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I was gone for 10 days. But last night I saw some breaking news that it's still going on.

Valentine's Day is a great day to celebrate love with your long term partner, but what do you do if you just started dating someone the week before Valentine's Day? What if it's your first date?

There are some expectations about a date on Valentine's Day based on customs and traditions. Typically, a guy makes an extra effort to make it a nice date. He sends his girl a dozen red roses with a note that says how much she means to him. He might arrive for the date with a box of fine chocolates as a gift. The girl has gone to extra trouble to make herself look just right for this special occasion. They share a fine meal together and perhaps move on to a lounge for a drink afterwards. If the relationship already includes sex, both the guy and girl probably expect that the night will conclude with the two of them in bed together. If the relationship is relatively new but they are both feeling a physical attraction, this may be the night when they decide to share physical intimacy for he first time.

So what if it's a first date? Or a second date? If I ask the girl out to dinner for Valentine's Day and I go to all this trouble to make her feel special, she may think that I am expecting her to give herself to me physically at the end of the night. I certainly don't want to make a girl feel pressured on that subject. Maybe she will think this is too much, too soon, and I must be desperate of I am trying so hard to impress her. But if I don't ask her out, will she think that I am being cheap or maybe conclude that I don't feel she is worth the effort? Will she feel a bit depressed because she is sitting at home while all of her friends are going out for Valentine's Day?

What should I do? I don't face this dilemma this year because I am living with my girlfriend who I have been dating for the past year. But I have faced this question previously. How would you want to handle this situation?