Avoiding Valentine's Day

         Tawnie rubbed her temples as she struggled to absorb the final
chapter
of chemistry reading for the night. After three hours of wading
through the
technicalities of the subject, she was on the downhill side of the
challenge.
Even for an intelligent science minded woman, it was intense reading.

          As she finished the final page, she sat back in her office
chair,
drummed her pencil in the crease of the book and stared at the wall
above the
desk.

         Tawnie had specifically moved her desk to this corner of the
room. It
fit well into the small cubby hole and was surrounded on three sides by
walls.
She could tape class notes and study materials all around it and any
time she
looked up she would not be distracted. Even the windows were hidden
from view
so she couldn't watch the traffic on the street or the students
traipsing back
and forth on the foot paths that crossed the campus.

         The one object she allowed in the corner was a wall calendar,
but it
was plain as can be so she was not distracted by any pictures. As she
gazed at
the wall, her eyes rested on the calendar. It was the second week of
the month;
Monday, February 13th to be exact. Tomorrow would be the 14th. Tawnie
shoved
herself back from the desk and stood up to get a closer view of the
date.

          "Holy Cow! Tomorrow is Valentines Day! Crap! How could I
have
forgotten Valentines Day?"

         She immediately went to her closet and pulled out a duffle bag.
Throwing the text books she would need for studying the next day into
the
bottom and then adding the shorts and tank top she liked to sleep in.
On top
of her sleepwear, two pairs of jeans, a couple t-shirts, and an old
faded gray
hoodie she used to wear when she ran track in high school. After
cramming her
favorite pair of woolen slipper socks in the end, she added her
toiletries and
zipped the bright red bag shut.

         Checking her purse, she found her ATM card and then pulled the
phone
book from under her bed.

         "The Holiday Inn sounds good. Nobody will suspect I am there
and I can
study all day."

         Pricier than her friends could afford, they would never guess
she was
there. Ten minutes later, she had made a reservation for a third floor
room
for that night and the following.

         Curse the tradition. Curse her superstitious grandmother and
her
mother for encouraging the old woman to meddle in Tawnie's affairs.
Affairs.
Hah! Tawnie laughed at the idea. It was not that she didn't have her
fair
share of eligible suitors; she was after all drop dead gorgeous. Every
guy she
met seemed to instantly fall for her. Tawnie found it rather annoying
most of
the time. She didn't mind so much in the summer or on vacations when
she
didn't have her mind wrapped around her studies, but during the school
term,
she did not want to be seduced by the frivolity of romance. Some day
she would
marry, but for now she had an education to acquire and in what seemed
like
thirty years, a career as a neuro-surgeon. She needed to remain focused
on that
goal. The years as an intern would be grueling and she would not have
time for
a man. No it would not be fair. It was best to avoid the romantic
arena as
much as possible.

         It seemed an easy enough thing to accomplish, but this year it
seemed
like attractive young men were everywhere she went and with her older
brother
and two older sisters safely ensconced in matrimonial bliss, her
grandmother
had now turned her sights to Tawnie.

         "It is said," she told Tawnie as a little girl on Valentines
Day, "that
on this day a girl will meet the man she is to marry. The old myth
tells how
young girls are supposed to eventually marry the first eligible man she
met on
this day."

         Now, when Tawnie was in high school, she found the notion
romantic and
couldn't wait for the year when she would be old enough to be
considered of
marrying age so she could step out onto the sun kissed sidewalk in
front of her
apartment and meet the man who would court her and make all her dreams
come
true. That had been in high school. Now she was a senior in college
and she
had no intention of pursuing anyone or of being pursued by anyone.

          Last year she had come up with the plan to rent a motel room
and hide
out over night until the day was past and she could safely return to
her life
as a student without a man in her near future.

         Now she stood alone in an elevator heading for room 322. The
elevator
stopped and a good looking man of about 25 stepped into the elevator
and smiled
at Tawnie. "Good evening." Tawnie checked her watch. Whew only 11:45,
I am
still safe.

         "Good evening." She smiled back at him since it was not yet the
14th
and it seemed safe enough.

         Getting off on the third floor, she smiled at the bell hop
passing her
in the hall. Inserting the room key in the magnetic reader, she eased
the door
open. She had splurged tonight. She had saved her Christmas money and
her
birthday money and still had her last pay check in the bank from
working at the
pharmacy back home over the holiday break. Now she stood in a two room
suite
with a small kitchenette.

         Taking no chances, she had stopped off to purchase some
groceries so
she didn't even have to order room service or go to a restaurant. That
had
been the chink in her plan last year. She had to either starve or go
somewhere
to eat. Luckily the boy at the counter of the local fast food dive was
only
sixteen. She had barely dodged that bullet. Looking around the
restaurant,
she ascertained that the other patrons were either married or elderly,
but she
got the heck out just in case. She had called for room service the
next
morning, but a man had answered the phone and said he would send a
waiter to
her room. She hung up the phone and remained hungry until she noticed
an all
female crew at the cafe across the street. luckily a blustery snow had
begun
and few customers were in the diner when she went in to pick up her
takeout
order.

         Now safely ensconced in room 322, she had thought of every
detail. She
would be able to study in peace. She had not told a soul she was
leaving the
dorm for two nights. She flipped over her out tag by the door in the
dorm's
main hall.

          She didn't call her mother who would obviously tell her
grandmother.
Her siblings were none the wiser. She poured herself a cup of tea,
flopped
down on the settee and switched on the television. She wouldn't be
going to
class tomorrow so she could sleep in and have the rest of the day to
hit the
books. No harm in watching a good romantic comedy; since it was not
likely
those handsome hunks in the movie were going to step out of the screen
into her
hotel room and strike up a conversation..

         When the show ended at 1:50 a.m., she sighed and clicked the
remote.
She thought she heard a light tapping coming from the area of her door.
Curious, she investigated. Not thinking, she opened the door wide and
stepped
out to see who was there. Just walking away from her door was a tall
man of
about twenty-five with dark brown hair and the greenest eyes she had
ever seen.
His skin was bronzed with gold under tones and the corners of his
mouth turned
up in a most sexy twist when he showed his pearly whites.

         "Pardon, me, miss," he drawled in his sexy Australian accent.
"My mate
has found a shelia for the evening and locked me out; I was just
wondering if I
might use your phone so I could find another place to stay."

         Tawnie looked at her watch, sighed and smiled, "Sure, come on
in. If
you want you can stay and keep me company. I was going to watch
another movie
anyway.