Page 22 of Twist of Date

“Ruth.” I hiss.

“Oh, don’t get in a tizzy, dear.” She claps her hands. “You two should catch up. Do dinner or something.”

“I just asked her that very thing before you joined us,” Cole tells her, looking at me. Ruth follows suit and I feel my cheeks start to heat. So I stand abruptly.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve got another meeting. Since you are here, Ruth, can you circle back with Cole after he’s had some time to work on his personality tests?” I gather my things, then hand the tablet over to him, careful not to brush his fingers with my own. I don’t wait for her to reply. “Wonderful. Thank you, Ruth.” I look at Cole one last time, letting him know what he needs to do. “There are three tabs open. You’ll be taking the Enneagram test, Clifton Strengths Assessment, and the Love Language quiz. Should only take about thirty minutes.”

He’s grinning from ear to ear, not bothering to look at the tablet, only at me. With my arm full of my new client kit, I yank at my slim-fit black blazer and jerk my head toward the lobby.

“I’ve gotta run.” And I somehow gracefully maneuver around Ruth and out the door. I’m through the lobby and into the stairwell in a flash as I escape the mess that is Cole Reed that I’ve somehow gotten myself into.

Chapter 6

BAD MANNERS

COLE

I pullon the suit jacket, giving myself a good once-over in the mirror before heading downstairs for this stupid wingman date. I’m a fantastic dater. The ladies I take on dates always have a good time and most of the time our date lasts late into the night. I smirk at myself.

I’m a good time. I’m also very giving.

It royally irked me that Layla seems to think otherwise and would not back down from this wingman date. Last week when I met the team of people who would be working with me on my matchmaking, I was pleasantly surprised when Ruth called Layla into the meeting. She clearly didn’t want to be there, but she’s so damn professional that she squashed that initial indignation upon Ruth’s request. I couldn’t help but grin at her. Which seems to just get under her skin even more.

When Ruth brought up the wingman date, I suggested it wasn’t needed. I almost had Ruth convinced this was a waste of available resources when Layla piped up and made her case. That if I were to be getting the full VIP treatment, then I needed to work through the whole process. That we would never skip this important step for any other client.

Needless to say that I didn’t win and here I am, ready to meet with my date downstairs in LACE.

Flipping off the light as I leave the bathroom in my office, I decide that even if this date won’t lead to either of our beds after, I’m going to rock it. I’ll prove to Layla that my dating skills are solid and that that’s not what is keeping me from settling down. No, it’s the fact that I just haven’t met anyone worth settling down with. It’s solid reasoning.

Which I guess is Ruth’s whole point in the matchmaking.

But I suppose this whole matchmaking thing isn’t so bad as long as I get to keep seeing Layla.

I head down to the restaurant and walk over to the hostess desk to find if my date has arrived. I didn’t meet Polly at the HEA office last week, since she needed to be able to gauge my reaction to first seeing her.

Seems unnecessary. Every woman has something beautiful about them. Even if I’m not attracted to them personally, I would never sneer or make her feel less.

Anyway, I peek at the setting sheet and see that the table I had marked for HEA is, in fact, occupied. When Ruth explained how dates were set up at a partner restaurant, I offered up LACE as a new option. Kristin, the client coordinator, had mentioned LACE was on her short list of new partnerships. Basically, we agree to designate a table on a regular basis, set up a tab that’s billed to HEA, and they send scheduled dates and we get the business. Win-win.

I find a woman tucked into a corner four-top, peering down at her phone. She looks about the same age as me, maybe a few years older. I clear my throat. “Polly?”

Her head snaps up and she stands, holding out her hand to shake mine. “Cole, hello. Please sit.” She motions to the chair across from her. Normally, I would pull out the chair for my date, but she’s clearly in charge tonight.

“So how this will work, is that we will chat like this is a normal date, and I’ll take notes and then at the end we will go over those notes. I’ll provide you with some tips and we can hash out any bad dating habits you may have.”

“I assure you, I don’t have any bad habits. But let’s do this.” I grin at her.

And damn, she may even be harder to crack than Layla, because she doesn't even smile when she stares me down and says, “Mr. Reed, this is a very important step in helping you find the right person. I’ve been a professional dating coach for seven years and in my experience, I have never met a single person who didn’t have at least one bad habit.”

I gulp. She’s a ballbuster this one. “All right.”

“So I highly suggest you take this seriously and treat me like we were on a real date.” She eyes me thoughtfully.

“Absolutely. You’re right,” I tell her. Damn, who would have thought this whole matchmaking would be so serious?

“So let’s pretend that we just sat down. And go.”

I mentally shake myself because ah, I wasn’t expecting this date to go this way. But I recover quickly. “So have you been here before?” I ask her.

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