**WATTPAD HQ EDITOR'S PICK Nov/Dec 2021**
BOOK ONE in the STEAMY FORBIDDEN ROMANCE series
Coralie Watson, a British thirty-year-old living in San Francisco, has a tormented past with men. Physical and mental abuse, abandonment issues, incompatibili...
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♫ Not really sure how to feel about it Something in the way you move Makes me feel like I can't live without you ♪ (Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko—Stay)
Happiness—such a broad term and defined in various ways for different people.
Coralie wasn't certain she'd ever experienced it. Her childhood wasn't miserable; living in London was a memory she always cherished. She missed those days, often thinking of them with a nostalgic smile.
But plowing through most of her twenties by partying, drinking herself into dizzy stupors, and wasting the other half of those years regretting all the drunken mistakes—those weren't pleasant memories. Those dwelled in her mind and weighed her down and made her wonder if she could be happy.
But in the weeks, then months, after her mishap with Ryan, she felt something akin to happiness. A slight weightlessness in her chest, a cautious spring to her step, an airy attitude she wasn't used to. She smiled more, laughed more, and her past didn't zoom in to haunt her as much.
Her Friday night gigs were taking off, and thanks to them, The Swirled Lady became a household name in downtown San Francisco. Roger had to hire two more bartenders, and started plans to expand into the vacant building next-door, hoping to build a bigger, better stage for Coralie's performances.
She drew in crowds from all over—like the hipsters who sipped on unpronounceable cocktails found on Pinterest. Or the elderly couples who bonded with her soulful voice. And the groups of girls who wanted to jam to her heart-break melodies and get intoxicated to her enraged rampages against exes.
Her newfound happiness came in the form of friendship, too. She and Delilah dedicated more time to one another, with more roommate events of drinking wine and watching shows and dishing out gossip on the new hires from the bar.
Delilah did eventually spit out the "I told you so" comment she'd promised not to, but by then it had no effect on Coralie; at least, not on the surface. And though Delilah was right, a buried part of Coralie didn't regret what she'd done. She didn't regret giving in to Ryan, exposing herself, laying her heart out for him to tear to shreds. It was thanks to those actions that she'd been able to open up to Michael.
Michael.
He was another piece of the puzzle she called happiness. He didn't sweep her off her feet like Ryan had, but he kept her grounded, which was better. He didn't cause butterflies to explode in her gut whenever they met up, but he sent tingles up her spine when they made out, made love, or spent the night sleeping in each other's arms. She loved that they were able to lounge next to each other without ripping their clothes off, that they watched the same shows, listened to the same music, and enjoyed experimenting with the same food.
He didn't make her dizzy and giddy, but he made her smile, and that was what mattered to her the most.
Without Ryan to cloud her vision, without his flawless face all over her newsfeed, without his rippling muscles or his bright white smirk, Coralie moved on, moved forward, and motivated herself to keep striving for happiness.
