The Perfect Someday (A standalone novel ~ Book three in The Mathews Family) by Beverly Preston Page A

voice, her thoughts reaching deep into her childhood recollections. “Do you remember when we were little and we would spend hours building card houses with dad?”
    There was a change in JC’s expression. A teary-eyed softness teetering somewhere between understanding and sorrow at the mention of their father. She nodded. “We used to fight over the well-worn cards. They were the best. If you got stuck with the shiny cards, you knew your house would be the first to crumble.”
    Tracy agreed with a small nod. “I’ve turned into the shiny deck of cards. Giovanni was so put together, but not perfect and the layers of texture only made him more interesting to me. He was really smart, but not…”
    “But not a walking Wikipedia? He didn’t try to impress you by acting all intellectual?”
    Tracy’s head bobbed up and down, tugging her trembling lip between her teeth trying to hold back more tears. “I feel like my bottom card has been yanked out from underneath me. I can’t find balance.”
    “Look, I get it. I was there that night and I saw how he kissed you. But the horrible fact still remains, he didn’t call. Aren’t you the one who believes that people come into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime? Maybe he came into your life to show you a good time, sis. Show you how it can be, so you don’t lower your standards. And you know what mom preaches, Never Settle!”
    “What if I never find another man who makes me feel that good?”
    “You’re never going to find another man who makes you feel the same way…unless you put yourself out there. Mr. Perfect isn’t gonna just fall like a star from the sky. Now, get dressed! There’s at least three ski resorts in a five-mile radius full of hot men. Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs to find prince charming.”
     
     
     
     

    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Depending upon whose standards she followed, Tracy definitely kissed her fair share of frogs over the next year. Although JC argued, stating three frogs in one year, including the two she hand-picked for her sister over Christmas, was hideous by any single woman’s calculations.
    Tracy still yea rned for an answer as to why he never called, but no longer dwelled on The Italian as she preferred to refer to him now. She took steps to get her life back in order and gain control of emotions, starting with getting back to the gym and school.
    After quitting her job at the library, she decided not to go back to work. Instead, she obstructed her pain with a grueling class schedule and rigorous workout routine. Tracy gave it her all, striving for excellence. If she received anything less than an “A” there was an internal hell to be paid. Occasionally she tossed her laptop aside to catch a movie or get together with friends, but these instances were rare and followed by guilt for abandoning her studies.
    Everything collided her last semester. Achievements she should’ve been proud of, like being the first woman in her family to graduate college and being at the top of her class, became suffocated in perfection. She graduated magna cum laude, but at a cost.
    Graduating seemed easy compared to answering the loaded question everyone asked, “What do you plan to do next?”
    After pushing herself so hard, small cracks of imperfection began to grow into giant crevices. Tracy began to realize that the tiny imposing inscription of perfection added to her diploma, failed to impress employers.
    Trepidation loomed heavily and the idea of failing terrified her. Tracy was ready to embrace her future, but for someone who majored in business, she ashamedly had no plan. No life strategy. No direction of which way she wanted her career to go. She researched several companies applying for jobs with enticing position titles of financial advisor, investment manager, or market research analyst, but nothing remotely hooked her interest.
    A firm in New York offered her a po sition, but she opted to turn down the dream job after