Free Love.com by Karolyn Cairns Page A

bubbles aside to expose her naked chest in the water. She might not be of huge Tabitha-like proportions, but she had boobs too. She just needed the right bra to make them stand up and get noticed. That was it! Lord knew she had enough of them! One hundred and thirty-two bras were in her possession at last count. This obsession with underwear could work to her advantage now.
    Emily frowned, still upset she lingered on some means to gain Ian’s attention; even after discovering he was the disgusting pig her mother would have called him. She hated herself for clinging to his perfect image, even after it shattered.
    Was she really this pathetic? Anger coursed through her to know he didn’t give her one passing thought. He was nice to her at work, charming, but that was his personality. She couldn’t recall him ever getting personal or lead her on.
    No, she had gotten personal all on her own, weaving an imaginary romance about them that wasn’t there, would never be there. She bit her lip as futile feelings of longing coursed through her. But no more, she thought with determination. No more would she be Emily the Ugly Duckling. She was going to be Emily the Beautiful Swan if it killed her.

Chapter Seven
     
    Emily threw herself into her work as the weeks passed, and her diet, hardly noticing when her lunches of Diet Coke and a tub of yogurt yielded a nother fifteen-pound weight loss. The fact she didn’t eat much else wasn’t lost on her. She knew such behavior was borderline anorectic, but she had no appetite, grieving over Ian daily.
    She stood in shock in her bathroom that morning as she stared at the navy suit that now hung on her, disbelief in her expression.
    The s cales didn’t lie. She hopped on the digital scale with relief in her expression. The near-starvation and working out was finally yielding positive results. She felt buoyed by her present success.
    She now had the nerve to accept a date from Bachelor#1, as she called him. His name was actually Gregg. He was an avid golfer, liked quiet nights with a good wine. He was a service manager at a local car dealership. His profile said he was looking for the woman of his dreams to share further adventures with.  He was handsome, witty, and worked out three times a week.
    Emily felt little caution emailing him back. They were meeting for drinks that night at an upscale eatery not far from her office. She felt a twinge of dismay to realize she looked nothing like the picture on her profile.
    Still, once Gregg met her, he would see she was the woman of his dreams. Emily basked in these thoughts as she went about her daily work, imagining a whirlwind romance, a quiet civil ceremony at the court house on their wedding day, with only friends and family in attendance. Gregg would save her from this void she fell into, she was sure of it.
    That night when she entered the restaurant, Emily was relieved she arrived early. She used the time to soothe her nerves while she waited for Gregg. She took a table in the rear with full view of the front door. She ordered a glass of white wine and waited, fidgeting as she second-guessed this date for the hundredth time that day.
    While she waited for Gregg, she allowed herself to dwell upon the uneventful day at work. She saw little of Ian. He was doing some other work for Ambidor . He was in and out of the office. Her team took that time to inundate her with every mundane thing they could think of.
    Desiree demanded more time off to see her family. Ed wanted a bigger office. Lenny whined someone stole his lunch again from the lounge. Tabitha hounded her for the press releases for the artwork. Evan breezed in from his business luncheon with Stu and other clients, hardly thanking her for covering for him while he was gone. Who was she kidding? Ian’s absence that day distressed her, denied the pining she did on the daily. She was frustrated to not see him, as if he was the sole reason she was there.
    Emily was sure the date was just