Friend Zone to End Zone - Judy Corry

1

Cole

“You know this whole thing is happening today because of me, right?” I said to my best friend, Arianna, who was sitting next to me at her brother’s wedding reception.

“Emerson and Vincent got re-married all because of you?” She arched a dark eyebrow, looking away from the happy couple as they glided on the dance floor that had been set up in the middle of their backyard. “And how do you figure that?”

I shrugged. “I accidentally matched with Emerson on that dating app you said I should sign up for, and voila! They’re married.”

Sure, their four-year-old son was the one who had accidentally swiped right on his mom’s photo when I came across her profile on a dating app one day. So technically, he should get some credit for getting his parents back together again. But I’d created the somewhat anonymous profile that she’d liked enough to swipe right on, so I was basically an accidental matchmaker.

“And how many piña coladas have you had tonight?” Arianna asked. “Because I’m pretty sure Vincent and Emerson are the ones who deserve most of the credit for reclaiming their happily-ever-after.”

“Whatever. It was totally all me.”

She shook her head and laughed, her long, dark brown curls bouncing around her face with the movement. “For all your bragging about being a matchmaker, you seemed to have forgotten to actually use that app for yourself.”

And here we were again. Back to her teasing me about being one of the only single guys on the Denver Dragons NFL team.

But sadly, this time around I couldn’t claim the excuse of being too busy to date, since it was the off-season and the only thing I had going on were my morning workouts with her brother: the quarterback to my wide-receiver and good friend, Vincent Lake. So I picked up my drink, swirled it around a bit before raising my eyebrow and saying, “I just haven’t matched with anyone interesting enough to tempt me.”

Arianna’s jaw dropped immediately, and I had to work to keep a grin from my face because I knew exactly what she was going to say to my arrogant-sounding statement.

“Excuse me?” she said, the shock in her voice every bit as obvious as I expected. “Did you seriously just say that?”

“Say what?” I gave her my most innocent expression, feigning ignorance.

She just stared at me with her big brown eyes. “I never thought I’d see the day when you got too big for your britches, Cole Kekoa.”

“Too big for my britches?” I looked down at my navy-blue dress pants. “Have my butt-sculpting exercises been working then?”

“Seriously?” She smacked my arm. “I was talking about the whole ‘no one is handsome enough to tempt me’ line you just said.” Arianna shook her head. “You sound just like Mr. Darcy at the ball in Pride and Prejudice.”

Yeah…I knew I did.

Normally, a professional football-playing, deep-sea fishing, ax-throwing, manly man like myself would pretend not to know who this Mr. Darcy character was that Arianna was referencing. But since I was best friends with a woman who was obsessed with romance movies—and I frequently let her talk me into watching them with her since her jerk boyfriend couldn’t be bothered enough to meet her halfway on their movie nights—I had seen pretty much every film adaption of Jane Austen’s famous book.

And yes, I also knew the quote she was referencing by heart because my brain couldn’t help but remember stupid information like that.

So instead of denying the fact that I knew exactly what she was talking about, I said, “I think the exact quote is, ‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.’”

Arianna put a hand on her hip. “So you won’t meet any of those girls you’re matching with because they’re single and have a reason to be on the dating app in the first place?”

“I only said that because I knew it would rile you up.” I gave her a mischievous grin before taking another sip of my drink. “I wasn’t actually making a dig at the girls on the website. I’m sure there are a lot of great women on there.”

“And yet you signed up for the dating app like four months ago and still haven’t even met one girl for coffee.”

I shrugged, the sleeves of my suit coat tightening with the movement. “Coffee is gross.”

“Fine. Then tea, or one of those Dole whips you love so