MidReal Story
Love's Crossroads
Scenario: I want a girlfriend.
Create my version of this story
I’ve always been a hopeless romantic.
It’s in my blood, and I can’t seem to help it.
I’m twenty-eight years old, single, and still searching for the love of my life.
I’m not picky, not by any means.
I’m just waiting for that special someone to come along and sweep me off my feet.
At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
The truth is, I’ve been in love exactly once, and I thought she was the one.
But as is often the case, reality had other plans for me.
Now, a year and a half after my last breakup, I’m ready to put myself back out there and start dating again.
I’ve set a goal for myself: find a girlfriend within the next year.
Of course, finding true love is the ultimate goal.
But there’s only so much one man can do.
A year is a reasonable amount of time to find someone who fits the bill, right?
Hold on, let me backtrack a little.
You see, I have this amazing best friend named Emily Roberts.
We met in college.
She has long, dark blond hair that falls in loose waves down her back and striking green eyes that are impossible not to get lost in.
Not to mention that she has the kind of perfect smile that could light up an entire room.
In short, she’s drop-dead gorgeous and could have any guy she wants.
Except when it comes to me, that is.
Because although Emily is beautiful—inside and out—we’re just friends.
Nothing more and nothing less.
And that’s perfectly fine with me.
She’s never looked at me as anything other than a brother.
Even when I’ve brought it up in the past and tried to convince her that we might be meant for each other, she’s remained steadfast in her belief that we’re just not meant to be in a romantic relationship together.
Our friendship means too much to her to risk ruining it by trying to take things to the next level.
And so, I’ve learned to live with that fact.
In fact, sometimes I think it’s made us even closer than we would have been otherwise.
She’s my rock.
My confidante and my best friend in the world.
She’s the first person I want to talk to when things go wrong—and the one I want to celebrate with when things go right.
So when I came home one day and told her that I was going to find a girlfriend within the next year, she was more than happy to help me come up with a plan of attack.
“Did you find a girlfriend today?”
she asks me from the couch where she’s curled up with a blanket pulled up over her legs.
“Not yet,” I say with a grin as I pull a beer from the fridge and drop onto the couch beside her—close enough that our bodies are touching slightly but not so close that it’s obvious I’m trying something.
She punches me in the arm, feigning offense at my flippant remark.
It’s not like it’s that easy,” she says with an exasperated sigh.
“I mean, it’s not like I have guys lined up around the block begging me to go out with them.”
“Yeah,” I say, rolling my eyes at her words.
“Just because you have guys lined up around the block begging you to marry them doesn’t mean you can’t go out on a few dates every now and then.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she says with a shake of her head as she reaches for the remote and turns the volume down on the television set where some sappy Hallmark movie is playing in the background.
“I’m not interested in dating right now,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders as she turns back toward me.
“Well maybe you already found the guy you’re in love with,” I tease her, knowing full well that there’s no one special in Emily’s life right now—at least not anyone she’d admit to being in love with.
“That’s highly unlikely,” she scoffs as she nudges my shoulder with hers.
“You know me better than anyone, Alex,” she continues.
“And you know I’m not the type of person who falls in love at the drop of a hat.”
I can’t help but laugh at her words because they’re so true.
She’s always been a hopeless romantic like me, and yet she’s never been good at finding love for herself.
At least, not in the long term.
I know she’s had plenty of boyfriends over the years.
Most of them have been terrible, and she’s broken up with them after the first or second date, never letting things get serious enough for them to break her heart.
But every once in a while, she finds a guy who seems like he might be worth her time, only to realize he’s nothing like she thought he was.
I’ve tried to set her up with a few different guys I know, but she always finds some excuse not to go out with them.
At first, I thought it was because she wasn’t attracted to them or she was still hung up on some other guy from her past.
But as time went on and no one was ever good enough for her, it became clear that those were just excuses to keep me from trying to set her up with someone else.
Besides, even if she did go out with someone, she’d be too focused on her writing to put any effort into making the relationship work.
And so, while part of me would love to see her find Mr.Right, another part of me knows that she’s better off staying single for now.
She’s too much of a romantic to settle for anything less than the best—and that’s fine by me.
“Well, you’re missing out,” I tell her with a shrug as I take a sip from my beer and pull my phone from my pocket.
“Maybe if you were a better liar, you might actually have a shot at finding love.”
“I’m not a liar, Alex.”
“Then why don’t you believe me when I say I’m going to find a woman who meets my standards?”
I ask as I unlock my phone and start scrolling through the photos of the women from earlier.
“Because your standards are ridiculous and everyone knows it.”
I scoff at her words.
“Everyone except for me, apparently.”
She rolls her eyes and sighs, aware that she’s not going to win this one.
I’ve been saying the same thing to her for years, but she still refuses to believe that there are beautiful, intelligent women out there who are interested in finding love as much as I am.
Though to be fair, most of the women I’ve met have turned out to be nothing more than a pretty face, which is why I’ve been single for so long.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who meets my standards—in fact, I’m convinced that there is.
And when I find her, Emily will be eating her words.
“So when are you going to give up on this hopeless quest of yours?”
she asks, a teasing smile on her lips as she reaches for her glass of wine.
“Not until I’ve found someone worth giving my heart to,” I tell her honestly, knowing that I won’t be happy until I’ve found my true love.
“Even if it takes forever?”
“It’s not like I have anything better to do with my time,” I remind her with a chuckle.
She shakes her head in amusement as she takes a sip of her wine.
“You’re impossible, you know that?”
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” I quip as I finish off my beer and set it down on the coffee table in front of us.
She rolls her eyes and takes another sip of her wine before turning to face me on the couch.
“If you want my advice—and let’s be honest, you probably don’t—you should stop searching for a woman who is only beautiful and start looking for someone with a little more substance,” she suggests.
I can’t help but scoff at her words because they’re exactly what I expected her to say.
For as long as I’ve known Emily, she’s always put more emphasis on what’s inside someone’s head rather than what’s on the outside.
And while I appreciate her input—and even agree with her to an extent—I know exactly what I want in a woman and I won’t be happy until I’ve found it.
The problem is that I’ve been looking for so long and have yet to find a woman who is both beautiful and intelligent.
I know they’re out there—Emily is living proof of that—but finding someone who meets my standards is easier said than done.
Besides, I don’t see why I can’t have both.
Is it really too much to ask?
“Are you saying you want someone like me?”
she asks with a playful smile as she scrunches up her face and bats her eyelashes at me.
I chuckle at her words and shake my head.
“I never said that.”
“Right,” she drawls out as she rolls her eyes and sips her wine.
“As if you could ever find someone as perfect as me.”
I can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of her words because they’re true in more ways than one.
As much as I hate to admit it, Emily really is perfect in every way.
And yet, as much as I would love to find someone just like her—someone who is beautiful and intelligent and loves me as much as I love her—I don’t know if that’s actually possible.
