“Oh, you won’t be single for long. Once word gets out that Logan Jackson is back on the market, you’ll have women lined up at the bar trying to catch your eye.”
He laughed. “Perhaps I should stay single, that sounds like it might be good for business.”
Harriet drained her mug, got up from the stool, and went to the sink to wash it out. She placed it on the dish rack to dry, and then came over to him. She placed a kiss on his cheek and hugged him. “Thanks for the wine, and the chat… oh, and the cocoa. I needed this. If I’d have gone to bed dwelling on that date, I wouldn’t have a wink of sleep.”
“Anytime, Harriet. I have strong shoulders for crying on, and I’m a good listener, as well as being a cure for insomnia.”
She smiled back at him. “Awesome characteristics I want in a man.”
“You need a man who puts you to sleep?” His heart rate quickened as he tried to read between the lines.
“No, silly. That other stuff. I’ll add that to my must-haves on my Tinder account.”
Logan’s heart stopped. “You got a Tinder account?”
“No, not yet. I ‘m too scared to even open the app. But Katie uses it and thinks I should give it a go. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a look, but the whole thing makes me so nervous.”
“Yeah, well, it should. Be careful, okay? And if you do decide to use it and need backup, call me.”
“Logan?”
“You have to be smart, Harriet. Tell you what, if you ever arrange to meet someone off there, do me a favor, meet them at Jackson’s. That way, if you don’t feel safe, I’m always behind the bar.”
Her eyes drifted to his, and for a moment, she studied him. “Thanks, Logan, you always look out for me.”
Harriet walked across the apartment and into her bedroom. As she closed her door, Logan shook his head “Idiot! You were just friend zoned!”
Harriet
A Week Later…
Harriet put the finishing touches on her presentation and sat back to study the layout. She was a perfectionist, and this last part of the process was her favorite. She liked to fully embrace the theme when she presented to her clients, and she matched all her slides and handouts using a cohesive color scheme and branding across everything. She even color-coordinated her wardrobe, and themed the snacks she served.
Tweaking the slides and the proofs for the print run took a lot of time, but it was worth it when she saw her clients’ faces and watched them fall in love with her mood boards and ideas for their spaces.
The phone rang on her desk, and she picked up. “Hi, this is Harriet Carmichael, how can I help you?”
“Did you check your new Tinder account?” Katie yelled so loudly into the phone, she startled Harriet.
“What? No. I told you when I let you set it up that I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it.”
“Go on there now. You have to take a look.”
“Katie, I’m at work.”
“You’re entitled to a coffee break, surely?”
Harriet looked up at the clock. It was already eleven, and she hadn’t had anything to drink since she arrived at the office at eight this morning. “Okay, I guess I can take fifteen minutes. Now, what’s got you so excited?” She wandered down to the breakroom to make a drink.
“Okay, so, I couldn’t resist logging onto the account I set up for you yesterday. I know that date with Malcolm was truly awful, but it’s ancient history.”
Harriet shuddered. “It was only last week. That is not ancient history in my book. That is fresh in my mind and I’ll probably need a whole year to forget it.” And it was another reason she wasn’t that happy about using Tinder.
“Noooo. Look, Tashia meant well, but let’s face it, he was on her reject list, so it was bound to fail.”
“So remind me, why did you let me get talked into that? It cost me thirty bucks for my eight-dollar starter, and a glass of wine that I drank down in one!”
“Lesson learned. We have all agreed Tashia can’t set you up with any of her men again. But don’t worry, I have you covered. Like I said, I logged onto your account this morning, and you have tons of guys lined up as matches. Now, I took the liberty of whittling down the field…”
“You did what?”
“I went through and liked the ones I thought you might be interested in.”
“Katie!”
“It’s fine. It was just a cursory run through the pile, weeding out the ones that shouldn’t be there. You can always whittle them down further.”
“What do you mean that shouldn’t be there?”
“Those that appeared to be married, or have grainy pictures where they look like they live in a dungeon and may be a serial killer. Oh, and the two with pics of their kids, and the one with the guy who has a Great Dane sleeping in his bed, and his room looked like an episode of hoarders.”
“Seriously?”
“Oh, you wouldn’t believe the awful pictures some people put up. Honestly, do they really think they will get laid? Anyway, even after getting rid of all of those, you have twenty-five matches!”
Harriet put her head in her hands. “Oh, God, Katie. I should never have let you talk me into this.”
“Don’t worry. I’m coming around tonight with pizza, and we will go through them together. We need to tweak your profile a bit more, as I just added a stand-in introduction and dropped in some random pics. But the good news is your profile is attracting a lot of attention.”
“That is a good thing?” Harriet was not so sure. Katie’s taste in men was a little different than hers. Not bad, per se. Actually, she had chosen some quite nice guys over the past few years since Harriet had known her, but they were all a little
