Page 21 of The Wrong Date Deal

“Yikes. Wonder what he’ll do when Claire won’t let it go?”

“Break up with her and meet a new imaginary woman?”

Piper laughed. “The perfect plan.”

He smiled at her and something slightly terrified flitted across his face. “Look, um, Piper?”

“Yeah?”

“You seem really nice, and now I see you’re just being dragged along by this whole thing too, so I feel like I should be honest with you…”

“Okay. Sure. What’s up?”

“I, um, did just get divorced.”

“But you’re not ready to get back out there?” she guessed when it seemed like he couldn’t quite bring himself to finish the thought.

“No. I am. I just…” He took a deep breath and looked down at his shoes. “My wife and I divorced because… well, I’m, um, a little bit… gay.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“Yeah. Maybe more than a little bit.”

Piper smiled. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m bisexual myself.”

“You are?” he asked in surprise, looking up at her again.

“Yeah. Claire doesn’t seem to know, thankfully, and I have no interest in discussing it with her. Not because I’m in the closet, but just because she’d take it as a sign I was interested in her interfering in my love life.”

He winced. “Yeah. I don’t even know how she heard about my divorce, but here we are. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the reason. She’d probably start telling every guy in the office, just to see if anyone might be interested.”

Piper wrinkled her nose. “I’d like to believe better of her—”

“But she is Claire.”

“Pretty much, yeah.” She looked up at Marco. “Well, thanks for telling me, and congratulations on your divorce.”

He laughed. “Not a common sentiment in the circumstances.”

“Well, you know, I’m sure it was hard and heartbreaking, but I’m glad you get the chance to live your life as the real you.”

He nodded, his eyes looking a little tearful. “Thank you. I think the only other person who has been this nice about it is my ex herself.”

“I’m glad she seems to have understood.”

“Yeah.” He scrunched his face up momentarily. “It wasn’t particularly surprising news to her, I don’t think.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah…” He shook his head. “Hopefully, Claire doesn’t figure it out herself too.”

“I don’t think she’s paying nearly as much attention to who you are as your ex was.”

“Yeah, maybe not.” He shook his head before looking seriously at Piper. “I’m sorry if this means the night doesn’t turn up any… leads for you, though. I know Claire thinks we’d be great together.”

Piper laughed. “Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t relying on Claire’s picks, and I think this is a lot better than tonight could have gone.”

“Yeah?”

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