Page 2 of All I Want for Christmas

‘Open it.’

‘Hm. What am I looking for?’

‘Raya.’

‘Ray–?’ Darcy’s eyebrows shot up. ‘As in, the celebrity dating app?’

‘That’s overblown,’ Freja dismissed. ‘There’s really notthatmany celebs on there. I mean, there’s a few...but what thereare, are plenty of professional, successful, high net worth individuals, just like you.’

‘I am not a high net worth individual! I have to split bunches of bananas because I can’t afford the wastage!’

‘But you are beautiful and brainy, and these men all want a woman just like you.’

Darcy frowned. In her experience, men didn’t like a woman being cleverer than them. ‘Isn’t Raya invitation only?’

‘Yes. Tristan referred you. He did it last night.’

‘...Tristan’s on Raya?’ She knew Freja’s current squeeze was successful but she hadn’t known he wasthatsuccessful. She had yet to meet the guy, but Freja – who was doing a work placement as part of her PhD – had told her they’d hooked up after a conference trip. It was supposed to have been a one-time thing but so far, it had been a thirty-one-time thing. To Darcy’s shame, yes, she was counting.

‘He was,’ Freja replied, before quickly catching herself. ‘I mean, he is! He is! He’s just got it on hibernation mode for the moment. He’ll be back out there before you can say...’ Words appeared to fail her.

Darcy watched, appalled that there was seemingly not yet an end in sight for her friend’s giddy happiness. ‘Flibbertigibbet?’

‘Flibb...?’ Freja winced, the word too arcane for a non-native British speaker.

‘Hm.’ Point made. Was Freja – whisper it – falling for this guy?

Darcy didn’t have time to consider it. Freja reached over and tapped on the app for her. For someone who hadn’t even known she had it on her phone, it was something of a surprise to find she was already logged in and...‘I’ve got an account?’

‘Well, I knew you’d never do it if left to your own devices,’ Freja shrugged. ‘You’re becoming far too cynical in your second quarter.’

Darcy didn’t appreciate the reminder that she had enteredthe second of the twenty-five-year life stages by which Freja had mapped out their lives.

‘Go on, have a look – they’re a cut above, right? All solid eights for the main part but...if you see a four or a five, just know that means he’s rich as fuck.’

Darcy blinked. ‘Rich as fuck isn’t really my thing.’

‘But it can’t hurt, right?’

‘It can if he’s a moose!’

‘So you’re saying you only want looks?’ Freja gasped in mock horror. ‘That’s pretty shallow, don’t you think?’

Darcy laughed at her friend’s teasing as Freja reached across and placed a hand over the screen. ‘Now, before you start going trigger-happy, there are rules.’

‘Rules?’

‘Yes. I want you to choose three and only three.’

‘Reverse psychology? Really?’ Darcy knew her friend too well. Give her a sea of men and then restrict her catch...when moments earlier Darcy had been saying she didn’t want any?

It worked. Naturally.

‘Fine. Let’s have a look and see if we can choose only three.’

Freja shuffled her chair in closer, her cheek pressed against Darcy’s arm as she began to swipe on the carousel of handsome faces. All of them appeared to have been caught laughing mid-joke or else staring off moodily into the distance with clenched jaws, seemingly unaware of the cameraphone directed straight at them. Some were playing football or Frisbee in a park, shirts untucked to reveal a snatch of hard stomach; one – seemingly a mountaineer – was grinning from a cliff face; another guy was playing a banjo around a campfire with a soulful expression as the firelight threw a golden glow over his cheekbones.

At first glance they all looked like perfect 10s: happy-go-lucky, fit, accomplished – but Darcy wasn’t falling for it. Somehow, she had to read commitment issues, mother complex or narcissist from a photo. She had to tell the cheat from the liar from the good guys they all professed to be. She flicked through with – yes – a cynical eye: the guy cuddling a dog? She bet it wasn’t his own. Swipe left. The one at a wedding? The dinner suit looked rented. Swipe left. The guy in a Ferrari – who wanted a guy in a Ferrari? Swipe left.

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