Page 24 of Somebody To Love

“Wednesday.”

“Wednesday?”

“Yes, the day after Tuesday, but before Thursday.”

“Wednesday,” I repeated to myself.

“Piper would you like to call me back when you’re more awake?”

“No, no,” I said sitting up. I wanted to go on a date. No. I needed to go on a date. After meeting Ty, I had been sort of feeling sorry for myself. A date would get me out of a funk. I was tired of feeling like a reject.

“I’m awake now,” I said clearing my voice and hoping that I sounded convincing. “Can you text me his number?”

“Piper, you know the rules. No contact until date night. No texting. No sexting. No communication at all.”

“Jeez, Sylvia. What’s with all the rules? I promise I’ll be good and I won’t text him a picture of my butt.”

She laughed. “That’s a relief, but those are our rules.”

“They’re very arbitrary.”

“Well, Piper, think of how many times you’ve met a guy, started texting, started chatting on Facebook and then he ghosted you. “

I winced. Yeah, that had happened more times than I wanted to admit.

“So what’s stopping him from ghosting me on the night of our date?”

“A five-hundred-dollar fine.”

“Wow… does that apply to me too?”

“Nope, if you cancel, outside of an emergency event, of course, it’s a one-hundred-dollar fine. Our studies have found the guys to be more… what’s the word? Flaky... so we charge them more to discourage that type of behavior.”

“I like how Infinity Connections works. So where’s the rendezvous point?” Or is that a secret, too? I wanted to add but forced myself not to.

She gave me the name and location of a restaurant.

“Whose idea was the restaurant?”

“His.”

“Don’t I get a say?”

“I called you first and you didn’t answer. He did… sooo….”

“Fine.”

“It’ll be great. You’ll have fun. He’s fantastic. Trust me.”

“If he’s so great, why don’t you date him?”

“Piper, trust me, if you screw this up, I will choke you.”

I flicked my tongue at her and then realized she couldn’t see me. We discussed the details and I promised to give Sylvia a call if my date was less than stellar.

Suddenly, I was nervous. Yeah, it was a few nights away, but I was nervous. This was going to be my first blind date. Ever.

I flopped back into bed and then forced myself to get up two minutes later. It was already ten o’clock and I couldn’t waste the entire morning. I had stayed up late working on something for a client. It had been a rush job, but he had paid me really well for it. I wasn’t a fan of rush jobs though. I liked to take my time and give my clients my best work. I used to have a business partner who would help with the expedited jobs, but he had retired and moved to France. He had been such a romantic. If he knew I was using a dating service to find love, he would be appalled. But I think what was more appalling was that I had a date in a few days, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the guy I’d met at Meredith’s school.