Page 51 of Country Charm

“That’s available. Who says people can’t make things work long distance? You guys aren’t states apart, just a few towns.” Georgie sounds so mature; it makes me roll my eyes.

“That’s not the point.”

“What IS the point?” Mary waves the server over and taps the top of the bottle of wine.

“I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m so confused. I feel like I want to hear from him, and I want to see him, but he mentioned kids the other day and?—”

“You guys were talking about kids?!” Lynn is about to rocket out of her seat fueled by romantic thoughts alone.

“Not like us having kids, just he wants some one day. I said I’m sure he’ll get them, but the thought of him with Franny or some other girl makes me feel all weird and sad.”

“Hmmmm,” all the girls say in unison. For any of us, that’s bad news. A three-way hmmm. It couldn’t be worse. It’s relatable to a doctor getting your test results and sighing in front of you when he reads them. No good.

“What?”

“You need to just ride this out, Cassidy. Don’t cut ties because you’re finally feeling something. It’s important for self-growth to experience this kind of thing,” Georgie offers.

The server brings us our bottle and Mary divvies it up between our glasses.

“Mary, please talk wedding again. I don’t want to think about this anymore.”

She gives me an empathetic look and nods.

“So, the bachelorette party is next weekend…”

I kind of tune out the conversation and think about how royally fucked I am. My impulse to do exactly what the girls said not to do is strong, but my impulse to see Hunter again is stronger.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hunter

The last few days have been torture. I’m driving to the city for the second time in almost a year. Both times are for the same girl and within a month of each other.

Yesterday I had asked Harrison over for dinner to eat and catch up. I told him mostly everything about Cassidy but left some details out to honor the girl. I’m hoping one day she will meet him, but I’m not going to put money on it.

Cassidy is skittish. I can practically hear the cogs and wheels in her head working overtime when it comes to us. I haven’t logged into the app since I’ve met her. I have unopened notifications on matches and messages but have no desire to open them. If it wasn’t for the gorgeous pictures of Cass on her profile, I would just delete it.

Harrison has been surprisingly supportive about the whole thing. He’s barely made fun of me or called me out on how I made fun of him for wanting to be domestic. I bring up the terror I heard in her voice at the mention of kids. He is telling me to tread lightly but likes that I’m seriously interested in someone for once.

I thought he was just being a good brother but turns out he has something up his sleeve. He’s got a business idea, but he wants to talk to me about it another time. Something about the old bunkhouse ‘round the pond on the property. I can only imagine what he wants to do with it.

The skyscrapers that dot the skyline of this small city come into view as I approach it. How am I ever going to convince Cassidy to leave any of this behind? Not only does she seem to enjoy her city life, but she and her girlfriends are as thick as thieves. I can’t imagine she would ever want to be farther away from them.

I don’t have many friends, mostly Harrison and a few buds from high school who stuck it out in our small town. Cassidy and her girls regularly see each other; they have traditions and rituals that I don’t know about or understand. To add to it, those girls are the only family she has after her father’s passing.

Doubts keep adding up in my mind. How is it I finally find a girl and she’s basically unattainable?

I arrive early and pull up to the bar where we had our first date to meet her for pre-dinner drinks. Parking is pretty limited, so I decide since I’m early to just park in the garage across from her apartment complex and walk over.

Walking through the city is so different from walking through the square. I see more of the lack of hospitality that Cassidy was talking about. People barely make eye contact and when they do it’s not to share a kind look or smile. I see couples walking hand in hand but not talking, I see people walking side by side with their phones glued to their hands and their eyes zoned in on the screen. How can people live so close to each other and yet be so disconnected? Is this considered a positive trait of city living for Cassidy?

I’m walking into the bar in no time at all and I scan thecrowd for a brunette with glitter in her hair. I don’t catch the glimmer I’m hoping for. Instead, I see my beautiful brunette sitting at the original high-top table where we met, but she is in the company of a brunette male.City Slicker.

My body starts to move on its own and my mind seems to be playing catch up. I walk up behind her and catch the tail end of what he’s saying.

“Would you want to go grab a bite to eat?” He sounds like his balls haven’t even dropped. His pitch is too high for a grown man.

“Actually—”

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