Page 52 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

‘I love this wine-tasting idea,’ Isaac said. ‘There’ll be a lot of drunk women by the end of the night. And a lot of men getting laid.’

A shudder of revulsion went down her spine. ‘That’s disgusting.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s a fact. Women get a lot easier when they’re pissed.’

Meadow pulled a face and moved on down the table. That was too close to home for her.

She stopped at another gap and picked up a shot of red wine. She’d heard the expression that you shouldn’t mix your drinks, was that the same for different kinds of wine too? She took a sip. Stupidly she’d not had anything to eat tonight, as she’d been so upset over what happened with Bear she hadn’t felt like eating. With no food to soak up the alcohol she was going to get drunk very quickly. Maybe she needed to pace herself. She could chat without drinking every time she moved on.

‘Hello,’ the man opposite said. ‘I’m Oliver.’

‘Hi Oliver, I’m Meadow. What do you do?’

‘I’m an accountant.’

‘Oh, that sounds like fun,’ she tried and failed miserably to sound enthusiastic about it.

He grinned. ‘It totally isn’t, it’s very boring but it pays the bills and I was always good with numbers. How about you?’

‘I work at the treehouse resort up the road.’

His face lit up. ‘I drive past there all the time, it looks magical. I bet the guests love staying there.’

‘It is and they do, I love where I work, I feel very lucky.’

This felt nice, normal. Oliver didn’t seem like a creep or a disgusting shitbag at all. She took another sip of her wine as she felt herself relax a bit. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE

Bear stepped inside the large hall where the group dating was going on. People were standing around in small groups or sitting on sofas chatting, there was a large number of people chatting by the long table at the back of the room, all drinking what appeared to be shots. Everyone had thin pencil-shaped poles hooked over their ears, making them look like they were about to do a concert, and they were wearing microphones.

He couldn’t spot Meadow and he really needed to talk to her.

He moved further into the room and was immediately accosted by the lady who had been in charge the previous night.

‘Hello, I’m Imogen. It’s Bear, isn’t it? Are you here for the dating event?’

‘Umm, yes.’ Bear was quite surprised that she remembered his name from the night before.

‘Oh, you’re a little late, I think most of the wine has already been drunk, but that’s OK, I’m sure you can mingle and chat.’

‘Great, thanks,’ Bear said, turning to walk away.

‘Sorry, we have to register you for tonight’s event just in case you match with someone. If you come over here,’ Imogen gestured to the table by the doorway.

‘Oh, I really need to talk to someone.’

‘It will just take a few minutes,’ she said.

Bear sighed and followed her to the table.

‘Firstly, here is your camera, it hooks over your ear like this,’ Imogen said.

‘What do I need a camera for?’

‘So our computer software can pick up any positive body language towards you. If you have positive body language to the woman you’re talking to as well, then our software will consider you a match and this wristband will beep and vibrate to let you know you’ve been matched. It explains it all here in this leaflet, what kind of body language our cameras will be looking for, what it means. It’s nothing really for you to worry about, just enjoy the evening. Let me just add you to our system.’

Bear gave his details as quickly as he could, his eyes scanning the room for Meadow. Was she even here?

---