Perfect Match

Hannah closed her eyes and sighed. “I’ll get back to you. I need to go.”

“Of course you do. You always have something more important to do than worry about us.”

Hannah disconnected and put her phone away, wishing she could do the same with her parents’ troubles and her sister’s false accusations. She knew what Abigail said wasn’t true, but her words hurt anyway. Hannah wanted to be the one to rescue them, and she couldn’t. She wanted them to be proud of her, but after graduating from law school she’d ended up with a mountain of debt and no job prospects, and starting her own company was her last-ditch effort. She was getting some clients but not enough to meet all of her financial obligations. Her father’s brave smile burned in her memory.

She knew her parents tried to protect her from all their worries, but she’d seen the strain in her mother’s eyes and her father had lost a lot of weight. She felt like such a disappointment. When her father had gotten injured on the job, everything changed overnight. She’d been comfortable with the life her family had planned for her. She would work in her uncle’s prosperous business, get her degree in business management and perhaps own it one day. But that all changed. She’d returned home from school one day and seen her mother drop the phone and crumble to the floor. She had rushed over to her.

“Is it father?”

“Yes.”

“Is he okay?” she asked hesitantly.

“No, he’s badly injured.”

After her father was hospitalized for over six weeks and had undergone months of physical therapy, they learned that the company he worked for refused to pay for his loss of wages and inability to hold a job. While the lawyer they hired had helped get some compensation for her father, he hadn’t been aggressive enough, and her father ended up having to apply for permanent disability, three lawyers later. That’s when Hannah decided her new path. She gave up her dream of getting an MBA and running an office. Instead, she’d get justice. She remembered the shock on everyone’s face when she told them her plans, but no one would stop her.

She saw what a lawyer could do and knew then that that was what she wanted to strive for. She wanted to use the law to help people get justice. But now she had a law degree, and she couldn’t help the ones she cared about the most. Her parents had left Nigeria and worked hard so that she and Abigail could have all the opportunities they couldn’t. They had sacrificed for the American Dream, only to be faced with having it all slip away.

Her cell phone rang again and pulled her from her thoughts. She glanced at the number and groaned. It was Jacob. She couldn’t deal with him now. She still felt guilty about their last meeting, when she’d halted several feet from her apartment door trying to figure out how best to handle the man who stood before her holding a bouquet of flowers.

Hannah thought of running but he’d already seen her, so she inwardly groaned and then plastered on a smile and walked toward him. “Jacob, you shouldn’t have,” she recalled saying to him.

He extended his arm and handed her the flowers. They were beautiful, but the sight of them depressed her. She’d told him that their relationship was over, but he still carried hope and no rebuffs, no matter how hard she tried, could convince him otherwise. He still remembered her and sent her expensive cards on holidays and her birthday. “I told you to stop this.”

“I knew you’d be upset about your dad’s health scare so I wanted to cheer you up.”

It was a likely story, but Hannah didn’t completely believe him. “That doesn’t matter.”

“Okay, I promise. No more flowers.”

“Or cards, or teddy bears, or baskets or...”

“Okay,” he said, flashing a crooked grin. His smile was both shy and friendly at the same time, and it was one of the reasons she’d fallen for him in the first place. She’d been attracted to his vulnerability. “I get the hint.”

Hannah wiped her forehead in an exaggerated gesture of relief. “At last.”

“How’s your dad?”

“He’ll be out of the hospital tomorrow.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I care about them like they’re my own parents.”

Hannah hesitated and then opened her door and turned to him. “They know that, and I’m sure they’d love to see you.”

“I needed to see you first.”

Hannah rested against the door frame and shook her head. “Jacob, don’t do this.”

“You know how I feel.”

“I really wish you didn’t.”

“I can’t help it.”

“You haven’t given yourself a chance to. There are many women out there, all much better than me, who deserve a great guy like you.”

Jacob hung his head a moment and then smiled at her. “Perhaps if you say that enough times I’ll start to believe you.”

“Good, because I won’t stop.”

“So I still don’t have a chance?”

“I’m going now.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Because you already know my answer, and it’s not going to change. Thanks for the flowers.”

“I’d give you a whole lot more if you’d let me.”

“Goodbye, Jacob,” Hannah said and then closed the door. She set the bouquet on the side table in the foyer and then collapsed on her couch. It had been a hectic day, and she didn’t want to end it thinking about how her life may have been different if she’d married Jacob as everyone had expected her to.

She would have lived a life of privilege. Jacob Omole’s family was very politically connected in Nigeria and enjoyed state dinners and mingling with the upper crust of society both in Nigeria and among the diplomatic core in Raleigh and D.C., where his parents frequently visited. She’d started dating him in high school. Their families were close. Marriage seemed inevitable to everyone but her. When she’d completed her undergraduate degree she had opted to study abroad in Tanzania, where she worked in a microloan office helping provide needed counseling to women hoping to start a business. Upon returning to the United States she worked as a paralegal for a legal aid program in a poor town in Georgia, where she saw the law work to impact lives. She had had an opportunity to see a bigger world and had larger dreams for her life than the one others had prescribed for her. She chose to follow her heart. Now she just wished she didn’t feel so guilty because of it.

Hannah put her phone away, also dismissing the memories of Jacob. She then stumbled over to a park bench and sank into it, feeling as if she was being crushed by the weight of the world. Pain, raw and primitive in its intensity, spread through her, overwhelming her until her throat felt dry and her eyes were blinded by tears. She covered her face and sobbed.

“Hey! I didn’t expect to see you here,” an exuberant deep voice said from above her.

Her head snapped up and she saw a large, blurry dark figure. She quickly wiped her tears away so she could see him better. The light behind him put him in shadow. She squinted up at him. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s good to see you again.” He took a seat beside her.

As she brought his face into focus, she realized it was very good to see him, as well. She found herself staring into the caring brown eyes of a handsome man: the man of her dreams.

Chapter 2

He smiled. “How have you been?”

Hannah frowned, wondering why this stranger was smiling so warmly at her. “I’m afraid you’ve got me confused with someone else,” she said, hating to admit it but needing to be honest.

He shook his head. “Impossible. I never forget a pretty face.”

Hannah’s frown deepened. She was certain she didn’t look pretty now with her eyes and nose red from crying. Was he crazy? He didn’t look it. He wore a casual pair of khakis, a dark red polo shirt and a gray wool coat draped over one shoulder.

Hannah held up her hand. “How many fingers do you see?”

“Five.”