The Bride Test

by Helen Hoang

“I’m not lonely. I like being alone.”

Those were the best kinds of puzzles, though, weren’t they? The ones no one else could figure out?

For some people, nothing said happily ever after like lobster in ginger scallion sauce.

Stone hearts didn’t love.

Where did you go when you had nowhere?

In this country of empowered people, justice, and fairness, opportunities were there for everyone. Marriage and birth couldn’t be the only ways to belong here. She didn’t believe that. There had to be something she could do to earn her place here, some way to prove herself. She had to keep looking.

Lone socks had a place in this world, too. Not everyone had two feet.

But now the opportunity was right here, and she wanted to see. What happened when you gave someone an opportunity?

But now, a new dream formed in her heart, one she’d never dared to encourage but wanted with breathless intensity: doing something she was passionate about, changing this world for the better, being more. She didn’t even know what she was good at, but if she could explore and learn . . .

Most alive when you might die.