An Anti-Valentine's Day Playlist

“Pour Some Sugar on Me, OOhh in the name of love,” Joe Elliott seductively crooned as Deyshanira woke up. The best thing about Valentine’s Day this year was it happened on the weekend, and she didn’t need to leave the house.

She never had a particular person or even a date on Valentine’s Day. The closest she had come was when she dated Bryce, a handsome redhead with emerald green eyes and a chiseled jawline. He had a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of his nose. They had dated for a little over six months and broke up two weeks before the holiday when she found out he cheated on her. She was thankful she hadn’t been her usual early bird self and began purchasing her gifts ahead of time.

“Sometimes it pays to procrastinate,” Deyshanira said aloud to herself as she shook the terrible memory away.

“Meow,” agreed her orange American shorthair cat, Garfield. He had been her steadiest companion for the past ten years. He rubbed his cheek against Deshanira’s arm to comfort her.

“Okay, let’s start the AntiValentine’s Day Playlist,” she whispered as she opened the music app on her phone. She touched shuffle so the songs wouldn’t play in their usual order.

A very familiar guitar riff opened the track, energizing her enough to get moving. Joan Jett was one of her favorite female vocalists and guitar virtuosos. Deyshanira loved the way Jett snarled when she sang, “I Hate Myself for Loving You.” This was her favorite song to belt out after every breakup.

All her relationships ended the same way; the men cheated on her. She saw the red signs often enough but stayed for fear of being alone, or in Bryce’s case, she thought she could help him through his mental issues. A job for which she isn’t trained.

As she showered, Deyshanira’s thoughts drifted to the last relationship she had with Roberto. She had dated him on and off for way too many years. The final straw was when he showed up for the last date with a wedding band on his left finger. After the confrontation, she kicked him out of her apartment. While blocking him on all the social media platforms, she discovered he married a month ago. The week he was away on business and unreachable, he was on his honeymoon in the Caribbean. The account he said belongs to a scammer was his second account set up to fool his wife.

A smile crossed her face as she remembered the last time she saw him face to face. She was leaving happy hour with coworkers at Applebee’s, and Roberto and his wife were entering.

“Hey Roberto,” she said casually with a mischievous smile. “How have you been?”

Stunned for a brief moment, Roberto eventually stammered, “Fine, and you?” He held the door for Deyshanira to exit. Before she could answer, his wife said, “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

Roberto muttered a quick introduction while trying to push his wife inside. However, his wife, Tasha, wouldn’t budge as the woman who stood before her was almost her twin. Both women stood about 5’ 5” with caramel-colored skin and shoulder-length black hair cut in a bob parted on the right side. The most noticeable difference was Deyshanira wore cat-eye glasses. Tasha did not wear glasses due to having LASIK eye surgery a few years before.

“How do you know my husband?” Tasha queried. Roberto tried to give Deyshanira signals to remain silent as his olive-skinned complexion began to turn various shades of red.

“We dated on and off for five years,” Deyshanira answered, unwilling to keep his secret. “I dumped him about five months ago. Have a good night.” She left the couple and headed toward her car. She could hear Tasha hurling obscenities at Roberto after realizing Deyshanira and Roberto were dating during their relationship.

Toni Braxton was singing “He Wasn’t Man Enough ” to remind Deyshanira that Roberto had been the issue, not her. Roberto still tried to come back every once and a while. Calling from a new number or setting up a new social media account. Last she had heard, he was on his third marriage. She dodged a bullet with him.

Deyshanira, singing along to Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing,” avoided the traditional red and opted to dress herself all in black: turtleneck, jeans, knee-high, leather boots. The only red was the Red Dahlia lipstick she chose to paint her lips. She pulled her curtain bangless black hair up into a sleek ponytail. She took one last look in the mirror and quoted Elton John: “Don't you know that I'm still standing better than I ever did. Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid. I'm still standing after all this time. Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind.”

The grocery store was surprisingly crowded for a cold Valentine’s Day weekend. Deyshanira had to circle the parking lot for 10 minutes before finding a spot close enough to the door to keep her from freezing her tuckus off. Luckily her playlist was keeping her sane. During the parking lot tour, she danced her way through ‘NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye Bye” and Single Ladies by Beyonce.

When she entered the grocery store, it dawned on her why the parking lot was so crowded. So many last-minute boyfriends and husbands were shopping the card, candy, and flower aisles for gifts as love songs like Journey’s “Faithfully” and Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Loved You” reminded them why they were out on this windy day.

As she shopped, Deyshanira was picking out the singles in the aisle. She could almost always tell the single guys by what was in their carts: frozen pizza, lunch meat, soda chips, and the like. Unmarried women were harder to discern. In her shopping cart, she had a mix of junk food and healthy food. So she decided the single ladies were the ones who had their earbuds in like her—drowning out the sappy love songs with their favorite songs to make the shopping trip less irritating.

As she stood in line, Deyshanira’s stomach had begun to make thunderous and angry noises. She had forgotten to grab the granola bar to eat on her drive to the grocery store. She glanced at her phone and discovered it was already past lunchtime. She decided to stop at her favorite Chinese restaurant on the way home.

The Ming Dynasty Parking lot was almost as crowded as the grocery store’s parking lot. She decided to place her order then get a few things at the pharmacy next door as she waited. The bell chimed as she entered the restaurant.

“Eat in or take out?” a young lady she didn’t recognize asked as she approached the counter.

Deyshanira quickly scanned the dining room and noticed there was one couple dining. “I guess I can dine in today.”

“Follow me then,” the perky college student said as she bounced her way to the booth. “Your waiter will be with you in a moment.” She bopped her way back to the ringing telephone at the counter.

There was no need to open the menu as Deyshanira always ordered fried dumplings, shrimp and broccoli, and an order of chicken wings. She never ate it all, but it was nice to have leftovers for the next day. In her opinion, the food tasted just as good the second day.

“Can I get you the usual” a familiar voice interrupted the chorus of Def Leppard’s ‘Love Bites”?

Deyshanira quickly stopped her phone and removed the noise-canceling AirPods. She smiled up at Trey Pai, the waiter and one-third owner of the restaurant. Trey’s five feet ten inches slender frame stood above her with a pencil poised to take down a different order. “Sure, why not. Wait! How do you know my usual?” Deyshanira questioned him. How could such a cute guy be so creepy she thought to herself.

“You’re a regular customer. I know all my regular customers’ favorite orders.” He smiled back at her. ”I’ve never seen you eat in here by yourself before. Where your is your squad?”

“Uh,” she blushed a bit unnerved that he knew so much about her. “My squad is celebrating Valentine’s Day with their significant others.” She needs to find a different spot to eat at or not come so often. She began to wonder if his older brothers also stored information on their regulars.

“I’ll go put your order in. It shouldn’t take long. We’re not swamped this afternoon” Trey went to the kitchen and returned quickly with bags of take-out orders. Trey returned to her table with two cans of soda, a Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and a Sprite. “Which one?”

“I’ll take the Sprite,” she said, pleasantly surprised. “Wow! You really do know your regulars.”

“Good customer service is important,” he replied. “Our father impressed that upon us at an early age.” He looked down at the flashing phone and noticed the song title and artist popped up on the screen. “I haven’t heard “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morrissette in years. God, I miss the music from the ’80s and ’90s.”

“What do you know about 80’s and 90’s music? You look too young to know any first-hand knowledge.” Deyshanira searched her memory of signs of him from her high school days but couldn’t find him in her memories.

Deyshanira and her family talked with the owners and the staff when they patronized the restaurant. They knew so much about them that they were friends. Trey had returned to the family business about four years ago after a messy divorce. His ex-wife and young children remained in California. They came every summer to spend time with their dad and his side of the family.

“I grew up in that era,” he answered her skeptical look. “My brothers and I went to private school so you wouldn’t know about us. I went to college in Cali and only came home for the holidays. I didn’t work much in the restaurant until I moved back. Excuse me.” Trey left Deyshanira to clear the table where the couple had been seated and returned with more food than she had ordered.

“May I join you?” Trey nervously asked as he placed Deyshanira’s dishes before her. “A pretty woman should never eat alone.”

“Only if your boss is ok with it,” She smirked playfully.

“Don’t worry. I cleared it with him before I asked you. He said I can take my lunch break now.” He placed his dishes on the table and slid onto the bench across from his favorite regular customer. “Where were we? Music. What else do you have on this playlist?”

“It’s AntiValentine’s Day Playlist. I don’t know if you can handle it.”

‘I’m listening,” he raised his eyebrows in a dare. “I’m a big boy. I think I can handle it.”

She picked up her phone and began to rattle off all the songs that played so far. “The next song is “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor,” Deyshanira lowered the volume before pressing play.

The pair fell into easy conversation and laughter as the music played in the background.

“Turn that one up,” Trey coaxed Deyshanira when “Love Stinks” by the J.Geils Band began to play. The catchy tune turned into an impromptu karaoke sing-a-long with Trey taking lead vocals and Deyshanira and Kennedy, the college student, as his back up.

They took turns choosing songs from their phones. Kennedy chose the Pussycat Doll’s “I Don’t Need a Man.” Neither Trey nor Deyshanira knew the song and enjoyed Kennedy’s entry onto the playlist. They ended their Karareoke with Kennedy and Deyshanira performing “Independent Woman” by Destiny’s Child. They took a bow when they heard the surprising applause from newly arrived customers.

“I’ll get this boxed up for you and the bill,” Trey gathered the dishes as Kennedy went back to the counter to serve the guest.

“Will there be any more performances tonight,” one of the guests asked.

“Sorry! You missed the last performance of the day” Kennedy sat the group of 4 young men at a table not far from Deyshanira.

Trey returned with Deyshanira’s leftovers and the bill. “I’ll return after I take their orders.” He walked over to the table and joked with the gentlemen while taking their orders.

Deyshanira opened the bill to find a note inside. The note read “I wanna know you better. Let's spend some time together. I wanna be what's on your mind. Look in my eyes, they're calling. I need your love to fall in. If you could just give me a sign.” Trey had written the opening lyrics to her favorite Def Leppard song to ask her out and ended it with his phone number. It was the sweetest and most creative way she had ever been asked out. She was beginning to see Trey in a whole different light. She watched him bring take-out orders to Kennedy, take the new guests' orders, and serve the table near her.

“Thank you for lunch,” Deyshanira blushed as he slid back into her booth. “Today was a very unusual Valentine’s Day to say the least.”

Trey began to bounce his leg expecting to be rejected. He had been waiting for years to see her alone in the restaurant so could ask her out discreetly. She was in and so quickly when she picked up her order that the chance had never materialized. Today he decided to shoot his shot and it was all going down in flames.

Noticing Trey’s demeanor changing, Deyshanira decided to recite the next stanza to him as her answer:”I'm tired of make believin'. I'm lost and barely breathing. I'm on the ceiling, help me down, yeah, yeah. So stop my heart from aching. I'll be the risk you're taking. And I won't rest until you're mine, oh.”

The corners of Trey’s full lips began to turn up as it dawned on him Deyshanira was accepting his request for a date. “Call me later so we can figure out a good day and time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.” He reached out his hand to help her out of the booth.

Deyshanira took his hand and felt a spark. She felt like she was taking the hand of her destiny and walking into her future. Trey wasn’t her usual type but change was in most cases was good and she was quite ready for a change.