Page 1 of The Best Friend Problem
Chapter One
Men sucked. And Prudence Carlson didn’t mean that metaphorically.
Her last date had literally sucked her finger into his mouth five minutes after they met. She supposed he was trying to be sensual, licking the bit of whipped cream she’d scooped up from her hot cocoa, but it had just creeped. Her. Out.
And left her with no whipped cream.
He’d been the latest disappointment in a long line of horrible dates. Which was why she’d deleted all her dating apps and sworn off men for good.
After a string of shallow high school relationships—the best of which lasted all of six months—dozens of bad first dates, and Terrence the Terrible, her ex who was supposed to be The One but after two years together, left her the second he got a shiny job offer halfway across the country…she was done.
Admittedly, that wasn’t entirely fair of her. Terrence had offered her the chance to move with him, but at the time, she’d been starting up her own business with her friends. A move wasn’t in the plan, and long distance hadn’t appealed to either of them.
I can’t pass up this opportunity, Pru.
But he could pass up on her. On their future.
Whatever. She was over it. Over him.
Now, anyway.
It had taken almost eight months and an entire store’s worth of rocky road ice cream to navigate that rocky road of abandonment. But when she’d jumped back into the dating game, her heart just hadn’t had any trust in romance.
Even her parents, rest their souls, most days had been so wrapped up in each other, they’d completely forgotten they had a daughter.
Pru tugged on her ponytail, adjusting the perfect hairstyle. There was no sense in focusing on the past. Paying the “what if” game only led to heartbreak. If Pru wanted to achieve her goals, she had to think about the future, her heart’s desire.
Too bad she needed a guy to get her heart’s desire.
“No,” she spoke to herself in her empty bedroom. “I don’t need a guy. I just need his…stuff.”
Glancing at the binder in her lap, she turned the page she’d been staring at for the past ten minutes, jotting down her notes in the yellow notepad at her side. Page after page of pictures, facts, bios, and health histories filled her brain, each one going onto the pros and cons checklist she was compiling so she could select the perfect candidate. The perfect donor.
The perfect second set of DNA for my baby.
Ever since she’d received her first baby doll at seven, Pru knew she wanted to be a mother, to have a family. One like the families she saw on TV. They always looked so happy and loving. Logically, she knew they were all actors playing roles and that family problems didn’t get solved in half an hour with a laugh track behind you. Still, art imitated life, right? It had to exist.
And since she’d never had anything like that, she’d create one herself.
A family.
Something she lost too young. The void in her heart, the aching, yawning hole, had gotten smaller over the years, filled by her loving great-aunt and wonderful friends, but it hadn’t disappeared completely. She didn’t think it ever would, but she knew creating her own family would help. Start something new—wasn’t that what life was all about?
At one time, she thought she could start that family with Terrence, but…
Whatever. That ship sailed long ago. He hadn’t been The One like she’d thought.
The One is just a silly fairy tale used to sell movies and merchandise.
Great Aunt Rose’s oft-spoken words rang loudly in her head, as if the woman were sitting right beside her on the creaky ten-year-old mattress instead of resting peacefully in Fairmount Cemetery. A sharp pang struck her chest, dead center.
“Miss you, Auntie Rose.”
The silent room didn’t answer, but she didn’t expect it to. Pru didn’t believe in anything as silly as ghosts. Her best friend, Finn, had given her the nickname Practical Pru, and she supposed it fit. Better than wishing on stars and hoping your dreams came true. If you wanted something, you had to work hard and make it happen.
“And that is exactly what I’m doing.” She glanced at the new information on the page she’d just turned. “With the help of one of you generous gentlemen, of course.”
The whole traditional way to get a family hadn’t been working for her. And who said a family had to look like Even Stevens? Families came in all shapes and sizes. So she couldn’t find or trust a man to stay by her side through thick and thin. So what? If she wanted a baby, there were advances in science and guys willing to fill a cup for fifty bucks.
