Page 4 of Finding New Dreams

I tried to keep my stomach from regurgitating pasta all over the white tablecloth. “Yes, you did. Right after I said hello.”

If he caught my subtle barb, he didn’t let on. “Well, when we’re done here…” He leaned back, wiggling his pale eyebrows suggestively, and took a long sip of his scotch.

I set my fork down, my appetite fading. “So, your profile said you’re a lawyer? That must be interesting.”

He gave me a feral smile. “It is. I have a few billboards around town—you’ve probably seen them. I do big injury cases.”

“Oh, like helping injured people get restitution?”

He blinked at me. “No, I help keep the big guns—hospitals, corporate firms, and such—from paying for every little injury lawsuit that comes their way. It pays very well.”

This time he sent me a lewd wink.

My poker face almost cracked with disgust. But I’d been mastering my expressions my whole life. How else did a “runt” survive?

When he pounced on his steak again, I realized he didn’t plan on ever asking me anything about myself. So I made one last attempt at this train wreck of a date—my fifth in as many weeks.

“I own an art studio and gallery, not too far from here. I paint, draw, do photography—”

“You make a lot of money?” he interrupted, his cheeks bulging with dead cow.

My back stiffened. Yep, this was over. “That is none of your business, I’m afraid. Have a good night, Zane. And good luck with your dating endeavors.”

He swallowed hard and his mouth dropped open. “You…you can’t…excuse me?”

After signaling to our server, I popped open my clutch and handed her a couple of hundred-dollar bills. “Thank you, Vanessa. This should cover both our meals, and the rest is for you. Have a good night.”

Vanessa beamed at me, and I smiled back before I shrugged into my cropped denim jacket and walked away, leaving my date sputtering at our table.

The second I stepped outside the revolving glass door, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

You will find someone eventually. Keep going.

I’d found comfort in a similar mantra as a kid, always hoping I’d find my forever parents. Or that they’d find me. And one day, they had. I’d considered myself the luckiest girl in the world to go from being Rose the Foster Kid to Rose Rafferty, daughter of Todd and Mary Rafferty.

I wavered for a moment on the pockmarked sidewalk. The city lights cast orange pools around me and the other city-goers, who traveled in packs through the glass and concrete maze. A picture painted itself in my mind: splashes of marigold watercolor, charcoal spikes of lampposts. And a blurry figure of teal, violet, and crimson in the middle.

Definitely wanted to spend time in my cozy, perfect studio at home later. But not now. Right now, I needed an outlet for the kaleidoscope of emotions swirling through me.

An idea pinged in my head, and I smiled. As my trusty flats hurried over the sidewalk, I pulled out my phone and called one of my best friends, Gina Fiore.

She answered on the third ring. “Dud?”

I laughed. “Ding, ding, ding. I left him alone with the rest of his bloody steak.”

I could almost see my friend’s expressive face pull into a scowl. “Ugh, so really a dud. Why do they even bother agreeing to meet?”

“Because he had a loft only a few minutes away.”

“Ohhh, just looking for a hookup? I swear, that’s why I quit those apps. I don’t need JumboJetJim booty-calling me at three in the morning, waking me and my son up.”

I laughed again, the cloying negativity lifting from my chest. “Then what is my Gina Bambina going to do for love?”

She went quiet for a moment, a rarity for my enthusiastic, life-loving friend. I pictured her sitting in her apartment above the hair salon she owned in our small town of Tangled River. She probably had her long caramel-colored hair up in some elaborate twist so her big hoop earrings could swing free around her flawless Italian face.

“I don’t think love is in the cards for me, Rosie. Besides, I have my little man. I don’t need another one cluttering up my life.”

I didn’t believe her, but I let it slide this time as she continued in a brighter tone.

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