“Kassy, would you mind clearing the set?” Nick asked.
Kassy shot Nick a look. “You still have five minutes.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “I know Amy’s amazing and she can fly off the cuff at a moment’s notice. The rest of us need a little time to gather our thoughts.”
Amazing?She’d never heard him compliment her before. Nick’s eyes lingered on her for a beat before he turned to glare down the hallway.
“Fine.” Kassy gave Amy a kiss on the cheek. “Break a leg. Oh, and find a good one, will you? Daren said he’s ready for a brother-in-law already.”
Amy smiled. Kassy’s poor husband was an only child. Ofcoursehe was ready. “I’ll try.”
“Mom and Dad are in San Antonio, by the way. Mom just texted saying they’re streaming the show from a McDonalds while they catch a bite to eat.” Bless her parents—even in their trip across America in a Winnebago they planned to catch her show.
“Four minutes,” Nick barked.
Kassy darted off the makeshift set and slumped into a nearby chair in the foyer.
“Okay,” Nick said. “You’re going to talk with Mr. Bankford while the other dating candidates file into the banquet room behind you.” Amy recalled the lecture Nick had given the othercandidatesas they filled out their release forms.Please don’t look directly at the camera, don’t wave at the camera, don’t flash the camera for the love of all things holy, etc. etc.
Amy gave him a nod as the group of men lined up behind the women. She couldn’t help but get stuck in the idea that she could be doing this when she was fifty.Thisbeing the looking-for-a-good-man thing. Did they even have dating services for people in their fifties?
Geez, Kassy was right. She really was distracted today.
TheDo-It-Right Datingcoordinator strolled his way to her side, asking a question about the segment... For a moment though, Amy couldn’t help but picture Clay smoothing one hand over his wavy hair. “You should really do a segment at my dealership. You know, the average person navigating through the tedious task of buying a car. It’s good, right?”Wrong.
“I don’t know,” Mr. Bankford was rambling. “Do you think that would be good or should we do it differently?”
Amy looked at him, sifting through what she’d half-heard him say. Something about introducing frequently asked questions. “I like that,” she said. “I’ll give you a chance to address those.”
His face softened. “Thanks, Amy.”
It was a personal way to address her, but that wasn’t new. She was used to people calling her by name, feeling as if they somehow already knew her just by watching her segment. At least that was one good thing about being average. She didn’t intimidate anyone.
Jodi and Jim introduced the topic with a cliché comment about first date horrors.
“Trust me,” Jodi said through a laugh, “I’ve had more than my fair share of first dates.”
“Well, what if I told you that you could go on notone,buttwelvedates all in one night?”
“I’d say I like to be in bed by eleven, so no thank you.”
Amy turned to Mr. Bankford. “The split screen is coming, so smile at the camera.” As soon as the words left her mouth, the monitor split into its side-by-side view.Average Amyon one side, the news anchors on the other.
“…calledDo-It-Right Dating,” Jim continued. “And we thought we should figure out what it’s all about.”
Jodi nodded, her pearly whites framed by those perfectly glossed lips. “And who better than Denver’s ownAverage Amyto test it out for us. And doesn’t she look beautiful today?”
“She sure does,” Jim said. “Tell us how you feel about dating a dozen men in just one night, Amy.”
“In a word?” Amy squeaked. “Terrified.” The duo chuckled on cue. “But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited too.” She pointed a thumb toward the banquet area behind her and evened her voice. “There are some seriously good-looking men in that group from what I’ve seen. And right now, I’m with a fine-looking gentleman in his own right, the founder ofDo-It-Right Dating,Mr. Bankford.”
“Paul,” the man said, “please.”
Amy shot him an apologetic grin. “Paul, when you tell people about this service, I imagine you get everything from cheers to jeers. What are some of the frequently asked questions regarding this method?”
“I’m glad you asked,” the man said through a confident grin. He really did look like Clay. Acted like him too.
The resemblance was so great, in fact, that it triggered a series of disturbing flashbacks to play through Amy’s mind over the next three hours as she sped-date her way through the evening. Of course, she’d finished filming within the first two fifteen-minute dates, but she couldn’t just drop out and leave the guys high and dry.
Strangely enough, her greatest connections had been with those first two guys. Amy never minded flirting on film, giving the guy sharing the spotlight a bit of encouragement and playful banter. It was part of her persona. They’d played right into it too. Acting a whole lot more interested than they were, she later realized. After the camera crew cleared out, the excitement surrounding her died. A few of the guys even expressed disappointment in the fact that they hadn’t been on film with her. Some asked if they’d be shooting a follow-up segment, as if they were gauging whether or not it’d be worth it to ask her out in the future.
To Amy’s disappointment, the experience fed into her fear of being used. She considered that on the drive home as Kassy talked about her favorites.
Her sister didn’t know what it was like. She’d been married since she was nineteen, for crying out loud. And here was Amy, creeping up on thirty.Twenty-eight isn’t that close to thirty,she reminded herself.
Of course, her parents would call tonight, anxious to hear about the love connections she’d made. Her father breached the subject more often than her mother, who seemed to fear that Amy’s phobia of never finding the right one was justified. While Dad would ask how long it had been since she’d gone out with a man, her mother would mumble some barely decipherable prediction.“Gonna be old and alone one day.”
“Should go on a date once a week,”Dad would say next. “Or once a month, in the least of it.”
Amy sighed, glad she’d lived through the speed-dating fiasco. At least now she could say she’d gone on enough dates to last an entire year.
