Then again, when I got out of my car, a mom pulled her children to the other side of the row. So, yeah. Disaster number two was probably fucking up the first impression.
On top of everything, I’d been nervous, so I was here fifteen minutes early. Pulling up the app, I found a message from Rhys. We hadn’t even been able to message each other until now, and it’d be just my luck if he canceled.
Rhys: I am so, so sorry. There’s been an injury at rugby practice.
Rhys: Though, “injury at rugby practice” might be redundant.
Me: Shit. Are you hurt?
Rhys: No, it was one of the other guys. I’m team captain, though, and I need to make sure he’s okay before I take off.
Rhys: Probably going to be at least 20 minutes late. We can reschedule.
Me: Eh, I’ll just do some grocery shopping while I wait.
Rhys: Oh, sweet. Thank you. Looking forward to meeting you.
Me: Me too.
Disaster number three out of the way.
I may look like the prickliest guy on the planet, but I had one helluva soft spot for thick thighs and sweet guys. That’s assuming a lot since I had yet to get a picture of the man, but rugby thighs are absolutely a thing.
As I walked into Meadow & Vine, it hit me that I probably knew who I’d be meeting. I’d been too busy to go to a live game, but I’d been over the moon when I’d found out that Major League Rugby’s newest team had been formed in Austin. Even though they were an expansion team, they’d gelled quickly and won three of their four preseason games. Frankly, that one game was damn close and had been lost on a couple of bad calls.
I remembered because the captain of the Austin team was a monster of a guy, and his face had turned to stone when the ref made those calls. He’d looked like the meanest motherfucker on the planet and, hell, if this shit worked out between the two of us, we’d have people crossing the street right and left to get away from us.
That thought probably shouldn’t have made me smile, but it did.
After grabbing my basket, I finally took note of my surroundings, which included an overwhelming number of balloons and stands of red roses. Disaster number four was me realizing thattodaywas Valentine’s Day.
I had not considered the timing. Of course the algorithm was going to set me up on Valentine’s—that’s literally what I’d paid for.
Sure, I could’ve chosen my own date, time, and location, but I was, I dunno, trying to get into the spirit of things. There’d been a blind date option for not that much extra, so I’d hit it and let the computer spit out a pairing and a place to meet.
Brilliant, Sev.
Shit. Should I have brought some roses to this thing? At a minimum, I was starting to regret my faded Misfits tee. Walking toward the baking aisle, I pulled up the Heart2Heart email.
The fifth disaster had to be the name of the date. Or maybe it was that I was going on a date that could be named.
Severin, it’s time for your Meat Cute.
Find your match in the meat department of the downtown Austin Meadow & Vine. Your match’s first name is Rhys, and we think you’re going to be perfect for each other.
Since it was a blind date, the details were kept to a minimum to prevent either party from getting online and figuring out who their date was. We could cancel through the app, but direct messaging only opened up the hour prior to the date. By the time I’d completed my shopping, I’d decided if he could be twenty—now thirty—minutes late, I could cheat and look him up with the info I’d gleaned from our messages.
Ten seconds later, and I had my answer.
Rhys Dawie, captain of the Austin Falcons. According to the stat page, he was six-four and a mouth-watering two hundred seventy-five pounds. And I’d been right—it was the stone-faced guy I’d envisioned. Jesus, he looked like he could kill me with his thumbs. As I was lusting over pictures of a sweaty Rhys running over other huge men, my hearing processor beeped.
Ah. Disaster number six, just as I was looking forward to this thing.
I’d been stuck with a cochlear implant after a bout of meningitis right as I was entering cooking school. I should’ve gotten two, but my insurance would only pay for one. It sucked hardcore, but I’d eventually made it work.
“Se-Se-Severin?”
I’d just replaced the battery and knew I’d left the house with a full charge, so who knew what the fuck was going on.
