Monthly Bonus Content #3—Romantic Interlude (Tina Valentine's Special) (Patreon)

I’ve never seen a sunset with such vivid hues of magenta and fuchsia, but it seems to bathe the entire town in a wash of romantic light.

Appropriate considering the day.

Valentine’s signs are everywhere, plastered to shop windows with little arrows as though Cupid themself had struck them there.

I wonder if Cupid actually exists? A low chuckle escapes me at the thought. This is where my life is now—considering the distinct possibility that an entity who can shoot love arrows at people might actually be real.

Shaking my head, I stride past the shops, ignoring Haley’s Bakery which is full to bursting with happy couples. The book shop is just as packed, partners showing each other their favourite books in order to get the Valentine’s couples discount. The florist has been left bare of any bouquets.

I grasp my coat about me as I dodge love-struck people who don’t even seem to notice I exist and nearly bang into me as I go. Heated passion may be in the air, but it’s doing little to warm the chill left by the last fingers of winter still clinging to the changing seasons.

A queue of people has formed outside the right-most building of the Square. I head towards it, trying to hold back my groan at seeing the size of the line. But a smiling face helps ease my sudden annoyance.

“Over here!” Tina calls, waving her arm with such enthusiasm she almost elbows the people in front of her. “I saved us a space.”

“I knew this was popular, but I didn’t realise just how popular,” I comment, slipping into the queue beside her and gaining a few grumbles from the people behind. The building everyone is so eager to enter is the old post office, which closed down decades ago to be replaced by the new one at the opposite end of the Square. But instead of filling it with another café or book shop, it was refurbished into a kind-of community space that can be hired out.

Tonight is the bi-annual visit of the travelling cinema. And considering the closest movie theatre for Wayhaven is in the Big City, it’s no wonder why it draws such a crowd.

Tina had booked us tickets the moment there was even a whisper of it happening.

She sidles up closer beside me, slipping her hand into the crook of my arm as she shivers.

I slide my gaze over her figure, which is nicely accentuated in a pencil skirt and fitted shirt, unbuttoned lower than it probably should be considering the cold. “Why aren’t you wearing a coat? It’s freezing!”

“It would have ruined the effect of the outfit,” she states with a shrug.

“It isa very nice outfit,” I reply.

She smiles, her already rosy cheeks seeming to glow a little pinker. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure you’d notice.”

“Kind of hard not to when you look like that,” I say through a chuckle before the laughter catches in my throat. What did I just say?

Thankfully the queue begins to shuffle forwards before either of us can think more on the words that just escaped me.

-

Outside may have been an orderly queue, but inside it’s hectic. People jostle others out of the way to take prime position in one of the few temporary seats, whereas others end up having to stand around the edges, leaning against the wall.

Thankfully, we manage to find a pair of seats near the central aisle.

“Excuse me,” somebody mumbles as they pass. I press myself in close to Tina beside me to make room, suddenly very aware of the heat of her body so close against mine. My fingers brush the bare skin of her arm. A shiver of goosebumps appears, along with a growing smile on her lips.

I glance up from the touch to her eyes. Her face is only inches from mine. Curls of glossy hair fall in front of her wide eyes, and I have the sudden urge to brush them away.

Her red-tinted lips tilt further up, as though knowing exactly what I’m thinking, as her thigh rests along the side of mine in the confined space. I’m not sure if she’s teasing or challenging me.

The light suddenly dims until I can barely see her features any longer, but the brightness of her eyes are still burned into my mind.

Clearing my throat of the odd moment, I turn to the fabric screen where the projected movie begins to play. It was released a few years ago, and I imagine most of the audience has already seen it before, but there’s a hush of excitement that rushes over the room anyway.

The movie does a pretty good job at holding our attention…right until the couple in the seats in front of us begin making out.

“Considering the price of the tickets, you’d think it would have been cheaper to stay home and do that,” I whisper to Tina with a grin.

“That’s not very romantic,” she shoots back.

I nod my head at the tongue-tangled couple. “I’m not sure that’s got much to do with romance either.”

“Well, I hope our date ends as ‘romantically’ as that,” she replies with a laugh.

Someone from behind us leans forward to shush us.

We inch down in our seats.

It’s a full two minutes before I actually process what she said.

“Wait? Date?” I stumble. “This is a date?”

The teasing smile returns to her lips as she slips her fingers over mine to lean closer. “We’re doing movie and dinner. How is that not a date?”

I’m not sure which takes longer to catch up with this information: my head or my heart.

But both seem very happy with this sudden news.

“If you’d told me before, I would have dressed better,” I state, suddenly acutely aware of my outfit, which I had worn to work all day before rushing out to meet Tina on time.

“Why?” She shrugs. “I didn’t ask you out for your clothing, I asked you out because I want you.”

My whole body seems to lift in a sudden happy weightlessness that I worry I’ll float up in front of the projector.

But entangling my fingers fully into Tina’s helps bring me back down to earth.

She glances at the gesture before drawing in a long, contented breath.

Her head falls onto my shoulder, and I rest my cheek against the softness of her hair. She smells of roses and sunlight. An instant burst of summer against the dark chill of winter.

I’m not entirely sure when our friendship morphed into something more, but it seems to have been for a while now. Nothing about this seems awkward or odd. It just feels…right. As though this was the obvious progression our relationship would take.

“It’s difficult not to think I’m dreaming right now,” she admits. “I’ve been wanting this for a long time.”

“I’d say you could pinch yourself to find out, but I can think of a much better way to tell if this is real,” I suggest.

She tips her head up slightly to look at me, her eyes framed by thick lashes and the glimmer of gold eyeshadow.

My gaze tips to her parted lips in suggestion.

One she seems keen to take.

Her fingers wrap around the back of my neck to draw me close, and my eyes fall shut in an instant.

“This is seeming even more like a dream now—”

“Can you two quieten down?” the man from before hisses as he leans close from the seat behind.

My eyes snap back open as we twist around to face him.

“Excuse me if our romantic interlude is interrupting your entertainment,” Tina drools, sarcasm thick on each word.

He rolls his eyes and slams back into his seat, once more captured by the movie.

Tina meets my gaze with a chuckle before we snuggle against each other again.

“I guess I’ll just have to enjoy the dream while it lasts,” she murmurs, her head once more on my shoulder.

I wrap my arm about her to draw her closer. “Don’t worry. I have a feeling this dream will never end.”