My Valentino Stranger

A Story by Nina Love

blue text is Valentino talking, purple text is Sarra

The cafe' is nearly empty,

On this sunny Febuary morning.

Everyone, it seems,

Is at home in bed with their sweetheart.

After all, that's what people do

On Valentine's day.

I sit alone,

No sweetheart to curl up with,

No one to smile and wish a happy valentine's day to.

Just alone.

The bell chimes above the door

As a man steps inside,

Momentarily obscured

And then haloed by a glory of winter sunlight.

His eyes, hershey kisses ringed in gold, settle on me

And his gaze tears through me.

The man smiles, white teeth in sharp contrast with his dusky brown skin.

His skin reminds me of hershey's powdered cocoa,

Light brown and silky smooth.

The black of his hair is streaked with gold,

And waves gently to his shoulders,

Broad beneath a simple black shirt.

I startle myself by speakinig

"Aren't you cold?"

He smiles again and glances at the snow, then back at me.

"How could I ever be cold when I have the fire in those green, green eyes to warm me?"

I blush,

It feels like I have waited my entire life just to hear this man,

This stranger speak.

He walks over to the table and sits across from me,

And suddenly I feel more comfortable with him than with any man I've ever known.

He reaches out and traps my hand under his large, warm palm.

"I am Valentino,"
He raises my hand to his mouth and brushes his lips along my skin,

"May I finally have the pleasure of your name?"

Again, the blood rushes to my face,

Though I find his phrasing odd.

"Sarra. Sarra Marie."

He lowers my hand, still caught in his, and bows his head.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful woman."

I bite my lip nervously.

"You aren't from around here, are you?"

I ask, intrigued by his vaguely spanish accent and bronzed skin.

He laughs, a low, rich sound to send shivers through the body.

"No, I am from the Island of Tenerife. This is a part of Spain, though it is connected with the Isla's De Canarias,

The Canary Islands."

I smile quickly, remembering the recent trip to Tenerife for my uncle's wedding.

"Yeah? I was actually there recently, maybe..."

I trail off, embarrased,

Tenerife isn't a small island, and there was just no way she could have met this man,

This... Valentino,

It's like assuming all americans know eachother.

"Maybe... What? Maybe you have seen me before?"

I nod meekly.

"What if I told you you're right? What if I said that I saw you in Vampis, and I could not take my eyes off of you,

With the way you danced, hips swaying, eyes closed in abandon, hair fanned out like a bronze wave?

What if I held you close, but did not speak? What if I trailed my hands upon your skin, but did not learn your name?"

My eyes widen because I had only been the the nightclub Vampis only once, after the wedding,

Still dressed in the turqoise salsa dress I had donned for the reception.

And suddenly I remember him.

"I remember you, Valentino, I remember dancing with you so close it felt like we were one body on the dance floor.

I remember looking into those gold kissed eyes of yours."

He nods.

I fall silent, thinking of all that happened that night.

"Do you remember what came next, little Sarra? Do you remember my lips upon yours,

My hands caught in your hair, my breath tangled in yours?

Then leaving to my room, our bodies straining together?

Do you remember what I said?"

I lick my lips and look away,

Unable to meet his eyes,

Ashamed of my wild abandon nearly seven months later.

"I swore my heart to you, and said though I know not your name,

I would find you again, someday."

I look back.

"And so you have. You've found me, Valentino, you know my name,

What more do you want from me?"

Valentino slowly shook his head.

"It is not What I want from you. I simply want you. For now and ever."

"Valentino, I hardly know you, I danced with you one night..."
Suddenly fire springs up in his eyes,

"Do NOT make what we had sound cheap! You are my soulmate, my other half, you know what I speak is true,

You feel it, even now."

I close my eyes against it.

"You're right. Oh god, you're right. I loved you the moment our eyes met,

And these last seven months have nearly undone me but for one thing."

I stand, pushing my hand to the small of my back,

And smile.

His eyes widen, fill with wonder, and he comes to kneel before me.

He places his hands on my stomach over my simple cotton shirt

And looks up at me.

"It is my child."

There is no uncertainty in his voice, no question,

Somehow, somehow Valentino knows that he was my one and only.

I nod.

He pulls a small, twisted silver and gold band from his back pocket,

It is the most beautiful, delicate ring I have ever seen,

Two strands of gold and two of silver entwined together,

Gleaming in the light.

"From the moment I saw you, I knew you would be mine,

Now I simply need you to tell me if you will have me, my Sarra Marie."

For a moment, all I can do is stare.

"Yes. You are my everything, my Valentino, my dear stranger."

He stands, slips the ring unto my finger, and pulls me close.

"Oh Sarra, do you know how long I have wanted this? How I have longed to feel you against me again?

Your scent tourtured me for days, lingering to my skin, my clothes and bed."

I blush at the mention of the last, and Valentino laughs, kissing my red cheeks.

"Do not be ashamed of our love,

For today is the beginning of our story."

I smile up at him.

"The story of Sarra and her Valentino Stranger."

-Years later, after Valentino and I had married and I had bourne him a beautiful daughter with hershey cocoa skin and emerald eyes, Valentino and I would decide to move back to the island of Tenerife, leaving our home in Barcelona to persue our dreams in the city where we found our soul mates. We named our daughter Emillia Teneri, after the owner of Vampis, and after the turquoise waves that crash against that magical island that we would now call our home.-