Page 40 of Love in Fine Print

“Yes, it was just my assistant, a work thing,” I fibbed.

My phone buzzed as I was putting it back in my purse. When I looked at it, I saw it was a message from Ben.

Ben:You look really good, btw.

And just like that the butterflies, tingles, and heart palpitations were back and they were kicking Nice’s ass.

16

BEN

“What about you?”

“Excuse me?” I asked the woman seated across from me who was there for a consultation.

“Are you a dog or cat person?” her blue eyes sparkled with interest.

“I like both,” I answered in the most monotone, un-flirty way I possibly could.

Nadia Baxter had contacted me two days ago. She was thirty-two years old and worked in tech. She explained that she worked long hours and had neglected her personal life in pursuit of her professional life.

The first half of the consultation had gone well. I’d been hopeful that I would be able to help her find what she was looking for. But the past few minutes had taken a turn. These interviews were supposed to be about me getting to know my potential clients, this had taken a hard left into getting to knowmeterritory.

I’d decided to abandon Gran’s home visits and meet clients in the office. As much as I hated to admit it, Miss B was right. All of the women kept hitting on me. The final straw that broke thehome-visit camel’s back happened two days ago when a woman excused herself to go to the bathroom and came back in her birthday suit. Butt. Ass. Naked.

Thankfully, years of playing professional ball had prepared me to handle such situations. I’d stood and walked out of the house. In my experience, and from what I’d observed when others had been accosted in such a manner, engaging in any conversation only prolonged the encounter with the unclothed person. Being polite went out the window when someone strips without your consent.

The women weren’t the only problem I was having. Men were proving to be just as challenging. If they were jocks, they mainly wanted to talk about football. If not, they just seemed deflated when they found out I was single. Yesterday, Mario, a gamer who was finding it difficult to connect with people IRL expressed concern that if I couldn’t find someone, what hope did he have after asking me about my personal life and finding out I was single.

I was beginning to think I really wasn’t cut out for this business. Twelve more months. That was how long I had to fulfill Gran’s wishes. As much as I wanted to honor Gran’s request and keep the business running for the full eighteen months, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do this for another year.

Financially, it was a black hole. I felt bad about taking people’s money when I didn’t know what I was doing, so I wasn’t charging anyone. I kept telling people that they would be billed at a later date, but I had no intention of ever sending anyone an invoice. I figured I needed to at least have a handful of successful matches before I could actually ask anyone to pay money for my services. But even with all the reading and researching I’d done, I still had no clue what I was doing.

Why had Gran thought I could do this? She’d never talked about leaving the business to me. I’d assumed that whenshe passed, the doors would close. That’s what should have happened. I didn’t want to tarnish her reputation or legacy.

“I bet your girlfriendhatesthat you are always meeting single women in your line of work.” Nadia commented as she batted her eyes at me. Not figuratively. She literally blinked several times.

Here we go,I thought to myself.

I’d tried several different tactics when clients, or potential clients, brought up the subject of my personal life. I started off by redirecting the questions. When that didn’t work, I said I didn’t talk about my personal life. Every woman I’d told I don’t discuss my personal life with had taken that as a green light that they could go for the gold in the Flirt Olympics. For the last week, I’d been opting for the truth in hopes that it would set me free. Yesterday, Mario proved that was not the key to my success.

“I don’t talk about my personal life.” Without a game plan I defaulted to my media-trained response. But when I saw the spark of hope in Nadia’s eyes, I went off book. “But no, she doesn’t mind it at all. She’s very secure, which is one of the things that attracted me to her in the first place.”

“Oh, so youdohave a girlfriend.”

I nodded.

Nadia tilted her head. “I heard you on a podcast, just a couple of weeks ago and you said you were single.”

I’d done a podcast called The Duel where I’d openly discussed my single status.

“It’s new.” Again, this was a lie. But not totally. I had just met Olivia and my attraction for her was new.

“What is she like? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”

I’d been in enough interviews to see that Nadia was not convinced that I did actually have a girlfriend.

If there was any chance of her buying my story, I really needed to sell this. “No, of course not. She’s hardworking, kind,insightful, and intelligent. She’s the most intriguing person I’ve ever met. She draws people into her orbit and they can’t help but be captivated by her. She’s not an open book, she keeps her cards close to her chest, but there are these moments, these tiny moments where she gives you glimpses of what goes on in her beautiful head and then you find out she’s somehow even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside. She is constantly surprising me, in the best way.”

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