Roses and Chocolates

'Gosh... how come making chocolates is such a messy work?' I groaned as I looked at this mess of white and dark chocolate in front of me.

'Maybe if you weren't so chaotic there would be more chocolate in the chocolate moulds than in your face,' Elijah, my best friend, laughed as he wiped some of the chocolate off my face.

'Hmph, I'm gonna act like I didn't hear that!' I mumbled as I crossed my arms, which I regretted instantly because now I had chocolaty handprints on my arms.

'Yeah, sure,' he chuckled before he dripped some red food colouring into the melted white chocolate. He began mixing the chocolate until it was pink instead of white. I watched him pouring the chocolate into the chocolate moulds before he turned them around and let the superfluous chocolate drip into a rectangular bowl so we wouldn't waste it. Why did he make this look so easy? When I did it, it looked horrible!

He put the moulds into the refrigerator, together with the ones I made. 'What are gonna do on  Valentine's Day with Anne, Jane?' he then wanted to know, looking at me curiously.

Anne was my girlfriend and I loved her so, so much. And she was extremely pretty with her dark curls and big brown eyes. Man... now that I thought about her, I wanted to go back home and cuddle with her.

'I will make a totally cosy movie night with her,' I explained to him. 'You know with a lot of pillows and blankets, lots of cuddling and food. It's gonna be great since we don't spend too much time together at the moment. Both of us are so busy, it's really terrible!' Elijah raised his eyebrows at my saying.

'But aren't you two neighbours?' he questioned as he scratched his head in confusion. I bumped my head onto the kitchen counter, fortunately for me on a spot that wasn't full of chocolate.

'I know! That's the problem!' I groaned. Anne and I were living in the same building, our apartments were right beside each other. I heard him laughing.

'You two are terrible!' he said under laughs. 'You're made for each other!' I just grumbled something, which made him laugh once again. It really was kind of frustrating, but college was getting the best of us right now.

'What are you doing with your girlfriend, best friend?' I asked and gazed at him again. Elijah's girlfriend was named Mariah and both of them met at a café, which seemed like the most cliché love story ever. She was a real beauty with her dark-coloured skin and black long hair. I guess, both I and Elijah had a thing for dark-haired girls.

'Well, I will take her to her favourite restaurant. We hadn't been there for ages and I thought that would be quite romantic, so why not?' he grinned.

'That's really a good idea,' I smiled. Mariah was more of an outgoing person anyway, she wasn't such a lazy ass like me and Anne. 'But you are giving her a rose bouquet as well, don't you?' Valentine's Day was the most romantic day of the year and actually, I enjoyed this day a lot. Even when I had been still single as a pringle, I liked this day so much. I just had the mindset that love wasn't something to take for granted. And now that I found someone I loved with all my heart, I had the feeling that Valentine's Day would get even better than it normally already was.

'I was thinking more of a single rose. A whole bouquet might be a bit too much for her minimalistic personality,' he explained to me. Oh, he got a point. His girlfriend was a simple person. ‘And what about you? Are you giving your girlfriend some flowers?’

‘Of course, I will,’ I grinned at him. ‘Anne is wonderful, she deserves some flowers that match her beauty!’ That was true. Anne was beauteous, she was the most attractive woman I ever met. And with that honey-sweet personality of hers, she could be chocolate herself. She was amazing. I was so grateful to have her. 

While the chocolate moulds were in the refrigerator, Elijah and I made the rose mousse, which we would fill them with. It wasn’t too easy since the first try was an absolute fail! We put a bit too much of the rose water into the crème and well, then it tasted a bit soapy. Nope, we decided to do it again. And the second time it worked!

In the end, Elijah and I both had a box full of chocolates, which we could give to our girlfriends. It was really important for me to give Anne something I made myself. It was a way of telling her how much she meant to me, how much I loved her. She was just my everything.

The next day: Valentine’s Day!



Finally, my college day was over! Though I loved to learn more about the biology of animals, I couldn’t wait to finally get home. It was nice to see my fellow colleagues, especially Lynn, with who I was sharing my desk. It was quite fun to see her hurrying to me and then talk about how her boyfriend made her breakfast in bed and how beautiful the roses were he bought for her. Yeah, Valentine’s Day was a bit crazy, but oh well, it was nice.

During the break, I walked over to the nice little flower shop, which was right across the street. There I got a small bouquet of dark red roses for Anne as a gift. I just thought that those were as tender as she was.

And now I was going home to my apartment. As the cold wind blew in my face, I snuggled my face a bit more into my already thick scarf. Brr… cold! It was dark outside, only the street lamps giving some light to see. I walked down the sidewalk until I stood in front of a big building with many windows. Finally…

I walked into the building, up the stairs to the first floor and then took a turn to the right and stopped right in front of the third door on the left side of the hallway. Gosh… I was exhausted. But as I wanted to turn the key in the lock, I realized that the door was already open. Confused I opened the door to my apartment. Did I forget to lock it in the morning? Was the door open the whole day without me knowing? I shrugged my shoulders. Oh well, nobody would break in in the middle of the day anyway.

But what I then saw as I finally got into my living room made my jaw drop. Anne was standing there in the kitchen in an extremely pretty red dress, her dark hair falling elegantly over her shoulder. The table was set with candlelight and with chocolate cake, which she probably baked herself.

‘Babe, there you are!’ she laughed, ran up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck as she kissed me. ‘I already waited for ages for you! Happy Valentine’s Day!’ She grinned at me, stretching her full lips to a smile.

I was so overthrown by her sudden appearance, that at first, I was too surprised to even say anything. ‘Happy Valentine’s Day,’ I then brought over my lips before I pressed a kiss onto her cheek. ‘What are you doing here, darling? I thought you'd be still at work.’Anne didn’t only study at college, she was also working in a small restaurant in the city centre. She had told me that she would be at work till 7 p.m.

‘Oh, you know, I took a day off and sneaked into your apartment after I got back from college. I had planned to make your favourite chocolate cake and thought we could have a bit of a romantic dinner?’ she explained as she looked at me with her gorgeous eyes.

‘You’re such a liar,’ I giggled as I made her take steps back and back until she bumped against the kitchen counter. I placed my hands right beside her onto the counter so she couldn’t get away from me. ‘But I love you, so I’ll let it slide.’ I kissed her again before I let her go. I walked to the small standby table beside my couch and took the small box with the chocolates out of the drawer. Smiling, I handed it over to her, together with the flower bouquet I still held in my hand.

‘Here, I’ve made them for you,’ I laughed and watched her eyes light up as she opened the small box.

‘Aw, that’s so nice of you, babe!’ she said genuinely and again hugged me as a big thank-you. Then she took a chocolate out of the box and ate it, her facial expression relaxing as she enjoyed the sweetness. ‘It tastes amazing! I didn’t know you can do something like that!’

‘Honestly, I made them with Elijah. I would have messed up probably if he didn’t help me out,’ I admitted. Anne just laughed at that. ‘Of course, he did. It wouldn’t be Elijah otherwise,’ she smiled at me.

We then took our seats to have dinner. Or more like, we just stuffed our mouths with the cake my dear girlfriend baked for me. It was absolutely delicious! As we ate, I enjoyed watching her. I enjoyed how much she laughed, the way she spoke, how she held my hand. She was probably the best that could have happened to me.

After dinner, we snuggled ourselves into the blankets on the couch, cuddled against each other and watched ‘Aristocats’ a movie from Disney. It was classy and fun and my favourite all-time movie anyway. As I snuggled my nose a bit more into Anne’s shirt, which she had put on for more comfort, and breathed in her scent, I whispered, ‘You know what, Anne?’

‘Hm?’ she hummed and leaned her head against mine.

‘This is the best Valentine’s Day, I’ve had so far,’ I explained to her. ‘Only because you are here.’

‘I wanted to say the same,’ I heard her whisper and felt her planting a kiss onto my head. ‘Because you are the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me.’