When Jesse Wright wakes up on Valentine’s Day, he may notice a text or even a missed call.
For a stinging second, he might not want to check his phone. But, inevitably, he will slink out of bed and pick it up.
It will probably be Amber Davis — his girlfriend of more than one month. Wright navigated the fall semester feeling out his relationship with Davis, testing their compatibility. They officially started dating on New Year’s Day.
“It was kind of like a preseason to the season,” he said.
This year, he will celebrate Hallmark’s big day sans his better half. While he decides the best time to dial in a Valentine’s Day greeting, she will be delivering roses for Habitat for Humanity around Tallahassee.
That’s right. Wright is a Gator. Davis is a Seminole. And they’re celebrating Valentine’s Day — well, sort of.
While tons of couples will smooch amid chocolate hearts and rose petals, long-distance partners won’t necessarily embrace the holiday as much.
“Last Valentine’s Day, my date was Jose Cuervo,” Davis said.
This year, her date is 140-plus miles away.
That’s a stone’s throw away compared to the distance dividing Alex Guenov and his girlfriend of almost a year, Michaela Valenti.
The pair started dating about a year ago, met through mutual friends and kept a loose, fun relationship. Then Valenti graduated, and the duo had a decision to make: split now or stick out the distance.
She went to Costa Rica for six weeks and would go to a hotel for free Internet access to Skype her boo.
“It ain’t easy. That’s for sure,” Guenov said.
It took him two to three months to make the transition from a short- to long-distance relationship. “You definitely think about it every day. It kind of eats away at you, but usually when they call and stuff or you call them, it helps out.”
Fast forward to the present, where Guenov’s Valentine’s Day plans vastly contrast with last year’s, when he made shrimp alfredo and a Bulgarian salad for his valentine, Valenti.
This year, Guenov will treat Feb. 14 like business as usual. Valenti will see “West Side Story” with her family.
Because they talk on the phone about an hour every day and one makes the drive to see the other once or every other week, distance really hasn’t been a strain. On the contrary, it livens up the relationship.
“If we fight or anything like that, it’s wasted time,” Valenti said. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m leaving tomorrow,’ so we have to do all these things and have fun. We can’t just sit around and be bums.”
Both couples stress trust and communication.
“Understand there’s a big chance it’s not going to work,” Davis said. “Make sure it’s what you want to do and you trust the person enough — when you only see them two days out of every two weeks — if you’re a jealous person, it’s not going to work. Ever.”
