Just the right number

“I’d promised myself I’d never date again, yet there I was, sitting at a café, anxiously waiting for a gentleman named Anthony. He was a widower, a friend of a woman from church who swore we were ‘perfect’ for one another. It was hard to imagine: When my husband and I divorced five years before, I’d lost my best friend. Though I ached at the thought of growing old alone, finding Mr. Right again felt impossible.

“Suddenly my phone pinged with a text from an unknown number. When I opened it, the five words on the screen stole my breath: NEVER GIVE UP ON LOVE. Tears welled in my eyes as I felt my heart swell. It was exactly what I’d needed to hear. I texted back, anxious to know which of my friends sent it, but received an apology from a stranger, saying she’d typed the wrong number.

“‘Hi, I’m Anthony,’ I heard a soft male voice say. I looked up from my phone into his kind eyes, and slid my phone back into my purse, sensing it hadn’t been a wrong number at all.”