“You don’t need a man to complete you,” Claire said to her blurry reflection, obscured by the condensation of a heated bath. She investigated her naked body displayed before her, the imperfections in her skin, the excess flesh around her stomach and legs. “I am beautiful. I am confident. I am not afraid.” Claire stumbled backwards until she felt the solid wall behind her, sinking to her knees, she began to cry. Who was she trying to fool? She was created to love and be loved, but she couldn’t let herself love, and in return she didn’t receive love. She remembered hearing, “We accept the love we think we deserve.” She deserved love, but who could love someone like her? Someone with so many struggles, so many problems, so many flaws...
Her imagination held a love story that seemed perfectly impossible. The love story held the perfect man, created as if he was the other half of her puzzle, a half she felt the absence of every single day. He would be strong, compassionate, trustworthy, and accepting. They could make music together, travel together, spend days just watching anime or reading together. She envisioned the way he would look at her, as if she wasn’t ugly or broken, but as if she was complete and lovely. All she wanted was someone who could appreciate her and just be with her... Someone who cared.
The impossibleness of the story felt crushing, almost as if it were destroying her. The lack of a companion made her feel worthless. Still, she held on to some sliver of hope, a childlike belief in something that wasn’t practical. And so in tears on the bathroom floor, she couldn’t let her grief and feeling of unwantedness defeat her. She believed that if she dreamed hard enough and held on long enough, the imaginary man would become real. He would swoop in and show her the world she had been missing all her life. As time flew by, she waited.
Many years later, on one chilly Autumn afternoon, she was still waiting. As leaves rustled in the tree above her and the wind blew strands of hair in her eyes, a tall man with a kind smile sat down on the bench beside her.  The wait was over.