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The crowd replied in the affirmative, so the MC continued.
“All right! Great! Now, as I’m sure you’ve seen, tonight we have a surplus of the fairer sex.”
“Good problem for the guys to have,” Tiffany joked in a whisper. Abby elbowed at her.
“So what we’re going to do is, tonight we’re going to have two rounds. Our lady participants have been randomly divided into two teams. One team will go first, and the other team will go after them. The team not on rotation will be able to enjoy free nachos, and as a ‘thank-you’ for participating, each member will be given a voucher for one free mixed drink each.”
Teams? Abby bit down on her bottom lip. It wasn’t like she was going to hop table to table with Tiffany, but she liked the idea of the two of them speed-dating at the same time. Knowing that Tiffany was chatting up guys at the same time she was supposed to give her strength, but if they were apart?
She suddenly felt clingy. She couldn’t do this without Tiffany.
Was it too late to back out?
Desperate to look for a quiet exit, Abby lifted her head and looked across the room. Before she could find a subtle escape route, her gaze landed on the man with the striking blue gaze.
Abby’s heart leapt into her throat, and any will she’d had to escape fled.
She could do this. He’d be worth it.
“The teams are as follows,” the MC said. “Team One is Sarah, Jillian, Naomi, Lisa, Abby, Penny, and Tiffany.”
Yes! Abby grinned when she heard Tiffany’s name called out alongside her own. Now she wouldn’t have to worry about making small talk with the girls while they waited after their turns, and she could rely on Tiffany’s support if she needed it.
“Team Two is Brenna, Donna, Erin, Lucy, Kim, Catherine, and Victoria.”
So far, so good. Abby leaned toward Tiffany to whisper to her, “I’m so glad we’re in this together.”
“Me, too!” Tiffany whispered back. “And I’m glad we’re going first. We’ll get the guys fresh, before their eyes glaze over and they confuse all of our names. And, if it turns out all of them are creepy losers, we can slip out while team two is still doing its circuit and no one’s going to be any wiser for it.”
“What about if Carmen’s having a good time?” Abby asked. Carmen sat on the other side of the bar, and when both Abby and Tiffany looked her way, she smiled and waved at them. Out of the three of them, Carmen was the cutest, but she was also easygoing to a fault.
Luckily, she’d found a man who wanted to protect her from her own willfulness rather than take advantage of her kindhearted nature. Both Abby and Tiffany loved and respected Kevin, because he was so good for their friend.
“She’s not going to argue,” Tiffany said. “She’s here for us, anyway. If we decide to ditch this place early, we’ll just go back to her house and get Kevin to make us mini tacos while we watch some chick flicks or something. I’m sure she’d have an even better time doing that. And if she’s not driving, it means we can put her margarita mixer to work and all three of us can get our buzz on.”
“Not that you need much help with that,” Abby joked in good nature.
Tiffany rolled her eyes dramatically and shook her head. “Details, details.”
“If you ladies will kindly give us a minute to set up the bachelors at their booths, we’ll have this event started in no time,” the MC announced. “Team One, get ready to get chatty.”
The men who’d gathered for the event rose from their seats, and the MC directed them to their booths and got them settled.
“I wonder why there aren’t a lot of men who signed up,” the woman sitting on Tiffany’s other side said.
Abby leaned over to look at her. Whoa. She was flawless. Big, blonde, Texas-cheerleader hair and a skinny waist were completed by stunning breasts and the sexiest lace dress Abby had ever seen outside of a lingerie store.
“You don’t think it’s because they saw us and decided not to sign up, is it?” Abby asked. Beside her beautiful best friend and this woman who looked like she belonged on the red carpet rather than in a small town like Cub’s Cove, Abby was starting to doubt herself.
She wasn’t beautiful. Her whole life she’d been second choice. The girl guys got to know so that they could get to her best friends.
“Oh, honey,” the woman said with a confident smile. “That’s not it at all. Have you even seen me? No. It must be something else.”
How was she supposed to compete against women like these? With so many more women than men, the men would have their picks. Abby got the feeling she was always going to be second choice.
But before she could ruminate on it for too long, the MC returned with the scorecards he’d mentioned and a handful of miniature pencils.
“Okay Team One,” he said. “We’ve got the gents settled and we’re ready to go. If you ladies would follow me over…”
