“Hmm.” My next date takes a seat across from me. Her strawberry-blonde hair falls in careful waves, and her makeup is mostly natural, showing off the splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
She’s cute.
“I’m Weston,” I introduce myself, clearing my throat.
“Anna,” she answers, her red lips curling into a smile. “I take it your last date didn’t go so well?”
“No,” I admit, “But it was mostly the fact that I’m not … Um…” I don’t know how to explain myself, but Anna reaches across the table, laying her hand over mine.
“Cheryl is a lot.” Her voice softens. “She’s my best friend.”
“Oh.” I breathe out a sigh, trying to ignore the fact that Anna’s hand is a little clammy against mine. Not that it matters. A clammy hand is still a hand. She’s being nice and endearing right now.
And I’m being insanely awkward and overanalyzingeverything.
Get a grip, Wes.
“So, what do you do for work?” I ask my typical question, already knowing that I probably sound like a broken record.
“Um, right now I work in hospitality. I’m the marketing director for a hotel,” she specifies. “It’s a very different job from Cheryl’s.” A blush creeps into her cheeks, and I smile.
“I think your job sounds really cool,” I assure her. “I bet it’s a lot of work to market hotels here in the city; there are so many of them.”
She nods. “Oh my gosh, yes. There’s literallysomuch competition. You’ve got to do a lot to stand out these days … Plus, you have to be affordable, but nottooaffordable, you know what I mean?”
“I do,” I say, surprisingly. “I took a few marketing classes in college, though I know that doesn’t amount to much. But I do stay in hotels sometimes, and I typically try to find one that’s, like, themiddlerange of niceness and price.”
“Exactly.” Anna beams. “You get me.”
“Totally.” My entire body feels light, and my worries start to dissipate. “I’d love to hear all about your marketing strategies.I actually work as a programmer, so while I don’t know much about marketing, Idohelp run the code to sell things.”
“Ah, so you’re a nerd, yeah?” Anna giggles, her nose crinkling. “That’s kind of cute. I like that.”
“Good, I’m glad.” I let out a chuckle, just as the timer goes off. My heart drops with disappointment, and I frown. “Man, I was hoping for more time.”
“Same,” she chimes, but slides out of the booth. “Maybe just write me down as a ‘yes’ and we can hang out later?” The hopeful look in her expression brings me relief.
“For sure,” I tell her. “I’ll definitely do that.”
She shoots me a little wink as she saunters off to the next table, and I won’t lie, I only think about Anna, even as the next four women pass through. Something about her has me wanting to ask her out on a real date.
As the event finishes up, and the big group of singles start to intermingle, I make my way to Anna, who is chatting with Cheryl. As I approach them, they both turn to me, opposing looks on their faces. Anna has a smile, and Cheryl looks like she might bite me.
And not in a good way.
“Hey,” I say, directing my attention to Anna. “I was wondering if you’d wanna grab a coffee sometime?”
Anna opens her mouth to say something, but Cheryl beats her to it. “She has a boyfriend, Wes. Don’t even waste your time.”
“Wait, what?” I feel confused, my eyes darting between the two of them. “This is a singles’ event. That makes no sense.”
Anna’s smile fades to a frown. “Well, if we’re being honest…”
My heart sinks at the way her voice trails off. “Uh-huh…”
She meets my gaze and lets out a sharp sigh. “I do have a boyfriend. I came here tonight to do an experiment for my psychology class. I’m just trying to figure out the demographic of men who resort to events like this to find a significant other, andhow it correlates to their choice of employment. As it turns out, it seems like there’s a lot of men who work in tech that can’t find a partner.”
I swallow hard, ignoring the way it feels like an insult. “I thought you worked in marketing.”
