Thursday, February 16, 2023

Short story – “You Can Do Better”

“You Can Do Better”

Heading back to her desk with a cup of tea, Carol stopped at Mike’s cubicle.  “What’s new?” she asked.

Mike typed for a few more seconds then saved his work.  Spinning his chair around to face her he replied, “Not much.  But as I drove in this morning I had an idea for a new holiday.”

Carol blew on her tea.  “Oh, for what?”

“Well, you know how annoying the lovey-dovey crap gets in the week before Valentine’s Day?”

“Annoying?”

“Well, maybe not for happy couples like you and Dave, but for most people the days leading up to Valentine’s Day are almost sickening.  So I was thinking of making a day for the opposite.  I figured February 21st could be, I don’t know, ‘You can do better’ Day.  Basically, after weeks of the lovey-dovey crap, there should be at least one week of commercials for divorce lawyers and stores could put out their ‘I no longer love you’ cards.”

Carol smiled.  “Are we a tad bitter about being single on Valentine’s Day?”

Mike shrugged.  “Hey, if all you happy couples can rub your joy in the faces of everyone else, why can’t we rub our misery back?”

***

Even when I was in a relationship I didn’t care for all the lovey-dovey crap around Valentine’s Day.  And I can’t be the only one who’d get a chuckle out of a “You can do better” Day. 


I first wrote this years ago on a now defunct website.  I came across it during some cleaning, and figured I should repost it.

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