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She looked around the patio of the bar. There were Valentine’s decorations everywhere, a fact she hadn’t noticed earlier.

Rachel must have caught it when Ainsley rolled her eyes again.

“What’s the matter?” Rachel asked with an amused look on her face.

“It’s all this stupid Valentine’s Day crap,” she said, chuckling.

Now Rachel was rolling her eyes.

“Oh god, tell me about it!” she muttered and then took a sip of her margarita. “And have you noticed how it, like, starts in January now with the stores putting up the Valentine’s stuff?”

“I know! It’s so stupid!” Ainsley took a big slug of her own drink. “So, here’s an interesting factoid about me: I never actually have a date on Valentine’s Day. Somehow, someway, I am always single on that stupid holiday. Looks like this year won’t be an exception.”

“Well,” Rachel began, “here’s an interesting factoid about me: I usually have the worst dates on Valentine’s Day. God, the men I’m usually with on that day always fuck it up somehow!”

“Ooh!” Ainsley said. “Give me a ‘for instance.’”

“Easy! Last year, I was with a guy named Josh and—”

“Well, that was your problem right there,” Ainsley cut in. “Haven’t you noticed all guys named Josh are assholes?”

Rachel laughed.

“Trust me, I know that now,” she said. And then launched into her story about her

horrible Valentine’s date with Josh. “Let’s start with the gift. Jumper cables.”

Ainsley burst into laughter.

“You’re fucking kidding me!” she exclaimed.

“Nope! His defense was that he remembered me telling him that my car battery had died a couple of weeks earlier—this was before I bought my Tesla—and how I had to borrow someone else’s jumper cables.”

She went on. Josh apparently hadn’t thought to make any reservations at a Valentine’s-worthy restaurant and so Rachel and he had gone from restaurant to restaurant hoping to get in one, without any luck.

“At one place,” Rachel added, “the hostess actually laughed at us.”

Finally admitting defeat, Josh then bought Rachel dinner at…

“Wait for it…” Rachel ordered Ainsley, holding up one finger. “Taco Bell.”

“No!” Ainsley’s mouth dropped open.

“Yes. So, there I was, looking hot as fuck in a dress I bought specially for the occasion, in Taco fucking Bell eating a bean burrito. Josh did not get laid that night. Josh did not get to see me again after that night. I still have the jumper cables, though.”

“That is hilarious!” Ainsley said, laughing. Then she put on a mock sad face and pouted her lip. “I mean, in a ‘poor Rachel’ kind of way.”

Rachel laughed.

“Shut up!”

Ainsley wished she had funny stories like that to tell but she hadn’t been lying to Rachel earlier when she said that she is always alone on Valentine’s Day.

“Anyway,” Rachel went on, “thinking about that Josh story is making me realize I definitely made the right decision about taking a break from men.”

“Really?” Ainsley asked, trying to maintain a neutral expression on her face.

“I have a terrible track record at picking them,” Rachel said. “Trust me. Give me a choice of five-hundred guys and I will, without fail, choose the one who is most likely to take me to Taco Bell for Valentine’s Day. Oh! And be lousy in bed!”