Free More Flirts! 5 Romantic Short Stories (The Flirts! Short Stories Collections) by Lisa Scott

but feel happy—and hopeful, too. Maybe Aubrey would find her own happy ending when this was all over.
     
    ***
     
    After cruising the mall and buying nothing, she went home and decided to call it a day. It was Friday night and she should have plans to go out and paint the town red. But the palette in her mind only featured dull, muddy shades. No red. No sparkles. All her friends had boyfriends, and calling her therapist to meet her at a bar would be a new low. Kyla had called to check on her, and Aubrey left a message telling her she was seeing an ex. Which was sort of true. She had seen some exes that week. Solo for the night, she made some popcorn and snuggled up to watch some favorite old movies and swoon over the happy endings. She couldn’t help but think of Ian’s happy ending and how she should be pleased for him. But she wasn’t. Not at all. She lay in bed thinking about the time they spent a week on the beach in Maine, and when they shared their first kiss on the swan boats at Boston Public Gardens, and how he’d always make her hot chocolate from scratch with a curl of dark chocolate on top. Did he do that for Monica, too?
     
    ***
     
    Aubrey got up early Saturday morning for her trip to Vermont. Simon hadn’t returned her emails, but her Internet search had revealed that he’d just been elected mayor of the small town he moved to, and would be appearing at their Winterfest that weekend. This is not stalking , she told herself the entire ride there. She merely noticed he was making a public appearance and she was the public, right? She had every right to stop by and say hi, even if it was four hours out of her way.
    She was prepared to hear whatever criticisms Simon had to share about her. He was ten years older than her. The oldest guy she’d ever dated. Maybe he had good insight into what went wrong—because something certainly had gone wrong. After he’d broken up with her, he’d refused to return her calls. Three years later, was he ready to reveal the truth?
    She parked at the festival grounds and got herself a cotton candy and some hot chocolate as she tried to find Simon. Finally, she spotted him in the gazebo, shaking hands with his constituents.
    He looked up, caught her gaze—and ran! The line of people waiting to meet him, looked over to see what had frightened him.
    “Hello.” She waved her cotton candy stick at them, trying to act like it was totally normal that a grown man had just spotted her—and fled like she was a bounty hunter. Aubrey saw Simon run into a building hosting a craft show. She threw out her food and followed him inside. “Simon?”
    He didn’t answer, but she saw someone standing behind a display of spring wreaths for sale.
    “Simon, I know you’re there. I just want to ask you a few questions, then I’ll leave.”
    He stepped out from behind the display. “A few questions. Of course.” He laughed in a semi-hysterical way. “That’s what you do best, isn’t it? Questions.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “See? Another question.”
    She walked toward him and he grabbed a wreath, holding it between them like a shield.
    “Are you going to attack me with that?”
    “No. Just leave. Please don’t ask any questions.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    Simon’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding, right?”
    “No,” she said.
    “My election for the school board back in West Roxbury?”
    She clasped her hands in front of her. “I’m so sorry you lost. I tried to help.”
    Simon set down the wreath. “I lost because of your help! You used video of me dressed up like a nun on Halloween, asking if voters wanted a school board member who wouldn’t put up with any nunsense. I was dressed in a habit holding a ruler, Aubrey.”
    “I wanted it to go viral, get your name out there.”
    “It did go viral! I lost the entire Catholic vote. I had to move out here just to get elected to a public office.”
    Aubrey clenched her jaw. You will not