July23rd
7:54 P.M.
“Once upon a time there was a girl who was an ugly duckling. Shenevergrew into a beautiful swan, but still dreamed of finding her Prince Charming.”
Georgia Lars stared critically at herself in the mirror.
Her face was too round, her eyes a boring shade of brown, and her shoulder-length dark brown hair insisted on being a frizzy mess no matter what she did to it. She tried to keep out of the sun to keep her freckles to a minimum, and no matter how diligently she dieted and exercised, she couldn’t seem to lose those last few bothersome pounds.
She sighed.
Sometimes life just wasn't fair.
Her older sister was gorgeous. Why couldn’t she have inherited at least a little of those good looks?
It had been around her twelfth birthday that she started becoming self-conscious about her looks. While her friends were being asked out by boys in their class, Georgia was never approached by anyone. In high school, while her friends spent their Friday and Saturday nights on dates, she spent hers at home watching old movies and studying.
In a way, all the studying paid off and she was awarded a full college scholarship where she obtained a degree in finance and her MBA. Now she had a good job, she had a home she loved, traveled, and she had everything she wanted.
Except someone to share it with.
She was so lonely.
Her best friend had just gone through a divorce and was living with her so technically she was rarely alone. At work she was with her colleagues, and at home she was hanging out with her friend, but it wasn't that kind of lonely. It was the kind of lonely where your heart hurt with longing, and jealousy stabbed at her every time she saw a happy couple. Where her longing to have a man who loved her and children of her own was an all-consuming burden.
Georgia wanted her fairytale happily ever after so badly she was prepared to do pretty much anything.
Even this.
She gave her hair another plump and prayed the curls she had meticulously put in stayed for the duration of the evening.
Maybe a little more mascara.
And another coat or two of lipstick. Perhaps if she could keep his attention focused on her lips then he might actually kiss her. If he kissed her then he might want to make love to her. And if he made love to her then he mightfallin love with her.
She knew she was being ridiculous.
She shouldn’t be so obsessed with falling in love. She was smart, successful, and she lived a full life, but still she wanted to find someone who looked at her like they were dying of thirst, and she was the only one who could quench it. Someone who made her excited to get up every morning, whomade her want to grow old just so that she could enjoy every day with them.Someone who made the sun shine brighter, and the stars twinkle more dazzlingly than diamonds. She wanted a partner, someone to share the good times and the bad with. She wanted a partner, a lover, a friend. She wanted her soul mate.
So, she had resorted to this.
Online dating.
Never in a million years would Georgia have thought she would have stooped to this, but she felt like she was running out of options. None of the men she knew had ever even hinted about asking her out. She sometimes went to bars with her friends, but she was thirty-four now, too old to meet someone in a bar. And besides, she wasn't looking for a quick hook-up, she was looking forthe one.
This had seemed like her only option.
About four months ago, she had started looking into the online dating options. There were a lot to choose from. So many websites, all offering the same thing and yet different. Some places matched you with potential partners based on personality questionnaires, some on hobbies and interests, and some left the matching up to you and left you to search through other users’ profiles.
Then one day, quite by accident, she had stumbled onto the ‘Happily Ever After Club’. A place for like-minded people to come together and find the person of their dreams.
The idea had appealed to her immediately.
The fairytale magicalness of it all was exhilarating. Who didn’t want to feel like a princess about to meet her prince?
Almost as soon as she signed up, she had begun messaging with the most delightful man she had ever met. Well, she hadn’t actuallymethim yet, but she felt as though she had. She already knew everything about him; his parents, his siblings, and where he grew up. Where he went to school, his favorite teacher and subject, that he’d played football but always longed to play saxophone in the school band. Where he’d gone to college, where he worked, what his hobbies were, what his hopes and dreams for the future were, and what he was looking for in a woman.
She knew him perfectly.