Win A Date with Chris Evans

ONE.

"I'm so sorry, Matt but... I think that's my cue to leave." Scarlet put down her half of the meal and put her coat on.

"But we were having such a good time." Matt said, getting up from his seat to follow after her.

Scarlet shook her head in disagreement. "No, you were having a good time reliving your high school football games and staring at the waitress." She turned on her heel and walked out of the restaurant, breathing in the cold air. She despised blind dates and she wasn't going to let her best friend, Hayleigh hear the end of it since she was the one who arranged it. She reached for her phone from inside her bag and tapped on her number.

"Done already? I thought for sure you would have gone back to his place." Hayleigh loved to insinuate taboo to Scarlet, being the more outgoing one in the friendship.

"That was the worst date ever, Hayleigh. He wouldn't stop talking about the championships his high school football team won and he wouldn't stop making googly eyes with the blonde haired waitress." Scarlet put her arm up, trying to yield for a taxi but was having no luck. Her home wasn't that far and the walk would do her some good.

"Shit. I'm so sorry, Scarlet."

Scarlet sighed. "Don't worry about it. I know your intentions are good, Hayleigh but I think I'd much rather prefer to meet someone the old fashioned way."

"It's hard to do in this day and age with all of the online dating services available now." Hayleigh pointed out which was true. It seemed like everyone they knew were meeting people on Tinder and Bumble.

Scarlet scoffed in disbelief. "It's for some people, but even I've done the online dating thing and that wasn't for me." Scarlet was just going to have to be okay with the fact that she was going to be alone. Unless Chris Evans came along but even that was a far fetched dream and unrealistic for her. "I'll call you tomorrow, okay?" She pressed the end button on her phone and enjoyed the cool air.

She turned the corner of the street where her house was and walked up the doorsteps, unlocking the front door. She was greeted by the meows and purrs of her cats, letting her know they were hungry and asking for attention.

Once she had settled in for the rest of the evening, she opened up her laptop determined to get some more work done, going over the photographs and sending them to clients to get their feedback. She was a freelance photographer and she enjoyed every minute of it - weddings, senior photos, and she had been lucky enough to photograph events and awards shows. Her highlight of her career was photographing the MTV Awards in L.A. where she caught the slightest glimpse of Chris Evans and wanted to steal him away from the ongoing crowd of interviewers to snap a few photos. Instead, their paths did not align as much as she wanted and instead, took snapshots of Sebastian Stan that Hayleigh had fawned over repeatedly.

Of course, Sebastian was indeed very handsome and single, and had asked Scarlet out a few times during the course of the evening but Scarlet knew better than to accept a date with Hayleigh's celebrity crush. She had politely declined, flattered that someone like him would ask her out but her heart lay elsewhere.

After Scarlet finished her work, she checked her emails, Facebook, and Instagram. Sebastian had liked her photos of her and Hayleigh in London, causing Scarlet to chuckle. Who would have thought that she would gain a friend in Sebastian Stan of all people? She, of course, never did but she had been lucky to say the least.

Her phone rang and saw Hayleigh's name appear on the screen. "Hello?"

"Did you see where Sebastian just liked the photos of us in London!? How in the world did you get him to follow you and he still has yet to follow me?"

Scarlet let out a soft laugh and shut her computer. "We bumped into each other at the awards show a few weeks ago. It's funny because he kept asking me out for dinner but I turned him down because I knew better than to go on a date with the love of your life."

There was a brief pause and Scarlet was unsure if she had lost Hayleigh.

"YOU COULD HAVE SAID YES TO HIM." She abruptly told her. "Seriously, you could have said yes and then tell him that while you find him attractive, you knew someone else who was throughly interested in him."

"Well, that was before I knew you would be okay with it." Scarlet took a sip of the glass of wine. "Next time, I'll let him know."

"Just think... you could have been so much closer to getting to Chris, Scarlet. Those two are thick as thieves and you were completely oblivious."

Scarlet ran her finger along the rim of the glass. "And what makes you so sure that I would even have a chance in hell with Chris?"

"For one thing, you have the sources to get you to him and then there's the fact that you're absolutely drop dead gorgeous and he would be insane not to be interested in you. I would slap him with a 2-by-4 if that were the case."

"Hmm. It's all just a dream though." Scarlet reminded not just Hayleigh, but herself.

"Dreams often come true though, Scarlet. You, you sell yourself so short and you don't even believe in all the things that life has to offer you."

"For a very good reason, Hayleigh." Scarlet said, defensively.

"You're going to let one guy make you believe that you don't deserve the absolute best? It wasn't your fault, Scarlet."

Scarlet let out a sigh, knowing very well that this conversation was going to end in an argument and she didn't want that with Hayleigh. She'd only ever watched out for her and since the passing of her mother, she was all she had left. "Are we still on for tomorrow?" Scarlet inquired, changing the topic of conversation.

"Absolutely. I'll be over with Rosé and then we'll have ourselves a date night with Chris and Sebastian... on TV, obviously."

Scarlet smiled. "Goodnight, Hales."

"Night, Scar. Remember what I told you: you deserve the fucking world, okay?"

"I hear you, loud and clear." Scarlet pressed the end button and got up from the couch, heading towards her bedroom. She got under the covers of the warm bed that welcomed her and rested her head on the pillow as she stared at the ceiling, letting her thoughts wander before drifting off to sleep.