A Valentine’s Evening to Yourself

An evening on your own can be a very particular pleasure. You choose the food, the comfortable corner, the volume of the music and whether the film gets paused halfway through for a second drink.

For Valentine’s, give that evening a little consideration before it begins. Buy something you will look forward to eating. Decide what you want to do. Make your favourite seat ready for the version of you who comes home tired.

This plan is for anyone with an evening to themselves, whatever their relationship status happens to be.

Decide what dinner looks like

Choose one of three easy routes: cook a favourite single portion, buy something good that only needs heating, or order from somewhere you already enjoy. Follow the storage and heating instructions for the food you buy, and give yourself a plate and a place to sit.

A bowl of pasta, a generous sandwich with soup, or a small selection from a deli can all feel like proper supper. Put a little water on the table. If there is a sweet thing you have been eyeing at the bakery, today is a very reasonable day to buy one.

The useful question is: what would I be pleased to find waiting tonight? Answer it while you still have time to shop.

Make your reading corner ready

Choose a seat with comfortable support and enough light to read. Bring a blanket if you like one. Clear space for a cup and a plate; put hot drinks on a stable surface within reach.

A lamp beside the chair can make the room feel warm while giving the page enough light. Keep your phone somewhere you can hear it if you need to, or leave it in another room if you would enjoy a little distance.

Flowers are optional. A few stems in a small vase can make the corner feel considered, and you get to choose exactly which ones you like.

Tonight’s story: The Table by the Window

Clara is forty-one, good at her work and in need of a few days when nobody asks her a quick question. She goes to Hollowpine with three books. In a secondhand novel, she finds a folded letter inviting someone to a café table on the fourteenth.

There is a small blue bird in the windowsill, a picture that has disappeared from the café wall, and a man who knows a great deal about the latter. What follows is a gentle mystery with dry humour, warm rooms and the first sunlight that feels as though spring might eventually arrive.

The story is complete in six chapters and takes around forty minutes to read. You can read it without knowing any of the other Hollowpine stories. There is no account, payment or email sign-up required.

Read The Table by the Window.

Make coffee if it is still early enough for you, or choose hot chocolate, tea or whatever you most enjoy in the evening. Use the milk or alternative that suits you. Bring your pastry before you start; Clara has a habit of encountering cake.

If you would rather watch something

Choose a film you already love, or a new one that genuinely appeals. Read the short description before pressing play if there are subjects you would prefer to avoid tonight. A familiar favourite can be exactly right when you have very little appetite for deciding. Browse The Watching Room, or use The Little Valentine Tray to make your drink, snack and film plan together.

You can make a small sofa supper instead of setting the table. Put everything on a tray, keep drinks steady, and make yourself comfortable. One good plan is enough for an evening.

A note you might like to keep

At the Little Notes Post Office, there is an envelope marked “A little note to myself”. One prompt asks what you would like to make room for next.

Your answer can be ordinary and specific: a Saturday with no errands before ten, the book you keep meaning to start, a visit to a friend, a weekend away. Write down something you actually want, then decide whether there is a small step you can take to make it happen.

You can also leave the card blank until another day. There is a pleasing freedom in owning stationery without immediately turning it into homework.

The twenty-minute version

Warm your drink. Put something delicious on a small plate. Read the first chapter of the story, or a few pages of your current book. Sit until you have finished what is in your cup.

If you want to stay longer, everything is already within reach.

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