Valentine’s Day has always been a great day to me, even before I was ever in a relationship. My parents would always buy me and my siblings little gifts including stuffed animals, chocolates and cards expressing their love for us. However, I still longed to have my “knight in shining armor” take me away on a whimsical date that left my heart full of happiness and wonder.

Once I started dating my now fiancé, I realized how difficult setting up the perfect date really is, especially for Valentine’s Day. For one, we always seemed to be busy on Valentine’s Day; either I had a game or a meeting to attend, or he had some event to attend at school, and we never seemed to spend a single Valentine’s together. On top of that, we were broke high school kids; how amazing could a date possibly be on a $25 budget?

After three years of dating, everything finally worked out perfectly! It was on a Saturday, and we didn’t have anything going on at all. Our parents gave us some extra cash to treat ourselves.

Unfortunately, it was too good to be true.

A week or so before Feb. 14, my mom came home after visiting relatives in Texas, and she unearthed the most horrific stomach flu that plagued me and my family for several weeks.

I thought I was well enough to invite my boyfriend over, and he insisted on spending time with me anyways, so no harm in watching a movie together while we exchanged gifts — right? WRONG!

After snuggling throughout the movie, I had to rush to the bathroom and couldn’t eat anything for the rest of the night. He was convinced he wouldn’t get it, but that night, he threw up so much that he thought he was dying. He ended up falling asleep next to the toilet, as did I.

It was the worst Valentine’s Day ever, and still haunts me to this day, but there is no one I would have wanted to be vomiting with than him.