CHAPTER 2

I woke up with a start as the alarm clock beside me blared out its harsh sound. With an annoyed grimace, I stabbed hard on the alarm clock and silenced it.

"How the fuck do you still work?" I asked confused as I stared at the old alarm clock I had used as a kid.

"God damnit." I cursed again when it was obvious that I wasn't going to get more sleep again.

I peeled the duvet off my body and climbed down the stairs to the kitchen and got some water. I returned to my room and while sipping the water, I took out my phone and found a message from my friend, Jess, back in college saying, "Hey girl, we are done with college and I think it's time you add some spice to your life. Check this out."

To complete her message was a link. Well, since it was coming from Jess, I had no hesitation about clicking it.

My face almost turned red from embarrassment when the content of the link loaded. The link had taken me straight to a Tinder account that belonged to me. I was both mortified and angry. How could Jess have done this?

Without a hint of hesitation, I dialed Jess' number and even though she answered on the third ring, it was as if she had taken forever to answer my call.

"What did you do?" I yelled into the phone.

Jess' throaty laugh filled my ears from the speaker of my phone. I was mad at her, but there was barely anything I could do to her now. We were miles apart and yelling at her on the phone wasn't going to change anything.

"I thought it was a great idea for you to start dating now," Jess said. Despite the laughter in her tone, I could also feel the love and care in her words.

My anger subsided a bit and I let out a tensed breath.

"Jess, but I never told you that I wanted to start dating. You shouldn't have done this." I said.

"Anna, are you listening to yourself? Have you seen yourself in these last few months? You look terrible. Since you broke up with Jeff, it was as if a part of you died." She said with so much indignation in her voice.

"But..." I began to say.

Instead, she hushed me and continued to talk. "No buts Anna. I understand that you may have loved him a lot and trusted him so much, but that isn't enough to get you feeling all low and down. You need something to brighten up your day and I believe that meeting new guys would help you get over Jeff." She said in conclusion.

I rolled my eyes and took a stare at myself in the mirror from my bed. I didn't look bad, but I didn't look as great as I had been months back before the breakup. I hate to admit it, but Jess was right. The betrayal from Jeff and Lina had destroyed my emotions in a way that I never thought possible.

I was still lost in thoughts when Jess' voice brought me out of my reverie.

"Do you promise me you are going to take a look at the profile and try to connect with a great guy?"

I was at a crossroad. I was already missing my friends from college and I knew that Jess was right about a part of me dying when I caught Jeff cheating, but I wasn't ready to get into a relationship yet.

"Anna please." She pleaded again. This time, I could hear the pain in her voice.

"Okay, fine. I would go through the profiles. But I am not making any promises about falling in love with the men there." I said.

"No problem girl. If you don't fall in love with any of the men, at least, give yourself a chance to have some great sex. You deserve it." She said with a chuckle.

Her words brought a grin to my face. Shortly after, I ended the call and went through the profile she had created for me. True to her words, there were a lot of great profiles. Swipe after each swipe, I saw handsome men wanting to get into a relationship. But nothing really drew my attention to them. For reasons I couldn't place my hands on, I wasn't tickled by these men the way I had been tickled by Jeff.

"Arg!! Stop thinking about him." I yelled to my brain.

When it was clear that I wasn't going to take the thoughts of the man away from my head, I grunted and left my room. Maybe it was time for me to do something productive and not just sit here and look through handsome men's profiles in the hope that it was going to make me forget the man who broke my heart.

The moment I got out of my bedroom, I already knew where my mom was going to be. The delicious smell of bread baking and bacon cooking filled the house. A wide grin appeared on my face as I walked to the kitchen briskly.

I was a few steps away from the kitchen when I heard my mom saying, "But she needs to get married."

"I think Jonathan is a great fit for her. I am going to finalize my discussion with his dad today." My father replied.

Who were they talking about? I wondered. My parents have always had a thing for young people getting married early.

"But what if Anna doesn't like him?" My mother asked.

"Trust me, she would. He was her childhood friend and if she insist that she won't get married to him then I would cut her off. We are her parents and we know what's best for her." My father said with a note of finality in his tone.

Now, I was already at the door of the kitchen, I could see and hear my parents.

I don't know when the gasp escaped from my throat, but when it did, there was no going back. My parents both turned around and stared at me.

I stared back hard and I couldn't believe that they wanted to force me to get married to a guy I barely knew.