This story originated in my Write the Story journal, purchased surprisingly intact at my local McKay’s. Each day provides a theme and ten key words that must be included in the post. For these writings, I do no major planning aside from jotting teensy notes by the keywords, suggesting uses for them. Despite these stories being rather unpolished, I’ve had so much fun writing them and wanted to share them here with you.
Theme: An Unexpected Union
They played tug-of-war with her heart, but she won. A smile tugged at Emiline’s lips when she remembered.
Some considered her quirky, others diabolical, and the rest wanted to be her. Men often believed they knew what she desired, so they played the part, put on the boyfriend act. But they’d been the ones getting played.
Emiline wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans for the seventeenth time—yes, she’d counted. Her knees bounced, turning her handwriting to scribbles as she filled in the final two spaces in her alphabet of names. Twenty-six men she’d met and given one date, each with a name beginning with a different letter. Her friends thought it odd—her extreme need for order and completion—but to Emiline, it was common sense.
She took another bite of her grilled chicken sandwich—on sourdough bread, of course—and glanced around the mood-lit pub. She swallowed, stabbed a roasted red potato with her fork, and stared at the final two names on her list—Zylander and Yates. They’d been good to her, even more than they knew by unknowingly completing her list. She hadn’t intended to go after brothers, twins at that. No, no, that had been an unintentional complication.
The squeaking leather of the booth seat across from her pulled her gaze up to meet stunning green eyes. A soft smile tugged at Yates’s lips. “Is that the list?”
She nodded and slid it across the table so he could see, biting her lip the whole time.
He shook his head and when he looked up, amusement danced in his eyes. “I’m glad I made it.”
Emiline smiled. Yes, she’d won the game, you see. She’d found a man who loved her, quirks and all. The kind of man to build a life with, a family, and a home with. The kind of place one stayed and planted hydrangeas in the front yard.
What story would you write using the ten words in bold?
my cozy book nook 
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