Heart Shaped Box

I just love candy and any opportunity to slide into a little chocolate decadence is good for me. Naturally, Valentines Day is one of my favorite times of the year. I clearly remember the first box of candy that I got from a boy. It was large. Really large and very conspicuous, which is not that wonderful of a thing when you are a pre teen girl just trying to blend in with everyone else. On the front of this huge, heart shaped box of candy was some pink tufting and plastic pink roses. He came in carrying it with pride, bless his heart. Never did his steps falter as he lugged that grand, and I am sure expensive, box of candy toward my school desk. This was many years ago, before Valentines Day gifts were outlawed at school. I suppose that I didn’t realize that it was for me until he was right next to my desk. My girlfriends had already received gifts from their “boy friends” but I, alas, was single. And there he stood, with his candy filled heart in hand, looking at me. Was I embarrassed? Oh, yes. In the way that only a young girl can be embarrassed. Did I take the Candy? Oh, yes. After all, it was chocolate and a lot of it. Did I giggle with my friends about his conspicuous Valentines gesture? Sure. Little girls are often mean that way. That little boy went on to date and marry another girl and I am sure that he is still making grand gestures at Valentines Day. But let me tell you a little secret. No candy ever tasted as good and no plastic pink rose was ever as pretty as the ones from that day. Loves have come and loves have gone and eventually I found my true love-but high up in my closet, I still have that heart shaped box.