Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15776 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 79(@200wpm)___ 63(@250wpm)___ 53(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15776 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 79(@200wpm)___ 63(@250wpm)___ 53(@300wpm)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
chapter one
Millicent Huxley
Meeting Gladis Horner has been… interesting to say the least. We met over a year ago at a charity function for the Savannah Group Home and we’ve had coffee at least once a week since then. I’ve even had dinner with her and her family several times. I love how her husband, Henry, loves her so freaking much. He hides nothing. He’s always finding ways to touch her or kiss her no matter who is in the room. She’s one of my best friends even though she’s thirty years older than me.
“Come on dear. You have to let me fix you up,” she says, just like she always does. Gladis owns the HeartStrings Dating Service. She claims to have a nearly perfect record. When it comes to matchmaking, Gladis is the best of the best. I have no reason to doubt her skills, but I’m focused on my career right now. My family owns Huxley Studios, headquartered in Atlanta, but I don’t spend a lot of time there. I’m in the Children and Family programming in Savannah, but I’m beyond ready to move on to more adult content. I love rom-coms and love stories in general, but my father, the current CEO, still treats me like a little girl. Despite being twenty-three, he doesn’t even want me to go to premieres of those kinds of movies.
“Oh, Gladis, you know I’m not ready to date,” I tell her. I’ve never been on a date. I’ve never even been kissed, so obviously I’m still a virgin. Currently, my parents are pushing for me to marry Connor Forsythe which I would never do. Before meeting Gladis, I would have done whatever they told me to do. As a people pleaser, it’s hard to say no to people but now I have the courage to do some things. If only I could assert myself in the boardroom, I’d be okay.
“I’ll keep trying, girl. You don’t need a man to succeed in life, but trust me, they make things better.”
I laugh because what else can I do?
After another thirty minutes in the coffee shop, I head to my parent’s house, for our obligatory Saturday lunch, because they are just too social to schedule family dinners. The vibe in the house is weird as soon as Molly, the housekeeper, lets me in. Molly, the jolliest person, I know, loses her smile the instant she sees me.
“Oh, Millie.”
“Oh, no. What is it Molly?” Molly and I used to hang out every day after school from kindergarten until I graduated from high school while my parents worked, and my brothers were in college or already working.
“He’s here.”
“He, who?”
“That Forsythe cad.” Molly is from London, and I think she thinks it's 1813. I groan and roll my eyes.
“Why are they pushing this hard?”
“I don’t know Millie, but you can’t marry than man,” she whispers as she takes my purse. I kiss her cheek and thank her before taking a deep breath, trying to clear my head. I can already tell this is going to suck. The thing about my family is that we all appear cold and distant. The press paints us this way. While it’s true in business, our family life is much different. My parents Virgil and Margene, are completely in love. They’ve been married for twenty-five years but together for thirty-one. My oldest brother Michael is thirty. He’s followed by Stephen who is twenty-eight. I’m the youngest at twenty-two. Both of my brothers are happily married with three kids each. My parents arranged their marriages with other production studio families, and they are trying to do the same for me. I know they think I’d be happy with Connor like my brothers are happy with their wives, but I know I won’t be. Connor gives me the freaking creeps.
Michael, and his wife Sasha, are expecting their fourth child. She’s barely showing. I can hear them whispering in the front closet. It’s a huge room where we store coats during parties. It’s dark, but I’m about to greet them when I realize my brother is fucking her against the furthest wall. I shake my head in disgust and back away. I continue further into the house. Stephen and Becky have all six kids in the family room. They are playing charades. I wave and sit down on the couch. Immediately, six kids, aged 10 to 3, pile drive me into the couch.
“Aunt Millie!” They squeal and giggle in unison. I hug and kiss them all before they go back to their game. Becky is sitting on Stephen’s lap, off in their own little world. Sure, I want that one day, but I want to be in love when I get married, not pray that I fall after the fact.
They ignore me, but I don’t expect anything less when they are like this.