*****
Chapter 1 — Losing Hope
Wednesday Evening in Late May.
“You have no idea how bad it is out there, Mom.”
Kim seriously doubted her daughter’s dramatic declaration.
“I’m serious, Mom!” Stacy raised her voice, emphasizing her words as a result of her mother’s silence. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
“It can’t possibly be that bad.”
“It can’t be that bad?” Stacy asked from her seat at the kitchen table. Her raised eyebrows reflected her disgust with her mother’s remark. “Um…you have no idea what you’re talking about. Dating in 2021 is literally the worst thing ever.”
Kim took a quick peek back at the kitchen table before checking the chicken in the oven. What started as an uneventful decision to make homemade chicken tortilla stacks for dinner, had somehow resulted in her listening to her daughter rant about how tough her life was. The problem was that Kim didn’t have the heart to be brutally honest.
What in the world did her daughter have to complain about? Stacy was gorgeous! The blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty possessed a naturally slim figure, and her little breasts and perky butt provided Kim with a daily reminder that her own youth was well behind her. Where did a twenty-year-old college girl find the nerve to complain about anything? It was absurd!
And what was her daughter’s biggest gripe? That the never-ending line of hunks vying for her attention didn’t live up to her ridiculous expectations? She should try being married for twenty-two years! Then, she would have something to complain about!
“Young guys tend to be a little rough around the edges,” the forty-two-year-old mom told her daughter. “It doesn’t mean they aren’t any good, though.”
“No, Mom, they’re awful,” Stacy promised. “Trust me, they really are.”
“How so?”
Stacy didn’t know where to start. She had so many problems with boys her age. “Okay, Bella started dating this guy a few months ago, and all she does is bitch about him. Guess what he does pretty much all day?”
Kim joined her daughter at the kitchen table after discovering that the chicken still needed another ten minutes in the oven. “What does he do?”
“He smokes weed and plays video games,” Stacy said, disgusted. “It’s not just him, though. Cindy’s boyfriend is the exact same, and those two have been dating since high school. Guys never change, Mom!”
“Those guys are only twenty,” Kim laughed. “I’m sure they’ll grow up.”
Stacy had her doubts regarding Mom’s confidence. “I’m fairly certain that the guys in my generation are excluded from maturity. Even some of the older ones I’ve talked to all act like they’re still in high school. It’s so frustrating, you know? Why is it so hard to find a great boyfriend?”
“What about those dating apps that all you kids use?”
Stacy immediately rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, they’re so awful. The guys on there are pigs. Pigs!”
“I’m not sure what to tell you then, honey. It’s not like you’re forty, though, okay? Being single at twenty isn’t a big deal. I’m sure you’ll find a great guy when you least expect it, and then you’ll look back and laugh at how much stress you added to your life by worrying about stuff that’s out of your control.”
Suddenly, Stacy had a realization. She couldn’t believe it either. “You’ve never told me about how you met Dad.”
“I haven’t?” Kim asked, surprised that such a topic had never come up during one of their girl talks.
“Wait a minute!” Stacy gasped, her tone dripping in drama. “What if this is the answer to everything? What if it’s exactly what I’m looking for?”
Kim couldn’t possibly be more confused.
“Okay, so we both know that Dad’s the greatest guy ever,” Stacy said, pointing out the obvious in order to get on the same page with her mother.
Surprisingly, Kim’s confusion grew. “What?”
“Dad’s the greatest guy ever,” Stacy repeated, staring across the table, stone-faced. “So, I need to know everything about how you guys met. That way, I can totally meet a guy just like Dad!”
“You think that Dad’s the greatest guy ever?”
This time, it was Stacy who appeared baffled. “Um…is even that debatable?”
“Is it debatable that your father is the greatest guy ever?” Kim laughed. “Yeah, I think so.”
Stacy didn’t laugh, grin, or even crack a smirk. No, she didn’t understand the reason for her mother’s guffaw whatsoever. “Mom, Dad is pretty much every woman’s dream guy.”
Kim burst into laughter.
“He is!” the young blonde declared passionately, raising her voice to express her thoughts in the suddenly lively kitchen. “Millions of women would leave their husbands in a heartbeat to replace you.”
“What!? No, they wouldn’t!”
“Yes, they would!” Stacy shot back, refusing to entertain her mother’s asinine opinion. “Let’s look at the facts. Dad’s handsome, super fit, smart, kind, caring, hilarious, and a total workaholic. He busts his bust at work to give us a great life, and then he comes home and takes care of stuff around the house too. He’s unbelievable!”
Kim certainly didn’t see things the same way. Yes, Peter was still good-looking and fit; and yes, he worked hard to earn a good living. Her daughter seemed to exaggerate the rest of his traits, however. Peter felt a little neurotic to her at times. He could never relax. Her husband always needed to do something, and his refusal to sit still had grown exhausting over the years. Oddly, she wouldn’t mind a hubby on the lazy side. At least she wouldn’t be bitched at for not cleaning five days a week–right before he vacuumed the house the moment he returned home from work.
“Are you seriously going to pretend otherwise?” Stacy asked with her eyebrows raised. “Come on, Mom. There’s a reason why you stay in such good shape, after all.”
Would it be safe to say that Kim felt insulted by her daughter’s latest comment? She’d quit her job as a realtor last year at Peter’s encouragement. An early promotion resulted in him earning more money than either of them ever imagined, so she was given the option to continue working or not. It wasn’t a permanent decision, though. Maybe she would take a few years off before rejoining the workforce? Or perhaps she would find a less stressful job when a desirable opportunity presented itself? The one title that she refused to be labeled as was a trophy wife, but Stacy had basically called her that moments ago.
She worked hard in the gym for herself. So what if she loved to exercise? Peter’s financial success had nothing to do with her decision to keep herself in great shape, and she didn’t appreciate her appearance substituting for her real value as both a mom and a wife.
Stacy struggled to understand why Mom looked so insulted. Wasn’t spending six days a week in the gym part of the gig? Lord knows that she was jealous of her mother’s youthful glow and perfect butt, and don’t even get her started on her boobs either. They’re so much bigger than hers! Her wavy brown hair flowed past her shoulders, her blue eyes sparkled, and her skin remained void of wrinkles or any signs of aging. Mom was a knockout!
And that was the way things should operate in Stacy’s opinion. Dad deserved to return home to a gorgeous woman each and every day. He was entitled to a king’s treatment, after all.
“Your father has plenty of flaws,” Kim disclosed.
“Is working too hard considered a flaw? Or maybe he’s too generous and loving? Actually, he probably spends too much time in the gym? Yeah, he’d be much better with a beer belly, right, Mom?”
Kim laughed to herself while reflecting on Stacy’s long-standing obsession with Peter. They really were two peas in a pod, weren’t they? Peter spoiled their daughter rotten, Stacy viewed him as Superman, and the world kept on spinning. It shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to hear just how enamored her daughter was with him.
“Tell me how you two met,” Stacy got things back on track. “That way I know what to look for when I try to find a guy like Dad.”
She had a feeling that her daughter wouldn’t be so lovestruck after learning the details of their courtship. “I met up with my girlfriend at her parents’ house because we were planning to go out that night, when her brother returned home just before we left. He had his friend with him.”
“Was his friend Dad?”
“Yep, his friend was Dad,” Kim nodded as she took herself back to her youth. It’d been an awfully long time since she revisited anything that happened over two decades ago. “Somehow, they convinced us to tag along with them to a house party they were headed to.”
Stacy jotted down notes in her head. Apparently, spectacular men could be found in the least likely places. Dad used to party back in the day? Really? She’d never even seen him drink alcohol.
“So, we went to the house party with them,” Kim continued. “Now, things got a little rowdy as the night progressed. A bunch of the guys were extremely drunk, and some football player grabbed my butt while I made my way to the bathroom.”
This wasn’t the romantic tale that Stacy had imagined.
“I freaked out. Usually, I would just ignore a guy if he did something like that, but I think I was a little buzzed too. I ended up making a way bigger deal out of it than I should’ve.”
“Mom, some strange guy grabbed your butt,” Stacy reminded her. “It’s not out of line to freak out. Heck, I would!”
An unfamiliar sense of embarrassment consumed the forty-two-year-old mom after she recalled the way that she’d made herself the center of attention. It was a reaction she would never dream of replicating at her current age.
“Guess who stepped in when I really started screaming at this guy?”
“Who?” asked Stacy.
“Dad.”
Stacy’s heart stopped beating. “Oh my God, Dad came to your defense!?”
“Um…you could say that,” Kim chuckled. “He got in the football player’s face, and when that guy shoved him, Dad knocked him out.”
Stacy gasped.
“It was wild,” Kim told her stunned daughter. “The craziest part was how none of his teammates confronted your father. It was like they didn’t want to mess with him.”
Of course not! How couldn’t her mother see what she saw? Dad really was Superman!
“So, like twenty minutes later, I’m getting a beer when I suddenly feel someone squeeze my butt.”