The Cursed King

That night, Loriel slept hugging Elise more tightly than usual. The memory from the past made him feel really sad and he tried so hard to forget about it by focusing his mind on their wedding plans.

He loved all the ideas that Elise shared with him and was looking forward to the day he could make her his wife again. 

***

As requested by Loriel, the couple did a medical check-up the next day to make sure they were both healthy. Loriel was very relieved to know that the current Elise was much healthier and stronger than she was in the past.

Loriel was so happy and he kept kissing her on the way from the hospital. He didn't know what happened to Elise after she left him,  but she was now no longer the weak and frail woman he married in their past lives.

"Doctor said you are healthy, but it doesn't mean we can take it for granted. You still need to eat well and rest aplenty. Please don't work too hard," Loriel said to Elise. The woman only smiled and nodded at his worried expression.

He was right to be worried, Elise seemed to love working too much.

There were so many things to do to prepare for the wedding that Elise didn't realize it would take so much time. 

***

It was another day in the office for Alex and Elise and the two of them were once again looking at the mood boards for the wedding.

However, Elise couldn't help but realize that something was very wrong. 

Alex was always polite and happy to assist Elise, but right now, she didn't seem to have so much energy.

"Are you okay, Alex? You seem a little bit down. If you're feeling too tired to help me out right now, it's fine." Elise smiled and touched her friend's shoulder.

Maybe Alex was getting impatient with Elise? There were a lot of things to handle from the venue, decoration, and such that maybe Alex didn't want to help her anymore.

After all, the two of them were only doing this during work and this was a huge favor to ask. Elise was afraid that would be the case, but Alex only shook her head and gave Elise a weak smile.

"No, it's not that. I'm just..." Alex rubbed her face. 

Elise's brows furrowed in worry. "Just?"

"Kind of jealous? That's not the word either. I'm really glad that you're getting married, Elise. I'm genuinely happy, but I can't help but feel like I've spent too much time working. I haven't seen anyone for the past years."

"Oh, so you want to date." Elise realized. 

Alex ducked her head. "Yes,"

Elise thought about her time with Alex and said. "Now that you mentioned it...last Christmas gala, I didn't see you with anyone… not that it's bad. I think you're right though. Marc is making you work far too much."

"Yeah, that's the case. I never found the time or energy to go out and find someone. But now that I see you happy, I realize that I also want to experience something like this."

Alex motioned to her computer with all the wedding plans and mood boards that she prepared.

"So the first step is getting a date!" Elise smiled. "It would be lovely to see you attend the wedding with someone you're happy with."

"I'm not exactly sure if I'll be able to find a date to attend your wedding."

"Why not? You're an amazing woman, Alex. I'm sure that there are so many men out there who'll want to be your date."

Alex rubbed the back of her neck. "You think so?"

"Of course!" 

Alex still wasn't confident enough. "I'm not sure if I have the time, we have to make sure that this wedding is a success first."

Elise thought about it some more and remembered when Loriel once told her that there were boyfriends to hire on apps. He explained about such services when Elise asked him to be his date to the company year-end gala.

Well... that's not what Alex wanted and needed, Elise thought to herself. Alex was supposed to find a man with whom she had a genuine and mutual attraction.

Elise added. "Well, there's bound to be tons of apps that can help you meet other people. There's no excuse to be busy anymore when you can find one on your phone. You could go on blind dates. What do you think? Come on... when was the last time you went on a date?"

Alex chuckled. "Well... too long."

"See? You've been working too much. You have to go out there and meet people. No boyfriends will fall on your lap from the sky. You have to make an effort," Elise said.

"Alright, you win, Elise. I'll try it out." Alex was convinced by Elise to download a dating app and also start a new account. It felt weird for her to be doing this, but Alex really wanted to also see someone.

"Yay! I'm so excited for you to find someone. I think a lot of people will want to date you, so we need to make them see that."

"We'll see about it." Alex cleared her throat. She soon uploaded some of her photos, and with some pointers and help from Elise, she also made her bio. 

  "For hobby, don't write 'I love spending my weekend at the office," Elise laughed out loud at Alex's horrible bio. "I don't understand how you could be so amazing with planning other people's wedding, but you couldn't even sell yourself in your dating profile bio."

  Alex sighed and removed the text. She knew Elise was right.

  "You look really great in these photos," Elise gushed at her friend's photo. "When did you take this vacation? I never thought that I'd see you in a swimsuit. This is amazing and eye-catching."

  "Two summers ago." Alex coughed. She was a little embarrassed but she was having fun too. It was both a little silly and yet exciting to be doing something like this after so long.

  "This is your most recent photo?" Elise asked again.

  "Yes, I haven't been taking many vacations and I don't like taking many photos anyway," Alex said. She sighed again when she thought about how pathetic her life had been, being drowned in work and almost never go out on dates.

  "Now that you're trying to date though, I hope you take a lot of photos with them," Elise said. "That would be such a fun thing to do together. You could collect photos and make albums."

  "I'll try, but first, let's try getting us a date," Alex smiled and looked down on her phone.. The two of them started checking out profiles.