Val’s POV

You can make all the cliche puns you want, they were everywhere. You’d see ones like, “Where have you Benn all my life?” or “Have a Perry Valentine’s Day!” or even one for me, simply, “Happy VALentine’s Day.” It was an annual NHL tradition, like Christmas or New Years’. But the real holiday enjoyment came from the love involved.

I had a girlfriend named Evelyna and she was the best “Valentine’s Day” gift I could ever ask for. I don’t ask for much, but I loved her a lot, so I wanted to make this day special for her.

We both woke up. We’d been sleeping together at Tyler’s house. Again. It seemed like we were always over there. Kaitlyn and Tyler were in his bedroom. And for once Jamie Benn wasn’t there with us. He had to run some “errands”. I may not completely understand English or Slang yet, but I know facial expressions and he was definitely going to Breakfast with Kylie.

The bet between him and Tyler was funny. He was miserable, like putting a dress on a tomboy miserable. But he suffered through the day and finally lightened up by the evening, when he happily changed into a nice black and white suit and tie and went to meet up with Kylie.

They had dinner together and afterwards, he came home with lipstick smeared on his face and sighing romantically. Something had clicked and Tyler and I couldn’t be happier. Evelyna was a match-maker from Heaven and the best!

There was only one tiny problem with today, Tyler had gotten injured in the game last night. We had played the Florida Panthers and one of the defenseman, Dmitry Kulikov (a true Russian bastard!) had pretty much dove at his legs and sent him flying to the ice. He had to be helped off.

Kaitlyn was comforting him...or “comforting” him. Probably both.

I finished getting dressed, putting on Evelyna’s (and my) favorite blue shirt. I also threw on some blue jeans. I walked into the kitchen and made us breakfast. I had the day all planned out for us and it would allow us to spend time alone and away from the moaning and groaning and screaming of Tyler Paul Seguin. (I loved him, but man...he was noisy)

I quickly prepared everything and made it back to the living room, where Evelyna was wiping her eyes. She finally stopped, blinked and looked at me. She smiled, as I came in, holding a glass of orange juice and a plate with some chocolate chip waffles. And I’d made one of them the way she liked it, with extra sweets on top.

“Val, you sweetie, you didn’t have to--oh, you’re the best!”

“I make one way you like. I have day all planned out for us! We gonna--”

“Don’t spoil it, Val!” She laughed, punching my shoulder lightly, after I’d set everything down and sat down on the couch myself.

“Spoil?” I cocked my head to the side.

“Yeah. Like don’t tell me.”

“Oh!” I smiled with that clueless smile again that she loved.

She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me close, giving me a long kiss on the lips. I entangled my own arms around her and held her tightly. So far, the day was magical! We both ate and then she took to the guest bathroom to wash up. I cleaned up the plates and the breakfast and then waited for her.

I couldn’t wait for the day to actually begin. She would love it!


Evelyna’s POV

Baby Russian was the best. Did I already said that? He was though. Val made me breakfast and had made the waffles even better than I had ever made them. Maybe there was some extra ingredient involved. Love? Either way, they were delicious and I was getting super excited about Valentine’s Day for once.

I was in bathroom, freshening up. I took a shower and then pulled on a pair of jeans and this nice green and black long sleeve shirt. I did my hair, one of the few times I ever would (because of the occasion), and put in a Dallas Stars color flower buret that I’d found...well, more like Val had found. I attached it to a black head band and then walked out.

I found Val standing by the door. He was holding more gifts in his hands. And if ever there was a doubt (which there wasn’t) that this man didn’t love me and wasn’t the bestest guy in the world, it was certainly gone.

I was in love with Valeri Nichushkin.

Nothing would tear us apart.

In his hands he had a rose and a heart-shaped box of chocolates AND a stuffed gray kitty with a heart in it’s hands. It made me miss my cat a little honestly, but she was with my mom and soon we’d be reunited again. Val was smiling, as he passed everything to me. I put them on the couch, with our stuff. I kept the chocolates though, under Val’s orders. For some reason we were taking them.

We left Tyler’s house and hopped into his car. Then we headed off to...somewhere. Only Val knew, but I was excited nonetheless.

“You gonna like day I have plan!”

“I can’t wait, Valeri.”

Truth was, I couldn’t. I was riveted with excitement. Maybe it was the chocolate chips, but I was super excited and anxious!!


Val’s POV

I drove us toward the city. We were heading to a store in Dallas that I knew she loved and I did too. I was going to put everything into this day. And nothing was too expensive my Evelyna. I pulled into the parking lot and she immediately gasped.

“You--what are we doing here?” she asked, squeaking a little bit from the excitement.

We were at this store called “Российские Специи” (Russian Spices). It was a fairly new store, but it was a place for all things Russian and I knew that Evelyna was a huge fan of the food in the store. So today, I was going to let her pick out the items for tonight’s dinner and make her a classic Russian meal.

We got out and went into the store, which was essentially a Russian Wal-Mart. Everything was in Russian, but I’d taught her a little bit, that she knew what somethings were. It took us only twenty minutes to get our items and ingredients.

We decided that we were going to do a Coulibiac, which was normally a fish loaf, with rice, hard-boiled eggs, mushrooms, and dill. Our fish was a salmon. Neither of us were sturgeon fans believe it or not. And the salmon added a nice flavor to it. We were going to have a Vatrushka (a special type of pastry with a ring of dough and sweet farmer’s cheese in the middle) and also a Opekannaya Ukha (a clear soup with tilapia).

(Evelyna actually does want to try this actually in real life.)

With our ingredients we left the store and drove to Evelyna’s favorite restaurant for some pizza. After that, we walked along the outdoor mall, where the restaurant was apart of. We walked off the pizza pretty much and it was a gorgeous 60 degree day in Dallas, so we enjoyed the bright sunshine and crisp dry air.

Evelyna wanted to show her thanks for the day, and no matter how much I protested, she finally got away and ran to a hockey shop. She bought me a comfy Dallas Stars throw blanket. I had been meaning to get one, but she denied me the pressure of getting one and she also got me a Dallas Stars’ charm bracelet. I got her one in turn, so we had matching bracelets to wear.

Then we finally left the store and walked to the fountain in the center of the mall square. We sat down and shared a passionate kiss with one another. Luckily we were the only couple and no one made a big deal about it. But to be honest, I didn’t really care all that much anyway if people judged us.

The mall was playing our theme song, “At The Beginning”, as we kissed. We broke away and laughed for a little bit. We hung out until 5:00pm, when the sun began to set in the sky.

There was one more surprise I had in store for the day. I had reserved a hotel room for us at the main hotel in Dallas. It was where the visitor team stayed actually. But because I was a Dallas Star, I got a discount. It was only for the day anyway.

We got to the hotel and I could see that Evelyna was bewildered. She wouldn’t be for long. We checked in and went to the room. There was a stove and complete kitchen in the room and there was one bed, which was all done up in fancy Valentine’s decor with red and pink hearts and flower petals thrown on it. The mood was set too, with the candle light and dim lights in the room. It was almost like it had been set up.

And it was. I had called ahead and requested it and the hotel obliged. I was super excited for the evening. And I knew Evelyna would love it.


Evelyna’s POV

We walked into a room that was set up to match some romantic getaway. I looked at Val, who was grinning. He was really enjoying “spoiling” me. I loved it too, but I didn’t want him to go overboard too much.

We made the food and Val pulled out a Vodka bottle for the refrigerator in the enormous kitchen.

“VAL!” I scolded.

“Relax,” he said, “It for food and Tyler helped out. This Russian Vodka, good for romance.” He smirked and began to douse the food with it.

I folded my arms and looked at him with a smug grin on my face. “You realize how much I want to grab you and throw you on that bed and make love to you right now, right?”

He smiled, as he continued to pour the vodka on.

“Okay, sweetie, that’s good enough. Geez you’re going to drench it like my mom did with her fruit salad for this party last year!” I laughed.

He stopped and put the bottle to the side. We ate the dinner, which was super good, despite me actually thinking that it needed a little more vodka actually. So we enjoyed the dinner and then we cleaned everything, putting it in the sink. Val walked to the fridge again and pulled out another bottle of alcohol. This was sparkling wine though.

“Tyler helped with that?”

“Comple-ment-ary? Right?”

“Complementary? Yeah. That’s cool.”

“Yeah, but Tyler did help me to get this for you too.” He reached in and pulled out a Peach Fuzzy Navel Seagrams wine cooler, which was my favorite kind of alcohol.

“Oh Val,” I gasped and took it. It had a pretty sparkling red ribbon around the neck of the bottle. An added touch by the Baby Russian. I set it to the side. Enough was enough. I wanted him. Now.

He put the complimentary wine on the counter too. I grabbed his hand and led him out of the kitchen. I flung him onto the bed and then jumped on top of him. I pinned him to the bed and began to kiss him on the lips again.

“I love you so much, Val.”

We made out on the bed, before we took a break. We stripped our clothes off, down to the undergarments and poured the wine into two glasses. We drank that down. Val had four glasses, while I had six. It wasn’t straight alcohol, but the little bit in it was enough to push our desires up.

We returned to the bed and crawled under the covers. We began to make out once again, hungrily devouring each other in a passionate frenzy. Val pulled my bra off and I pulled his boxers down. And then like how I envisioned Jonathan Toews punishing (or rewarding) Patrick Kane, I started to grope him. And well...he groped me in turn. It was gentle and more massaging, like when we’d first met in Orlando at the University of Central Florida and fallen head-over-heels in love with one another.

The only difference was that we were together as boyfriend-girlfriend and it was even more romantic and passionate.

We touched each other and enjoyed the evening, not letting up until it was about ten o’ clock. Then we settled down and just snuggled in together and fell asleep. But not before I had talked to Val.

“Thanks for the best Valentine’s Day ever!”

“You my girlfriend and I love you so much. Ты мое сердце, моя любовь, мое все. (You’re my heart, my love, my everything.)”

“Согласен. Всегда. (Agreed. Always.)”

“Всегда.”

“‘Младенца’ Pусских!” I whispered.

“Baby Russian?” he guessed with a smile.

“Da.”

And with that, we shared a final kiss for the day and fell asleep, with a series of romantic love songs in English and Russian playing in the background.

And that’s how I spent my “VALentine’s Day.”

Notes

"In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you."
Hope everyone is having a good Valentine's Day. And you can't spell Valentine's without Val, so, I couldn't resist. :)


Next up: There's this Holiday I made up, it's called "Baby Russian Day" and it happens after Valentine's.