Meant to Be

Imperfect Life

It was late January 2016, and Mirabel had been working hard, designing new Valentine's greeting cards to sell in stores. There was a pink one with a gold border with matching letters and a big red heart. She also designed a white card with red hearts as a border and a bigger red one in the center. Mirabel had designed many different beautiful Valentines, and her boss, Mr. Turtle, looked over them.

"Great job, Mirabel," Mr. Turtle smiled. "These Valentines are sure to sell like hotcakes."

"Gracias, Mr. Turtle," Mirabel smiled back.

"Well, I can see you've worked very hard on your Valentine designs this week," Mr. Turtle said. "I'd say you deserve the weekend off."

"Okay, thank you," Mirabel smiled.

Since Mirabel only had a few hours left of work for the day, she decided to spend the rest of her shift cleaning her work area. While Mirabel was cleaning, her jealous rival, Noemi Matos, came over to her. Noemi was the second-best worker in Vega City Graphic Designers, and she was very jealous of Mirabel's success, which is why she always came up with an excuse to bring Mirabel down.

"Hey, Mirabel, I saw your little Valentine designs, and they are just so cute," Noemi smirked.

"Gracias, Noemi," Mirabel said.

"Yes, they're a lot better than my designs," Noemi sighed, showing her Valentine designs.

Mirabel had to admit that Noemi's designs were beautiful. "Aw, don't worry, Noemi," she tried to console her. "I'm sure they'll sell out before Valentine's Day."

"Well, I certainly hope they sell out before yours do," Noemi sniffed. "I also hope I find a man who loves me and wants to marry me. Maybe I'll receive one of my cards from someone who loves me."

Mirabel didn't expect Noemi to like her, but she did expect her to find something better to do than her waste her time messing with her the way she does. "I'm sure you will," she said awkwardly.

"So am I," Noemi sneered. Then she went off to her own desk, leaving Mirabel disgusted.

Mirabel cleaned her work area for the rest of her shift, and by 5 o'clock, she clocked out. By the time she exited the building, she met up with her fiancé, Gabriel Hogg, who went by "Gabe".

"Ola, coração," Gabe smiled. His great-grandfather came from Lisbon, Portugal, so he could just about speak the Portuguese language.

"Hola, Gabe," Mirabel smiled back. "Are we still on for tonight?"

"Oh, sorry, Mirabel, I can't—maybe next week," Gabe replied.

Mirabel wasn't happy with this. "That's what you said last week," she frowned. "Why exactly can't you make it tonight?"

"That's not important, Mira," Gabe said. "I can see you're really tired from working so hard. Get a good night sleep, okay?" Then he walked off.

Mirabel wasn't very happy. That was the fourth time this month Gabe had cancelled a date with her—and if he couldn't even make it to a date tonight, how could he make the time to come just to cancel on her? Mirabel knew that she'd been working hard on those Valentines, but she wasn't that tired.

Mirabel drove back to her apartment building, and when she got there, she checked her mailbox—and she'd received a few letters and a postcard from her friends and family in Butterfly Bay. She retreated to her apartment, which had been awfully quiet for the past three years. Mirabel had no problem living by herself, but it had been very quiet and boring in the apartment since her grandfather passed away. Mirabel looked over the letters and postcard. There was a letter from her parents, who said that they were doing okay but missed her a lot. A few of the other letters came from her friends, who were telling her about what they were doing. One letter came from her sister, Lupe, and brother-in-law, Victor, who said that they were happy, but it was boring in Butterfly Bay without Mirabel, whom they hadn't seen since the wedding. The postcard was from Mr. Ambrose, the ex-curator of the Butterfly Bay Gallery, who'd told her what he'd been doing. To be honest, Mirabel loved her job, and she liked living in this apartment—and Vega City in general was great. But either way, she wasn't happy because she was surrounded by people who didn't support her. Gabe always seemed to bail on her, and her Vega City friends didn't seem to accept her imperfections. Since her Vega City friends were out and didn't expect her to join and Gabe cancelled his date with her, Mirabel decided to just do some drawing and coloring, which always seemed to make her feel better. Mirabel colored in some drawings of butterflies in different designs, and this reminded her of Butterfly Bay. She really missed her hometown, and while she loved living with her grandfather when he was alive, she wondered if it was right of her to leave her friends and family to live in Vega City in the first place. In fact, she really wondered if she should've moved back when Pedro passed away.