Page 13 of Never Let Go

I chuckled. “As your maid of honor, it’s my duty to do whatever you need. Count me in.”

She beamed at me. “There’s a bar right around the corner. Let’s walk.”

“You got it.”

She kept her arm around mine, gushing about how she had felt in the dress as we walked down the street, the late afternoon sun dipping low behind the buildings surrounding us. She stopped when we reached a solid wooden door and then pushed it open, only releasing me as we walked into the bar. It was so much darker inside that I had to blink a few times until my eyes adjusted to the light, and then I smiled.

The place wasn’t packed, the music wasn’t too loud, and it smelled like chicken wings instead of stale beer. Ashley winked when she saw my smile. “I knew you’d like this place. Chase and I come here whenever we need a change of scenery. He has a friend who tends the bar at night.”

“That’s really cool. Sometimes, I feel like Chase knows everyone. I like this song.” I motioned to a speaker on the wall, pretty surprised to hear a nineties’ girl-band hit playing at a bar in the city on a Friday afternoon.

Ashley nodded and led me to the bar, ordering two specialty cocktails before we headed off to grab a table near the empty stage. “They have open-mic nights if you’re interested.”

I snorted. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“I meant if you were interested in coming to listen to other people sing. You never know. You might meet a musician who tickles your fancy to bring to the wedding.”

Damn it. I’d known that was going to come up again. “I’ll be fine. I always go to weddings alone and it’s never a problem. You have more than enough to think about for your big day. You don’t need to worry about a date for me.”

“I don’t need to, but I want to. The last wedding you went to, you said you were never going solo again. I want you to have a good time that night and I just don’t know if you will if you’re all by yourself while everyone else is coupled up.”

My teeth sank into my lower lip. She wasn’t wrong. At all the recent weddings I’d been to, I’d been the only single friend left. I really didn’t want it to happen again, but I also didn’t know how to just magic up a date.

“What about Sight Unseen?” she asked suddenly.

I frowned. “What about it?”

“Why don’t you sign up?” A light came on in her eyes as she stared across the table at me. “If you really think about it, it’s the perfect setup for you. You can’t be intimidated by a guy you can’t even see. It’s just you and him, in the dark, talking about whatever you want to talk about. You’ll only see him face to face on your fifth date, and by then, you’ll feel like you already know him inside and out.”

I sighed as the bartender brought over our cocktails. “I don’t know, Ash. I think it’s amazing that it worked for you, but I just don’t see myself going on four blind dates with a guy and finding a love of my life.”

“Everyone feels that way until they try it. The concept is bizarre, I’ll grant you that, but it works.” She reached across the table and took my hands, giving them a light squeeze as she looked into my eyes. “I’m not going to pressure you and I’m going to drop it now, but just promise me you’ll at least look into it.”

As I stared back at her, I found myself nodding. “Okay. I’ll look into it, but only if you drop it now.”

She let go of my hands, sat back, and picked up her cocktail. “Consider it dropped. What did you think of the dress? Did you really like it, or were you just saying that because you thought it was what I wanted to hear?”

I pursed my lips at her. “You know I would never do that to you. This is your wedding dress we’re talking about. Trust me, if I didn’t like it, I’d just have kept quiet.”

A slow smile spread on her lips and she nodded, the little bit of tension that had appeared on her face melting away. As we drank our cocktails, we talked more about Chase and how he was keeping the honeymoon destination a secret from her. By the time we left the bar, I was more certain than I’d ever been before that Sight Unseen really had delivered the perfect match for her.

When I got home, I poured myself a glass of water and went to grab my laptop, sitting down on the couch and opening the lid. Once the machine had started, I navigated to the dating agency’s website and kept my promise to her by really considering signing up.

The site was tastefully done in black, shades of gray, and purple, and the testimonials were amazing. I clicked the button for the Rules on top of the page, and then I stared at them for a few minutes, wondering if finding my match could really be as easy as signing up and following these four simple rules.

No real names used (To keep people from looking each other up on social media)

No seeing each other until date five (If you make it that far)

No touching (To keep things from becoming purely physical)

No exchanging of personal information (All contact to occur through the company)

I read over the rules again and again, wondering whether I should just bite the bullet and sign up. Should I or shouldn’t I? That was the question.

Ultimately, however, I closed my laptop again without signing up and decided to sleep on it. My mom had made her feelings about this site abundantly clear, and I wouldn’t feel right about joining before I’d spoken to her about it first.

I trusted my mother, and if she didn’t think this was the right fit for me, then I guessed I’d just have to find a date to the wedding some other way.