Chapter 8
ROMEO
As I watched Samantha and Edward in the pool, I knew there was a problem.
I first suspected it last night in the restaurant, then again at breakfast this morning. And now my gut told me the same thing: they were not bonding well.
Admittedly, I had only done this job for about eight months, so I was not the most experienced Love Alchemist, but during that time I had worked with hundreds of couples and I knew the signs.
Not all matches hit it off immediately. Some needed more time. But even though Samantha and Edward had barely been here for twenty-four hours, I had noticed a lot from their interactions.
It was not just the fact that Edward was not very complimentary when he first met Samantha or that he did not even pull the chair out for her at dinner that raised alarm bells. It was also the way that he commented on the amount of pasta she ate.
Plus, I got the feeling that Samantha wanted to stay for dessert last night, but because Edward did not, he selfishly insisted they both left.
When he arrived for breakfast this morning and I asked whether Samantha would be joining him, his reaction suggested that he had not even given her a second thought. Those were not the actions of a person who was serious about finding love.
And what kind of man left his match to eat breakfast alone?
‘How could you miss that shot?’ Edward barked at Samantha, snapping me out of my thoughts.
‘It was on your side of the pool!’ Samantha spat back, narrowing her eyes.
‘We still would’ve had a chance of winning if you got that!’ Edward’s nostrils flared whilst Samantha’s gaze dropped to the pool and her shoulders slumped.
This was exactly what I was talking about. I did not like that he had just scolded Samantha for not hitting the ball which caused the other team to win the match.
Seeing her wounded expression made my chest tighten.
My first impression of Samantha may not have been the best, but speaking to her earlier was not as bad as I had feared. Her attempt to list her extensive Italian vocabulary was amusing.
Anyway, it did not matter what I thought of her. The important thing was that she enjoyed her time at the hotel.
This game was supposed to be a fun way to bring the couples together, but Edward was taking it too seriously and upsetting his match in the process which I did not like.
Especially because Samantha told me earlier that Edward ticked many of her boxes. This did not surprise me. The Love Hotel matchmaking team had an exceptional track record of bringing the right people together.
But nothing was perfect. And it did not matter how detailed and rigorous the selection process was, sometimes, there were things that no amount of questionnaires, research and analysis behind the scenes could uncover.
Sometimes, the only way to know whether a match worked and whether or not two people had chemistry was when they interacted together in person.
But I could be wrong.
Perhaps I had misjudged Edward.
This was only the first activity and maybe Edward’s competitive nature had affected his behaviour.
Tomorrow was the first external excursion.
The couples would spend the time together visiting the trulli houses in Alberobello and usually visiting beautiful places like this helped our matches to bond.
If this fairytale town could not work its romantic magic on Samantha and Edward, I did not know what would…