Morning in Montreal... it was an unusually nice one for early February. There was snow on the ground, but sunlight was streaming in through the windows and the temperature was relatively mild. A perfect Friday for all those looking forward to Valentine’s weekend... all except two people who weren’t supposed to be there.

Where in God’s name am I? It was the first coherent thought that entered Julie’s head as she blinked drowsily and awoke from a dreamless night. She opened one eye and squinted at her surroundings. She definitely wasn’t at home, that was for sure. She flipped over in bed and opened her other eye... and saw her partner right beside her.

Oh, God.

It slowly began to dawn on her. Hotel room... Ross... last night... the reason why her head felt like it was about to explode. Oh, no. She had to be dreaming. This was not happening. She slumped back against the pillow, closed her eyes, and covered her head with the blanket, trying to make it all go away.

Meanwhile, Ross was slowly awakening. The first thing that occured to him as he awoke was not where he was or why he was there, but how he felt.

“Oh, God, my head...” he groaned under his breath, just starting to take in the unfamiliar surroundings.

“Tell me about it,” a muffled voice replied from under the covers.

Julie’s voice. Ross’s eyes widened at the sound. What the hell? He lifted the blanket and peered under it. Yes, his partner was there in the bed beside him, all right, but she was fully dressed, still wearing the dress she’d worn to dinner last night. He was extremely confused.

“What the hell did we do last night?” he asked, wondering if she recalled the events that had brought them to their current circumstance any better than he did. He quickly realized how wrong his words had come out and what they suggested, and tried to rephrase his question. “Uh... I mean... what were we... not that...”

Julie’s head emerged from under the blanket. “I can’t remember, but from the way my head feels, I can hazard a pretty good guess.” She groaned.

He forced himself out of bed, realizing the danger of the situation now that he was actually awake and sober.

“And we still have to drive home today,” he realized. “Geez, I can’t believe we did something so stupid.”

Julie’s reply came from where she was buried back under the covers with a pillow over her head, trying to block the light. “Everyone does something stupid once in awhile.”

“Yeah,” he called back from the bathroom. “But I’d just feel a hell of a lot better if I could remember it.” He thought about that for a few seconds, wondering what actually had been said and done the previous night. He shuddered. “Uh... then again, maybe not.”

“The little I can remember is bad enough,” Julie muttered. “God, my freakin’ head...”

Her partner poked his head out from behind the bathroom door. “You wouldn’t happen to have Tylenol on you, would you?”

Rolling over in bed, she reached over to the bedside table, snagged her purse, and rummaged through it, unearthing a bottle of pills. “Will Advil do?”

“Tylenol, Advil, whatever,” he answered. “Drugs.”

“I think I need something a little stronger,” she said, tossing him the bottle. “Like maybe morphine.”

Ross laughed, then winced. “Okay, remind me not to laugh. That kills.”

“Everything kills my head right now,” she moaned. “Arrrrrrgh...”

“Are you gonna be okay to drive?” her partner asked, concerned.

“Yeah.” She kicked her shoes off the end of the bed. “I just need to get some coffee into my system. Black. And lots of it.”

“I’m gonna take a shower,” he informed her. “Maybe that’ll wake me up.”

Yeah, a cold shower, he thought to himself, trying to block the thoughts that being in the same bed as his partner had awakened in him. Really cold.

“Umph,” she murmured incoherently. “Wake me up when you’re out.” She rolled over in bed once again, trying to get comfortable, but felt something sharp poke her and yelped. “Ouch! These damn sequins...”

Muttering expletives under her breath, Julie lay in bed feeling like an utter fool. Well, okay, she thought to herself. Letting him see me like this has pretty much destroyed what little chance I had. Just when things were going so well, too. Why did I have to suggest going out? Why were we stupid enough to do something like this?

A sharp fear suddenly struck her. Judging from the hammering in her head, she’d been more drunk last night than she’d ever been in her entire life, and so had he. Oh, God. What had she said? What had he said? What had they done? She didn’t want to know, and yet, she wished she did. What if he remembered something she didn’t? What if, tongue loosened by the alcohol, she’d actually said what she was thinking?

Oh, well, she thought to herself, sitting up and starting to take off her jewellry, which she’d fallen asleep wearing. Nothing I can do about it now. Nothing except hope to God that whatever we said or did, we’re not going to regret.

Several hours later, the partners were back in the car on their way back to Brook Falls. As Julie drove along the empty expanse of highway, she hummed along absentmindedly to the radio and wished the remaining traces of her headache would just go away.

The words of the New Radicals’ “Get What You Give” were the only ones being heard in the car. Julie and Ross had sat in awkward silence for the greater portion of the trip so far, both nursing headaches, neither knowing what to say or do after their eventful night and morning of realization.

Say something! Ross’s mind screamed at him. But what to say? “Hey, isn’t it hilarious how we were really stupid last night and got ourselves so drunk that we don’t remember a thing, and woke up this morning in the same bed?” It was the one thought in his mind and he was so busy trying to reconcile himself to the fact that it was true and he had been so utterly stupid that he couldn’t think of any other.

“And here’s the new single from the Barenaked Ladies,” the radio DJ was blaring when Ross turned his attention back to the music. “Here’s ‘Alcohol’, on the New Rock 103.5.”

The song began to play, and listening to the lyrics, Ross began to realize the amusement of the whole darn situation. By the time the song reached its second verse, he was fighting back laughter.

“Forget the caffe latte/Screw the raspberry ice tea/A Malibu and Coke for you, a G&T for me/Alcohol, your songs resolve like our lives never will/When someone else is picking up the bill...”

Not knowing whether laughter would be at all appropriate, he snuck a look at his partner and realized a smile was playing around the corners of her mouth and she, too, was holding back laughter. Their eyes caught, and the next thing they knew, they were both bursting into laughter. All the awkwardness between them dissolved as they laughed together at the irony of the song and their situation.

“I thought that alcohol was just for those with nothing else to do/I thought that drinking just to get drunk was a waste of precious booze/But now I know that there’s a time and there’s a place where I can choose...”

As they laughed so hard they were both crying, Ross grabbed his partner’s arm and directed her attention back to the road.

“Julie, watch the road!” he gasped out amid laughter. “You’re driving!”

His partner tried her best to calm herself. “Oh, yeah. Right.”

They looked at each other and started laughing all over again, then instinctively started singing along with the song.

“I love you more/Than I did the week before/I discovered alcohol/Would you please ignore/That you found me on the floor...”

“I can’t believe we were so stupid!” she cried, wiping away tears of laughter.

“Yeah,” he replied, grinning. “I guess we were, weren’t we?”

They exchanged smiles, and still laughing, they kept driving.

“What’s with you and salad?” Ross made a face at his partner and the pile of greens she was in the middle of eating. “I mean, why can’t you eat real food?”

“Just because you ingest enough beef to singlehandedly destroy the rainforest, doesn’t mean we all have to be carnivores,” she replied calmly, looking distastefully at the gigantic burger he was eating while he drove.

“Hey!” he protested. “I’m eating vegetables! Fries are vegetables... sort of.”

She laughed. “‘Sort of’ would be the key term there.”

“We’re almost home,” he noted with a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

“I’m so tired,” she agreed with a yawn. “I need my bed.”

Hey, Ross thought to himself, remembering something. I wonder if I’m gonna find Letter #12 waiting for me in my mailbox? He smiled, watching Julie as she ate, unconscious of what he was thinking. I’ll bet I won’t.

“Hey,” he said out loud, deciding to test her. “I wonder if there will be a letter waiting for me when I get home?”

Julie’s fork froze midway to her mouth. All other thoughts in her mind suddenly screeched to a halt. Oh, God, the notes! Not having planned on being in Montreal overnight, she hadn’t written one ahead of time, figuring she’d be home in plenty of time to do it. But no. He’d be expecting one, and she didn’t have one, and then he’d know for sure...

“Yeah, why wouldn’t you?” she replied, trying her best to sound sure. “I mean, why would she suddenly stop sending them. Unless she knew you were out of town...”

“All the others at the rink thought we were coming back last night,” he interrupted, noting her attempt to make an excuse. “So I guess I will find one waiting for me.”

No way out, Julie, the voice in her mind said. You have to figure out a way or else the entire plan will be ruined. It’ll be so obvious...

So what? she tried convincing herself. So what if he figures it out two days early? Who says he doesn’t already know? And aren’t you tired of waiting... don’t you want him to know?

Not this way, she told herself. You have to do this right.

“Uh, could we just drop my stuff off at my place and then go to yours?” she asked suddenly. “I just remembered, my printer is busted and I have to print something out desperately.”

Oh, really? Ross tried his best not to smile at her fabricated excuse.

“Yeah, okay, sure,” he answered. “What do you have to print out so desperately that it can’t wait?”

“A letter,” she lied. “If I don’t mail it today, it won’t reach in time.”

“Ah.” He toyed with the idea torturing her further by asking her why this letter was so important, but decided against it. “No problem, you’ll get it mailed.”

“I hope so.” She fidgeted nervously.

She definitely hoped so...

“Home sweet home,” Julie announced as they walked into her apartment, carrying her things. “You can just leave my bag on the sofa, okay?”

“Okay,” he called as she disappeared down the hall.

“Thanks,” she replied. “Just sit down for a few minutes... I have to find the disk I saved that letter on.”

Shutting herself up in her room, Julie switched on her computer.

“Don’t make noise,” she begged the machine under her breath. “No beeps, no buzzing, don’t give me trouble today, please...”

She quickly opened Microsoft Word and thought wildly, trying to think of something, anything, to write. She knew she only had a few minutes to get the whole thing written and printed or all would be lost, but these letters weren’t easy for her. She usually wrote when the feelings came to her, not when she had nothing to say and was forced to think on her feet.

“Need some help in there?” Ross asked from the living room. “Having trouble finding it?”

“Uhhh... I just have to look through these boxes,” she called back. “I was sure I had it here somewhere... just a minute!”

Type, Julie, type! she urged her sluggish brain. Type something, type anything! So much happened, just write down everything you were feeling last night and this morning. Don’t hold back, just write it all...

She took a deep breath and started to type, as quickly and as quietly as she could manage. When she’d finally finished, she sat back, drained, and without even giving it another look, hit the “Print” button.

“Do not make noise,” she warned her printer. “Or at least nothing that can be heard through a closed door.”

When she finally pulled the sheet of stationary out of the printer, she sighed with relief.

Two days ‘til Valentines... and I’m feeling like a top that’s been whirling out of control. So many new feelings all at once, so many things I want to say but don’t know how. I’m starting to feel like this is going to work out, after all. I mean, sometimes stupid things happen to teach you lessons about yourself, and sometimes you come out of them a better person. Sometimes two people can do the stupidest things together and realize there’s no one else they could be that stupid with. Sometimes love shows itself in the weirdest of ways.

Sometimes...

She sighed, rereading what she’d just written. Quickly folding the letter, she grabbed a red envelope out of the box and slipped it in. Sealing it with a kiss, she stuffed it in her purse and literally ran down the hall to the living room.

“I found it!” she said triumphantly, holding up a disk that she really hoped had something on it that could pass as a letter.

“Were you checking on your printer again?” he asked innocently, trying to hide his smile. “I thought I heard it making noise...”

“Nah, that was just the computer,” she replied, quaking inside. “Anyhow, c’mon, let’s go.”

“Thanks for letting me use your printer,” Julie told her partner as she stood in his doorway, getting ready to return home once again.

“No problem,” he replied, not letting on that he’d noticed quite clearly that what she’d printed out had not been a letter, but a series of costume ideas she’d jotted down earlier that year. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride home?”

“Nah.” She leaned over to tie her shoe. “I’ll walk... I could use the air.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

She looked over her shoulder and waved goodbye, and he leaned over, smiled, and picked up the red envelope that was waiting for him in the same spot it always had been.

The twelfth letter... the envelope she’d dropped when they’d first walked in the door.

Onto Day 13... OR Back to the story...