Morgan reached into her giant tote bag, a graduation gift from her mom for being named valedictorian at the end of her senior year of high school. Leather and monogrammed with her initials, it had been her faithful companion ever since. When she pulled her hand out of the bag, she held aplanner.
“I’ll just have to be more organized,” she said with a nod that hopefully looked more confident than she felt. “I have classes in the mornings on Monday through Thursday, work in the mornings on Friday through Sunday. That gives me my evenings free. If I take one client per evening, that should still leave me a couple of hours every night to get myassignmentsdone.”
She opened the planner and held it out to Lacey. Written in cursive was the week's schedule. She'd already booked three newclients.
Well… booked wasn't exactly the right word, and neither was client. Morgan had begged three girls in her Psychology lecture hall to be her guinea pigs. She'd agreed not to charge them as she built up her list of potentialdates.
“What about your social life?” Lacey crossed her arms over her chest. They were experiencing another late February cool front, but Morgan thought it had more to do with Lacey's mood than the weather. “You promised you were going to be better thissemester.”
Morgan had anticipated this complaint from her friend, and already had her response ready to go. “I can do that too. We have three weeks until spring break. I figured I could spend that time gathering clients, conducting screenings, etc. Then I can give a hard push during break since you're going to visit your parents anyway. By the time you get back, I should be past the initial growingpains.”
Lacey lifted one of her perfectly groomed brows. It was enough to intimidate even the most confident adversary, but Morgan had watched Lacey practice the move one too many times in the mirror to beaffected.
Morgan continued. “That means I can start the Date Maker service and still be a goodfriend.”
“You really think it'll only take four weeks to get a business up andrunning?”
“Um…” Morgan felt her bravado slipping. “It's not like it's a full-fledged business. It's just me setting people up in exchange for gasmoney.”
If it grew and became something more than that, it would be an addedbonus.
After scrutinizing Morgan for what felt like an eternity, Lacey eventually nodded. “Fine. I'll give you until the end of spring break, but I expect to have my best friend ready to par-tay when I get back. I'm talking late nights downtown. Maybe line-dancing on the North side.” She pointed a stern finger at Morgan. “Partying doesn't mean bringing pizza back to the room and binge-watching TV shows from thenineties.”
Morgan resisted the urge to argue. She didn't think there was anything wrong with a pepperoni pizza and DVDs ofFriendson a Friday night. But instead, she straightened up and said, “I get it. Fourweeks.”
Lacey looked down at the flyers and back to Morgan. She leaned in and said very seriously, “Four weeks.” After staring intently into Morgan's eyes for enough seconds to make her squirm, Lacey straightened and ran her hands down the front of hershirt.
“I’m heading down to the cafeteria,” she said. “Want to come get lunchwithme?”
“Can't. Gotta get started,” Morgan answered, looking back down at the stack of papers in her hand. She had four weeks to get this business underway. “I’ll see youlater.”
Lacey lifted her fingers into a delicate wave before walking off, but Morgan didn't bother watching her. She used her free hand to swipe her card that granted her access to thedorms.
Morgan hurried up to her room. As of right now, she had three female clients. Without a broader list of potential dates, Morgan was going to have to get creative with how she set people up. She wanted to make sure her percentage of satisfied customers would be 100 beforelaunchingwide.
She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through the feeds on her many social media apps, but with so many privacy options, she wasn't able to lurk in a way that was productive. She started searching tagged locations around campus, and while it was slightly more useful, she kept hittingdeadends.
If Morgan wanted to find people to recruit for her dating service, she was going to have to bring people to her. She started searching Instagram usernames, disappointed when the ones she wanted were taken by people who weren't even using the accounts to their full potential. The name she really wanted? Taken, with one generic post about finding true love. Screwthatguy.
So she added a couple underscores to the name until she found an availableaccount.
“There,” she said to herself, nodding her head insatisfaction.
But soon she found herself stuck again. She had the skill, she had the account, but how would she drawthemin?
ChapterTwo
Aweek later,clients started trickling in. Morgan wasn't sure if it had more to do with the promise of a $100 gift card to the local coffee shop, or a real desire to findtruelove.
But after trying to build a following organically and getting nowhere, Lacey had suggested throwing a massive giveaway for people who signed up for theservice.
“Do a week where you give everyone fifty percent off the cost you would normally charge, and have a drawing for everyone who signs up,” she had suggested to Morgan, initially causing her topanic.
Just the thought of giving that much away had started a fit of heart palpitations, but the response had been overwhelming. Either people loved their coffee, or they were desperate to find their soul mate. Morgan only hoped it couldbeboth.
She stuck to the schedule she'd given Lacey. School and work in the mornings, then playing the role of Date Maker in the evenings. She'd even conducted six in-person interviews in the lastthreedays.
After acing her Humanities quiz that morning, and eating a quick dinner in the cafeteria, she was ready to head back to the dorm and get started on some of her “other” homework. Part of the Date Maker agreement was access to all social media accounts. The success of each pairing relied on how well she knew eachclient.
