If youβre less than happy about being perennially single this Valentineβs Day, just think, it could be a whole lot worse β you could have just been dumped, spent the whole day having a raging argument, or walked in the freezing cold to your other halfβs house wearing nothing but a coat and lacy underwear, only to find heβs playing computer games with a bunch of mates.
Sometimes a day thatβs all about love and lust simply piles on the pressure, and while the payoff from a lovely date can be roses, romance and amazing sex, when things go wrong those moments get ingrained in the brain. Forever.
Here are some people who know exactly how quickly a Valentineβs date can turn sour...
Dumped The Day Before.
One man, who wishes to remain anonymous (for obvious reasons), tells HuffPost UK he was walking down the street holding a bunch of incredibly expensive roses to give his girlfriend on their early Valentineβs date, when she phoned him and dumped him. There and then. It was 13 February.
βI think my response was βwell, this is incredibly awkwardβ,β he says. The pair had been together for roughly six months. But, in hindsight, the fact she was already arranged to go for dinner on the 14 with one of her best friends might have been a bit of a giveaway that a break-up was on the horizon. Ouch.
The Argumentative Date.
Allie says she spent a large portion of her Valentineβs date crying in the toilet of a Moroccan restaurant, because sheβd been arguing with her boyfriend non-stop all day. They then awkwardly sat through a three-course meal (yes, they were one of those pairings) in a small room filled with loved-up couples .
βTheyβd decided to cram all the couples into one room, rather than spread us out across the two rooms, and it was incredibly cramped and awkward,β she says. βEspecially given both of us were in such a bad mood. We ended up just gobbling the food down in silence and then had an [another] argument when we got home.β Surprisingly, the pair split up not long after.
Cheaterβs Gonna Cheat.
βMy boyfriend cheated on me just over a month before Valentineβs Day but we decided to give it another go,β says one unhappy Valentine, who weβll call Angela (not her real name).
The pair agreed theyβd make an effort for Valentineβs Day, despite the fact theyβd be spending 14 February apart. So Angela made a box full of his favourite things, including chocolate, coffee, a framed photo and a watch heβd really wanted. βIt cost a lot to send this Valentineβs box down to him but I wanted to make the effort, like he said we should,β she recalls.
And in return? Three days before Valentineβs, Angela arrived home to find a box had been left outside her flat containing flowers that were half dead. βThat was all he did. He couldnβt even get them delivered on the actual day,β she says. βI was so embarrassed, I didnβt tell him I received them. And on Valentineβs Day when he received my box and obviously felt guilty, he said: βYou couldβve told me you were going to go to that much effort, now mine looks shit.β Dick.β
Mad About The Ex.
Valentineβs haunts Jessi to this day, after a card she received made her revisit some powerful emotions about her ex. βI was 17, living at home and working as a waitress,β she recalls. So far, so Human League. βDuring my shift, my mum texted me with news that a card had arrived addressed to βJessicaβ. Very few people in this world call me by that and my heart raced thinking my dreams had come true and my recent ex had changed his mind and declared his love for me on this romantic day.β
After hours of letting her mind run wild, thinking up possible scenarios (all of which involved her ex), she clocked off from her shift and went home, where she hastily tore open the envelope. βIt read βFuck Valentineβs Dayβ in big letters,β she continues. βI felt sick. Until I read the fine print β βyouβre single and fabulousβ. My best friend had thoughtfully sent me a card so I could feel the love but ultimately that resulted in three hours of crying and a major backtrack on the progress Iβd made in getting over the ex.β Everybody now: βDonβt you want me, baby?...β
Undy-niable Embarrassment.
It couldβve been worse though... One reader who wished to remain anonymous β also for good reason β revealed that her Valentineβs Day once went sour after a friend convinced her to turn up at her boyfriendβs house wearing sexy lingerie, a coat and nothing else.
βThe only way to get to his place was a 30-minute walk,β she explains. βTen minutes in, my stockings are falling down, my lacy bra is chafing and Iβm totally frozen. Unable to stand the strange looks from passers-by as I hoicked up my stocking yet again, I eventually rang my friend to come and give me a lift.β
But when she got to her boyfriendβs place, the mood had gone β and continued to plummet through the floorboards into the dark, cold earth. βWhen I got there, my boyfriend was too busy playing βFootball Managerβ to pay me any attention so I ended up sitting on his bed in my coat for what felt like hours before he realised what was going on. I was not feeling romantic by that point.β