Rate a Date by Monica Murphy Page 0,12

I realize he doesn’t know what I sound like, so that’s a big ol’ probably not.

We chat for a little while longer about little things. And big things, like our lives. He tells me how he grew up in Monterey, and where he went to school—not any of the schools I attended, which is kind of a bummer. He’s a little older than me, so we have no real mutual friends, and besides, he left right out of high school. He went to Texas A&M University, which impresses me. Says he played a little football there, which impresses me more. That’s a big college for football, right?

I like how he downplays his accomplishments. That means he’s modest.

We text until it’s almost eleven-thirty, and my eyelids start to get heavy. I tell him good night, he wishes me sweet dreams, and it’s like I fall asleep before my head barely touches the pillow with a big ol’ smile on my face.

I should spend my time chatting away with a nice man on a dating app before bed more often.

Five

Eleanor

“I found two guys who want to go on a double date with us.”

This is how Kelsey greets me when I find her in the waiting area of the hair salon. No, hi how are you or gee, Eleanor, do you think you can fit me in for a trim?

Nope, nothing like that. Leave it to Kelsey to get right to business.

“What do you mean, you found two guys who want to double date with us?” I ask warily, lowering my voice when I spot one of our regular clients Mrs. Rothschild, sitting not three feet away.

Mrs. Rothschild is very rich. And very, very nosy. She loves to gossip. About anyone and everyone, even one of the hairstylists at her salon.

Realizing that, I tilt my head toward the back and give Kelsey a meaningful look. She leaps to her feet and follows me to my chair, plopping herself down in it and spinning around. “I think that lady was listening to our conversation,” she says with wide eyes.

Does she not realize how loud she can be sometimes? I know she can be discreet. She works for Alex Wilder, for God’s sake. He deals in delicate information on a daily basis, what with working for his family’s hotel business. This means Kelsey, his assistant, is privy to the same delicate information.

Yet with us, her friends, she loves to blurt out our business. It’s never malicious. She just—says things. Boldly. Always.

“I know she was, considering how loud you were.” I grab a brush and start running it through Kelsey’s perfect, dark brown hair, a wistful sigh escaping me. I’m satisfied with my hair, but Kelsey’s is just…beyond. Luxurious strands that are glossy and thick, with the perfect amount of curl at the ends. I don’t even think she uses a curling iron on her hair. It’s just naturally that amazing.

“Sorry.” Kelsey shoots me a smile in the mirror, not looking that sorry at all. “But hey, these guys. They want to go out with us Friday night.”

Of course I have no plans.

“How in the world did you find a date for each of us? I thought I was supposed to find my own date, and you find yours.” I glance at the counter in front of my mirror, scanning the schedule Bonnie prints out for us and delivers at all of our stations in the morning. Yes, Connie is the owner, and Bonnie, her twin sister, is the receptionist.

Connie and Bonnie. They’re both lovely people, though they fight a lot, always behind closed doors (Think about the business! Connie shouts at her sister every time). Pretty sure it annoys Bonnie that Connie has such a successful business and she’s just the receptionist. Not that there’s anything wrong with her job, and honestly she’s not “just the receptionist,” though that’s how she feels, as she expresses her feelings to us on pretty much the daily. We would be nothing at this salon without her, and we all know it. She keeps it together. I just think Bonnie wants a bigger piece of the pie, and she believes her sister is pretty tightfisted. As in, Connie doesn’t allow Bonnie to try to buy into the business, no matter how many times Bonnie has offered. But that’s another story for another day.

“I have a client coming in five minutes,” I tell Kelsey, which is a bit of a stretch because my client actually doesn’t come in for another