Valentine Blues

I have not been fair to all the retailers hoping to make a killing today. I confess I haven’t blown my fair share of cash on Valentine’s day(s). As far as I can remmeber I have only taken a lady out once on Valentine’s day and that ended disastrously – no not the night itself, that just left me “feeling one way” or “feeling somehow” in a manner of speaking common where I grew up – I was instead referring to the whole courtship attempt.
So tonight was not any different from the same night for several decades. I meant the whole relationship or lack of it to be accurate and not because I didn’t want it to happen.

“What about bumble?” asks a concerned cousin over the phone, “I have a lot of luck there” he says as his voice drops lower. He’s married. I am past judging anyone. I have my excuse ready “Mormons don’t do bumble”. Of cos that’s not true, there are Mormons on bumble but most want a fellow member of the church.

Bernie (not his real name) says to me in the afternoon: “Any plans for tonight?”. He is my house mate or more accurately my tenant.
I answered “No not really.”
He says “Damn bro! Ok, Ok, are you getting any p**sy tonight?” he can be persistent (for lack of a better word). He is 23.
“Not likely” I said.
“Well James isn’t getting any for sure.” James (not his real name) is our other housemate who actually has a wife, a home, and kids in the next state some 10 hours away. He calls home every night to talk to his kids.
I laughed, “Well you can take one for the team.”
“Definitely bro! I will!”
I heard him rev his Porsche as he headed out about an hour later.

James comes home and asks if the clothes in the washing machine are mine. I said it is likely Bernie’s.
“Well, he needs to learn to do his laundry when he is going to be home. He should realize someone else might want to use the washing machine.”
I offered to go check on the machine. Since he had already washed the large blanket that was in it, I moved it to the dryer and set it to 50.
A lady I didn’t know had put up a flier in an Afro group I belong to for a movies night. I got dressed and headed out. There were only 4 of us there which I guess is a good thing – I assume all the others in the group had partners to spend the night with. It is actually a studio. We watched Midsommar which is a weird movie.
Afterwards, I considered going to a bar to hang out for a while, but then I realize most people out on the town would be in pairs and it was already going on 11 PM. Too late to get into trouble. I set google maps to take me home.

As I flew home doing 77 in a 70, I had “The house of the rising sun” on repeat on my car stereo. I had the beginning of a story involving a serial killer that murdered his victims to this particular soundtrack but it didn’t come together so I dropped it. I have written sporadically in recent times – it is strange how some memories come back to you when the context is right – “Go find someone you can impress by your writing” she had said.

The female electronic voice was my date for the night.