Page 3 of The Wrong Date Deal

“Ugh. You’ll hear about anything relevant when you need to.” He turned his gaze on Piper. “For now, I suppose we will have to content ourselves with imagining whether your date tomorrow is going to be better or worse than tonight’s.”

“Worse,” Shea said immediately. She had no faith at all in the process.

“Oh, no. I’m hoping for better,” Massima said, her brow creasing.

“You always are.”

“Right. Because I believe the one for Piper is out there and she’s got to find them soon.”

“One would think,” Hermes muttered, just a hint of the worry over losing his friends that popped up whenever they had these conversations seeping into his tone.

“Who is it tomorrow?” Shea asked.

Piper shrugged. “Woman, brown hair. That’s really all I know.”

“Oh, it’s one from that app with no pictures and just usernames?” Massima asked excitedly.

“Hummingbird Dating. It is indeed.”

“How are you finding it?” Shea grinned in a way that suggested she’d used it herself, but for nothing too serious.

Piper sighed. It was the latest app she’d tried for dating. She’d been promised it was better than the others because it wasn’t based on pictures and quick bios but on actual interests and real conversational connections. Not to mention the fact that you had to go through a rigorous vetting process to even have an account. However, the three dates she’d had from it so far had turned out equally as badly as any other app she’d used.

Maybe tomorrow’s date would be better.

“Well, isn’t that a glowing reference?” Hermes asked, rolling his eyes. “I’ll rush to sign up, shall I?”

Piper laughed. “Are you giving up on the idea that the right guy will find you?”

“I am not.”

Hermes had used apps a lot when he first moved to the US, and he’d floated the idea of using them again multiple times—mostly sticking to T4T posts so he didn’t have to worry as much about his safety—but he wanted to find someone organically.Even in the modern world when it seemed fewer and fewer of the people they knew had just happened across their partners, he still wanted to believe. Below the layer of sarcasm, he was probably a bigger romantic than Piper, and as big a romantic as Massima.

“You know,” Massima said, looking around the crowded bar, “your person might be right here, right now. You might be like ships, rowing around each other, almost meeting.”

“That’s not how the saying goes,” Hermes pointed out.

“I know, but I just think it makes more sense this way. I refuse to believe you’re ships just passing in the night—”

“Right. That’s more my style,” Shea interjected quickly before taking a sip of her drink.

Piper shot her a smirk before focusing back on Massima, who was watching Hermes intently.

“And, if we go with the idea of planets orbiting each other, that suggests you’ll never meet.”

“Ideally, in that case,” Hermes said, sniffing. “I’m not looking to cause the kind of damage two planets colliding causes.”

“But maybe that would be romantic,” Massima said dreamily. “Like…Romeo and Juliet. Chaos, love, destruction.”

“Not romantic. They both die. The ages are wild. The timeframe is ridiculous. It isnotwhat I’m looking for.” He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Shea laughed. “A Brit and an Italian fighting it out over Shakespeare.” She paused. “Actually, I’d bet good money Shakespeare would have loved that.”

“Mm. Plus, we’ve got a man and a woman,” Piper said, gesturing between Hermes and Massima. “You know what they say about Shakespeare…”

“ThatRomeo and Julietis a tragedy,” Hermes replied pointedly.

Massima waved a hand in his direction. “I’m just saying, the kind of love that destroys the whole world is pretty romantic.”

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