are you smiling about?” Hannah asked when she walked into the breakroom at the salon. I’d just finished cutting a set of three-year-old twins’ hair and was taking a moment to see my followers’ reaction to my post this morning.
I’d known that it would cause a stir, since I hadn’t announced my breakup with Chad yet and had never mentioned the fact that I had a super-hot guy best friend before. But I had not expected to have comments reaching the five-thousand mark.
“Apparently, my followers think Cole would make a good replacement for Chad.” I showed my screen to Hannah.
She took it from me and her mouth dropped open when she saw the photo of us from last night.
“What is this?” She looked up with her eyes super wide. “Is this what you and Cole did for your practice date?”
“Yeah.”
She looked at the photo again. “That dress is amazing. Was that the one that you had sent to you?”
“No, that was actually part of the date.”
When she just stared at me blankly like she didn’t understand, I told her all about the night I’d had with Cole.
“Holy heck, Arianna,” she said after I finished telling her about the part where Incognito had walked into the restaurant. “How are you not snatching this guy up right now?”
“Well…” I said, remembering back to this morning at his house.
“Wait?” A mixture of shock and pride formed on her face. “Did you snatch him up? Is this you making it Instagram official?”
“I don’t know. We made out this morning but never made anything official,” I hurried to say. “Does it look like that? I was just feeling really happy today and wanted to brag to the world a little about Cole.”
Would he be weirded out by my posting the photo?
Sure, our morning make-out session had certainly made it seem like we could be headed in that direction, but we hadn’t officially said anything about us dating aside from going on our Chad-revenge date tonight.
“Hold up.” Hannah held a hand up. “Did you just say that you and Cole made out this morning?”
“Maybe…” I blinked my eyes shut for a second and sighed before saying, “It was so amazing, Hannah. Like—” I shook my head slightly, still not really believing any of this was real. “—I’ve tried to tell myself that we were only ever going to be best friends since I was dating Chad, and Chad and I made more sense on paper.”
“I’ll have to disagree with that,” Hannah interrupted with her no-nonsense way. “But continue.” She gestured for me to spill everything.
I shrugged and leaned back against the chair. “I don’t know. He’s kind of amazing and hot and basically checks all the boxes for the perfect guy for me.”
Hannah crossed her arms. “I’m not sensing a problem here.”
“I know.” I looked down at my hands. “I just… There’s just one thing. He wants kids and—“
“And you don’t,” she finished for me, understanding my dilemma.
We were quiet for a few seconds, and then I said. “I don’t want to make him choose between having a family or being with me.”
“And you’re sure you won’t want a family someday?” she asked.
I bit my lip, thinking about it. “It’s complicated.”
But even as I said it, a flash of a vision of Cole and me sitting in his backyard and watching two dark-haired children, a boy and a girl, running around on the grass came to mind.
My heart swelled because it reminded me so much of what I’d always dreamed of as a little girl—to have a dream husband who made me so happy and a family we would create together.
Growing up in Alabama, it was completely normal for people to get married young and start their families right off. During elementary school, when they asked us to write down what we wanted to be when we grew up, I’d always just put in “a mom” since that was what I wanted. I loved playing house with all my dolls. I loved taking care of them and taking them to the grocery store and reading books to them in my bed.
I’d even begged my mom to have another baby when I was about seven years old, since I wanted a little sibling to take care of so badly.
It had just seemed like the idyllic life. My mom hadn’t worked when I was younger, and so I just automatically assumed I’d do the same. Pop out adorable babies and spend my free time cultivating a beautiful home