Page 81 of The Matchmaker
“You’re not the token old person,” I say. “Frank’s the token old person.”
“Frank’s not even that old,” she snaps, and I shrug.
“Adam said you’ve introduced people before, right?”
“I may have,” she sniffs. “It’s well known that I introduced Bridget to Jenny. And Danny’s second wife, of course. I don’t like to make a big deal about it, but I do have a sixth sense for these things.This, however,” she says, eyeing my orderly piles. “Is new.”
“We’re streamlining,” I say. “We have a lot of people to get through, and this will help speed up the process.”
“Well, I’m positively swooning from the romance of it all,” she says, and I give her a look.
“We don’t have time to sit down with everyone. These will help us know what people want.”
“First rule of matchmaking, Katie. No one knows what they want. Not even about themselves. You can have the perfect pairing on paper only to meet them and feel nothing at all.”
“Alright, but see, that’s not going to work here because we only have paper to go by. What else do you suggest?”
“Instinct,” she says. “Feeling. We give people the best opportunity they can have and leave the rest down to chemistry.”
“Okay,” I say slowly, still not feeling overly confident with her “trust the chaos” mentality. I know my questions weren’t exactly popular with Nush and Gemma, but they did help weed out obvious dislikes and lifestyle differences. “Sometimes the questions can work, though. Nush was pretty clear about what she likes in a—”
“Nush has no idea what she likes,” Granny dismisses. “Overly picky people never do until it’s right in front of them.”
“But what about this guy?” I ask, sliding a form her way. “Ryan Harrison. He’s a teacher. He matches all her physical descriptions. He has a hamster. He—”
“Justa hamster?” Granny stares at me. “No grown man should own just a hamster.”
“Well, Ryan does,” I insist. “That means he’s an animal lover. He ticks all her boxes.”
Granny stares at the form for a long moment, and then gently pushes the paper back toward me.
“Tell you what,” she says. “Why don’t you take Plankton for a walk and leave me to get on with this.”
I hesitate, gripping my pen.
The last few weeks has drawn out the control freak in me. I’d always suspected she was there, but now she rears her ugly head, making me cringe at the thought of giving up even one bit of my festival.
“Or,” I say. “How about you pair these people.” I push half the forms toward her. “And I’ll pair these ones. It can be like an experiment. I’ll do it my way and you can do it your way and then all our bases are covered.”
“You’re the boss,” she says, uncapping her special crossword pen. She takes the first one from her pile, scanning it only briefly before she frowns.
“I didn’t know Gemma signed up.”
I smile, thinking she’s joking, but her expression remains serious.
“What?” I snatch the form from her, glancing at the details. Gemma’s name is at the top. “Maybe it’s just a practice one,” I say, confused.
“Or maybe not,” Granny says, holding out her hand.
“No, I want to do it.”
Granny raises a brow. “She was in my pile.”
“But she’s my friend,” I say, suddenly feeling protective over her. Sure, Nush is the picky one, but Gemma’s a lot softer than she lets on. She can’t just have anyone. She rarely dates as it is these days, and she deserves someone who’ll…who’ll…
Okay, that’s way too much pressure.
I quickly hand the form back to her, getting nervous just thinking about it. “Gemma likes brown eyes,” I tell her, and she nods sagely.
