CHAPTERTHREE
OLIVIA
Gerri’s call came a lot sooner than Olivia expected, and she really wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Not only had Gerri informed her that her application looked great … something that still made her feel kind of weird doing … but that she’d already secured a match for her.
As soon as the words had left the other woman’s mouth, Olivia had to blink.
Damn, she works quickly.
“How’s that sound for you? Trust me, he’s a hoot.”
While Olivia didn’t doubt that, she really had no other descriptions to go off of other than that. She’d never been on a blind date before, only hearing horror stories from girls online finding out that they’d either been bamboozled or horribly mistreated while on the date.
It was never something that had interested Olivia when dating, and it certainly wasn’t something she was too keen on now. But what other choice did she have? Both her sister and her mother had been excited about the prospect ever since Gerri had come over for dinner.
It wasn’t something that Olivia was willing to disappoint them in. Even if she thought the whole process was ludicrous.
“All right … where am I meeting this guy?”
“I figured I’d start you both off small with a coffee date. How’s that sound?”
Olivia brushed her hands through the curled ends of her long red hair and twisted one of the pieces together between her fingers.
“When are we meeting?”
“How about in half an hour?”
Olivia bolted upright. “What?”
Gerri laughed on the other end. “I need to get you in there! Your sister told me if I didn’t, you’d chicken out.”
She felt her heart start to pound and the nervous shaking of her leg pick up. Damn it, her sister wasn’t completely wrong in that aspect, but why did she have to tell Gerri that?
“Uh.”
“I’ll text you the details of where to meet him, okay?”
“Sure…”
“Wonderful! Good luck!”
And with that, the line went silent.
Olivia let her phone fall from her grasp and leaned over to hold her head in her hands. What was she doing? Seriously? Letting a stranger set her up with another stranger? She didn’t care if her sister was friends with this woman.
How was she supposed to know Olivia well enough to match her with someone who was compatible enough? The entire situation made her want to crawl into her bed and text Gerri to forget the entire thing.
However, in the same breath … she didn’t want to be rude. Gerri had, apparently, gone through several applications before finding the person she was to be matched with and to go through all that hard work only for one of the clients to get cold feet right before?
At least it’s something casual and not uber fancy.
Lifting her head slowly, Olivia slid off her chair and stood to face her closet. She’d at least go meet this man. Give it the ol’ college try. She doubted she was going to fall head over heels for her date, but she would be able to tell her mother and sister that she had made an attempt.
Changing into a comfortable but cute outfit, Olivia decided to let her hair do its natural thing and slapped on a bit of makeup before slipping out the door. She didn’t want to spend too much time getting ready because it would only cause her to overthink and not want to leave her apartment at all.
By the time she headed to the coffee shop, she’d taken several deep breaths and pulled herself together enough to be able to get out of her car and walk into the shop. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but there were barely any people inside.