Page 5 of Forever Only Once

“I would like it if he’s not a troll,” Myra said and then laughed. “I’m kidding. I’m not that much of a bitch. That much.”

“We need four perfectly sexy but sweet, caring, gentle, growly, productive men. They need to have jobs, they need to—hopefully—not have criminal records, though we can look into that on a case by case basis,” Paris said with a nod.

Dakota laughed. “This means we’re looking for four bearded unicorns, is that what I’m hearing?”

I snorted and just shook my head. “We can look at the attributes at some point, but I honestly don’t think that’s what we’re going to end up with. As long as they’re not sleazy, slovenly, or sedate, it’ll work for me.”

“We’re going against the three Ss,” Paris said, taking down more notes. “We will look for our bearded unicorns without the three Ss. Either way, we need to do something. Because I am not trying online dating again.”

“I don’t even know how you did it the first time,” I said honestly.

“Desperate times and all that. I have actual straws. Paper ones because we’re not using plastic straws here,” Paris said, holding up four.

“Thank you for that,” Dakota said.

“No problem. I’ve cut them down to size, and they’re all in my hands. We’re each going to choose a straw. The shortest one goes first, and so on.”

“Not the longest?” Myra asked, her voice pure sarcasm.

“We can make it whichever one you get goes first if you’d like,” Paris said, her voice haughty.

“Let’s draw.”

I closed my eyes and reached out, taking a straw. I didn’t want to see. The others all whispered, and I opened my eyes, knowing exactly what I would find. Because, why not?

“Hazel, it seems that you will be the first to find your bearded unicorn,” Paris said, writing down the order.

I didn’t even look at who would be next.

It didn’t matter, because it was my turn. I was going to find my perfect happily ever after.

And, somehow, I did not want any part in that.

Not after today. Not after what’d happened before. But I promised myself that I would try, and here I was, trying.

We went through the rules a bit more, but after looking down at my small straw, I knew I needed to go home and think. The others seemed to agree, wanting to do the same for themselves, so we disbanded.

I was quiet in the car, not even listening to music on my way home, trying to imagine exactly what would happen over the next few weeks. Would I finally go on a date? Would I find that bearded unicorn as the girls had called him? Or would I try, fail, and then hopefully move on to the next phase of this plan?

The latter seemed more likely. Mostly because I didn’t trust myself to actually do anything about what I thought I wanted.

I pushed those odd thoughts from my head as I pulled into my driveway and got out of the car.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I looked around as I walked up, confused. No one was there. Thomas wasn’t here. I was just thinking about him thanks to that encounter with the stranger and now I was feeling things that didn’t make sense.

I didn’t see anyone, so I pushed aside those worries for now. I quickly got into the house and double-locked the door behind me, my pulse racing.

I was fine. No one was here to scare me. I was only seeing ghosts, things that didn’t exist.

I was fine.

And, eventually, I would go on a date, living up to the promise I made after a single glass of wine. I felt the little spark of hope that I had tried to ignore for so long.

Maybe this would work out.

Or perhaps I would end up broken again.

Either way, I had to try.

Because I had given up for long enough.