It was the day before Valentine’s Day and Joan had dragged Grace out with her to buy Adam a gift. Joan was being extremely picky and was dragging Grace through practically every store in the mall.

“There’s Victoria Secret,” Grace pointed out as they approached it. “I’m sure he’d appreciate something from there.”

Joan blushed a few shades of red and gave her friend a dirty look. A smirk appeared on her face after a moment.

“And I’m sure you could find something there for Luke too, huh?”

“Never mind,” Grace said quickly, amused smile fading as she hurried past the store. As they were passing the Hallmark store next door, Joan grabbed Grace’s arm and dragged her inside. Grace immediately scrunched up her nose at the sight of all the cutesy teddy bears on display.

“What is the big deal with Valentine’s Day anyway?” Grace griped as Joan searched through the store. “Its just a merchandising ploy to make sure romance stays materialistic, and therefore commercialized. Besides, shouldn’t you love your significant other everyday; not just one day a year?”

Joan turned towards her ranting friend at the last comment and raised her brow slightly.

“So there is hopes of a romantic under that rough exterior,” Joan teased, smiling. Who would have thought it would be her brother of all people to bring that out in Grace?

“Right,” Grace said, the look on her face clearly saying otherwise. “But seriously, what’s the point in celebrating it? All you’re doing is blindly following dumb traditions society has set up for you.”

“Because its not about that,” Joan countered as she examined the cards. “It’s about showing that you care.”

“But you can do that in other ways,” Grace insisted as she picked random cards to look through. “And, again, more than once a year.”

“But, Valentine’s Day is the official day for sweethearts. Its when you get the chance to say to the world ‘this is my guy, and I love him’,” Joan shot right back.

“I thought that was marriage,” Grace muttered, making a face at the mushy card she was holding. Joan ignored and went on.

“Its just like celebrating Martin Luther King’s birthday or something. Except, you’re celebrating love and the person you found it with. Its not that you don’t love them every other day, its just that Valentine’s Day is the day where all couples celebrate together.”

“Wow,” Grace commented, staring at her friend, clearly impressed. “Pretty insightful stuff, Girardi.”

“Yeah, well,” Joan shrugged modestly as she examined the cute kissing teddy bears.

“That’s just how I see it. Which is why I wan to get something absolutely perfect for Adam.”

“You know he’ll love anything you get him,” Grace assured her friend as she pondered the new insight Joan had given her. She had always griped about it being a commercial, frilly holiday that wasn’t worth her time. But, maybe Joan was right; maybe it was a great opportunity to show that special person in your life how much you care.

How cheesy is that? Grace thought, snorting silently to herself. You have to derail this train of thought, Polk.

“There’s nothing here,” Joan pointed out with a sigh. “Onto the next store.”

With a loud groan, Grace allowed Joan to drag her back into the mall.

<><><>

“This is just scary, dude,” Grace commented to Luke the next day as she looked around at the transformed school. Someone had gotten the crazy idea to decorate the school with red and pink hearts and cupids. It was all so frilly and cute that she wanted to hurl.

“Yeah, it’s a little overboard,” Luke responded as they stopped at his locker. She eyed the numerous couples giving each other googly eyes and hanging all over each other throughout the hall.

“You’re selling out to the corporate rats,” she informed the boy next to her who was giving his girlfriend a pricey looking necklace. They both scowled at her before walking away. Joan and Adam approached as Grace made a face at the couple’s backs.

“You’re like the scrooge of Valentine’s Day,” Joan told Grace when they stopped by her. “Can’t you take a break from your political-ness for a day to bask in the spirit of it all?”

“Oh, yes, I’ll celebrate the fake ideals of romance by letting your brother feel me up in the hallway,” Grace snarked, rolling her eyes. There was a thud next to her as Luke dropped his book in surprise. He cleared his throat and mumbled an excuse about being clumsy as he picked it up.

“Eww,” Joan expressed, even as she gave her brother an amused look, fully aware of what he was thinking. Luke shut his locker, looking a tad bit flustered. Then the warning bell rang and they all headed their separate ways.

<><><>

The last class of the day had ended five minutes earlier and Luke and Grace were walking towards Joan’s locker to meet up with her and Adam. Grace had noticed that Luke had been acting nervous and twitchy all day. At first she had chalked it up to the power Valentine’s Day had of making people act crazy, but she had sort of started to worry. She suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and pulled him over to the side.

“What’s your deal?” She asked him once they reached the wall. “You’ve been acting weird all day.”

“I, um…” Luke stuttered for a moment. With a sigh, he ran a hand through his hair. “Promise not to be mad?”

“Depends,” Grace said, eyeing him cautiously.

Keeping eye contact with her, he reached in his pocket and pulled something out. She automatically held out her hand when he pushed his hand that held the mysterious object in it towards her. He opened his hand and let the cool, metal object drop into hers. After a moment, she broke eye contact to examine what she held in her hand. It was a ring that had two strands, gold and silver colored, that started out separate around the band and joined together in the front to form a knot of sorts.

“It represents unity,” Luke explained as she continued to examine it. “You like it?”

She looked back up at him to find him watching her carefully. He looked nervous, yet rather hopeful about what her reaction might be. With a lopsided half-smile, she nodded and slipped the ring in her pocket. Joan’s words from yesterday ringing in her head, she hesitantly reached into her coat pocket. Luke gave her a questioning look when she shoved an envelope towards him. He gingerly took it from her and opened it. He looked down to find a card with a picture of Cupid with “Fat. Naked. Dangerous.” written under it. He chuckled softly and opened the card to look at its contents.

Luke,

You once told me that you had a “deep psychic connection” with them, I found a really good deal ,and it shouldn’t completely suck, so I thought we could go.

And below that, two Metallica concert tickets were taped to the card. He continued on to read what was written below that.

Happy unimaginative consumerist-oriented and entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow interpretation of romance day.

=-) Grace

Luke looked back up at Grace in wonder, completely speechless.

“So, I’m a hypocrite,” she said, clearly embarrassed. “Sue me.”

Luke broke out into a smile. He wanted nothing more than to grab her and kiss her breathless, but he knew she wouldn’t react favorable if he did it in while they were still out in public space.

“You wanna go to the closet?” he asked her, giving her a suggestive look. Between that and his low tone, there was no mistaking why he wanted to get her alone.

“Nah,” she denied casually. As his face began to fall, she smirked. Without warning, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him towards her. She gave him a hard, lingering kiss, square on the mouth. He pulled back and looked at her in surprise.

“What happened to the biology closet?” someone called out as they passed. Grace scowled at them, but quickly turned her attention back to Luke as he attempted to move away from her.

“I thought you were against this kind of thing,” Luke said, clearly surprised by her sudden attack and the fact that she was holding him close to her to keep him from escaping

“You complaining?” She asked as she wrapped her arms securely around his neck. He smiled and rested his hands at her waist.

“Not at all.”

With a satisfied smile, she attacked his mouth with her own again. She kissed him fully, tongue and all, not caring who saw.

Joan and Adam entered the hallway, trying to hunt down Luke and Grace since they hadn’t shown up at Joan’s locker like they were supposed to. They heard people whistling and catcalling, and wandered through the stream of students to see what the fuss was about. Soon, they reached the source of all the attention to see Luke and Grace completely wrapped up in each other and oblivious to the world around them. Joan’s eyes bugged out at the sight of her little brother and best friend making out. She shuddered and turned the other way when she saw a flash of tongue.

“That is so something I could have gone without seeing,” she commented to Adam, who had also chosen to turn away from the sight. He nodded in agreement, looking rather grossed out himself.

<><><>

That night, Grace ended up going to the Girardi’s earlier than she was supposed to. She had agreed to watch movies with Luke, after making him promise that it wouldn’t be anything sappy. He had simply given her the “please, I’m a guy” line, and that had been that. Then, Joan had insisted that she needed help getting ready for her dinner date with Adam. Grace had snorted and told Joan that she was fully capable of it by herself. It was Joan’s pleading, panicked look and the knowledge that Judith had done the same thing for her before she had died that made Grace reluctantly agree.

“So you finally got into the spirit of Valentine’s Day, huh?” Joan asked her friend as she pulled out yet another outfit. “What about this one?”

“No,” Grace responded, shaking her head at the outfit. With a sigh, Joan tossed it in the growing pile on her bed next to Grace. “And what makes you think that?”

“I saw you,” Joan sing songed as she turned back to her closet. “You were getting some special Valentine’s Day smooches from your honey in the middle of the hallway earlier today.”

Grace remained silent, having no smart-ass remark to that. Joan paused in her search for the perfect outfit and raised an eyebrow at her friend.

“Did he get you something? Oh, better yet, did you get him something?” Joan prodded, her interest in her date momentarily sidetracked.

“Yes to both,” Grace admitted, blushing slightly. “We’re going to some concert in the summer for him. And he got me this…” Grace got up off the bed and moved over to Joan. She held her hand out to Joan sheepishly. Joan snatched her hand and held it up to examine the ring on her finger.

“It’s beautiful,” Joan gushed after girlishly squealing. Grace pulled her hand away, and fiddled with the ring.

“He told me it means unity,” she told Joan quietly as she examined the ring thoughtfully.

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Joan cooed, giving Grace a starry eyes look.

“Don’t make it sound all mushy,” Grace protested with a grimace. She let out a frustrated sigh. “You know, if it were anyone else…”

“I know,” Joan responded, giving her a knowing smile. Despite all of her snarky comments, she really did get that they truly cared about one another. She cleared her throat and grabbed another outfit out of the closet. “How bout this?”

Grace looked it over, her eyes lighting up. Never would she admit that she was slightly excited, but it was perfect. She nodded in the affirmative to Joan, who squeaked with excitement and went to change.

<><><>

Adam had come and picked Joan up several minutes before, and Grace was sitting on the couch, waiting for Luke to finish popping popcorn. He soon entered the room, bowl full of popcorn, and sat next to her.

“You know,” Grace spoke up suddenly as he set up the movie. “Maybe Valentine’s Day isn’t so bad after all.”

Luke gave her a fond smile and set the popcorn down so he could take her hand. At the feel of a bumpy, metal on one of her fingers, he pulled up her hands to look. She was wearing the ring he had given her earlier that day. His heart swelled with the love he knew she wasn’t ready for him to profess quite yet. He hadn’t really thought about what would happen after he gave it to her; he had been so nervous just trying to get up the nerve to actually do so. Like so many of his other gifts to her, he had bought it on a whim because it had reminded him of her; of them. Now, here she sat with a symbol of their possibly shared love on her left ring finger, and he couldn’t help but wonder what that could mean. He didn’t ask, supposing it could have been a coincidence that she had chosen to place it there.

He didn’t know that she had deliberately placed it on that finger, to show what she couldn’t yet tell him. He didn’t know that she had vowed to herself to always wear it, to remind her of him and what they shared.

And there was no way she could have known that she would keep that vow for the rest of her life.

The End