“I’m going to grab one right now. Excuse me.” Shae laughed as Meegan jumped up and rushed over to the dining room table. She tore open the plasticware and went right for thegoods.
“Save two for my man!” Keirayelled.
“I will!” Meegan said as she came back to the couch, double fisting salted caramel cupcakes. “Okay. Go on. What else is new? Besides all the baking in theworld.”
“Nothing much. Had a date last week that tanked in the first five minutes. I may have said I was going to the bathroom then bolted out the front door,” Shae admitted with awince.
“Whathappened?”
“He spent the first five minutes talking about how much he loved big girls, but vehemently denying that he was a chubby chaser. I still don’t know what was more off-putting—that dudes are still using the phrase ‘chubby chaser’ or if he thought I should find any of what he was saying to beflattering.”
Keira made a face. “Ew.”
“Okay. Give me your phone.” Meegan held out herhand.
“Why?”
“I’m gonna swipe foryou.”
Shae glanced at Keira, who just shrugged. Right. She met her fiance the old fashioned way. Through friends. The doorbell rang and Keira jumped up to answer it, leaving Shae alone with Meegan and her itchy swiping finger. Shae gave in and handed over her phone. A few moments later, Erica, Sarah and Joanna came walking into the room, their arms loaded down with more sides and lots and lots ofbooze.
“Holy Christmas!” Erica said. “It looks amazing in here. How are you girlie?” Erica leaned over the couch and kissed Meegan on theforehead.
“Finding Shae a newlubber.”
“Oh, let me! Let me! I’m a master swiper,” Ericasaid.
“She’s right,” Sarah said. “She swiped on Angelo for me.” Shae had to admit that was a pretty good vote of confidence. Sarah and Angelo had been together for about six months and things seemed to be going pretty well. Angelo was a total sweetheart. Shae could handle starting over with a guy that nice andcute.
“Meegan. Give her thephone.”
“Whatever. I could have found you someone good. Take it.” She moved over so Erica could sit between them, then handed her thephone.
“You ladies swipe while we eat. Dinner’s ready.” That’s all Keira had to say to get them all to swarm the table, piling their plates high with food and emptying not one, but two, bottles of wine in the firstgo.
Once they were all settled back on the couch, ready to stuff their faces, Keira asked as she grabbed the Apple TV remote, “Okay. It’s time. Are you ready for PrinceCharming?”
There were YEAH’s all around. Keira turned off the rendition of “Santa Baby” coming through the speakers, then pressed play on episode four. They all had their money on Jenna getting eliminated this week, if her shenanigans from the week before were an indicator. Erica started swiping. Shae wanted to know who Jenna was going to start shit on in this week’s episode, but she was more interested in Erica’s plan of attack. She watched her closely as she swiped right and left on several guys. Erica was onto something. Every guy she swiped right on seemed to be right up Shae’salley.
“Do you have a method you use or…?” she whispered. On the flat screen, Chad was talking about his upcoming one-on-one date with April-Jane.
“Oh, I have a method, but I can’t tell you,” Erica replied. “It’ll ruin the magic. Don’t worry, we’ll Hallmark movie you right into a honey for theholidays.”
“Ha! That would make a good movie,” Keiragiggled.
Shae smiled and turned her attention to the TV for a moment before she looked back at herphone.
“Oh, this guy’s hot,” Ericasaid.
“Oh my god, I know him.” On her phone was the picture of Aidan Meyer, one of the hottest guys she’d ever had the pleasure of knowing in reallife.
“Yeah, see those little dots? You guys have mutual friends. How do you knowhim?”
“Work. We used to work together at Allight. He was our head ITguy.”
“Well he is hot and his bio isn’t awful.” Shae took her phone back and actually read the words below what looked like a recent company headshot. He looked even better than she remembered. Cute white guy with dark red hair and a red-brown beard. He’d changed his hair a little. The cut was a bit sharper than the way he used to wear it and she could have sworn he had different glasses, but it was definitely Aidan. And his bio wasn’t tooterrible.
Just your average IT guy with a start up. Ladies have to do most of the work on thisapp.
