I'm as unable to stop taunting her as I had been on the first day we'd met. "I'm offended, actually."
"Offended?"
"Yes. You analyzed my personality and made the conclusion that Ciara is the kind of woman I'd be interested in?"
She meets my gaze for a few long moments before her shoulders slump. "It was a gamble," she admits. "I knew it could go either way. And for the record, I'm not one to speak ill of other clients. I won't."
"I'm allowed to, am I not?"
"Yes," she acknowledges. "Was it that bad?"
"Let's just say she'd made her intentions clear before we'd ordered the food. A rich man who could keep her."
"Oh," Summer breathes. "Well, you said your last date was too serious, so I made sure this one wouldn't be."
The irony tugs at my lips. "Perhaps an overcorrection."
"I gave you someone bubbly."
"You gave me someone who still chews pink bubblegum."
"So you're saying I've drawn the wrong conclusions about you," Summer murmurs, hands flying over her keyboard as she fires up her computer. There's a look of excited calculation I recognize from my first visit to this room.
When she'd thought I was a client.
"Are we going back to me answering ridiculous prompts?" I ask, drumming my fingers along the armrest. Looking away from the bright lightness that is her. "How long would I last in a zombie apocalypse? What was the name of my first pet?"
She laughs, like I've made a good joke. "They were very informative last time."
"I doubt that."
"People say a lot when they think they're being shallow. Now… this means I only have one more try."
She turns those sky-blue eyes on me. "And you didn't like Isabelle or Ciara."
"I did not." If anything, they'd only strengthened my preconceived notions. I find myself holding my tongue on that score, though, as she looks at me with playful challenge.
"It might take me a bit longer to think this through," she says. "As you're not only a client but the co-owner of Opate Match, you'll get the absolute best service I can provide."
The emphasis on co-owner makes me snort. Acture Capital has a fifty-one percent stake in the company, negotiated at painstaking lengths.
"Good. Because you remember what you have to admit if it doesn't?"
"Yes, I do. Matchmaking isn't for everyone. But that won't happen. I'm determined." The smile she shoots me is one of triumph, even if she hasn't won yet. She's surprising. Naive, perhaps… but funny. Unexpected.
I doubt anyone else would have led me down this path, or gotten me to agree to the outrageous idea of three dates. Not when I hadn't been on a date in over a year before this.
I bite the inside of my cheek and look away from the expectancy in her eyes. Toward the half-blurry images of couples on the wall. Smiling with false happiness in stylized poses.
I surprise even myself with my response. "How about I give you two weeks? There's an event I'm attending on Friday the fourteenth. I could use a date to that."
Summer's eyebrows rise. "You'd be okay with that? Having a first date at an event?"
"Why not?" I shrug. It had been a foolish suggestion, but here I am, committed to it.
"No, no, that's great. If the female client is amenable to that, it'll work great." She gives me another sunny smile. "Two weeks, then, to find your soul mate."
"Good luck," I say. "You'll need it more than me."
The summer rain is a torrent outside my office window, stronger than New York has experienced in weeks. It's needed, but I still don't like it. Not when I know what it'll mean for the windows in my apartment.
No matter how many rolled-up towels I stuff against the window frames, water still finds ways to seep through. I might applaud its ingenuity, if I wasn't living with the consequences.
I sigh. Ace looks up at me from his sprawl at my feet, eyebrows raised the way only a dog can.
"Nothing's up," I tell him. "Excited to go to my parents this weekend?"
He gives a huff and settles his head back on the floor. Manhattan's not the place for a dog, and my parents would be more than happy to add him to their little pack upstate, but…
I want him here with me.
"You're the real matchmaker, aren't you?" I tell him. My door is closed, with neither Suzy nor my aunt here to witness just how often I talk to my dog. "Clients take one look at you and they melt."
Ace turns on his side and pushes his snout against my ankle, his nose cold.
"That's right. Now, if only you could charm Anthony Winter too."
Ace doesn't reply. Smart move, too, because the man seems utterly resistant to charm of all sorts. And utterly dismissive of the women I've set him up with.
How do you win a bet against someone who is determined to play unfairly? He might say otherwise, but I doubt he gave Isabelle a proper shot. Ciara, well… that's a different story.
Which reminds me.
I reach for my phone and put on a wide smile as I dial Ciara's number. She'd asked me to call her back.
"Summer," she says. "I'm so glad you called."
"I'm here to help."
"I just want to touch base about the date last week."
I grit my teeth. We've already spoken about it. "Absolutely. What about it do you want to discuss?"
"Like I said right after, I'd really like to go on another date with Anthony. The date ended so quickly, he didn't have a chance to grab my phone number." She laughs, like that had been a silly mistake on Anthony's part.
"I see," I say. "Well, it's always up to both parties if they'd like to schedule another date."
"You're right, and I think in this situation, it is certainly mutual," she says, voice lowering. "Honestly, I'm a bit impressed, Summer. I'd heard great things about Opate but I couldn't imagine my first date would be with Anthony Winter!"