Page 2 of The Wrong Date Deal

“Eh.Talkativemight be a strong word for it, but communicating. I don’t need much, but I do need my date to talk to me a little, at the very least.”

“The bar is on the floor right there,” Hermes said, waving his drink in Piper’s direction.

“Apparently, still too difficult to reach.”

“So, you left, right?” Massima prompted, leaning even closer to Piper.

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”

“You stayed?” She stared at Piper in horror.

Piper shrugged. “I thought I should at least try. You know, see if she loosened up when we got the drinks and it was just the two of us. Like, maybe she just couldn’t talk to service workers.”

Hermes shook his head. “A very sweet consideration from you, but the woman was relaxed. There was no sign it was that.”

“I’m an optimist,” Piper offered weakly.

“You’re a glutton for punishment is what you are,” he said, his English accent coming out more strongly, just as it did any time he was stressed or excited.

“Maybe,” she allowed. “But, as I’m sure you can tell, it did not get better. She nodded when I asked if she was enjoying the lemonade, though, to her credit, she did answer direct questions about herself, though her answers were still a little lackluster, and she didn’t ask a single thing about me.”

“So,thenyou left?” Massima asked.

“Then I left.”

The three of them laughed, mostly relieved.

“Well,” Hermes said, “you lasted a lot longer than the rest of us would have done.”

“What can I say? Dating is a game of survival and I have to stay optimistic or it’s all over.”

Shea reappeared, placing Piper’s drink on the table. Piper moved to stand up, but Shea held her in the seat, insisting that they share the small stool instead. It was crowded, but so was the whole place, and it wasn’t the first time they’d squeezed into a seat together.

“This kind of thing is why I gave up on online dating years ago,” Massima said.

“Yeah, but Piper here is still holding out hope that she’s going to find ‘The One’,” Hermes pointed out.

Shea laughed. “The one for right now is working well for me. Maybe you should give that a try.”

Massima sighed. “Honestly, I kind of wish I could handle friends with benefits. I’d just spend the whole time catching feelings and stressing about who else they were with.”

“Right there with you,” Piper said, shaking her head.

Shea shrugged. “Yeah, I couldn’t care less. So long as we’re being careful and everyone’s getting tested regularly, they can sleep with whoever they want, I can sleep with whoever I want, and we can all have a great time together.”

“Ah,” Massima groaned, throwing her head back. “You make it sound so simple.”

Shea laughed again. “For me, it is, I guess. But I know it’s not for everyone. You can’t force it if it’s not right for you, and we know you’d hate it.”

“Ugh. So true. Why am I so desperate for romance?”

“Hey, you’re not the only one. Piper’s out here trying desperately to find it, while Hermes is holding out hope it’s going to find him.”

Piper groaned. “You’d think after all this searching,somethingwould have found me.”

“And I,” Hermes said, enunciating clearly, “am subscribing to the philosophy that love finds you when you finally stop looking for it.”

“How’s that going for you?” Shea asked, hiding her laughter behind her glass.

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