“Because when I asked him the name of hisreligion,he brought up the name of his Great Prophet,” I sipped my wine furiously, kinda wishing that I could take some of my bad dates, shrink them down and drown them in it instead. Or maybe drown my cheating ex? Nah, he wasn’t even worth the effort. “I googled his Prophet later, and he’s just this skinny dude with glasses. Honestly, even his picture looked boring. I thought that cult leaders had to at least be charismatic?”
It would be funny if I weren’t on the verge of crying. If it wasn’t my literalweddingon the freaking line.
Zane shook his head. “What about the other guy?”
“Oh, yeah. Mark. He referred to himself as ahigh-value man.”
“Yeah, somehow that’s worse than the cult guy.” Now I had Zane running his hands through his hair in frustration. “So I’m not going to lie. This dating set-up thing you got going here looks a bit like a hot mess.”
I shrugged. “You can’t be a hot mess without being hot.”
“I mean it. This dating app thing was my idea. I can help you.” He kinda had a point, but it was fine.
“No. I spent a whole hour with the yarn, and getting the printer to work. I’ve got the next one picked out. There’s no way thatallthese guys are crazy.”
Somewhere on my psychotic-looking corkboard, one of these guys was Mr. Right.
If I had to go on some bad dates to find him, so be it.
I didn’t need my brother or anyone else’s help to figure it out—I wasn’t that desperate.
Not yet anyway.
CHAPTER 7
AVRIL
Alright,it was starting to feel a little premature to say that I was feeling hopeful about this next date, but I was feeling hopeful about this next date. He was kinda handsome this time—like he looked like he belonged on the set of a movie if you squinted. At the very least, he could be one of the stunt-men.
Charlie’s bio sounded pretty normal. There wasn’t anything that struck me as a red flag—though there hadn’t been anything that struck me as a red flag in the bios of the other guys either.I’m an adventurous guy, always up for trying out new places. Looking for someone who loves to travel and would want to see the world with me.
Did I care about travelling? Not particularly.
Was the bio generic and safe? Yes. Which was exactly what I needed right now.
I got to The Thirsty Pearl and scanned the room to see if my favorite corner seat was available… only to see someone waving me over. I did a double-take.
Yes, that was my date… but he wasn’t alone.
Why did he have anotherwomanwith him?
Hesitantly, I walked over to the table, ignoring the instincts screaming at me to turn around, walk back out the door and chalk the night up to a disaster.
Maybe there was a reasonable explanation for this?
There was my date. But leaning against his shoulder and actually holding his hand was a woman in her early fifties with tightly permed hair, dark eyeliner, a green silk blouse and a triple-strand pearl necklace. Before I even got a chance to introduce myself, she stared me up and down, sizing me up.
“Well, you certainlylookpretty enough for my Charlie,” The woman said with a little sniff.
“Do you really think so? Could she be my little princess?” Charlie asked the woman, talking about me like I wasn’t even in the room.
My Charlie?
She was an older woman. Was this Charlie guy in a polyamorous relationship with a cougar?
I mean, I have nothing against poly relationships.Obviously.I did grow up with two moms and six dads… but springing it on me on a first date seemed really disingenuous—that’s something that we should have talked about ahead of time. I mean, even though the pack dynamic worked out for my parents, didn’t mean that I’d already considered it for myself. And why was I not getting a chance to meet Charlie on my own? I felt like I was already in competition with this other woman.
Not wanting to make a scene, I sat down in the empty chair across from Charlie and the stranger. Though every single fiber of my being screamed at me that this was a mistake and I should cut my losses, my butt was already in the chair. Sitting gave me a sense of finality… it meant that I was officially on this date, trapped for an hour or more. There was no backing out now.
