Hang in there? Kendra’s words kept replaying in Juliette’s head as she left Cuppy Cakes and walked homeward. Here she was, in her twenties, feeling like an old, abandoned spinster. Was there a man out there for her? A guy she could give her heart to without it eventually being trampled on?

Emotions welled. Loneliness was eating her alive. How pathetic. Other women craved independence, careers, and the power to be perfectly complete inside and out without a man in their lives. She wasn’t one of them.

Juliette turned the corner on South Park Avenue. Where was she supposed to meet this one and only?

Wham!

A body collided with hers.