By Chance: Fate Finds You

Eight --{-@

Ari stormed into her apartment pissed off and, oddly, turned on.

Why did he have to be such an asshole? Why did he have to be so good looking?! And so TALL??!

That was it, Ari said to herself. She was a known arborist, having a thing for tall men. He wasn't a 10, he was just a superbly tall 7. Totally. Her loins were just playing tricks on her brain.

Still she, couldn't get Cal's long legs and delectable dimples out of her head as she changed into her Deadpool pajamas and brushed out her hair. She wanted to bite them. Every thought of him standing there, all cool and nonchalant made her mouth water, followed after by a disgusted shake of her inner thoughts with every time he opened his stupid mouth.

Dropping her purse on the bed and walking to the back of her closet, she opened her jewelry case, and took off her earrings and dropped them inside.

He was so pugnacious.

She unclasped her necklace and dropped it in as well.

His eyes were like molten steel.

She shivered as she remembered how intensely they studied her. She went to take off her mother's bracelet.There was no clasp. She swore there was before. The date must have fried her brain. She went to slip it off.

It didn't slip off, too small. She tried again, but it wouldn't budge past the bottom of her hand.

Mother.

Ari tried several other ways to remove the bracelet, but to no avail. She stomped over to purse and grabbed her phone, dialing her mom with sharp punches to the screen.

"Hello, Honey! How'd it go?"

"Whats up with the wrist prison, Mother?" Ari didn't bother with niceties.

"O-oh, um, that?" Marian stammered. "It's just a good luck charm is all!"

"Good luck for who, exactly?" Ari's tone was ominously dark.

"Just, you know, for finding a good match."

"Jesus Titty-f*****g Christ, Mother! What did you DO?" Ari's voice pitched up in anger.

"It's - it's nothing! It doesn't break free will!"

"So what DOES it DO??"

"Just...helps you appreciate people for what they are is all. A simple cyclops tear."

"How. Do. I. Get. It. OFF?"

'Oh that..." Marian trailed off.

Ari felt like she was about to attempt pyrokinesis through the phone, "Dish, Mom. NOW."

"It's just a little charm that let's you see the good in Calen, without dwelling on his flaws. You dwell too much, honey, you know that. It'll come off when you either decide to like him or not like him, depending on how you see him."

"And how do you not like someone you can't see any flaws in, exactly?!" Ari was more than pissed, she felt betrayed.

"You still see them! You just don't...care as much."

"Get it OFF OF ME NOW!" Ari yelled, reaching her breaking point.

"...I...don't know how," her mother said quietly.

"MOM?!"

"It's okay, honey, really!" Marian said brightly, "Just go on a couple more dates. You like him, it's off. You don't, it's off. Easy peasey! I have stuff in the oven, Ray, gotta go!"

The phone beeped three times, indicating that Ari's mom had hung up.

Ari hit send again. It went straight to voicemail.

Send again.

Voicemail again.

"What the fuuuuuuuuck!" Ari yelled at the ceiling. She was going to kill her mother.

This was how it happened, Your Honor. This was the day that Ari lost it.

Determined to find a way to break the bracelet, Ari went to the kitchen and got out her bottle of opened muscat. Skipping the glass, she took three big chugs straight from the bottle, letting the leftover fizz tickle into her chest. She was still hungry, having not even eaten half of her meal under Cal's eagle-eyed scrutiny.

Angry Ari meant, tacos. She went went back to her bed and waiting phone, taking the wine bottle with her. Tacos, then research. This wrist-wrangling bullshit needed to be off. Now.

As she grabbed her phone, she plopped onto her bed to look up a place that would deliver. She took another series of hard pulls from the bottle, calming down from crime of passion to premeditated murder. As she went to put the bottle by her lamp on the nightstand, she saw a piece of paper sitting there.

It looked like it was ripped from half of another piece of paper. She picked it up, and confirmed it had no finished edges, Flipping it over, she read it and began laughing immediately.

'Ari,

You are so amazing.

Please let me see you again.

- B

xxx-xxx-xxxx'