“Don’t feel so bad, Katie’s idea was terrible, too. Harriet is never going to find anyone on Tinder. RoryLynn is right, she should have her turn now.” Lori switched off Harriet’s phone and the picture of L.J. vanished off the screen.
Harriet narrowed her eyes at her friends; she smelled a rat. “Are you guys taking bets on who finds me someone?”
“Not bets.” Katie shook her head. “We’d never do that.”
“But there is a prize.” RoryLynn giggled.
“A prize!” Exasperated, Harriet leaned back in her seat. “Is this all a joke to you guys?”
“No,” they all chorused.
“We really do want to help you.” Lori put her hand on Harriet’s arm. “Really, we do.”
Harriet looked from one friend to the next. “Fine. I suppose you meant well.” The others looked relieved. “Okay, RoryLynn, I guess it’s your turn. We’ll try MatchMate. But I am not trying out twenty-seven guys, you hear?”
“Oh, I’m confident we can find the right guy with half that number.” RoryLynn pulled out her laptop. “But first we have to do the questionnaire.”
Harriet grabbed the computer off her. “I am not dating thirteen and a half men either! Now, by my reckoning, you all got one try. Setting me up with Malcolm didn’t work for Tashia, and Reece from Tinder was a disaster for Katie. Now, you get one shot at this. I’m only signing up for one week.”
“You have to do at least a month!” RoryLynn pointed at the payment plan.
“Damn, okay, one month. But I am only going to try one guy from there.”
Back at the apartment, Harriet was beginning to wonder if RoryLynn was onto something. That questionnaire was so long and detailed that she was feeling more confident. Perhaps the more scientific approach might be a better option. She’d thought long and hard about each of those questions, so much so, the others gave up on her and left RoryLynn and Harriet by themselves at the café.
Harriet’s phone pinged, and she looked to find a notification from Tinder. For a moment she got excited, wondering if the guy she had liked in the beanie had now liked her. She opened up the app and was disappointed to find it was a like from a guy that had to be at least fifty. “Ugh, no.” She swiped left. Hmm, there was nothing from the mysterious L.J.
The door on her apartment opened and Logan came in carrying his gym bag. He dropped it on the floor and grabbed some water from the fridge. Harriet couldn’t help but notice how firm his biceps were after his workout. Mmm, nice. He stretched up into a cupboard, hunting for his protein powder and she got a long look at his cute ass and broad shoulders. Now, surely there were men out there that looked like her roommate. She immediately checked herself. Damn, maybe the girls were right, she needed to find herself a new man, because now she was lusting after Logan!
Not that Logan wasn’t worth lusting after. The man was seriously handsome, but he was her friend, and definitely off limits.
“Hey, Harriet, how was the afternoon with your tribe?” Logan slumped down onto the sofa next to her.
“Okay, I guess. RoryLynn has made me sign up for MatchMate.”
Logan grimaced. “Why do you let them do this?”
She laughed. “I found out they have some sort of sweepstakes going on. Whoever finds me a man, gets a prize.”
“A prize? And you’re okay with that?”
She shrugged. “I told them if none of them find me someone, then the purse is mine.”
“This is all for a purse?”
“It’s Kate Spade!”
Logan shook his head. “So, you got any matches yet?”
“No, it takes a couple of days to process my membership and then to go through the questionnaires, I guess.”
“You know it is a computer that does it, right? It’s not the cheesy guy from the commercials comparing answers.”
Harriet giggled. “Yeah. I have even less faith in this than I did in Katie’s Tinder idea.”
Logan drank some of his protein shake. “So, you done with Tinder?”
“I don’t know. I saw this cute guy on there today, but he never liked me back. Honestly, I’m beginning to think there is something wrong with me. Only the weird ones like me.”
“Well, this guy must be doubly weird for not liking you. Let’s have a look.”
Harriet opened the app to L.J.’s profile. “He seems cute, tell me what you think? Oh my God, Logan, he is here.”
“What?”
“Look, it shows his position as being in the same building. Do you think he’s in the bar now?”
Logan glanced at the guy then got up. “I dunno. That location thingy isn’t that sensitive, he could be in the store across the road or at the library at the end of the street. This area is pretty densely populated. He slid his phone out of his pocket and fiddled with it. “Okay, I guess, I’ll go shower. Sarah will be wondering where I am. She offered to open, not do the whole shift.”
As Logan walked to his room, he stripped off his sports vest, and Harriet couldn’t help taking a crafty peek at him. Harriet had never actually seen Logan without his shirt on, but now she wished she hadn’t. Damn the guy was ripped, and the sight of his physique made her lick her lips. Lord, when had Logan grown so hot?
To distract her from salivating over Logan’s body, she checked up on L.J. again. There was still no like from him, but the map no longer said he was close by. Perhaps Logan was right about it being inaccurate. There was a subway station at the end of the road, so L.J. could have literally been passing by to catch a train.
“Hey, Marlow.” She patted her lap, and the cat jumped onto it. “How about me and you share a tin of tuna, then we curl up with a throw and watch Outlander?”
The cat purred back at her.
“Okay, it’s a date. Let me make you dinner.”
9
