Page 2 of Twist of Date

I realized early on that Mary wasn’t truly looking for “the one,” just someone to keep her from being lonely. At sixty-five years young, she’s also been a widow for nearly a decade, so she’s finally ready to find love again. For the past few years, she never went on more than two dates with the same man, admitting she liked the variety. So when she called me a few days ago, telling me that she was serious about finding someone to spend her time with, I was ecstatic. While I was enjoying getting her set up with a variety of fun gentlemen, I’m ready to do my thing and buckle down on her matches. Mary is a darling, and I want only the best for her.

While our goal at HEA, Inc. is to match our clients with their soul mates, it is a long process and it isn’t always as cut and dry as it seems.

Since Valentine’s Day is over, the uptick in requests for dates by mid-month has subsided and I can get back to our regularly scheduled programing.

Not finding the entry I’m looking for, I reach for my desk phone and punch in the short extension for one of my client coordinators.

After one ring, Kristin, who was assigned as Mary’s contact person at HEA years ago, answers from her office down the hall.

“Hey, Layla.”

“Hi. Gotta question. There was a man, late sixties, retired firefighter, dead-look-alike for John Dutton. I can’t remember his name. Do you?” I ask, scanning the list of names.

“Henry Oliver. That man makes herding cattle one sexy fantasy. He could lasso me up any day.” She sighs into the phone.

Chuckling, I ask, “Which one, Henry or Dutton?”

“Both?” She giggles.

“Fair enough. Well, I wanted to look at Henry’s profile to see if he would make a good match with Mary Jones, but I’m not seeing him in the database.”

“Oh, yeah, he paused his service with us several months ago.”

“Why?” Alarm sets in. Mostly because I was really hoping he would be a good match for Mary. There could be several reasons why someone would cancel or pause their service. Most of the time it’s because they are exploring a match or have found love.

“Let me look,” she replies as I hear clicks and then her keyboard. “Oh, looks like his reason was that he was going out of town for a bit. Extended stay with his daughter.”

“Okay, phew. I’m really feeling him for Mary. Can you reach out to him to see if he’s back in town? And if he is, can you tell him we have a date we want to set up?”

“Sure thing, boss lady,” Kristin quips.

“Oh, and check his file for the last date he went on, plus any feedback. If it’s been a while, we may want him to meet with Polly for a date refresher. I want this to be perfect.”

“You got it. I really like this match, Layla. I think you’re on to something here.”

I laugh at her approval as I hang up.

I’m loving this match too.

You see, I have a gift. And matchmaking is truly a gift, one that my own grandmother passed on to me. One that with her help, I’ve honed and mastered the art of matchmaking. Since opening up HEA, Inc. with my best friend Cassie, I’ve obtained a 99 percent match rating. I’ve only failed at a match twice in my life.

Once, in college, I matched Cassie with a man who would go on to cheat on her a month before their wedding. For a minute there, I really questioned my abilities as a matchmaker, considered taking a hard look at my life goals. But with Cassie’s constant support, my grandmother’s determination, and a good therapist, I decided that it was a onetime fluke, and maybe matching my best friend wasn’t the best idea.

Cassie promised me over and over that I was still amazing and that she may have attempted to stay in the relationship longer than she should have. My grandmother Ruth made it clear that matchmakers don’t always get it right. Even though she’s never gotten it wrong.

But then it happened again, a few years ago, not that I spent as much time dwelling over that mistake. What happened was that we took on a VIP client who didn’t really want to find love. In actuality, she had already found love and just wanted to cheat. Since that incident, we put in several safeguards to ensure we were not matching unmatchable clients.

After closing out the singles database, I grab my pen and mark out the line item I had jotted down for Mary.

Peeking at my calendar, I see that I have a new client meeting right after lunch, and then I have a handful of clients I need to work through. Shifting through profiles and personality tests gives me a good idea of who I’m working with. Then I’ll move on to the things that stand out for each person. From there, I’ll be able to determine what to look for in potential matches for each. The process can be tedious, but it’s fun and I love it.

Before HEA, Inc., I matched based on instinct when it came to matching people I knew. But attempting to match in a big, bustling city like Indy, I needed to streamline the process to allow me to access more people. So while I do utilize profiles, interviews, and personality test results, in the end I also rely on my gut when making a match. I get to meet so many new people looking for love that it’s been a dream come true in most cases.

But what I love even more is the fact that I get to work with my best friend every day. Even though we go days without seeing each other sometimes. Which is why besides keeping track of my team’s schedule, I also have access to Cassie’s and vice versa. Which has been a godsend for us over the years.

She’s such an amazing wedding planner that she’s always in demand. Sometimes, the only way we get bestie time is when it’s scheduled. While a lot of her clients are retained from my matchmaking services, she brings in new clients, sometimes more than we can handle. We’ve often talked about expanding, but right now, servicing central Indiana with a team of eighteen, we are comfortable and still able to grow our client base. But I’ve seen the potential for growth for sure.

One area of growth I would love to see if getting my other bestie in the office to work by our side. I would love to hire an in-house photographer, and I know just the woman for the job. If only she gave me a minute to sell the gig. She’s never been a big fan of weddings.

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