Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing.

The words are bitter on her tongue now. There is no such thing as a happy ending, no such thing as true love. Feelings were nothing more than hormones raging at the wrong time and definitely for the wrong person.

And yet she waited.

Mary waited because when she looked at him, when she gave herself that fleeting second to get lost in his eyes, it was so much more than hormones and silly notions of a happily ever after. That second turned into a moment that she wanted to last for eternity. A moment where she felt as if he could truly see her and happily ever after wasn't simply a possibility.

It was a reality.

Her face turns bitter when she takes a drink of apple cider wine from her glass. She's never cared for apples and tries to remember why she thought that drowning her sorrows with them would be a good idea.

Apparently tonight is her night to make a series of several bad decisions.

Tears well in the corner of her eyes once more and she closes them, takes a deep breath and tries to stave off the onslaught of emotions. She's lonely and he felt right, he was real.

And he belongs to somebody else. He chose somebody else. That was reality. That was their ending.

Believing in the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing. Because when it never happens, when the dream of happily ever after slips away- that belief will kill you.