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Sophie Havers might think she doesn’t have time to date.
But she hasn’t been on a date with me yet.
Chapter 2
Sophie
Present Day
“Roses? You don’t likethem.”
I fasten my earring as my friend, Halliday, squints at the flowers, looking for a card.
“They’re from Henry.”
I breeze over to my hallway table and pull my lipstick from my clutch to apply in the mirror above.
Halliday agreed to go and see a political movie I’ve been wanting to make time to watch. It’s not her type of film, so the trade-off is that I accompany her to a launch party next week for a rocket eco-engine that she’s invested in. I’ve no idea why she’s investing in rockets all of a sudden. But this is Halliday, and I’ve learned it’s better to just let her get on with it.
“I can’t believe you’re wasting your time on Henry,” she mutters, narrowing her eyes at the flowers as she strokes a petal. “His aura is concerning.” She wrinkles her nose and pulls her hand back toward her body like they’ve offended her, brushing it against the black silk of her T-shirt. She tucks a lock of platinum hair behind her ear, then takes a deep breath andcloses her eyes as if needing to cleanse herself of the offending flower’s presence.
Halliday and I have been friends since meeting at a summer camp as kids. We used to sneak out of bed to stare at the stars together. She’s always believed in a higher power. A vibration, she calls it. She’d talk about finding a way to match people based off their energy and spiritual alignment. And she has. At just twenty-eight she was named businesswoman to look out for in The Economist magazine after establishing her dating company, Cosmic Connections. And as differing as our outlooks on life are, I couldn’t love her any harder.
She breathes out slowly and opens her eyes. She smiles at me, her face lighting up. “I pulled a card for you today. Magical things are coming.”
“Like finishing up with this case and then going somewhere without signal for a while?” I ask as my phone chimes with another incoming email.
“Maybe. You deserve a vacation. The cards are never wrong, though. Something is about to happen.”
“Maybe it can happen soon. Please, universe,” I mutter, collecting my phone from my bag on the hallway floor and scrolling through the emails. They’re all about the case I’m currently working on, but contain nothing I don’t already know.
“It will happen when the time is right,” she muses, gazing at the roses.
I deal with cold hard evidence and facts all day. I have no idea how she measures something she can’t see. But it works for her. She loves her job and has partnered up swathes of influential people and celebrities, who are now gushing over her company and her extraordinary talent. The waitlist for people who want to work with her is over a year.
“But if it’s a trip, then please, don’t go with Henry,” she adds.
“You don’t even know him.” I shake out my hair, attempting to get the long loose curls to play nice. “We’ve only been seeing each other for a couple of months. And you’ve met him once.”
She scoffs. “Once was enough.”
I don’t know what she has against Henry. He’s charming and intelligent and works hard. He doesn’t crowd me and understands I have to work most evenings. He never bothers me to give him more of my time. But when I am free, he always makes the effort to see me. We’ve been managing to spend one night together a week, which is a miracle in itself with my schedule. If that isn’t a sign from the universe that Henry is a positive addition to my life, then I don’t know what is. I’ve not made it this far in a relationship in years.
“Henry works a lot, the same as me, which is perfect. Things with him are easy.”
Halliday lifts her eyes from the roses to meet mine in the mirror’s reflection. “Easy is hardly inspiring, Sophie. Easy sounds boring.”
“Easy is simple. Uncomplicated,” I counter.
“Easy isn’t irises.” She sighs, looking back at the roses with a frown.
“Oh my god.” Huffing, I scoop up my clutch from the table and put my lipstick inside. “That was three years ago.”
“You’re counting then?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say. But the truth is, I remember exactly when I got those irises delivered to me. And I vividly recall the card that accompanied them.
It’s been one year and we’re sitting looking out over a lake as you feed the canine tidbits in your purse, the old balls of your past date long devoured. DH.
