Page 38 of Actually Yours

“I think we can safely say that you found a good man. One of the few left out there in the world, apparently.”

Bella’s nose scrunches and she squeezes my hand in solidarity. “You know what will make you feel better?”

I scramble to think of something other than her company that will lift my spirits. “What?”

“Lilly’s cupcakes!”

She catapults herself off the couch and skips to the kitchen. “Lilly dropped some round to my place earlier, obviously to assuage the guilt she’s still feeling about Tom…and now Julian.”

“Julian wasn’t her fault,” I call from where I remain on the couch, happy to have cupcakes delivered to my lap. “That was all Amy and Lucas.”

“What were they thinking?” Bella mutters under her breath and quietly, I agree. Maybe Julian is one of those men, the good-on-paper men. Ticks all the boxes, but in reality, is a complete dud.

PING.

I bolt up from my lounging position at the text message notification, set to ring at maximum volume. Refusing to examine why I’m so keen to not miss a message, I open my app.

JAKE: You haven’t finished telling me about your date.

I grin. After leaving me hanging the night of my ‘A’ date, Jake had finally messaged back, eager to hear all about the dating mishaps with the letter ‘B’.

AMELIA: I told you it was bad.

JAKE: But how bad is bad?

AMELIA: There was science involved.

JAKE: …

AMELIA: He took me to a lecture…

JAKE: About?

AMELIA: I’m remembering photosynthesis and maybe homeostasis…

JAKE: From my memory of my year eight biology class, those two don’t really fit together.

This makes me smile. The nerd in Jake goes beyond his law degree.

AMELIA: Well, whatever it was, I didn’t want it anywhere near my date night.

JAKE: Fair.

“Who’s putting that smile on your face?”

I drop my phone like a hot potato and put my hands on my flaming cheeks.Busted.

“No one,” I lie, going for casual and ending up with squeaky.

“Ohhh, you are messaging with a ‘someone’ for sure. Is it contestant number three? ‘Letter C’ guy?”

After the debacle of date night with science guy, you’d think we’d all have given up on this dating mission, but instead, each failure seemed only to make my friends even more determined to find me someone…decent.

“No, but I am meeting him tomorrow.”

‘Letter C’ guy is actually someone Daniel knows; a carpenter, and I’m meeting him tomorrow afternoon. A daytime date, hopefully to take the pressure off.

“So, spill. Who’s got your face looking like that?” She motions to my face and I wonder what it is she’s reading there. I’mmessaging with Jake; it’s not like he’s a contender to be my Mr. Right.Right?

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