“Of course, you are. It's because I'mawesome.”
Lacey smiled. “You really are. Have fun playing Cupid while I'm gone. I expect someone like Dionysus when Igetback.”
“Thedrunkdude?”
“I mean someone ready to live it up a little. We're finishing up our junior year of college. I don't want to look back and regret not living life to thefullest.”
“I doubt you're in dangerofthat.”
Lacey laughed. “Fine. I don't want to seeyoudoingthat.”
“And I don't want to look back and think if only I had the extra money, I wouldn't have ended up stranded on the side of I-4 during rush hour. Or if only I studied a little harder, I wouldn't have had to repeatHumanities.”
“Don't worry, Morgan. You're not in danger of the second. And all your hard work this week will ensure the first doesn't happen either.” Lacey looked down at her phone. “But I really have to leave, or I'm going to miss myflight.”
Lacey blew a kiss at Morgan before racing outthedoor.
Morgan enjoyed the silence her departure brought for precisely two seconds before diving into her work. It was only fitting considering she hadn't been able to stop thinking about it the entire time they'd beentalking.
The first order of business was picking a winner for the gift card giveaway. She put the names of everyone who had entered into a random name generator. Morgan was pleasantly surprised to see she had just over fifty entrants. That meant fifty people in the dating pool. There were about half as many guys than girls, but Morgan refused to let that bother her. Not yet, atleast.
The contracts she drew up gave her six months to find a match. Not true love. A match. It was all based on a good faith effort. If after that time, her client hadn't gone on a single date, Morgan would refund the original cost. And thankfully, with so many people signing up during her promotion, she'd be able to take care of the rare, unsatisfiedcustomer.
Morgan tapped the screen of her phone to choose a winner. When “Declan Adams” popped up, she sighed. There was no way she was going to let that jerk have the gift card. She still wasn't sure why she'd added him to the dating pool. Not that she was actively searching for hismatch...
If she picked someone else, who would know? She'd simply let her finger slip. Ta-da! Aileen Clarke was the newwinner.
She remembered her interview. She was the most artistic of her clients. Her work hung in the local art museum. Morgan briefly wondered if an excursion to The Polk Museum of Art would be a tacky date for her match. She shook her head. Of course, it would. But there were other options either here in town, or even near Tampa. The Dali Museum was only an hour away and could lead to some interestingconversations.
Morgan textedAileen.
Morgan: Congrats! You're the winner of the gift card. Feel free to come by my dorm and get it whenever, or we can meet up and I can get ittoyou.
Aileen: SRSLY? I never win ANYTHING! This just made my day. Thanks, DateMaker!
Aileen: I just realized that sounded like some cheesy commercial or something. DON'T hook me up with someoneweird,k?
Morgan: It's going in the file. Aileen likes late nightinfomercials…
Aileen: Stoooooooop. I'll give up the gift card if you promise to hook me up with the hottest guy you've signed upsofar.
A pang of guilt hit Morgan. Declan was definitely the most attractive guy she'd interviewed, and she'd just stolen a gift cardfromhim.
Morgan: I can'tdothat.
Aileen: I know. But seriously, I can't wait to see who you choose for me. Thanksagain.
Morgan:Noprob.
She set down the phone, discouraged by the short text interaction with Aileen. She had no boss, no one to oversee. Morgan's clients put their complete faith in her. They just assumed she would be honest. And for the most part, she was. There was simply something about Declan that made her want to grind her teeth intostubs.
She walked over to her wall where she'd hung a giant cork-board she'd found online. At first, Morgan thought she'd be able to keep all her notes in a notebook. And while she still did that, she found having a visual map also helped. Anyone walking into her dorm might think she was trying to catch a serialkiller.
Scattered across it were pictures and notes. There were clusters of similar types. The jocks in the top left, scholars underneath, then there were also groupings of the artistic types, the Greek-lifers, and otherclusters.
Just seeing a picture of someone was enough to help Morgan remember most of the details about a client, but if she ever needed more, she had all their details written down. It wasn't the most efficient system, as Lacey had pointed out several times, but it all made sense toMorgan.
She grabbed a picture of a redheaded freshman girl and a blond sophomore guy off her board. She'd been toying with the idea of setting them up but wanted to wait for the perfect date. The Strawberry Festival had just started and was about a half an hour drive from the college. It had fried food, thrill rides, and the possibility of romance. She began writing uptheplan.
