Page 69 of Scoring Chances
“Cassidy! Wow… what a coincidence I’d run into you here!”
“Are you following me?”
His brows come together like he’s trying to understand what I’m asking. “I’m here for the speed dating.”
I glare at him. “Really?”
“Yeah, Keelan wasn’t feeling too well so he told me to come take his spot.”
I’m going to kill Keelan.
I shake my head. “You guys are unbelievable.”
“I’m sorry… did I just–my god–I’m so rude. You probably wanted to get away from me didn’t you?”
“Yes, Joshua… that’s the whole point.”
He nods, “Totally understand. I’ll stay out of your hair.”
He flashes a panty-melting smile and cocks his head waiting for me to leave. I sigh but go back to my seat, plopping into the chair with arms crossed.
Lillian motions for me to breathe. And I do, just as a woman in a pink jumpsuit approaches the mic.
“Thank you all for coming out tonight, Booktroverts! We’re so happy to get to host the first ever Booktrovert Speed dating night here at LitJava.”
There’s a round of claps and she continues. The way this will work, there are ten women. And ten men. Women, you’ll get to stay put while men, whenever you hear this sound,” she pauses to hit a small gong. “You’ll kindly get up and proceed to your next date. We’ll be going clockwise around the room. You’ll have five minutes to chat with your date. Get to know everything you need to know about each other before moving on to the next. Sound good?”
“Yes!” the men say. Joshua the most enthusiastic among them. I try hard not to roll my eyes at the sound of his voice.
Avoiding him is really hard to do when I’m trapped in a bookstore just a few feet away from him.
“At the end of the hour, you’ll turn your cards into either myself or Dee with a check next to the names of those you hit it off with. Tomorrow… if you have any matches. We’ll be calling you to let you know.”
“And if you don’t hear from us… well, just come back to the next one,” Dee says.
We all laugh.
“Ok, let the speed dating begin.” Angie hits the gong and the guys find seats in front of the nearest girl.
The first one to sit in the leather chair across from me is glasses guy who was reading the thriller novel earlier. He’s even more attractive up-close.
“Hi, Cassidy. I’m…” he points to his name tag. “Declan,” he says with a chuckle. “Kinda weird introducing ourselves when we have name tags but, I digress.”
He gives a quick bow and then sits back in the chair, crossing an ankle over a knee and smiling.
“So, Declan. What’s… uh…” I hear Joshua’s voice on the other side of the room. He’s making his date laugh. The girl with the purple hair. I realize I’m staring and come back to my senses. Uh…”
“My favorite author today is Andy Weir,” he says, like he already knows what I’m going to ask. "I really like how he depicts the human condition and the juxtaposition between the mundane against a backdrop of science fiction…”
He keeps talking and again my eyes flicker over to Joshua and purple hair. She’s leaning in. He is too. Like their old friends sharing a secret. Maybe they are. Maybe he knows her. And they shared a passionate night together. Only to be reunited—
“Cassidy?”
I shake myself out of my stupor. “I’m so sorry–what was that?”
He smiles. “I just asked who’s yours?”
“Mine?”