AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The buzzing in my pocket was the sound of my editor calling for the twenty-seventh time today. “You have five minutes, Dean.”
He paused for a beat and barked out a loud, raucous laugh. “This stuff with your little matchmaker is gold. Pure fucking gold, Oliver. Your column, hell, your writing hasn’t been this good since the beginning.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’m serious. This stuff is funny and engaging. Witty. Like reading a script for a goddamn romcom, and the craziest part is that our readers are gobbling it up like a meat lovers’ pizza. All over the country, Ollie, my boy, the traffic is insane!” He was so excited he could barely contain himself and I could admit to a brief sense of pride. “The owners were thrilled enough to make a personal call to yours truly.”
“That’s good news,” I told him and braced myself for the inevitable not-so-good news.
“It’s great news. See if you can amp it up a little, play up the flirtation between you and the matchmaker. See if you can make her jealous on your dates. And, shit, the bet aspect is just perfect. The comment section hasn’t seen this much action in ages.”
Thankfully, Dean hung up before I could tell him where to shove his flirtation and jealousy. I wouldn’t play up anything. It was confusing enough, the chemistry between me and Eva, without adding physical attraction to the mix, never mind acting on that attraction. That was a recipe for disaster and this was a bet, plain and simple. It was business. It wasn’t a romantic comedy because there was no romance. No spark.
No nothing.
Several deep breaths later and I turned to face the Time For Love entrance, pulling open the glass door with a smile for the receptionist. “Afternoon, Kendra. Is she in and, more importantly, is she in a good mood?” Most days I wanted Eva in a bad mood when I ran into her because it was guaranteed fun, but today I wanted something different.
“Sorry, no Eva today,” Olive said with a gentle smile as she joined me in the welcome area of their offices. “Family emergency, which means you’re stuck with me for etiquette lessons today.”
“Etiquette, isn’t that kind of an old-fashioned word?”
Olive shrugged and shook her head, a move that loosened her jet-black bun. “Being polite and having manners never goes out of style.”
I smiled at her comeback. It perfectly put me in my place, but I felt like I wanted to thank her. “Okay, then. Is everything all right with Eva?”
Olive only nodded, but her inability to look at me felt personal and I wondered why. “Yes. She’s fine.”
I had no choice but to accept Olive at her word and get on with lessons I was sure I didn’t need—then again, Eva saw me as an untrained puppy, and I couldn’t deny something about the woman stole my mojo. I constantly said the wrong thing to her, and my compliments always came out backhanded. “Okay. What comes after ‘please’ and ‘thank you’?”
She laughed and shook her head. “First, we’ll do a little bit of roleplaying to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie.”
I nodded at Olive, but I wasn’t listening because I couldn’t stop thinking about Eva. Worrying about her, more accurately. “What kind of family emergency? She said it’s just her and her mom.”
Olive sighed and shook her head, but I spotted a small smile turning the corners of her mouth up. “You talked about her family?”
I nodded, before I realized where her questions were headed. “Just making conversation, that’s all. Her family and mine.” It was nothing more than that, and I didn’t want to give her any other impression. “Nothing more.”
“If you say so.” Her tone said she didn’t believe me but instead of grilling me or threatening me like the older ladies in town, Olive got back to the job at hand. Well, she tried, anyway. But my head wasn’t in the lesson. “If you’re really that worried about Eva, who isn’t even a friend, then I heard she might be at the Pilgrim Emergency Medical Clinic.”
Olive’s words sank in and a slow smile spread across my face. “Thanks, Olive.”
“Don’t thank me.” She held her hands in the air. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Thanks, anyway.” I realized, too late, that I’d rushed out of Time For Love as if Eva was in trouble, sick, or injured, which was strange. Like Olive had said, we weren’t even really friends, and definitely not people who dropped everything for one another. Yet, here I was, dropping everything, and all because I had a feeling that she could use a friend. “I must be losing my mind,” I said to myself and made a mental note to call Chris. Maybe guy time was exactly what I needed.
I’d never been a fan of hospitals, or clinics even. There was no lurking trauma, it was just the stench of sickness, the reminder of how fragile life was. It was like witnessing a car wreck on the way to a tropical vacation. But, again, here I was.
