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“Wanna go over your list and do some note comparing? I don’t know, maybe even chuck it out the window and let the wind take it away? Or maybe light a match? Thinking out loud again.”
Juniper burst out laughing. “You do that all too often. Anyone ever tell you that?”
“I’ve heard rumors. Now shall we start at the top?”
“In my defense, my perfect man list saved me from Brett Miller. You know the creep that thought my toes were the cutest in high school. And wanted to eat them.”
“True. And then there was the guy at the coffee shop where you used to work.”
Juniper cringed and let the frigid shudder work over her before speaking. “See. So my list stays.”
That thought was chased by another. “I’m going to die an old crazy cat lady that sings to herself and whom all the neighborhood kids are scared of. I know it.”
“Dude. You’re twenty-five. Methinks you’re overreacting.”
“Says who? Today twenty-five. Tomorrow forty. Fifty. I’m going to do without finding someone to spank my ass while he makes me?—”
“Yeah, I get the picture. TMI!”
Juniper laughed, “So you see where I’m going with this.”
“No. Not really.”
“Let me do the math for you then. Because you’re in the same boat,chica.”
Her friend sighed but didn’t move to interrupt. That was an open invitation to her ears.
“We’re twenty-five. Say we don’t meet someone until six months from now, or even a year from now. Add in a couple of years of dating?—”
“—first flaw. If he lasts that long. Your list, remember? It has a tendency to bushwhack anyone you get close to.”
“—if he makes the cut, yes. Add in the engagement time and you’re looking at twenty-eight. Dump. Repeat. Until you find the perfect man.”
“Second flaw. You’re assuming there is that perfect someone.”
“It’s what I do for a living, Callie.”
“I know what you need.” Callie turned the conversation in a one-eighty, giving her mental whiplash.
Okay. That caught her off guard and right now her ears were wide open for ideas.
Juniper crossed the room and slowly peeled off a large swath of cloth that draped over her wedding gown. She’d assembled the last of the details two nights ago.
Early morning light sent a flourish of sparkles across the heart-shaped bodice.
Lace like a spider’s web, and just as delicate, draped over the open cleavage area and a mile of milky silk cascaded to the floor to puddle in a beautiful flourish.
“I don’t want to be the crazy cat lady, Carol.” Juniper tossed herself down on the couch pushed up against the back wall of her office and let the warmth of the comfy handknitted blanket scrunch around her.
“But a girl has to have her standards, right? I want the white gown and beautiful wedding cake, but I want the happily-ever-after that comes with it too. Something that lasts. What if it never happens?”
“What makes you think that it won’t happen?”
Good question. “Only the fact that every date I’ve been on in the last two…no, three…years has been one fatal attraction after another.”
Callie laughed softly.
“Don’t laugh. It’s true.”
