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Fianna

Fianna Ryan reluctantly sloped downwards behind her two friends, Mae and Emmy, into the dimly lit cocktail bar. While descending the narrow basement steps in her four-inch heels, Mae tried to keep their spirits high. “Come on, girls. Think about my co-worker. Keep your eyes on the prize…”

Fianna couldn’t believe Mae really fell for some urban myth about six different women all finding the love of their lives at this place.

Fianna lost her balance for a second, too busy rolling her eyes instead of watching her step. Luckily, she could grab the sticky iron banister just in time.

“Are you okay?” Emmy asked over her shoulder.

“Yeah. Let’s get this over with,” Fianna grumbled, while rummaging in her clutch for something to wipe her hand clean.

“We’ll have fun tonight. I promise you,” Mae said in her signature upbeat manner.

“I’m only here because you dragged me out of my apartment.”

Emmy and Mae shared an unbelieving glance. Emmy laughed and said, “Stop being so dramatic. If you really weren’t into this, you wouldn’t have glammed up the way you did.”

Fianna wouldn’t be the first twenty-nine-year-old single woman, rather sitting at home on a Saturday night in her pajama pants, snacking on some leftover banana bread instead of attending this circus.

The effort of showering, shaving her legs and armpits, putting on a cute dress and heels, flat ironing her hair and creating a matching make-up look to go with her emerald green eyes and dress… It all seemed too much trouble to meet some stranger who probably didn’t even took the effort to brush their hair—or teeth. Yuck.

She wondered why she even bothered at all.

“Enjoy this while you can…” Fianna waved at her dress, “Because after tonight, I’m sticking to my jeans and boots.”

The Moore sisters, Emmy and Mae, grew up at the farm where Fianna teaches horse riding. All three were used to long sweaty workdays with their hair in messy buns, sleeves rolled up and getting their jeans and boots dirty.

Emmy nodded in agreement, but Mae said, “No way. You can’t possibly mean that.”

They entered the bar area and a long-legged blonde walked up to them with a bright smile, interrupting Mae’s argument about the need to dress up once in a while.

“Hi, welcome to Rumba Rum, I’m Joany, your dating host this evening. I have three seats available for you, if you’d like to follow me?”

Fianna took a seat at the first available table, in front of the two vacant spots for Mae and Emmy.

Fianna glanced over to the table next to hers and got an indifferent hair flip from the brunette, who clearly wasn’t into a friendly chitchat with the competition.

“Okay, so you are the last ones to arrive. Normally, we would offer you a drink at the bar to unwind first, but I think we should get this party started. Are you excited?” The host’s voice went up a few octaves at the word ‘excited.’

Fianna picked up her scorecard. She wasn’t excited. She did, however, feel annoyed with herself that she let her friends talk her into this.

A strong, independent woman such as herself shouldn’t care about what some stranger wrote on his stupid scorecard after a six-minute speed date.

People either loved her or hated her. To be fair, at this point in her life, with The Big 3-0 knocking on her door, there has only been one man that truly adored and praised her spirit.

Instead of trying to temper her, the man did everything to rile her up. Her ex, Ronan, enjoyed her going off on him. The idiot loved the make-up sex too much.

She thanked the waiter, accepting the complimentary cocktail.

A quick glance at the bar filled with single men triggered her need for a big gulp of some liquid courage. The sudden sour lemon taste wrinkled up her face. Or perhaps thinking about her ex did the trick.

She flipped her fire red hair over her shoulder. No more thinking about Ronan.

He was probably out this Saturday night with a few of his MMA fighter buddies. And of course, with the groupies that hung around them like a bad smell.

A bell chimed, and the first guy out of eight dates strode up to her table. On his way over to Fianna, he winked to the waitress and even fully turned around so he could ogle the waitress’ butt when she passed him by.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com