Good Night Valentines

"I hate Valentine's Day"

Natalie wasn't sure what prompted her to send that text to the previously anonymous guy she now knew as Aaron.  She supposed she just wanted to complain.  And it wouldn't really come off as flirting if he knew neither her gender nor sexual preferences, right?

She stared at her phone for a second and then saw he was typing a response.  "Yeah, me too.  But day after is great," her phone screen said.

"Whys that?" she typed back.

"Half price candy."

She smirked.  He had clearly set her up for that, but she had let him.

"I guess thats not all bad," her reply text admitted.  "U do anything else for this holiday?"

"Nope.  I had a girlfriend one year but that didnt last"

Natalie frowned.  "Sorry" she typed back, not knowing what else to say.

Across town Aaron shrugged.  "No big.  She wasnt right for me anyway"

He watched a reply being typed, wondered if this person on the other end had been trying to send some sort of hint with the text that started this, their third conversation of sorts.  He was bad at relationships, he thought.  Bad at reading people.  Reading people through texts was even worse.  He didn't even know who this person was really.  He just knew whoever it was was a little over 24 and had been feeling lonely at the new year.  For all he knew, they hated Valentine's Day because they had started a new relationship between then and now and didn't know what to do on a love based holiday with someone they hadn't been dating for very long.  Then the message arrived and he was not sure what to do with it:  "I havent found someone right either"

Aaron felt his pulse in his chest.  Was he being flirted with?  This person knew he was a guy, so if it was flirting, they were likely interested in men.  He wasn't sure if this would turn out better if it happened that whoever it was was also a man and he could just say he was straight or if they were a woman and he might actually be interested.  Before he could think too much about someone he didn't even know, he typed back, "Are you looking for someone?"

A pause before the typing started again and then, "I don't know."

That was, that was actually probably good.  "Sometimes you just need a friend," he typed back.

"But not Greg," came the reply.

It took him a moment of confusion before he scrolled back up their texts and realized he had mentioned his brother.  "Greg isn't that bad," he admitted in text format.

"Ok."

Aaron bit his lip as he considered whether this would be too forward, especially considering he wasn't sure where any of this was going to go, but ultimately he figured, what the heck and typed, "I could still use a real friend though."

The text came faster than he expected this time.  "Tell me more about you and we'll see what I can do."

Aaron smiled.  Whoever this was, it was nice to at least have someone to talk to.  He thought about lying, making up a whole backstory that wasn't his, but even though he still didn't know who this person was, he felt like he wanted to be honest with them, so he typed back a little about his job and a hobby or two followed by, "What else do you want to know?"

They chatted for a couple hours after that, until the other person said, "I'm gonna go to bed now"

"Okay"

There was a pause and then:  "Natalie"

He again had to process that for a moment until he realized she was giving her name.  And that it was a she.  And that he could possibly be attracted to her if they ever met in person.  But that was too much.  That was too creepy, right?  He put that thought out of his head and instead just typed out and sent, "Good night, Natalie"

"Good night, Aaron."