Glad you did.”

  If he didn’t think she’d show up, then why was he here? Was he so desperate to see her for whatever selfish reason he had planned?

  “What kind of stunt are you trying to pull, Kevon? This is my job, not your chance to accomplish whatever your ulterior motives might be.”

  He sat next to her, sat so close his aftershave enveloped her. Their forearms touched. A buzz filtered through her skin, the subtlest sensation, enough for her to relish the feeling. No. Not relish. Pull away. Pull away, Rosalind.

  “Personal space, buddy. Keep out of my personal space.” She moved away.

  Kevon shrugged. “I don’t have any ulterior motives. I am really looking for the perfect Valentine’s date. Relationships have been slow going since we broke up.”

  “Hold up. We didn’t break up. You dumped me by cheating on me.”

  “You sure?” His eyes widened a smidge. “I remember feeling bummed for weeks, but I don’t remember dumping you. Then I hear about you becoming this big-time TV star and I figured you moved on.”

  “Reading the card with the flowers addressed to another woman was enough of a dump for me. You wrote the card to a woman named Laura. It was over for me afterward. So yeah. You dumped me.”

  “Ah, yes. Laura.” His tone was solid, assured, with no cracks. The man had no shame.

  “Laura was a woman I met at the deli a week before Valentine’s Day. She was recently widowed. It was her first Valentine’s Day without her husband. I sent her flowers as a friendly gesture.”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’d told her this BS story when it happened. Kevon thought she was some desperate fool who’d believe anything he said. Liar.

  “First, I didn’t believe you then and I don’t believe you now. Se
cond, if it’s true, then manipulating a widow’s heart is gross. Third, if it’s true, why did you let me go?”

  He was silent.

  Why did you let me go?

  It was the question Rosalind wanted answered, except she was afraid of the answer. Afraid of discovering she wasn’t worthy of love.

  Rosalind hadn’t been worthy of love when her father had walked out on them when she was in third grade. She hadn’t been worthy of love when her mother had told her to settle for Kevon’s antics, and she wasn’t worthy of love today.

  “I’m not here to have a heart-to-heart with you about what went wrong in our relationship.” She put on her best professional TV presenter voice, the one she used on Greg or the intern who brought her coffee in the morning. “I’m here to set you up with someone else.” In her little hell-hath-no-fury way. “So what’s your idea of a perfect date?”

  “A date with you.”

  Aw, crap. Rosalind slammed her padfolio closed. “I don’t know what you and my boss talked about, but I am not one of your options for a Valentine’s date. Get that through your thick skull, and let’s proceed with the questions.”

  He gave her one of his impossible smiles. “Agreed. Let’s continue with the questions.”

  Rosalind focused on the yellow legal pad in front of her, so she wouldn’t have to stare at his eyes or his face or his lips.

  “What’s your ideal woman like?”

  “Like you.”

  She stared him down and huffed. “You can’t say that on television.”

  “We’re not on television.”

  “You can’t say that off television either. I’m the matchmaker, and I’m the woman who can’t stand you.”

  He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Don’t have to be so touchy.”

  “It’s not touchy, Kevon. It’s the truth.”

  His shoulders slumped a bit, but she pushed aside any remote feelings of remorse. This man wasn’t gonna mess with her head. She continued with her questions about his ideal date and his ideal woman, but a stream of thoughts attacked her, distracting her. What if he found the ideal woman as a result of this episode? What if they discovered they were compatible and ended up in a committed relationship or something? What then?

  Her foot jiggled at the awful possibility.

  “It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine,” she said in low rapid-fire murmurs, murmurs reminiscent of the desperate pleas she’d prayed when her father skipped out on them. Except she was never the praying type. She was more the worrying type.

  “Hey, Rosalind,” Kevon’s words snapped her out of her musings. His lips turned up in a gentle half smile and she shifted away from him, uncomfortable.

  “Oh right, yes.” She cleared her throat and scanned the rest of her questions. “You answered enough of them. I’ll give these to the assistant producer, so they’ll be ready for taping on Thursday.”

  “So that’s it between us?”

  She paused. “That’s it.”

  “All righty then.” He didn’t budge. Neither did she. In one millisecond, Kevon must’ve sensed her mixed feelings towards him, and mixed feelings were a trap. If she gave in, she’d be a puddle of goop. Not gonna happen. Puddles of goop were a quivering mess.

  “See you Thursday, Kevon.” She swiped up her legal pad and made a beeline for the studio.

  She wasn’t gonna fall for whatever Kevon and Greg had up their sleeves, at least not fully. Okay, so she still got a sweaty-palm feeling in Kevon’s presence, but she for sure wasn’t gonna do anything about it. Even if his eyes were the dreamiest on the planet.

  Sigh.

  Had Rosalind truly believed she’d live the rest of her life without being the least bit attracted to Kevon?

  No.

  Double sigh.

  So what if he still managed to make her feel like she was a woman? It meant nothing. Nothing at all. Perhaps one day Rosalind would find the man who was for real and committed to her and her alone.

  But one day wouldn’t be any time soon.

  Rosalind surveyed the packed studio audience from the makeup room. They were a fifty-fifty mix of men and women, not the usual majority-female audience. Man, Greg was really trying to make Rosalind turn into a tabloid television host today.

  Not wanting to focus on the challenge, she refocused on the four dating contestants sitting on stage. They all seemed normal, except for trusting their love life to the national media.

  The director of photography was busy adjusting the lighting while Frieda, the lead makeup artist, powdered Rosalind’s nose. “You look tired today,” Frieda said. “But I put on extra concealer to help you out a bit.”

  Rosalind gave her a smile. “Thanks.”

  As if reading Rosalind’s mind, Freida added, “They love you out there. There’s nothing extra for you to do. I promise.”

  Rosalind’s eyes smarted. Frieda was right. There wasn’t nothing extra Rosalind needed to do to get the ratings up. She needed to be herself.

  “Thank you,” Rosalind said to Frieda. “Means a lot.”

  But what would being herself look like in this situation? Was she gonna roll hard on Kevon and drag him in front of this studio audience? Or was she gonna take the high road, as Kira had suggested?

  All the fluffy feelings she’d felt when she had spoken to him the other day complicated the matter. Now she didn’t know what to do.

  After Frieda finished with Rosalind, she walked on set and the studio audience cheered. A rush of energy zipped through her. Being in the spotlight filled a void she hadn’t known existed until the fame came along, a void neither her father nor Kevon had filled. With the audience, her voice was valued. What she had to say mattered.

  Rosalind made quick introductions with the four women on stage: a professional-looking woman with ebony skin, a Latina-looking person in her twenties, a blonde Jersey gal, and a gorgeous Lisa Ling lookalike. Rosalind didn’t know anything about these women personally, but none of them deserved to be with Kevon. Rosalind needed to inform the entire female population to stay away today. Somehow.

  When Rosalind got to Kevon, her skin pricked in a puppy-love-crush kind of way, but she nodded briefly. No handshake for him.

  “Help me through this,” she whispered, another of her prayer pleas. Her stomach clenched as she took her place on the yellow X in front of the camera and placed her index finger on the first of ten bullet point questions she’d asked Kevon during their meeting. She usually winged these conversations, but she’d practiced extra hard this time, trying to figure out the angle she’d take. Greg would not forgive her if she messed this up.

  “Rolling!” the cameraman shouted. “And action!”

  “Welcome to Chat with Roz! Today we have a special Valentine’s episode where I get to help a lonely, awful … I mean single … man find the perfect match. Everyone, meet Kevon Jackson.” She gestured to him, and the crowd clapped on cue.

  Greg appeared from stage right and stepped behind the cameraman. Why was he looking for high drama? Just to spite him, she’d remain cool. “Let’s proceed with our first set of questions for the eligible bachelor. Kevon, what are you looking for in the perfect Valentine’s date?”

  Kevon rubbed the side of his eye. “We already discussed this, Rosalind. I’m looking for you.”

  The crowd gasped.

  Rosalind opened and closed her mouth twice before deciding what to say. Greg grinned, and she wanted to barf, but she kept her cool. “Okay, you say you want a woman like me. What qualities are you most interested in?”

  “You’re independent, but you also know how to obey a man when you need to.” A smug smile formed on Kevon’s lips. Greg chuckled.

  Rosalind wanted to disappear. Kevon and Greg were making a fool of her on live television. Not happening.

  “Obey?” the blonde shouted. “What do you mean obey? I don’t obey men. This is the 21st century.”

  “You right!” the woman with ebony skin said.

  The Asian wom
an pumped her fist. “Woman power!”

  Kevon’s eyes widened. “You’re taking this the wrong way. What I meant to say was Rosalind knows a relationship is give and take.”

  “Well, you take, take, take.” Rosalind said. “You took three grand from me and didn’t pay it back. And you tried to take my career!”

  The four women studied her with interest. Oh, Lord. She’d let loose an outburst. She’d lost control. Greg must be loving this. She didn’t want to look in his direction.

  “This is all coming out wrong. I love you, Rosalind,” Kevon said. “Let’s work things out.”

  Kevon’s manipulative grandstanding was not only messing with her image, it was messing with her purpose for this show. If she fell for this crap, then she might as well throw out everything she’d worked so hard to achieve: her independence, her voice, her sense of self-worth. All her time in therapy would be flushed down the toilet.

  “You had your chance with me, and you ruined it.” Then Rosalind faced the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a classic example of male emotional centering. It’s a tactic used to guilt-trip women into reverting back into unhealthy codependent relationships. Don’t fall for it.”

  The women in the audience nodded. The men looked confused. Rosalind gave Greg a quick once-over. No way would she let him win this one.

  “Excuse me,” the Latina said. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  “Nope,” Rosalind said. “On this show, I am all about helping women live their best lives. I cannot, in clear conscience, be a matchmaker for this man when I won’t date him myself.”

  Greg’s face turned red, and the studio audience turned silent. Why was Greg’s face red? Wasn’t this the drama he wanted?

  Kevon appeared as if he wanted to run out of the studio. Ha! “Now let’s continue,” Rosalind said. “Have you ever cheated on a woman?”

  Kevon flicked a speck of lint from the lapel of his suit jacket. “Never.”