“Hi. Trey, isn’t it?” said the beautiful young woman at the cafe as she gave him the sandwich that his boss had ordered.
Trey nodded, feeling his cheeks flame. He read the girl’s nametag: Amanda. That was her name. He wanted to talk to her, but he was too timid. He loved his parents but he blamed them for his timid nature. They were timid too, and it hadn’t helped that they’d sent him to an all-boys school. Now that he had his first job, talking to girls his age was a new and intimidating experience for him.
“Oh good, you’re back,” said his boss, Rachel, when he returned to the office. She was a few years older than him and seemed to love having him as her assistant and telling him what to do.
Everyday, Rachel ordered a sandwich from the local café, where Amanda worked, and everyday Trey went to get it for her. Whenever Amanda was there, she talked to him, even though she seemed to be very timid, too.
It was the day before Valentine’s Day when Trey made a decision: he was going to ask Amanda to be his Valentine. He was certain she was flirting with him. Everyday for the past week, she’d smiled at him when giving him his boss’s sandwich.
“I’ve made it extra special today,” she would say, with a gentle smile. Trey wanted to tell her that the sandwich wasn’t for him but for his boss, but that would necessitate talking to her, something he felt too embarrassed to do in public, something he would find the courage to do when they were alone at dinner, at the elegant restaurant where he’d reserved a table for Valentine’s Day evening. He knew he was being presumptuous. She was beautiful. She probably had a boyfriend. But there was only one way to know for sure.
It was Valentine’s Day and Trey was preparing to go to the café to ask Amanda to be his Valentine when Rachel ordered him into her office. She’d been behaving strangely all week, and when he entered her office, he was surprised to find candles burning and romantic music playing.
“Surprise!” she said, indicating the sushi on her desk. Lunch on me and dinner on you, my Valentine!” She embraced him, and he was too shocked to object. “You know, I don’t normally go out with younger men, but I’ll make an exception for you.”
“But I was going to go to the café,” he stammered. “To…”
“Get my sandwich. I know. Not today. In fact, not ever again. Now that you’re going to be my boyfriend, I’m giving you a real job. I talked to Mike in the accounting department and he’s creating a position for you. You start on Monday!”
“Oh, but…”
“You can thank me later! Now, enjoy this delicious sushi. Not too much so you don’t ruin our appetite. You can pick me up for dinner at 7.30. Don’t be late!”
Trey did as Rachel ordered. She was his boss after all. And soon she was telling everyone that she was his girlfriend. From then on, he worked in the accounting department, and had lunch with her in her office, sandwiches that her new assistant got at the café. Got from Amanda probably.
Trey often thought about Amanda, telling himself that she wouldn’t have gone out with him anyway, that she probably already had a boyfriend, and that he was lucky to have Rachel as a girlfriend.
After they’d been going out for six months, Rachel decided that it was time for Trey to start living with her, so he did. And after they’d been going out for almost a year, she decided it was time for their parents to have dinner all together.
“The next time they have dinner together, it could be on our wedding day,” she told Trey.
At dinner, he observed how different the dynamic was between each set of parents. His parents had a very gentle dynamic. However, Rachel’s father was timid like him, and Rachel’s mother was controlling like her; she told him what to do and he did it. When Trey looked at them, he saw his future, and he wasn’t sure that he liked what he saw. Perhaps he should be with someone timid too, someone like Amanda…
“So, I never asked before,” said Rachel’s mother. “How did you two get together?”
Normally, when people asked Trey this question, he told them that he’d worked for Rachel and she’d asked him out, so he was surprised to hear Rachel say, “Oh, it was so romantic. Trey asked me out through a series of notes.”
“I… what?”
“Oh Trey, it’s okay, I know you don’t normally tell the complete story, but this is my mother! You see,” she continued, “every day, Trey would get my sandwich, and about a week before Valentine’s Day, he started putting romantic notes inside the wrapper, asking me to be his Valentine. So, finally, on Valentine’s Day, I made him lunch and said ‘yes’!”