Valentine’s Surprise!

My first Valentine’s Day with my husband (or boyfriend, as he was at the time) was a rather strange affair. For starters, we were on the other side of the world from each other – he was in California and I was in the UK. With the time difference, it made it quite awkward as those eight hours can really screw with the romantic atmosphere!

We were communicating via webcam and Skype, but I thought I would make an extra effort for Valentine’s Day. So I spent ages having a shower, putting on make-up, getting dressed up in a skirt (and for those who know me, that is a rare occurrence!), even shaving my legs. Which was a bit daft as he could generally only see my top half on the webcam and certainly not in enough detail to tell if I’d got hairy legs. But I thought, what the hell, if it made me feel sexier then it was worth it.

We had arranged to talk around 9pm UK time so I was all excited, looking forward to spending a few hours being romantic and lovey-dovey. The orange bar flashed on my screen and I jumped up to let him know that I was ready and waiting! However, after the first five minutes, it was clear that he was distracted with work and not really able to concentrate. I was gutted. After all the time I had spent getting ready I was really upset he couldn’t even switch off from work for a few minutes and focus on me. We ended the call soon afterwards and I ran upstairs in tears, tearing off my sexy outfit and slumping in front of the TV in old jeans and a sweater.

The next evening I was still feeling hurt and rejected, so when the orange bar popped up on my screen, I chose to ignore it. An hour and a half and five begging texts later, I finally cracked and decided to speak to him, even if it was just to give him a piece of my mind.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when his webcam started working though. There he was, standing well back from his computer in his freezing cold garage where he worked, with a huge grin on his face, wearing a very silly Cat In The Hat tie …. and absolutely nothing else!

Yes, that’s right. He was stark, bollock naked!

And apparently he had been standing there, patiently waiting for me to come online, praying that the kids didn’t come home from school, for one and a half hours!

How could I be cross with him after a gesture like that? He really was my Valentine.