Chapter 10
Eva
My dad had moved everything out of the back office, so it was officially mine. Behind the desk, there was a large family tree. As I looked over all the names, I realized my lineage was at stake from what Grandma had told me about needing to find a soul mate. I knew I just couldn’t give up; I needed to figure it out, which meant I needed to treat myself as a client.
There were multiple guys I could text who I’d been out with in the past, but none of them felt right. My ex-boyfriend Hunter was in town… Maybe it was our time to reconnect.
Bells clattered, signaling someone had entered, and I went to greet them. The moment I saw his newly cut black hair and freckles on the bridge of his nose, I felt flutters.
“Hey, Sam,” I said and smiled as I walked toward him.
“Eva, how’s it going?”
“It’s good. I got everything moved into the back office. So it’s official: this is my business now.”
“Well, congratulations. So what do we have in store today?”
“This is your last session before I pair you up to go on dates. So we need to talk about your level of experience, because we want to match you with someone similar on that front. Do you want to sit here on the couch? I think it will be better than being in that stuffy office.”
“Um, yeah, sure.”
“Cool. Let me go grab my notebook, and we can get started.” Standing in my plain office, I closed my eyes and breathed in and out. What was wrong with me? I couldn’t believe I was feeling something for this guy. It must be because I’d been spending a lot of time with him. Yeah, that must be it.
I took a seat next to Sam on the couch, opened a blank page, and wrote his name.
Sam Watkins.
“Let’s start from the beginning. Can you walk me through your first crush, your first girlfriend, relationship, anything like that? How intimate have you been with your past partners? I know this is very personal, so if you don’t want to say, you don’t have to. But we just want to set an expectation for dating someone.”
“Oh, those types of questions…”
I looked down at the paper and then back up at his face. He was looking past me, his eyes flickering from side to side, toward the wall art. “Okay, to tell you the truth, I’ve never had a girlfriend, never been with anyone. I’ve been just focused on my career. I’ve kind of always pushed any female partnership to the wayside,” Sam said.
That was unexpected. Sam seemed like a catch. He was good looking, funny, and intelligent, so I didn’t quite understand. I reached to touch his hand to give him reassurance he didn’t need to feel embarrassed. The touch gave me electric tingles and reminded me of the dream I’d had the other day, so I pulled back my hand and placed it on my lap.
“Well, I think we should go on a practice date then. You could get the feeling of how it would be with someone you already know. And I can give you pointers throughout the night of things to ask and what and when you should do something, such as pulling out her chair.”
Okay, now I was rambling. I gave Sam time to process my ask.
“Yeah, I think that would be helpful.” He smiled at me.
Well, I was going on a date. It wasn’t the type of date I needed to go on, but it was a date. Oh, bother. My family was going to kill me. I was taking away their ability to help people fall in love.