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“How do I look?” Carly asked Charlotte, her boss. She pulled her hair up in a high ponytail. “Hair up or down?”
“Either way, you look great,” Charlotte said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Charlotte owned the Strawberry Fare Cafe where Carly had worked since finishing high school.
“What time is he coming?” Steph was the cafe’s resident baker. The three of them spent every day together, and it was no surprise that they had all become so close.
Carly glanced at her watch. “In fifteen minutes,” she squealed, jumping excitedly. Since connecting with NYJedi007 on the new dating site, Love is Blind, Carly’s days have been brighter, as it always was when one found a kind of love that fit. It was the easy kind. They’d hit it off instantly and she counted the days to when they might finally meet face to face. Today was that day.
“So let me get this straight,”—Steph stood with her hands on her hips—“you’ve never met him. You don’t know what he looks like or what his real name even is. Is that right?”
Carly nodded and felt her ponytail bounce off her neck.
“I don’t get it. Why not?” Steph scrunched her nose up.
“Those are the rules.” Carly pulled her hair loose. She turned to Charlotte. “Should I wear it down instead?”
Charlotte smiled at both women as she sipped her coffee. “Wear your hair any way you want to wear it, love. He’s fallen in love with your personality. Isn’t that the whole idea of this dating site?”
“Wait—what? You’re in love with someone you’ve never met?” Steph frowned. “That doesn’t sound right to me. What kind of nonsense is that?”
Carly cleared her throat. “So, it’s called Love is Blind, right? It goes by the premise that you fall in love with the person for their personality, rather than how they look. Unlike those other dating apps, where you put up a photo of yourself and swipe to show you like someone; well, with this one, you simply go over the person’s profile. No photos, real names, or any personal information. If you’re interested in the things they say they’re interested in, then you strike up a conversation by instant chat,” Carly explained.
Carly was tired of dating apps. She’d secretly tried the popular dating apps out, and it all seemed so superficial. All people wanted to do was to hook up. And maybe it was okay for others, but it didn’t quite do it for her. She wanted romance and old-fashioned chivalry. In saying that though, she did have a friend who met her husband through a dating app. So maybe it wasn’t all that bad. But Carly hadn’t been as lucky and simply put, she was sick of it.
All that thirty-two-year-old Carly Matthews wanted was to find someone to love and be loved in return. That wasn’t too much to ask for, was it? She wanted the kind of love that her parents had. A love so strong that it could withstand anything that stood in its way. Living in the small town of Willow Oaks, where everyone knows everyone, made it nearly impossible to meet the one.
“So you just email back and forth?” Steph leaned against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest. “In my day, those were called pen pals.”
Charlotte laughed out loud. “You make it sound like you’re a little old granny straight out of 1952.”
“Well, no, she’s right,” Carly said excitedly. “That’s exactly what it is! Pen pals of the digital kind. You should try it!” Carly turned to Steph. “But because it’s an instant chat, you don’t have to wait weeks for the mailman to deliver a note to your doorstep.”
“Uh-uh, no thank you. If the ol’ man up above thinks I should be a spinster, then so be it. I’m not going into some dating site to find a man. No, ma’am! He can come find me. Everyone knows I’m just in Willow Oaks.”
“Don’t pay her any mind,” Charlotte set her coffee down and laid a hand on Carly’s arm. “The only thing you need to know is that we’re here—and if he turns out to be some Norman Bates, psycho-type chap, then we’ll pounce on him. I’ve got the sheriff on speed dial.”
“No!” Carly protested. “You didn’t tell Sheriff Brad about it, did you?”
“I’m just teasing you, silly! You should’ve seen your eyes. I swear they were the size of dinner plates! Of course I didn’t tell the sheriff.” Charlotte laughed. “Okay, so what’s our plan? Any safe words or signals we should know?”
Carly furrowed her brows. With her luckless past, NYJedi007 might just turn out to be a weirdo. “Do you think he’d be a psycho?”
“Of course not—but there’s no harm in having a signal that we all agree on if you feel scared or put off and want us to pull you out of the situation.”
Steph scoffed. “The situation—being the one that you’d put yourself in.”
“Oh, Steph... give the girl a chance. At least she’s meeting here and not some place off the beaten track.”
“Fine,” Steph said. “But if he hurts you, then I swear I’m going to give him a beating like he’s never had before.”
Carly glanced at Charlotte and they both burst into laughter. Steph was about an inch or two shorter than Carly and couldn’t even bring herself to swat a mosquito.
“Okay, seriously now—what’s our plan?” Charlotte asked once more.
“I told him that I would be the one sitting at the table at the back of the cafe. I’ve popped a reserve sign on it so no one takes the table.”
“The back? Why the back?” Charlotte asked.
“In case I need you...” Carly grinned.
“Good plan.” Charlotte nodded. “Does he have some accessory to let you know that he’s your mystery man?”
“Nope. We just agreed that he’d come up to me when he gets here.”
“Where’s he coming from?” Steph asked.
Carly smiled from ear to ear. “The Big Apple.”
* * *
THE LAST THING THAT fifty-year-old Mick Myers ever thought he would do was to return to his hometown of Willow Oaks to meet a woman he’d met online.
When WillowCup717 finally told him that she was living in Willow Oaks, he felt a punch in his gut that forced out a groan. Of all the places in the United States of America, she had to be from Willow Oaks.
But it was too late to back out. They’d spent months getting to know each other. Their instant chat exchanges and emails were all that Mick looked forward to. He eagerly waited all day to open them up and read at bedtime—when he was most relaxed.
There was something about WillowCup717. It felt as if she understood him. She got him, and he got her. It was easy. Simple. Mick decided that he wouldn’t let the fact that she was from Willow stop him from meeting the woman that could well be the one of his dreams.
It had been a long flight, but he paid for a rental and drove straight from Eugene Airport anyway. Flying first class had its perks, and he managed to rest a bit in-flight.
Mick drove past many familiar places. He’d spent the first seventeen years of his life in Willow Oaks, and he knew it all too well.
He rarely returned to Willow. When he did, it was mostly for family reasons. About two years ago, he went back for his youngest brother’s wedding, which oddly enough, turned out to be his mother’s wedding. That had been a surprise. And then, three or four years before that, his sister and her husband renewed their wedding vows. Jenna and Dave were the perfect all-American couple of Willow Oaks.
This time, the reason for his return was certainly a different one. Mick shook his head at the absurdity of what he was doing. He couldn’t believe he was on his way to meet a woman he’d met online. But then again, wasn’t there a saying about people doing strange things for love?
Mick threw his head back. “You didn’t just say love,” he said aloud. After all, he thought, you haven’t even met her. Must be a sign of old age! Mick chuckled.
Mick turned the radio on, and Ed Sheeran’s voice came on. He gripped the steering wheel and felt the clamminess of his hands. He glanced at the rear-view mirror and ruffled his hair. Hues of salt and pepper gleamed back at him.
Mick slowed as he neared the Strawberry Fare Cafe on Main Street, where WillowCup717 suggested they meet.
There’s a lovely little cafe on Main Street called the Strawberry Fare Cafe, her message read. I’ll be the one at the table in the back. Would you like me to hold a flower in my hand or something cheesy like that? Just like they do in the movies, so you can tell it’s me? Haha!
Flower or no flower, I think my heart will know it’s you when I see you, he replied to her message. I’ll see you soon. xx His response was as cheesy as having a flower.
Mick chuckled to himself. The last six months exchanging chats and emails with WillowCup717, getting to know her, had been the best six months of his life. He woke up energized after a night of chatting online, and then would go about his day, eager to return home to someone—and whether it was in person or behind a computer screen, it was simply a minor detail.
Mick looked for a parking space. He knew the Strawberry Fare Cafe—in fact, he knew it well. The cafe owner, Charlotte, was his sister’s best friend. He’d known her since she was a little girl—just as he knew everyone else in town. While he would have preferred to meet somewhere else, Mick knew that regardless of where they went, the possibility of bumping into someone he knew just couldn’t be helped. He hoped instead that Charlotte wouldn’t be at the cafe.
He found a space across the road and parked up. Mick looked in the mirror once more and let out a slow and steady breath. This is it, he thought. He finger-combed his hair which, once black, was now speckled with strands of gray that stood out in the sun. You can do this.
The eldest of four siblings, Mick grew up with only the bare necessities. Desperate to get out of the small town, he’d worked hard and moved to New York City where, over time, he’d built a name—and an impressive fortune—for himself. What he didn’t plan on though was to be fifty-years-old with no one to share his life with. But this was it. This was definitely it. He could feel it in his bones. WillowCup717 was the one. “Let’s do this,” he told himself in the mirror and got out of the car.
Mick looked across the street where the Strawberry Fare Cafe sat proudly. The front of the cafe was painted a shade of green, and purple tables and chairs lined the sidewalk. Nothing about it, save for its name, paid homage to strawberries. Unsurprisingly, it hadn’t changed since he last saw it—as with just about everything in Willow. It was as if the town was frozen in time. But, despite his feelings about the town, Mick crossed the street with a skip in his step.
In there, he thought, is the love of my life.
He placed his hand on the door and peered in ever so slightly towards the back of the cafe. Mick froze.
No! It can’t be!
Sitting at the table towards the back was Carly Matthews. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Mick muttered. Little Carly Matthews.
Mick had known Carly since she was a baby. In fact, he attended her christening. Practically the whole town did. He had just turned what... sixteen? Seventeen? And by the time Carly had learned how to crawl, he’d already left home for New York—against his family’s wishes—to try and find himself.
Cradle-snatcher. That was the first thing that popped into Mick’s head when he saw her sitting there, looking out the window, throwing occasional glances towards the door.
He wondered if she had seen him. He could turn around and leave, just as if nothing had ever happened.
She didn’t have to know. No one needed to know about the foolishness of his actions. Most especially that he’d fallen for someone younger—much, much younger—and all through chat and email. “Well, done, Mick. You’ve outdone yourself this time. Absolutely ridiculous!” Mick swore under his breath.
Mick released his grip on the door handle and turned around. “This is stupid”, he mumbled. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and thumbed the car remote, setting off two chirps. There. He’d done it. He’d unlocked the door. He could get in and drive off as if nothing ever happened.
But he didn’t.