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“Because of the possibility you might be attracted to each other. If either of you had been in a relationship with someone else, I wouldn’t have paired you up. But I don’t expect you to be single forever. BFF’s get cycled in and out. Partnerships get changed. People need breaks for lots of reasons. Do you need a break?”
“I don’t need a break. I promise we’re good for now.”
He studied my face for a few seconds. “Well good, because I have another assignment for you.”
Of course he did. He’d called me into his office for a reason. I felt bad for unloading all my concerns on my boss when he just wanted to give me work. It was time to shift gears and stop worrying about Sadie. She was my coworker, nothing more.
“Do you want Sadie in here for this?” I asked.
Marcel nodded. “So, the two of you are good?”
“Yes. At least on my end.”
I must have sold him because he picked up his phone and called her in.
Sadie didn’t seem fazed by another assignment. She was probably bored with vetting and reporting on groups. And unlike me, she was perfectly fine continuing to work with me. In fact, she looked at Marcel oddly when he asked if things were okay between the two of us. Yeah, whatever attraction she held on her side of things was not bothering her one bit. Good. We could both professionalize the heck out of this next assignment.
Marcel pulled up the new guy’s file, and the three of us looked it over together. Zane was the polar opposite of Hector. He wasn’t shy, and he’d dated a lot. It was his lack of trust in his own instincts that led him to ask for a secret BFF. He’d had his heart broken more than a few times.
We talked strategy and looked through the profiles of women the app had recommended so I could help Zane meet the right person. After Sadie and I headed back to our desks, I chatted with Zane via messenger while Sadie took notes.
The group Zane was a part of was one Sadie and I had been watching for a few days. Thankfully, they didn’t have any weird hobbies, except maybe a tendency to eat at swanky places and drink too much. Oh, and to flirt it up online.
It was clear after only a few minutes that Sadie would have to jump into the group with me again. I’d already been hit on several times.
Sadie, of course, was not eager to join in.
“I don’t drink, and I hate flirting.”
“Sadie, neither of us can drink at these things, so that part doesn’t matter. We just have to go in, meet these women, give Zane a thumbs up or thumbs down, and get out of there. He doesn’t need someone to help him socialize. He’s got that covered.”
“You’re oversimplifying it.”
“And you’re needlessly worrying.”
She stared me down, and I stared right back. She’d cave. She just wanted to grumble about it first. I knew it like I knew the color of her eyes. I’d missed eye contact with her, even the kind where her eyes were saying she wished I’d get pushed in front of a bus.
“Come on. Say hi to the group, SadieLadie.”
“I’m going in as just Sadie this time.”
Fine by me. I reached over her and typed out JustSadie. She almost smiled at that. Almost. But then she got serious, because JustSadie had to actually introduce herself in the thread, and she really was allergic to flirting. Sadie answered every hello and every question with her typical short and to the point answers. Her hobbies were eating, sleeping, and going to the gym. She admitted she hated dogsandcats, without mentioning her affinity for annoying, homeless parrots—a fact that would have totally won her some brownie points, which she badly needed.
But I kept these thoughts to myself and tried not to tease too much. Even when she was constantly hit on, too. It didn’t matter that she was brusque, bordering on unfriendly. Sadie was way too gorgeous for her own good, especially with her very serious and slightly pouty profile picture. Time for a retake. For both of us. Maybe we could go old-school with some laser light backgrounds and turtle-neck sweaters. I’d suggest it later.
Sadie pulled up her trusty spreadsheets, and she started adding women from the thread, what they said, and who they said it to. On another screen she had their profiles to cross reference. I especially liked her red flag column. She was never wrong. Zane was in good hands.
Or at least he was until a new message flashed across the screen.
Sadie!!! I know you.
I tapped Sadie’s arm to get her attention. She had been busy typing up a journal entry. “Hey, someone says they know you.”
It was one of those inevitable things. We were single twenty-somethings. We’d both grown up around here. It made sense that we would run into people we knew. It was why we didn’t use fake names.
Sadie stared at the message, murmuring, “How do you know me, YesMan?” Using her mouse, she hovered over the guy’s username until his profile picture popped up. Then she stared some more, her face moving from slight disinterest to slight panic, to real panic, and then back to disinterest.
“Who is he?”
