St. Valentine was a priest, a martyred one at that. It's doubtful anyone was pining for him.

Casanova, history's most notorious lover, didn't exactly have a girlfriend and died alone. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard spent most of his life in angst over his lost soul mate following what is arguably history's most depressing breakup. Throw in the legend of Don Juan or the fictional Don Giovanni and a pattern begins to emerge: the most romantic guys are probably alone on Valentine's Day.

Women's magazines are obsessed with trying to deconstruct the attraction to the bad boy. And why not? Women love to fall under the spell of the guy who is the antithesis of everything she should be happy with. The best romantic movies thrive on the lead female being torn between her nice safe guy and the guy she just can't stop thinking about: the irresistible, rough-around-the-edges, endearingly flawed, slightly damaged, charming bad boy that she knows is all wrong for her but she just can't get him out of her mind. "The Notebook," anyone? "Titanic?"

The Blockbuster shelves are overflowing with these movies. Border's cheesy romance section is bursting with steamy paperbacks all telling the same story. A simple glance across the cover titles of women's periodicals is a testimony to this fact.

So where's the celebration for the other guy?

Women long for the mystery, the air of unpredictability, right? They romanticize the other guy even while their nice boyfriends are lauding them with mass-produced Hallmark cards, single red roses picked up at the local gas station, the traditional box of chocolates and maybe dinner and a movie, or so say the 1.4 million Google results for "bad boy attraction."

So while the good guys are spending their Valentine's Day with the good girls, trading heart-shaped chocolates, "I heart you" Hallmark cards, obligatory dinners on the town and cheesy romance movies, let's take a moment to remember the bad boy whose curse is, every Valentine's Day, to ride off into the sunset alone.

That is, until February 15 when he becomes the object of female fantasies all over again.