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Newport Beach, California
“The woman was pure evil, I tell you, sent by the devil to bring me down.”
“Oh really?” Lauren Bradley furrowed her brows and stared at the young man with spiked brown hair and black glasses sitting across from her as he took a bite of his prime rib. The guy was tall and handsome with a fit body. It was apparent he visited the gym frequently.
“I bought her gifts, took her to fancy restaurants, and even paid her car loan. And what thanks did I get? At least she could have offered to repay me for the loan.”
“That must have been devastating.” Lauren tilted her head, her curly blonde hair cascading down her shoulders.
“That woman has no idea how she’s turned my whole world upside down by leaving me. I can’t sleep at night, can’t focus at work . . . my life’s ruined.” The young man paused, staring pensively down at his plate of food before continuing with a question, “Have you ever loved someone that much?”
Lauren hesitated. She wished she could have replied with a resounding “yes,” but the fact was, her love life was on life support, and she desperately wanted to do something about it. Her church friends told her to be patient and that God would bring the right Proverbs 31 man at the right time. “Trust and pray,” they would say. But while Lauren practiced that faithfully, it was hard to quell the urge to be proactive and put herself out there so the perfect soul mate could find her.
Her date continued to pour out his woes, but her mind was in another world, dreaming of what her divinely appointed soul mate would look like. Would he have blonde hair, blue eyes, or dark hair with piercing brown eyes?
A loud voice startled her.
Lauren shook her head and looked up.
“Are you listening?” He said.
“I’m sorry? That must have been awful.” Lauren didn’t know why she was being polite. She badly wanted to tell the guy he was self-centered and deserved to be dumped. Lauren wanted him to know that any decent, self-respecting Christian woman would never put up with his better-than-thou attitude. Instead, he needed to read Proverbs 31 to see what kind of man he needed to become for any respectable woman to date him. But she bit her tongue and smiled.
“You haven’t been listening, have you?” He frowned, pursing his lips together.
Lauren set her fork down. “Look, I’m sorry your last relationship didn’t work out. I can see it meant a lot to you. But I don’t think you and I are very compatible with each other either.” Lauren forced a smile. She never found the dirty job of letting a man down comfortable.
“How can you say that? You haven’t spent enough time getting to know me. I haven’t finished telling you what my counselor said—”
Lauren held up a hand. “Tom, you seem like a nice man, and I had a nice evening. But I think we’re better off as friends.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the chime of Lauren’s cell phone. Glancing down at the screen to check the caller’s I.D., she looked up at Tom. “Excuse me, but I have to take this call.” She got up from the table and headed toward the rear hallway of the restaurant, brushing past decorations of white Christmas lights and garlands of pine trimming.
Turning her attention to the call, she began, “Raymond, hey—any news on the restaurant?”
The voice on the other end sounded tired. “I just got off the phone with the broker. I’m afraid I have bad news.”
