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Olive smiled. “Eva called me and I called Sophie to come cheer our girl on,” she said with a shy smile.
“And I called Stone,” Sophie said, stating the most obvious of all statements.
Stone stood and bumped shoulders with Sophie, shrugging shyly. “I called Chris. And Tara, but she’s on duty.” He shrugged again, this time his smile more mischievous. “Liam will be here, possibly Ben, too.”
I leaned down and whispered in Eva’s ear. “Hope you know what you’re doing.”
She looked up at me, and her smile turned her gray eyes silver and had my pants becoming uncomfortably tight. “I know what I’m doing. I just hope you can carry your weight, playboy.”
Eva was absolutely right, she knew exactly what she was doing when it came to darts. Whether it was Cricket, 501, or Around the Clock, she killed it, proving to be a formidable opponent for even the most competitive among us. We won all three categories, two of them thanks solely to her. It was a good night.
Probably the best time I ever had with a woman that didn’t end up with us naked and sweaty.
Even still, when I fell asleep that night, it was Eva’s laughter that rang in my ears.Eva“Yes, Charlane, people are aware that the pops aren’t actually penises, but they look close enough that they’re flying off the shelves.” Charlane ran a new bakery and she wanted innovative marketing techniques to spread the word about her goodies. But she was a bit high-strung. “Is that a problem?”
“Well, not a problem per se,” she said, groaning as she weighed her options. A knock sounded at the door and I waved in Sophie and Olive. “It’s just, why would people want penis cake pops?”
“Because penises are awesome and everyone thinks so.” I kept the exasperation out of my voice because, as a new business owner myself, I understood her concerns. “Go with it. If it gets out of control, I already have a statement ready.”
“Really? You’re the best, Eva. Thanks. And sorry about all the crazy.” She let out a nervous laugh, and I shook my head.
“Don’t worry about it. Just go sell your goodies, Char.” I let out a long sigh when the call disconnected and leaned back in my seat. “What’s up, girls?”
“That’s what we’d like to know,” Sophie said with a laugh as she took one seat in front of my desk. Olive took the other, but not until after she’d closed the door. “What’s up with you and Oliver?”
I blinked. “The bet? Is that ringing any bells?” I blinked again to focus my vision just in case I’d fallen asleep and had woken up in an alternate universe.
“Ah, she’s going the playing-dumb route,” Sophie mock-whispered to Olive. “It could be effective, if I didn’t have a set of working eyes.”
“Or the blistered skin from all the heat emanating from them at The Mayflower,” Olive added with a smile. A totally unnecessary smile.
Ah, so that was what had them all in a tizzy. I waved off their eager looks, hungry for gossip. “That’s nothing, just channeling our adversarial relationship to teamwork for a greater cause.”
Sophie leaned forward. “A greater cause?”
“Yep. A hundred bucks at The Surf & Turf. That’s what I call the greater good,” I told them honestly.
“I’m calling bullshit,” Sophie said simply and sat back, crossing her legs primly. “Nothing might have happened yet, but there are some serious sparks between you and Mr. March. But if you’re sure nothing is—”
“I’m sure,” I said quickly, cutting off the unnecessary question before she could ask it. Again.
“Good. Because the system has given us three matches for Oliver, based on our standard presets. We can a few more who are less compatible, if we want to sway the results of this bet a little.”
“No. Let it play out however it’s gonna play out.” I shrugged as my eyes lasered in on the folders lying on Sophie’s lap, curiosity getting the better of me where those profiles were concerned. That was why I couldn’t tip the scales in my favor, because the thought of Oliver going on a date with some woman made me feel jealous. Possessive. Two things I had no right to feel about a sort-of client. A frenemy. A bet opponent, no more. “Let’s just give him the profiles we’d present if he were actually looking for love, or even pretending to look for love.”
“Seriously?” Olive’s eyes practically bugged out of her head. “You can’t be serious. You can’t.”
I smiled at her disbelief and nodded. “I can and I am, Olive. I’m done trying to control everything, all it ends up doing is getting me stressed out.” I smiled at the collective looks of shock they both wore. “Well, not everything, just not this. I’ll do more marketing to combat any future smack talk, but I’m done worrying about this since I cannot change it.”
