"How can you not believe in love, romance, and a lifetime of happiness?" Anna replied in a dreamy voice, the lipstick in her hand paused in midair.

Twyla rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're a hopeless romantic, while I, on the other hand, am a realist. Just because some guy gives you a heart-shaped box of chocolates and roses on a certain day of the year doesn't mean you're going to live happily ever after. The sooner you get that notion out of your head, the better off you'll be."

"You know what you are, Twyla? You're the Scrooge of Valentine's Day." Anna sat up straight, the disappointment on her face clear to see.

"I may be, but at least I don't sit by the phone waiting for some loser to call and ask me out for one of those two-for-one Valentine's dinners all the restaurants serve every year."

"Those dinners are wonderful," Anna said. "And Tom isn't a loser."

"Really? And how often has he brought you candy and flowers and taken you out to dinner since you've been dating?"

"If he did it all the time then Valentine's Day wouldn't be special."

"Ha. He's like every other man, Anna. He wined and dined you until he got in your pants, and you haven't seen the inside of a restaurant since."

"That's not true. We went out to eat last weekend."

"Burger King does not count as going out to eat."

Anna shook her head and blew out an exasperated breath. "You're hopeless. Tom and I have been together seven months and everything is going great. You're just jealous."

"Right, I'm jealous. That's a laugh." Twyla paused as she thought about Anna's words. No, absolutely not, she wasn't jealous. She was sensible. "It's the same thing you said about Joe. That lasted, what? Six months? And before that was Mike, and before that was Ted, and before that . . . . "

"Okay, you don't need to list them all. I've just had a run of bad luck with boyfriends recently, but Tom is different."

"Look, sweetie, I know you want to believe that, and for your sake, I hope it's true. But from where I'm sitting, we'd be better off without men altogether."

"That's not what I heard coming from your bedroom the other night when you brought home what's-his-name."

Twyla laughed. "They do have dicks, so I guess they're good for one or two things. Temporarily. Never on a permanent basis."

"Good grief. Just because your dad cheated on your mom doesn't mean all men cheat."

"Maybe not, but I saw what it did to my mother." Twyla took a deep breath as she thought about all the nights she'd heard her mother crying in her room. "And I'm not going down that path. Besides, I tried the long-term thing with Shane, and that blew up in my face. End of story."

"He did not cheat on you."

"So you say."

"He told you he didn't cheat on you, but you wouldn't believe him."

"There was women's underwear in his glove box. How do you suppose that got there?"

"It was a joke by Devin and Max, A bachelor's party prank that backfired."

"Right."

"Just because you blew everything out of proportion doesn't mean he lied or cheated. You wouldn't even listen to his side of the story and called the wedding off for no good reason."

Twyla shook her head, refusing to let any memory of Shane invade her thoughts. "Drop it, Anna. How did we get back onto Shane and me anyway? This is about you and your love-blind way of looking at things."

"I'm not the one who's hopeless, Twyla and you better think about that. One of these days you're going to look back on your life and figure out you screwed everything up and missed out on the best thing that ever happened to you."

"Whatever. You have fun on your Valentine's date. I'm getting in the shower."

"I'll tell you all about it when I get home tonight. Or tomorrow, if I don't get home tonight," Anna added with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah. Have fun." Twlya walked down the hall to her bedroom and undressed. She grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom. "Damn it," she said as she turned on the hot water. She ducked her head under the spray and refused to let herself cry.

Then there was nothing.