Page 52 of Matched with Her Athlete Boss

I frown, dropping my head to rest on my crossed arms on the table.

"My happily ever after would be with the guy who convinced me to go along with this in the first place." I think of Trey's sweet texts making sure I was okay even after he left the other night.

"Did you say that to him?" Evie asks, and she's so close that I end up jumping.

"She told him that if he didn't find someone to date after this, they'd go on a 'fun'date,'' Hillary says, putting too much emphasis on the fun part.

"Oh!" Evie says, looking a little concerned. "What are we trying to say with a fun date? Aren't they all supposed to be fun?"

"Not in my experience. Besides, I figured it would be a more casual thing, since all of these dates will be recorded." I stand up and walk over to my bookshelf. There’s half of a large Hershey’s hidden next to the book I’d shown my roommates. I need some chocolate running in my veins if I’m going to survive today.

"Are you secretly hoping he'll figure out that you're his soulmate and that it will all work out?"

I shake my head. "If my luck ran that direction, sure. But at this point, I just need to get my business off the ground and survive the next couple weeks." But there had been hand holding and protecting. Babying even to make sure I was comfortable.And his mother’s face when I admitted I want to date Trey.

I wave that off. He could be that affectionate helping an old woman across the street for all I know. It doesn’t highlight that I’m anything special.

"How many dates do you have to go on in that time? And how do they pick?" Evie asks.

"When I talked to Meg last, she said it would be four dates over the next two weeks. They'll wait to release the videos weekly, so we'll have to keep things quiet for a bit."

Four dates. Not only would I have to watch some other girl with her hands all over Trey, I'd have to endure the torture myself. Strike that. There won’t be hands on me because I'll pull out my pretend ninja skills and have at him if my date touches me inappropriately. Dating is torture in general.

"What time is your date?" Hillary asks, leaning on the table so we're eye to eye when I finally look up. She’s holding a mascara wand, waving it around as she speaks and I lean back. I’ve already had duck lips this week. I don’t need to start investing in eye patches.

I check the time on my phone. "In about an hour."

"What's the activity? We need to get you ready, girl." I hold still as Hillary starts painting my eyelashes with the wand.

This morning I’d woken up to a few details about Date #1 but I hadn’t finished reading the text before I started googling how to fake sick so people believe you. I open the text again and groan. “We're going for a swan boat ride on the Charles and then to dinner. Todd likes gaming and cooking."

"That will be fun. Plenty of time to get to know your date. You haven’t dated him before, right?" Hillary says, tossing the mascara tube back into her makeup bag. She picks up a tub of creamy beige and I shake my head.

“Mascara is enough for today. I don’t need to puff up like a blueberry because I’m allergic to your makeup.” I close my eyes and picture that scene. "No, I haven’t dated this guy before. Since they activated my dormant profile, I've been matched with some new people, which I hope works out."

“Did you look him up on the app?” Evie asks. "I thought the app was supposed to nominate the top three who will match closest to you. You should be able to see them, right?”

I shrug. "Meg says their profiles will be blocked to give us a more authentic reaction when we meet them. Let’s be honest, girls. I don’t think life will be any different after this is over."

In an act that I would've suspected Hillary to do instead, Evie grabs me by the shoulders and gives me a good shake. "Come on, Kenzie. You are amazing. Just because you've been around some deadbeats doesn't mean you shouldn't have your own happily ever after. Sure, we can do it on our own, but it's kind of nice to have a built-in best friend. Until they leave of course."

Hillary and I train our gaze on Evie. "Did you have a relationship like that?" I ask.

“Yes. Give me the tea,” Hillary says.

Evie glances down at her hands before looking back up. "I was married for two weeks."

My jaw drops open. Surprised is an understatement.

“Evie, I can't imagine divorcing someone. What happened?" I ask.

"We got it annulled. My family doesn't know about it either."

That takes my brain a few seconds to process. “Wait, your family doesn’t know you were married? How did you keep it from them?” I ask. It’s hard to imagine me knowing something that intimate about Evie when I’ve always thought she was so close to her older brother, Drew.

"I was at college and one of my best guy friends didn't want to marry the woman his parents were hoping to connect him with. I'd had a crush on the guy for at least two semesters and then he came to me one day with flowers. We started dating and I was so excited about the whole thing. When he proposed and then said we needed to keep it quiet for a bit, I didn't think anything of it.

"We decided to elope and when his parents found out, they made us get an annulment. Turns out he didn't really love me, but I was better than the alternative."

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