Three days later, my apprehension got the better of me. I couldn’t settle into it. It didn’t feel right.

So I wrote a note. Our mode of communication.

“This doesn’t feel right to me. Can we wait? Just be friends for awhile? It’s not that I don’t like you. I do. Just…this is so weird.”

I felt a lot better, and things between us didn’t really change. We never really talked to begin with, and the notes kept being passed. All was well. Maybe.

Then, on Valentine’s Day, Brad came up to me with a stuffed animal pretending to be a rose and a card in a pink envelope.

Cold sweat all over again.

He handed it to me, I hugged him, and then I read the card.

“Happy Valentine’s Day! What better time to celebrate our friendship?”

These were the words of the manufacturer. Not Brad.

At the end of that day, he thanked me for the flower I had arranged to be sent to him when we were still a couple.

Most awkward Valentine’s Day of my life.