The Love Wager (Mr. Wrong Number, #2)(18)

“She sounds perfect, then,” she said, smiling at her next date and saying, “Hi, I’m Hallie.”

“Nope,” she heard Jack mutter before he started talking to his next candidate.

“I’m Thomas,” said her new guy. “So how’d your first date go?”

That made her smile and relax a little. “It was fine, how about yours?”

Thomas had nice hair and good teeth, and he was wearing a Dolce & Gabbana shirt; she wasn’t certain if that fashion choice worked as a pro or a con. She wasn’t sure how she’d expected him to respond, but he leaned a little closer, lowered his voice, and proceeded to rip some poor girl to shreds.

Apparently his first candidate had crooked teeth, split ends, strong perfume, and the audacity to talk about TV shows she liked to watch. He said, “If you don’t have anything better to share than your obsession with the You series on Netflix, maybe you should just stay home, right?”

Hallie squinted and waited for him to say kidding. Because no one could be that dickish, right?

When he didn’t, she said, “I’m actually obsessed with Joe Goldberg, too. I can’t believe you aren’t, Thomas.”

He laughed, but then he tilted his head. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not one bit. I wish I had more time to devote to TV watching. And more time to talk about it.”

He blinked fast, scratched his head, and then said, “Y’know what? I’m going to go get a drink before the bell rings.”

“Bye, Thomas.”

Aaaaand . . . she’d already lost one. Hallie watched him get up and go to the bar, and she wondered if she would be part of his bad speed dating stories. She crossed her arms and glanced to her right, and was surprised to see Jack looking right at her. His date was scrolling on her phone, just leaning on her elbow like she was bored, and Hallie raised her eyebrows and mouthed, “What did you do?”

He leaned to his left, closer to her, and quietly said, “We have an agreement. She doesn’t want to be here but is just trying to appease her married friend, so I told her we didn’t even have to talk if she didn’t want to.”

That made Hallie bark out a laugh. “Seriously?”

“What did you do, to make your guy bolt pre-bell?”

“Why would you assume I was the one who did something?”

“You can tell me, Hal,” he crooned in a soothing voice. “What did you say?”

She rolled her eyes. “He just didn’t like me.”

“Impossible,” he said, grinning sarcastically.

She flipped him off.

And then the bell rang.

She watched Jack’s date thank him, and they shared a smile of commiseration.

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Hallie said quietly.

“Me, neither,” he agreed. “Should we bolt? There’s a Taco Hut on the corner, and I need a burrito.” He looked dead serious.

“Can we?” she asked. “Won’t that throw off the numbers?”

“Nah,” he said, turning his gaze to the woman sitting down across from him as he spoke to Hallie in a low voice. “There are two of us, so it’ll still be even. If these two aren’t love matches let’s go when the bell rings.”

Hallie met her next candidate while wearing a huge smile, eager to finish the date quickly and painlessly. “Hi, I’m Hallie.”

“Nick,” the guy said, giving her a very nice smile.

Nick looked good—as in, someone she might actually be interested in dating if appearances were all that mattered. He was wearing a Yankees hoodie and jeans, he had dark hair and light eyes, and his smile was easy, like he did it a lot.

“Nice to meet you, Nick,” she said. “How’s your night going so far?”

He gave her a look with his eyes, like come on, and they both laughed as she said, “Okay, I get that. So, um, what do you do for a living, Nick? I think that’s what I’m supposed to ask you.”

“That is the norm, isn’t it?” He leaned back a little in his chair and said, “Well, I don’t actually do the work thing at all.”

Hallie laughed, but he didn’t change his expression.

So she said, “You’re, um, like, in between jobs right now?”

He shook his head. “I’m in between no jobs. I grew up with money and invested it well. I’ve got enough to live on, so why would I want to work?”

“Wow,” she said, shocked and awed by his honesty. And wealth. “You’re literally living the dream.”

“Right?” He crossed his arms across his chest and said, “I just need a wife and a few kids now.”

Hallie nodded but didn’t really know what to say. She rubbed her lips together and came up with, “So what do you do all day, since you don’t have to work?”

She didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t, “I play a lot of COD and Madden.”

She laughed, but then his eyebrows went down like he didn’t know what was funny. Like he’d meant it for real. She said, “When you’re not, like, traveling the world, right?”

He shrugged. “I don’t really like to travel. I’m a total homebody.”

She nodded, even though she absolutely didn’t relate. She knew she should move on, but she had to know more. “So tell me what you do on a normal day. Like . . . you wake up at nine, and then you . . . ?”