you created a fancy algorithm, too.
Me: Given what we learned last night about their success rate, that would be a no.
I threw in a few happy emojis for luck.
Nala: Thank you for your help!
Me: You want to come over tonight to watch a movie?
Nala: I would love to, but I can’t. Dani set me up with someone. Rain check?
Me: Okay, rain check.
I silently cursed her friend for helping her out.
Right, I should be thrilled that Dani was making things easier. The more options we found for Nala, the greater the chance she had of completing her goddamn bucket list.
But how was I supposed to make sure he didn’t turn out to be an asshole who didn’t deserve to be with her?
Me: Where are you going for your date? Maybe Dani and I can double-date and make sure you’re okay.
Nala didn’t reply, so I grabbed Spot’s leash and took him for a walk.
My phone rang as I was walking down the sidewalk. I removed it from my shorts pocket and answered.
“I didn’t know you’re interested in Dani.”
At the sound of Nala’s voice, smooth and creamy like the inside of a chocolate-coated caramel, my skin tingled. And a wave of desire swept through me at just hearing it again.
“I’m not.” I had briefly met Dani the night of the auction. She was gorgeous, but my body hadn’t responded to her the way it did Nala. “But we’re your friends, so it’s our duty to make sure the date isn’t a disaster.”
“That makes sense, I guess. I’ll ask her and see what she thinks.”
A few minutes later, Nala texted me to tell me the double date was on.
“So, what do you know about your date?” I asked Nala a few hours later. She was sitting next to me in the front passenger seat of my truck.
Dani was in the back seat.
Nala turned to her friend. “What do you know about David?”
“He has an MBA in marketing and works for a consulting company,” Dani said, her English accent strong. “He plays football in his free time.”
I waited for more but there wasn’t any.
“That’s all you know about him?” Disbelief hung from each word like an opossum baring its teeth.
“I wasn’t going to interrogate him, now was I? He just seemed like a nice bloke. I thought he’d be perfect for Nala.”
“Well, I appreciate the help,” Nala told her friend. “This definitely is not how I’d envisioned finding my future husband.”
Dani snorted a laugh. “How did you envision it?”
“I’m not sure. I guess that I would bump into him somewhere, and we would start talking, and the next thing I know, he’s asking me on a date. That date becomes two and then four. And with time, we fall in love and get married. And there was no pressure of a ticking clock in that scenario.”
“How were you expecting that to happen if you never went anywhere, other than work and the occasional girls’ night out? Or in this scenario, does he show up at your office, and that’s how you meet?”
“All right. I agree; I was a workaholic. But I’ve been working on that. I did, after all, go away for twelve days. Baby steps.”
She and I had also been hanging out together since our return to San Francisco. The post-Copper Creek Nala was nothing like the Nala prior to that. She really was making an effort to be less of a workaholic.
“You’ll need to take a lot longer steps if you plan to have a husband before your grandmother’s deadline,” Dani helpfully pointed out.
“And that’s why you and Eli have been helping me.” I couldn’t see Nala’s face, but smugness weighed down her tone.
The three of us were meeting David at a restaurant he had recommended. Turned out, “restaurant” was his name for what looked more like an English pub. TV screens were located around the space, but instead of showing an American football game, the screens had soccer on them.
“David,” Dani said to a bald Black man with glasses and two-day-old scruff. “This is Nala, and this is my date, Eli.”
David stood up from the chair and smiled at Nala. “It’s nice to meet you.” His accent was similar to Dani, only not quite as strong.
The date went well…only it was clear from the beginning that David was more into Dani than Nala. And Dani was flirting with him, although she did catch herself several times, and redirected the conversation to promote Nala.
But that was hard to do when all of their