Page 3 of Lucy Loves Him Not
“I think love gave up on me,” Olivia said a little bitterly. “I let it down last time.”
“I think you both should get on a dating app,” Gracie interjected, slamming her hands down on the table again.
Olivia and I both stared at our little sister blankly.
“There’s an app I have that’s all about helping local people find love. The point is to give mutual friends you want to connect with a green light if you’re interested. Like meeting a friend of a friend without needing the mutual to set you up. If someone has given you a green light, they show up in your feed. If you also give them a green light, then you two are a match.”
“What’s the app called?” Olivia pulled out her phone gamely.
“It’s called Love Local,” Gracie said. “A guy I know who recently graduated is the founder.”
“You’re doing it, Liv?” I swallowed, trying to conceal the fear in my voice.
“Why not?” Olivia was already searching for Love Local in her app store.
I chewed my lip. “Okay, me, too.” I took another big gulp of my drink.
The next hour was a haze of salty-sweet margaritas, giggling, setting up our profiles, and buzzing over who we recognized on the app.
Then a very handsome man named Adam showed up in my green light’s section with wavy, black hair and dark glasses. I had never seen him before. I scrolled through his profile and realized he was new in town, but seemed to be connected to a few old friends of mine.
“Oh, look at those big blue eyes.” Gracie leaned across the table to see my phone. “Oh, and curly hair, you know we love a curly boy in this house.”
I felt my cheeks go pink as I swiped through his photos. His blue eyes were piercing even through the photos and he had a sharp jawline—with a perfect amount of stubble.
“Let’s see about this guy that’s got you grinning.” Olivia scooted in beside me, grabbing my phone. “He’s 28. It says he likes to run. And he’s a reader—oh, that’s like you! I can see you with a nerdy bookworm.”
I was reading over her shoulder as she scrolled through my phone. “It says here he’s more of a dog person. Yikes, is Stevie going to come between you and Alex?”
“It’s Adam,” I corrected her. “And Stevie will make him a cat person for sure.”
“Oh, so you’re thinking this guy is going to meet Stevie?” Gracie squealed, dropping salsa from our recently ordered nachos onto the table.
I didn’t answer. I got the phone back in my hands and kept perusing his profile. He wore glasses sometimes and it made my stomach buzz. If a guy could pull off glasses, he could probably pull me.
“Are you blushing over this guy?” Gracie was all snickers and energy. She kept swaying to the music playing in the restaurant.
“No, no, probably nothing will come of it. I just like his glasses.” I really liked his glasses. And his adorable answers to the profile questions. I sighed dreamily as I reread his answer to ‘my favorite book’:I don’t play favorites with my children.
“You and the glasses thing,” Olivia said.
But still, the idea that maybe some hot bookworm who wore glasses and, look at that, loved watchingFriends(just like me), and could run into me at my favorite coffee shop gave me a bubbly feeling that made me want to float on home. It blossomed some persistent little hope I had been in the habit of watering down.
My phone buzzed. We all squealed.
“Look, you got another green light!” Gracie clapped. “Open it!” she ordered me as I caught my breath after laughing.
I looked at the request…and then my jaw dropped. “Oh yikes, no,” I groaned.
“What?” Olivia’s eyes were wide as she leaned over my shoulder.
“Is it Nick?” Gracie squealed.
“Nick? No? Doyoulike Nick, Gracie?” I shook with laughter. “It’s Jed Boone, one of my students’ dads! What a creeper.”
“Is he a creeper, or is he, like, cute?” Olivia stole my phone. “Oh, no, not your type. He’s no Adam.”
“I always had a weird vibe from him. Now, he saw me,his son’s teacher, and sent me a green light.” I shook my headno.
