{"id":489,"date":"2024-03-26T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/?p=489"},"modified":"2024-06-15T04:13:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T03:13:10","slug":"3-for-2-on-valentines-day-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/26\/3-for-2-on-valentines-day-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"3 for 2 on Valentine\u2019s Day cards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I entered this piece for February\u2019s Right Left Write<\/a> short story competition run by Queensland Writers Centre. It\u2019s been a few weeks now since the deadline so I think I\u2019m OK to publish it here as well. The prompt was \u2018Beginnings\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is ridiculous. What possible use is three for two on Valentine\u2019s Day cards? Who needs three cards.\u201d The woman stood next to Luke looked annoyed. She had a point though. Had one of the newsagent staff put this offer up as a joke, or was it merely ill-conceived marketing tripe? She continued to fume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bad enough having to buy one card, never mind three. Valentine\u2019s Day is corporate bullshit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI quite like Valentine\u2019s Day. It\u2019s nice,\u201d said Luke. Her head snapped round and she glared at him. She appeared to be shocked that he was there at all. Had she forgotten she was in a public space and anyone could hear her anti-romance diatribe? She grunted a reply at him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, the three for two is still ridiculous. No-one could make use of it. It\u2019s a farce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe could make use of it.\u201d Her irritated glare morphed into puzzlement. Luke explained. \u201cPick your card, I\u2019ll pick mine then grab a spare. I\u2019ll pay for all three and you can buy me my magazine. Then we are all square and we are up a card.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHa. That doesn\u2019t work out. You don\u2019t need to be an accountant to know that transaction doesn\u2019t balance. And I\u2019m an accountant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStill,\u201d said Luke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStill,\u201d she agreed. \u201cIt does mean we\u2019ve done the three for two, and beaten them at their own game. OK give me your magazine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential purchases exchanged, the two of them fulfilled the necessary transactions and reconvened by the valentine\u2019s card display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOK, there\u2019s your card and this one\u2019s mine,\u201d said Luke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd here is your magazine.\u201d Her irritation had faded and she looked slightly amused.\u201cThere\u2019s still the spare card. Who gets that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve an idea.\u201d Luke grabbed a pen from a nearby display and wrote in the card:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the sharp dressed women in the newsagents with an eye for a bargain. From a mystery admirer (called Luke).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He popped the card in its pink envelope and handed it to her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDone. Valentine\u2019s card shared.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emotions on her face were complex. Confusion alternated with wariness which interspersed with flickers of satisfaction. Her face settled into relaxed amusement. She opened the card and read it. Eyes softening, she smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFunny. Very good. And you\u2019re right – I do like a bargain. OK, I\u2019ve got to go, otherwise I\u2019ll be late for work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSee you. Have a good day,\u201d said Luke as she strode out of the newsagents, both valentine\u2019s cards in her hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke watched as she walked across street. He liked her, and he didn\u2019t quite know why. Just before she disappeared from view, she turned back and gave him a cheery wave. And then she was gone. Luke looked at his valentine\u2019s card. He wasn\u2019t sure what to do with it. He had no-one to give it to. Perhaps he would hang on to it for next year. He might have better luck then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Laura Ockel<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I entered this piece for February\u2019s Right Left Write short story competition run by Queensland Writers Centre. It\u2019s been a few weeks now since the deadline so I think I\u2019m OK to publish it here as well. The prompt was \u2018Beginnings\u2019. \u201cThis is ridiculous. What possible use is three for two on Valentine\u2019s Day cards? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-romance","category-writing","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/laura-ockel-zAOBpEE_vV4-unsplash.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timothypatrickbrown.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}