I hold her far too long, but judging by how tightly she squeezes me back and her resistance to letting me go, she needed that hug as much as I did.
We meet on a Thursday afternoon at a Vietnamese restaurant.
“Sorry, I don’t remember if you told me, what is it you do for work?” Lex dunks her salad roll in the peanut sauce and takes a bite, covering her mouth to hide her chewing.
“It’s a non-profit. There’s a couple different things we do, but my team is all about introducing mindfulness into schools to help reduce bullying,” I explain before slurping a mouthful of noodles.
Lex blinks a few times as she regards me. “That’s really wonderful of you.”
I shrug. “It pays the bills.”
“You rescue old dogs from shelters, take public transit,andmake schools a better place for kids?” She gives her head a small shake. “Next thing you’ll be telling me you volunteer at soup kitchens on the weekend.”
“It’s really nothing.” I wave my chopsticks as if her compliments are annoying flies buzzing around my face.
“Seriously, you should be proud of yourself and the good work you’re doing. I wish what I did made the world a better place.”
“Hey now, numbers make the world a better place, too.” I have no idea what a data analyst does, except I’m sure it involves a lot of spreadsheets and math. Maybe a few graphs. Pie charts?
Lex shrugs with one shoulder as she twirls her chopsticks through her soup. “True. And I do love me some spreadsheets. I just wish the company I work for didn’t hire me out to all sorts of shitty capitalistic businesses that only care about increasing their profit margins, often to the detriment of the planet and their staff. Maybe if the people who worked for these companies received the benefits of all the money I help save, it would be worthwhile, but the higher-ups just keep the extra profits for themselves. I hate knowing that I’m one of the reasons some big shot CEO got another yacht while his employees still live paycheque to paycheque.”
“Oof, that sucks. Can you like... quit and do your own thing?”
“Maybe someday.” She gives me a wan smile. “Right now, I have to focus on getting my life together and being stable, maybe getting my own place so Gabe can have a separate room.”
“Gabe is your son?” I feel shitty for not even asking earlier. I call her a friend and yet this is the first I’m learning of her child’s name and gender?
Lex nods. “Gabriel.”
“That’s a cool name.”
“Thank you. It was the only one we could agree on.” She smiles a bit to herself, but it fades almost as quickly as it came, as if a wave of sad memories washed it away. “Anyway,” she says, giving her head a slight shake. “That’s why I want to help you. If I can give you some insight into the curse and help you figure it out, then, in my own small way, I’ll be making the world a better place—just like you.”
Once more, I find myself fidgeting beneath her blue-eyedgaze. She really needs to take whatever pedestal she’s decided to put me on and knock it the fuck down. “Okay, hit me with this amazing strategy you came up with.”
Lex sits up straighter and wipes at her mouth with a napkin before leaning forward conspiratorially, her eyes flashing with mischievous excitement. I lean forward, too, waiting for her to unleash her amazing plan. “Okay. So. We’ll get on a dating app. You’ll swipe right on absolutely everyone, and then we’ll pick a wide variety of dates—safe dates. You’ll pick some guys you find attractive, some guys you don’t. Some guys who you think are your type, and some who are the opposite. A wide range will create variance for us to cross-compare on all the factors for awkwardness and give us an idea of what’s going on.”
I had an inkling she was smart, but goddamn. I could listen to her talk science all day.
Lex taps her chopstick against her lips. “Only issue is, if you’re going on a date with someone you’re excited to see, that could alter the trajectory of the date and affect its awkwardness.”
I’d never have thought of that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
She thinks for another moment. “We can’t quite do a double-blind study, not without bringing in another member of our team. For our purposes maybe it’s best I set up the dates and surprise you.”
“Are you sure? That sounds like a lot of work.”
“It will probably be easier if I do it myself. Plus, I need to coordinate the dates with when I don’t have Gabe. We can probably knock out one or two dates a week when he’s at his dad’s.”
“One or two aweek?” The thought of going on so many dates and facing so much awkwardness makes my stomach clench.
“Don’t worry.” She smiles. “I’ll be there with you the whole time.”
I’m stunned she’d put that much time and effort into breaking my curse. From swiping on the app, to setting up dates, to tagging along on all of them... it’s too much. “Lex, I can’t make you do that. As enticing as it is to prove you wrong about the curse, I can’t suck up that much of your time.”
Lex takes a moment to chew her food and swallow. “It’s not all for you. My job is draining the life out of me, and it would be good to use my skills to help a real person rather than some big corporation. Besides, getting out of the house when I don’t have Gabe will be good for me. I can’t just read spicy fairy books in pubs every night. And...” She takes a slow breath, then cautiously meets my gaze. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a date. If I’m being honest, the prospect scares me. Maybe going with you on dates will give me the courage to do the same.”
My heart warms from knowing that she’ll be getting just as much out of this as I am. “Alright. Let’s do it.”
