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Mine, a blank slate.
Unicorn
Hope
Ava dragged her damp palms down the front of her thighs for the third time in as many minutes.
“Would you please relax?” I asked, exasperated.
She narrowed her eyes on me for a moment, then the fight drained out of her. “You don’t know what it’s like,” she began, holding up a hand when I began my pep talk. “No, Hope. Listen. This is how it goes. How it always goes. They look at my face and smile. They’re interested. Then their eyes fall to my rack, and they think they’ve won the lottery. Eyebrows go up a bit when they get to my tummy but it’s not a dealbreaker.” She took a breath. “Then I stand up. I do it to shake their hand, but more importantly, I want the disappointment to be over and done with.”
“What do they do then?” I whispered, sorrow and anger mixing.
“It’s okay, Hope. People like what they like. And I’m good with how I look. I like my body.”
“What do they do, Ava?”
She sighed, and her bottom lip trembled. “They look at my thighs and my legs and surprise registers on their face and then,” she swallowed, “their eyes go blankly polite.”
My heart hurt because her words smacked of truth. “Men truly suck.”
“They do.”
“Want to leave? We can leave right now?” I stood and reached for my purse.
Ava laughed and wagged her finger. “No, no, no. You got us into this mess, let’s just see where it goes.” She shrugged and wagged her eyebrows suggestively. “You never know! You might just find the one!”
“Okay!” I declared. “Let’s do this.” I pulled Brayleigh’s stuffed unicorn out of my bag and plopped it on the table.
Ava’s eyes bugged out. “What is that?”
I opened my arms. “It’s completely appropriate! I told him finding a good man is like finding a unicorn so I’d bring my own so he’d know me!”
Ava laughed. “I mean, it makes sense. Hopefully he has a sense of humor.”
There was a stir in the coffee shop. I looked around, searching for the source of the chuckles and comments.
Two large, muscular, men stood just inside the doorway. One wore a hairband with a unicorn horn attached to it, the other did not fare so well. His unicorn headpiece came complete with a mane which swung behind him as he scanned the coffee shop.
“Oh my gosh,” I breathed, huffing out a laugh.
Ava’s face split into a grin, skyrocketing her from beautiful to stunning. The man with the single horn homed in on her immediately and loped over, hands tucked into his pockets, eyes pinned to her face.
Interesting.
I glanced at Ava to see that her smile remained, but her glow had faded. She rubbed her palms over her thighs and stood.
At that moment, the man with the glittery mane stopped in front of me with a grin. “Hope?” He offered his hand and enclosed his big mitt around mine. “You ordered a unicorn?”
I could not help the chuckle that escaped though I felt like killing him. “Thirties?” I challenged.
He held his thumb and pointer finger up a half inch apart. “Almost.”
“Hmm.” I wanted to be annoyed but the man had dressed up like a unicorn. I could at least have coffee with him. By the end of the hour, I was smitten. Physically, he was beautiful. In his prime. More importantly than that, he was genuine and sweet.
Maybe younger men were the way to go.
In an interesting twist, Ava’s unicorn also worked in social media. After only a few seconds, they lost themselves in conversation. Ava’s passion for her channel returned her glow tenfold.
