Page 64 of Danger and Dominance
Tapping the button on the dash to answer the call, she cheerfully answered, “Hello!”
“Hey Cassidy, how are you?”Yasmine’s warm voice filled the car.
“Pretty good.On my way home from work.”
Behind her, a grey car moved into her lane, closer than she would have liked.Her shoulders tensed, and she shook them out.Some people were jerks, riding others’ bumpers.It didn’t mean anything.
“Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Sure.”
She wasn’t doing anything except driving.Well, and now trying to get a look at the jerk who was riding her bumper.
It was a man, she was pretty sure of that, but he was wearing a red baseball cap and a pair of big sunglasses, which obscured the upper half of his face.The lower half was covered by a light-colored mustache and beard.
Don could have grown a mustache and beard.
Oh.My.God.Paranoid much?
“So, my parents have come to me with a proposal, and I’m thinking about doing it, but part of me thinks I must be crazy for even considering it.I’m looking for a completely unbiased third-party opinion, and I feel like you might be the closest I have to that who also won’t judge me.”
“Okay.”Well, Yasmine officially had her attention, which was good because she didn’t need to be making up scenarios in her head about the random jerk in the car behind her.Because that’s exactly what he was—a random jerk.Not Don in disguise.
Unless he is.
Stop it.Focus on Yasmine.
Yasmine sighed, long and deep, like she was reluctant to get started talking.While she did that, Cassidy switched lanes to see if the grey car would follow.A moment later… it did.Still riding her ass.
Cassidy tensed up even more.Should she get off the phone and call David?Should she ask Yasmine to call David?
“Okay, so you know I said I was the queen of bad dates, and that’s why I don’t date?Or get involved?Well, my parents think they have a solution to that.They want to arrange my marriage.”She said the last sentence so fast, the words blended together, and Cassidy jerked her attention back to the conversation.
“They want to what?”
“Oh… crap.It’s crazy, isn’t it?I knew it was crazy, and it sounds even crazier when I say it out loud.”
“I mean, not necessarily.I just… what do you mean?Like, to a stranger?”With her attention divided between Yasmine’s announcement and the man in the grey car behind her, she was feeling frazzled, but she didn’t want to let her new friend down.And she was also interested.Plus, she wasn’t convinced the guy behind her was actually a threat.He was just riding her bumper like a jerk.
That didn’t mean he was Don.
“Well, I’d meet him beforehand.Apparently, my parents know a guy, who is local, who has asked his parents to arrange his marriage.My great-aunt and great-uncle’s marriage was arranged, and they’re very happy forty-some years later, but I don’t know anyone of my generation who has done it.But that would break my bad date curse, right?No dating, no getting involved, just… straight to the planning the wedding.No opportunity to fuck it up.”
“Other than meeting him beforehand.”
“Yeah, but that won’t be an official date.Just a meet and greet.”There was a yearning in Yasmine’s voice that made Cassidy’s heart ache a little.It sounded to her like Yasmine wanted to do this; she just needed someone else to tell her that it was okay.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, Cassidy breathed out a quiet sigh of relief as the grey car turned off.He must have gotten over into this lane with her because he was making the turn soon.He was just a tailgating jerk who didn’t use turn signals.Figured.
“I think it doesn’t hurt to at least meet him.See if you think this might be a good alternative.Would your parents set you up with someone they didn’t think would be a good match?”
“No.Not that I would have trusted them with my romantic life in the past, but I’ve proven that I don’t have a good picker.Maybe that’s the trick—I need someone else to pick for me.”Yasmine laughed, though there was a touch of bitterness to the sound.“So, you don’t think it’s nuts to let my parents pick out my possible groom?”
“No more nuts than other ways people meet and get married.”Cassidy shrugged, even though Yasmine couldn’t see her.“Right now, most people trust a computer or app algorithm.That doesn’t seem any less weird than trusting your parents, as long as they’re good parents.”
She wondered who her parents would have picked for her if they’d been alive.Someone better than Don, probably.They would have been horrified to know how he’d treated her.
“You’ve got a point.Okay.”Yasmine took a deep breath.“Okay, I can do this.Just the meet and greet, at least.I don’t have to make a decision until after that.Maybe I’ll meet him, and it’ll be an immediate no.Or maybe he’ll end up being the man of my dreams.”
