Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love and friendship. Couples rekindle buried passion, new lovers glide hand in hand as Cupid tugs on their heartstrings and friends and family share gifts to communicate their appreciation and thanks. We all long to feel the emotional power shimmering out from the petals of a rose bouquet, gaze longingly into that all too familiar box of chocolate or feel the soft fur of a teddy bear hug. Valentine’s Day and its magical hold on the hearts and minds of our society very often inspire the quiet to speak, the secret admirer or longtime friend to emerge from the shadows and shout to the mountaintops their affection for the world to hear. This is a story of a friend that took the plunge and emerged with a chipped heart, a lighter wallet and a five-pound cherry gummy bear.
As people often do, a friend of mine decided that this was the day he would finally pursue a longstanding crush by wooing a girl with a truly unique present. I watched as he placed a $60 order for a five-pound cherry gummy bear and pieced together a unique and funny attempt at love. As the sunlight glared through the early morning windows, he quietly placed the gummy bear, roses and custom-made card outside her door in the hopes of laying the framework for a relationship.
Imagine my surprise when my friend returned to my room later in the afternoon, defeated and put-down, devoid of romantic spirit. She had loved the gift, but refused to take the relationship any further than the proverbial “friend-zone”. To her, my friend was loved like a brother and nothing more, the last thing he wanted to hear.
