Unforgettable 3 (Hollywood Love Story #3) by Nelle L'Amour

questions, I flick my eyes to Pops for encouragement to go on. He nods and I continue.
    “After the swim, we went back to his hotel suite…and then his horrible fiancée, Katrina, showed up.”
    “Oh no!” gasps Auntie Jo.
    “And to make a long story short, while I was waiting in my room for him to come back for me, he sent me an email and fired me.”
    Just as I’m about to burst into more tears, Jo takes me in her loving arms and hugs me.
    “Oh, you poor dear. I know exactly what you’re going through.”
    “You do?” I stammer, expecting her to reprimand me for my foolishness.
    “Yes. I had my heart broken too. And by a man I worked with—the owner of my beauty shop. I was secretly crazy about him. I worshipped him. Dreamt about him every minute of every day. And then he hired an assistant who was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. He was totally smitten by her, and within a month, they were engaged. I cried for days and even stayed home from work.”
    I’m all ears. I never knew this. “What happened?”
    “I had to leave my job. The pain was too great. I couldn’t face seeing him every day, knowing the man of my dreams could never be mine.”
    “How did you get through it?” My voice is a little stronger.
    Pops chimes in. “Yours truly.”
    Auntie smiles and clasps his hand. “It’s true. I thought I could never love another man, but I healed. Then, Pete came into my life. Stepped into the new salon where I was working for a haircut and swept me off my feet. I’ve never looked back.”
    Pops beams. “And she better not. It was the worst haircut I ever got because she was so smitten by Mr. Handsome here.”
    Auntie Jo chuckles and gives him a peck on the cheek. “If you want to know my opinion, it was the best haircut I ever gave.”
    Their sweet, loving exchange warms me, taking me out of my deep funk. Pops holds me in his intense gaze, the gaze of a detective who doesn’t beat around the bush. “You know, Babycakes, finding the right person is like digging for a clue to solve a crime. True love…it’s out there somewhere. You just gotta keep looking.”
    Auntie chimes in. “There are a million people you can love and who will love you. It’s just a matter of finding one. Just one is all it takes.”
    I thought I’d found him. But he didn’t love me back. I take a long, deep breath. Air fills me like helium. It’s time to pick up the pieces and start over again.
    My stomach growls. “Auntie, what’s for dinner?”

Zoey
    M y heart will go on. Shattered pieces still beat. Over the next few weeks, I learn that there’s a truth to the Titanic love theme lyrics. While every night in my dreams I still see him, I recover from my heartbreak enough to resume a normal everyday existence. The heart is a mighty organ. Even broken, it can still pump life into you. Each day I grow stronger, and by the end of the month, I’ve found a place of my own to live—a small but charming one-bedroom apartment in Beachwood Canyon. Plus a new job—a masseuse at Posh, a high-end spa on Sunset. The timing was perfect. One of their therapists had just gone on maternity leave, and with my credentials, I was a shoe-in for the position. While I feel like I’ve regressed a little, I tell myself it’s only temporary until I figure out what I really want to do.
    My new job is not fulfilling, but it helps pay the rent and keeps me from dipping into my savings. Though I only work in the afternoons and have weekends off, I don’t enjoy being holed up in a small massage room and physically exerting myself. Been there, done that. I didn’t like it the first time around. And I like it even less now. The clients, mostly super rich, are demanding and often ungrateful.
    Once upon a time, I had a dream to become an actress. I enrolled in a few acting workshops after high school but abandoned them, discouraged that a full-figured girl like me couldn’t succeed. And hence, I went to an occupational school and became a