Chapter 33
Cara’s POV
The restaurant is not bad.
It's decorated with flowers, and very romantic.
I’m sitting at a restaurant table trying to listen to my blind date, but I can’t hear most of what he says because his mouth is full of food that he hasn’t finished chewing.
My blind date lets out a deep belly laugh at his own joke, covering his beard in the mouthful of beer that he hadn’t yet swallowed.
I figured and knew the blind date might be a mess, but there's something else that's got me more worried.
But what I'm really worried more... is bumping into Alaric.
Earlier that evening, Ruby and I were selecting from the dress options.
I told her, “I’m going for approachable, yet mysteriously unapproachable… with a little bit of cute and a lot of hot… does that make sense?”
“It makes perfect sense to me! Go with that forest green dress, it really brings out your eyes,” Ruby recommended.
Well, turns out this great outfit was all for nothing.
My blind date is a large overweight man, which wouldn’t bother me so much except that he’s very sweaty and apparently can only talk when his mouth is full of food or drink.
He is a noble-wolf but looks messy, like he spent no time at all preparing for this date.
I check my phone again, praying that Eamon has sent me some urgent pack business in need of immediate attention, which would give me an excuse to leave the date.
But unfortunately, the answer is the same as it was exactly one minute ago when I last checked my phone, my inbox is clear.
Zero messages.
Dammit.
I need to come up with another excuse.
I sigh, trying to be polite, and I take another bite of my food. I’m not even hungry, I’m just bored.
Completely, totally, extremely bored.
B - O - R - E - D.
I’m seconds away from pretending that someone has sent me a text about an emergency when the server brings us our check.
We’re out of the restaurant soon after. I extend my hand for a polite handshake, thanking him for the date when he holds up a finger and actually shushes me.
“Shh… Wait, let me stop you right there. You seem nice enough, Cara, but I just don’t think it’s gonna work out between us.” He says.
My jaw drops, stunned into silence. I’m surprised he even knows my name. He didn’t ask me a single question about myself during the entire date.
Is he… rejecting me?!
“You’re a pretty little thing, but you’ve been on that phone all night. How can you be married to a man when you’re already married to your work? Do yourself a favor and don’t bring the phone on your next date, okay? You might have better luck.”
His voice is so smug that I immediately feel like I need to take a shower.
“Did he seriously call you a ‘pretty little thing’?! And then he gave you dating advice!” Ruby howls with laughter when I recount the story of my first blind date to her.
I tell Ruby all about the date when I arrive home afterwards. She had already put the kids to bed for me while I was out.
I laugh with her, but I’d probably find it funnier if it had happened to someone else.
It’s not a great way to start my dating adventure.
The next few dates aren’t quite as bad, but each date still ends with me being disinterested in seeing the guy again.
One man only wanted to talk about the most dull and boring subjects.
Another male was breathtakingly gorgeous, but every exchange ended in an awkward pause.
“So do you like anchovies?” He asked me.
“Um, sure. In the right circumstances…” I cleared my throat after a long silence, realizing he wasn’t going to say more. “How… about you?”
He wiped his hands on his lap, looked at me very briefly and simply said, “Yes.” He turned to look at the wall behind me for another minute or two then spoke again, “How about peas?”
Ruby cackled with laughter as I told her the story of that date, “But you love peas!”
“Sure, but not enough to talk about in the first fifteen minutes of a blind date!” I told her, laughing.
“If the guy is handsome enough, I’ll talk about anything!” Ruby had tears in her eyes, she was laughing so hard.
I’ve gathered a lot of funny stories, but no real suitors.
All the dates are in that Restaurant...My assistant has already paid for a month's worth of dinner dates, and I can't change that.
Every time I go on a date, I worry about running into Alaric, but luckily, I haven't yet... Maybe Alaric doesn't feel like coming to this restaurant as planned?
I'm praying for that.
And my date, there’s no connection, no spark. Not only that, but absolutely none of them are cut out to be a father, let alone a father to twins.
I’m starting to lose hope in my search to find Mia and Ethan a Daddy.
On my next date, I tried to switch up my strategy. Maybe I needed to take more of the lead in directing the conversation. Maybe that’s where I’d gone wrong on the previous dates.
“Do you want to play a word game?” I asked during my next blind date.
“A word game?” My date asked, puzzled by the question.
“Yes! Like, I say a word, then I string together as many words that start with the same letter as the first word as I can. When I can’t think of any more words that still make a logical sentence, then it’s your turn. We see who can go the longest.” I explain to him happily.
When he still looked confused, I continued, “For example, I ignite illicit illustrations in interesting interiors! Ha!” I am impressed that I can still do it.
It’s one of my favorite games to play. I used to play it all the time with Alaric.
But I can’t think of him. I can’t let myself remember the good times with him. It's relly fun.
Not now.
“It's your turn.” I said.
“Uh… it sounds… pretty complicated.” He sounded puzzled, “Why don’t we just talk normally?” My date replied.
Oh...That's my fault.
I sighed, realizing that he's not Alaric, “Yeah, okay. It’s a silly little game anyway…”
Not everyone is Alaric.
Not everyone will have the same fun as me, or Alaric.
But all my past dating experiences have only been about Alaric, and aside from that, I don't know what to do...
Why does dating have to be so hard?
It was so easy with Alaric.
I shouldn’t keep thinking about him, but sometimes you just can’t help comparing these dates. It’s uncontrollable.
...But Alaric can’t be the only one I can have a good time with! There’s got to be other males out there who can get me excited.
Right?
I head to the coffee shop to meet my assistant. She told me she found a new batch of suitors for my next round of blind dates, so we set up a casual meeting to review their profiles together.
I can use all the help I can get at this point. I hope I can find someone soon. For my sake, and for Mia and Ethan’s sakes.
Suddenly, I see Aidan and Ryan walking towards the coffee shop.
“What are you both doing here?” I ask them.
“We just came from a meeting with Pack DarkWood,” Ryan says, waving at me.
...Alaric have come.
Finally.
He’s in Pack BloodyMoon.
Before I can stop myself, I hear myself ask, “How is Alaric doing?”
I regret asking as soon as the words leave my mouth.
Immediately, I can tell that asking this was a mistake because of the shocked and suspicious looks on my brothers’ faces.
Aidan raises an eyebrow at me, his look a mixture of irritation and anger, “...Are you still in love with that asshole, Cara?!”
