Hate to Date You (Dating #4) - Monica Murphy Page 0,93

on this new dating site,” Kelsey explains, her eyes big, her gaze one of complete and utter innocence.

I’m not buying it. Not for one minute. In fact, I’m fuming mad.

Like, super angry.

Livid, even.

“Kelsey, I am livid.”

Isn’t that a great word? Livid? I never get a chance to use it, considering I’m not what I would call an angry person. I’m usually pretty positive.

“Why?” Kelsey whines. “You need to give it a chance.”

I read over my info again, getting to the what I’m looking for section.

I’ve discovered that short-term relationships aren’t my thing. I’m an old-fashioned woman looking for a serious relationship. Are you willing to commit? Not afraid of big romantic gestures? Like to read, watch movies and take long, romantic walks on the beach? Then I’m your girl. It helps if you’re at least six foot and physically fit, but still like to eat ice cream and pizza.

Kelsey’s not wrong with this description, but also, she made me sound kind of ridiculous.

“How do I delete this?” I click on the little gear symbol in the top right corner, see the words ‘profile settings’ and select it.

“No way.” Kelsey snatches the phone out of my hands, smiling at me while I glare. “You’re not deleting it.”

“I don’t want to be on that app,” I tell her, stomping my foot. Considering how loud it currently is in this crowded bar, my stomping is completely ineffective.

“Come on, do it for me. Please?” Kelsey flashes me her puppy dog eyes and bats her eyelashes. She’s annoyingly attractive. Plump lips and dark eyes and beautiful glossy brown hair. She came into the salon once asking for highlights and I convinced her not to do it. Her hair is gorgeous as is. Instead, I applied a special gloss treatment that made her hair even shinier than usual.

“I don’t believe in dating sites,” I say primly, resting my clutched hands on the table. “Delete it.”

“Give it a month,” she says, sticking out her lower lip in a mock pout. “They let you use the site for free for the first thirty days.”

“No.”

“I’ll do it with you.”

“You were already going to do it, whether I was on the app or not.”

She considers me for a moment, and I swear I can see her brain working, trying to come up with a convincing idea. “We could go on double dates together.”

Hmm. That’s not a bad idea. I say nothing, contemplating her offer.

“It’s not a sleazy app, I swear. It’s only been out for a couple of months, and everyone’s raving about it,” she explains.

“It’s called Rate-A-Date, Kels. Meaning you rate your dates. That sounds like a disaster in the making.”

Now look. I’m not usually reluctant to put myself out there. I’m the romantic one of our friend group. I believe in true love. I know my soul mate is out there somewhere, just waiting for me. Someday, we will find each other, fall madly in love, and I’ll end up sending smug texts to our friend group chat, telling them all I knew love was real, accompanied by a photo with the most handsome man on the planet standing next to me, our arms around each other and a giant rock on my finger.

I know that will happen. I’ve said it out loud multiple times. I’ve written it down in my daily journal. It goes in my quarterly plans and my monthly plans. If you write something down enough, put it out into the universe, eventually…

It comes true.

“I just don’t want to do this alone, I’d rather have a friend on this app with me, but every single one of our friends are currently involved. Close to being married, just engaged or they’ve recently fallen madly in love,” Kelsey explains. “Except for me and you.”

“What about Amelia?” She’s another fringe member of our friend group. She works at the jewelry store in the same shopping center where my hair salon’s at, and we do lunch together on occasion. I love Amelia.

“She got back together with her boyfriend.”

“Ew.” I make a face. I may love Amelia, but I do not like her boyfriend. Those two have been off and on for years. It’s frustrating. He treats her like garbage, they break up, she tells us all about the awful things he did or said to her, and then they end up back together.

None of us like him. We don’t even like to say his name out loud. Like we might invoke evil spirits or something.

“It’s just me and you, babe,” Kelsey says, her voice softening. Encouraging even. “I’m sorry I created that profile for you, but how about this. You can edit mine. Then we’re even. We’re in this together, we’ll go on a couple of dates, report back to each other, and when the month is up, we’re done. Well, you’re done. I might continue. What do you say?”

I shouldn’t agree to this. It sounds like a bunch of trouble. What if we meet psychos? Stalkers who won’t leave us alone and we’ll have to call the cops and file a restraining order…

“It could be unsafe,” I say.

“If you won’t do it with me, I’m still going to do it, regardless.” Kelsey shrugs.

Ooh, she knows I worry about everyone and everything. I can’t stand the thought of her doing this all on her own. I need to be there, be her partner in dating, and make sure nothing terrible happens to her.

“I don’t like that,” I say.

“Too bad. I’m still going to do it. I might meet a serial killer, but you don’t hear about those type of guys anymore, so I’m probably safe.” Another casual shrug from my friend.

She knows exactly what she’s doing to me.

“Fine,” I reluctantly say and Kelsey squeals so loudly I rest my hands over my ears, only dropping them when I know she’s gone quiet. “I’ll be on the app and talk to guys for thirty days, but as soon as my month is up, I’m out.”

“You’ll have to go on at least one date too,” Kelsey points out. “Maybe two. Three if you want a good assessment of your dating pool.”

“Don’t try and make this sound like a science experiment.” I always sucked at science.

Kelsey waves a hand. “You know what I mean.”

“I also want to rewrite your profile description,” I tell her, making a gimme motion with my hand. “Let me see your phone.”

“You promise you won’t delete your profile?” She raises her brows.

Sighing, I roll my eyes. “Promise.”

She taps at her phone and then hands it over. Her profile photo is almost a full body shot of her in a provocative pose. “You’re just going to get a bunch of dick pics with this profile pic.”

“Maybe that’s what I’m looking for.” She keeps a straight face for about a second before we both start laughing.

“First things first, you need to get rid of that photo.” I hit delete and then aim the phone at her. “Smile.”

Before she can say anything, I snap a photo of her then look at it.

“I bet I look terrible,” she complains.

“Not too bad at all.” I hand the phone back over and she contemplates it.

“I don’t mind this.” She returns her phone to me. “I took the photo of you at Caroline’s shower earlier.”

“I figured, since I’m wearing the same outfit.”

“You looked pretty today, Eleanor. You were laughing and having such a good time,” Kelsey says, her voice soft.

“Gee, thanks.” I was having fun at the shower. But it also made me sad. We’re all changing so much. By the end of the year both Caroline and Candice will be married. Sarah is mostly likely the next to go, and I have a feeling Stella and her new boyfriend—who also happens to be Caroline’s big brother—will move in together as soon as her new house is remodeled.

All happily coupled while I’m unhappily…

Single.

Maybe this dating app is just what I need to find the man of my dreams.