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“Dinner ended poorly,” he finished for her.
“Yeah. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, with what I said about the algorithm. I didn’t mean it.”
He waved her excuse away, as well as any lingering hurt. “Yeah, you did. And I meant what I said, too. But we didn’t expect saying it to hurt the other person.”
“No. And I didn’t expect to be hurt.”
“Sucks to feel dismissed.”
“Yeah.” She gave a cute little snort. “Even when you’re dismissing the person dismissing you. Or not dismissing you. That’s not a nice word.”
“I know what you mean.”
Her hair fell across her shoulders as she cocked her head at him. “So we’re better now.”
“I think so.” He took a deep breath and the weight that had pushed against his shoulders for the past couple days lifted. He took several steps into her office and sat in his usual chair. “No, not I think so. I know so.”
“Do we still talk about our dating? Or has that become taboo?”
“Dating,” he confirmed. “And, I say we take it a step further. I think we should compare systems. You have your algorithm, and I’m going with my gut. We make a bet. First person to true love wins.”
“Okay… What do they win?”
“Bragging rights.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “That’s not enough.”
“True love and bragging rights aren’t enough of a reward? How’s that?”
“It’s not the bragging rights that I have a problem with. There’s also the matter of how we determine true love.” She folded her arms and leaned forward on her desk. Her black silk shirt gaped a little at her breasts. To his surprise, she was wearing a red lace bra under her shirt. He could barely see the top of the lace.
And only if he looked closely. No. He shouldn’t be looking that closely. He wasn’t a lech.
Did she have a date tonight? And, if she had a date tonight, was a fancy bra a sign that she expected—hoped?—her shirt would come off?
They didn’t have spark. He shouldn’t be jealous, but the bitter taste in his mouth couldn’t be anything else.
He blinked to clear his head and focus on their conversation. They were trying to find true love, and they both knew it wasn’t to be found with each other.
They both knew it. He was looking for spark. She was looking for some magical number in her algorithm.
“Shouldn’t each person get to determine their own true love. It’s personal, right? Your true love will look different from my true love,” he said. Marsie loved to plan everything, but true love couldn’t be planned or laid out on a timeline. No matter how much she tried.
She raised one index finger. “No. I’m cautious about words like true love. I don’t believe in spark. Plus, you’re the romantic, which makes that an unfair measure.”
“But our dating history suggests that neither of us falls in love on whim. It’s not like we’re hopping from true love to true love.”
“No, but you’re more likely to call it that than I am. We need a timeline. Like first person to date someone steady for three months gets to say they’re the winner.”
“Three months isn’t a long time.”
“I don’t want to have to wait a year to claim my bragging rights,” she said with a cheeky smile.
“Oh.” He raised his eyebrows. “You’re certain you’re going to win, then?”
“Of course. If I didn’t think my algorithm would work, I wouldn’t use it. I’m not leaving anything up to fate or chance or mystical nonsense. I’ve considered what would make me happy in a relationship for the long term. And I’m looking specifically for that. No fooling around.”
“Mystical nonsense.” He laughed. “I love the idea of me sitting in my house, lighting candles and burning incense while I meditate on the love of my future.”
“Hey now, I meditate.”
He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, not quite believing her, especially after the story about her mom and dad. “Really?”
“Yeah. I can get too caught up in the buzz of my own thoughts. If I don’t come out of it, I can end up predicting the doom of my life. I’m certain that I screwed up the math of some report somewhere and an eight-grader will find my mistake as part of a school project, get on the news with their findings and get me fired.”
