Page 2 of Desire

“No, I’ll be fine. Azaria, it’s time to go now,” I called out.

She’d been sitting at one of the tables coloring while I spoke with her father.

“Okay. I see you tomorrow,” she told me as she hugged my legs.

“You sure will.”

I lowered myself to her level and hugged her. Mayor Harris apologized a few more times as I walked them to the main entrance. Once they were gone, I quickly got my things and left the building as well.

As I headed to my destination, I called my twin sisters, Destinee and Dream, on three-way to tell them my plans. I expected them to be shocked, so I was prepared for their comments.

“I only told y’all because I had to tell somebody, but if y’all tell Mama and Daddy, forget I’m your sister. Don’t tell your husbands either.”

“What do you expect us to do?” Destinee asked.

“Exactly! This is crazy!” Dream exclaimed.

I should’ve followed my first instinct and not said a word about what I was doing, but my sisters were my best friends, and we told each other everything. When I saw the ad for Arranged Hearts, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I’d just been stood up for the third time and was sick of dating men who didn’t think I was worth their time.

“I’ve been careful with every decision I’ve made in all my thirty-five years. For once, I’m taking a chance.”

“First of all, stop with the lies. I recall you doing some pretty off-the-wall shit,” Destinee said.

“Right! Like dropping out of law school to become a preschool teacher without telling our parents,” Dream added.

“Yep, and that time you snuck off with—” Destinee began before I interrupted her.

“Okay, okay! I don’t need any reminders of my occasional poor decision-making.”

“It’s more than occasional, but go off, sis,” Dream said.

“Listen, I’m just going to the interview, and I can still back out if I want to, but I don’t think I will.”

“Of course, you won’t,” Destinee mumbled.

“After the interview, things will move very quickly. I didn’t want the news to come out of nowhere.”

“It’s still out of nowhere, but whatever. Call us when it’s over and tell us what we need to do,” Dream offered.

“Okay, and don’t tell?—”

“We won’t!” they shouted simultaneously before ending the call.

“They’d better not,” I mumbled as I turned into the parking lot of my destination.

After turning off my car, I took deep breaths to calm my nerves and gave myself a pep talk.

“It’s not that serious, Desire. Arranged Hearts is an extremely reputable company with a ninety-seven percent success rate. I’m sure all their clients are good, well-established, successful, attractive people. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Now, let’s go find a husband!”

“Hello, Desire. I’m Savannah Bryant, and this is my husband, Nathan. Thank you for coming in for an interview. We usually conduct this interview virtually, but we just happened to be in town.”

“No problem. It’s great to meet you both in person.”

We shook hands, and I followed them into a conference room. They sat beside each other on one side of the long table while I sat across from Savannah.

“The bottle of water is for you,” Savannah stated, referring to the water in front of me in the center of the table. “Is there anything else we can get for you before we start?”

“No, thank you. The water is fine.”

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