Page 73 of The One That I Want

‘Next on the list is Harrison and he’s?—’

‘Have you read these articles?’ Anjali asks me, interrupting George.

‘I haven’t, but Greta gave me a run-down on her unsuccessful dates.’

Anjali’s lips press together. ‘How many unsuitable men has she gone out with in the past few weeks?’ she asks.

‘Four,’ I reply.

‘I see.’ She looks at George. ‘And from what you’re saying, fifth time’s a charm? Is that it?’

‘Oh, er…’

She comes back to me. ‘I think you should read the articles, because it doesn’t seem like they were written by someone who’s keen to fall in love. It’s quite the opposite.’

She takes out her phone and taps and scrolls. My eyes flick towards Paloma, but her expression gives nothing away.

‘Here we are,’ says Anjali. ‘And I quote: “This may be my first proper date in some time but when did it become okay for a man to fat shame his date for her choice of beverage? I would rather eat shards of glass than endure spending another minute with someone like Marcel. I can’tbelievepeople actively choose to date when they could be at home rearranging their sock drawer.”End quote.’

She lifts her gaze and pins me with a piercing look. Her displeasure is understandable. She engaged the agency for an HEA, likely not even considering the ‘kissing frogs’ part.

‘Greta comes across as cynical, bordering on bitter,’ she says. ‘How on earth do you intend to helpthisGreta find love when she’d rather be eating shards of glass?’

‘Poppy, perhaps if you explained your tactic to Anjali, so she can better understand?’ says Saskia helpfully.

‘I’d be happy to,’ I say with a smile. I meet Anjali’s eyes, knowing I can’t throw Greta under the bus by revealing she knows about Anjali’s plan, but I also need to offer a plausible explanation. Thankfully, something comes to me from the annals of my psychology practice.

‘Sometimes, when a client is outwardly resistant to love,’ I say, ‘we need to provide them with a way of… well, essentially, saving face. The first of the four men we set Greta up with was Marcus – AKA Marcel. He was the worst of the unsuitable men, and our intention was for Greta to come away from thatexperience feeling vindicated. Dating is awful and trying to find love is a waste of time.

‘Enter Aman, who doesn’t fat shame her but – let’s just say – has vastly different life goals from Greta. Greta continues to feel vindicated about her feelings towards dating, but there are diminishing returns on her self-satisfaction, as he simply isn’t as awful as Marcus. Then she went out with Travis. I know for a fact that she’s not including Travis in this series?—’

‘You mean, “Dating Horrors of London”?’ Anjali interjects, a persistent edge in her voice.

‘Yes – Travis isn’t a bad person, just desperate to find love and Greta was empathetic to his situation; she’s mentioned writing about him in a more in-depth, one-off article. Which leads us to Ollie – a lovely man, but for other reasons, not a good fit for Greta. She’s not planning on writing about him at all.’

‘I still don’t see how this helps achieve our primary objective, to help Greta find love.’

‘Because, over the course of these experiences, Greta is softening on the concept of dating. Each of these men gets her closer to whatweknow she wants, even if she isn’t quite there yet herself.’

‘Huh.’ Anjali sits back against her chair, maintaining eye contact as thoughts play behind her eyes.

‘What do you think, Anji?’ asks Saskia.

I glance in her direction, then over at Paloma, who gives me a subtle nod.

Anjali shakes her head as if to clear her thoughts and adopts a chastened smile.

‘I really don’t know what to say… other than I’m sorry I doubted you, Poppy. You clearly know exactly what you’re doing, and I just need to stand back and give you the space to do it.’

I smile at her, relieved that I’ve presented a plausible explanation for the dud dateswithoutrevealing it was Greta’s idea.

‘It’s completely understandable that you’d be confused –andconcerned. Especially after the issue with the advice column… It’s been an intense few weeks.’

She huffs out a sigh. ‘It has.’ She looks to her friends. ‘Soz, lovelies. I didn’t mean to derail your morning.’

Paloma stands. ‘It’s all right. You’re a valued client and were right to bring this to us.’

‘Ish– I mean, who am I to question the methods of the best matchmaking agency in London?’

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