Honorable Mention of Aim to Engage 2022 Romance prompt: Written by ice-cold-apples

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Outside it was raining heavily. One. Two. One. There were fourteen people around the table in a coffee house, all eyes set on one particular. A woman. Raven-haired, shoulder-length, and silky. Mellifluous long eyelashes.

She blinked once, and then twice. Her nose, a button shaped complimented her face. Her lips were plump, carved in a heart shape with the bottom lip spotting a pink hue. Her jaw wasn't the sharpest but still beautiful. Some envied her dark skin.

She was Hannah Reed. Hannah glanced briefly at her old pocket watch and then at her family across the room. Two minutes. She could feel her stomach twist in unimaginable ways, churning and squeezing. Her chest tightened as her heart was pounding at inhuman speeds.

She had been waiting her entire thirty-four years alive for this exact moment and it was nothing short of gut-wrenching and scary. To be with someone the stars had chosen. She almost gave up hope, even her three younger sisters had found their soulmates merely at twenty-one.

"You'll love him, Hannah. You will. You will!" Gushed one of the sisters, Christina. Christina threw her arm around her husband Nicholas Turner and kissed his cheek.

Hannah smiled. Feebly. She could feel her pulse in sync with the ticking hand of the clock which made it almost impossible to breathe. One. Two. One. She counted.

She had questions. Lots of them. How would she react when she sees him? Would she jump on him and kiss the daylights out of him? Or would he turn out to be a prick? She felt her heart sink faintly.

"Honey, don't worry, all your questions will be answered as soon as you see him." Said her mother, an old-looking woman in her seventies with huge glasses that framed her eyes.

"Yes! Oh yes, it will be like what you read in those books of yours." Chuckled her second sister Adina. "Magical and just out of this world." She added, her eyes widened and a faraway look in her eyes.

Hannah barely acknowledged her, she glanced at the pocket watch and her throat constricted. Her timer let her know she was fifty seconds away from meeting him. Suddenly, she felt the urge to walk out of the cozy coffee house.

"Where to? Hold on Hannah!"

Deaf to the calling, she hastily walked out of the door just as her timer went off. Her eyes darted across the street, barely able to see through the harsh rain. But, she could feel it. A strong impulse. He was there. Her soulmate.

Her entire family stood behind her as they all waited. Hannah took steps under the rain, she could see better as she approached. A gasp. Thunder and lightning. She felt her heart race as though she had run a mile. A smile, subtle. She felt a swarm in her stomach while staring at the stranger. She walked closer. Breathtaking. Her soulmate.

Only it was a woman.