ChapterOne
Evan
“Well, Evan, are you excited?” Luke joked.
“About?” Evan asked, confused.
“It’s your turn to do the blind dates,” Luke laughed.
Evan swallowed. He wanted a woman to spend his life with, but was he ready for blind dates?
A few months ago, he’d been the one to come up with the idea for all of them to take turns picking blind dates for each other, one at a time. These dates were all to play out at a restaurant where he was a silent partner of “The Blind Date.”
This restaurant was different from any other one. You met your date in the dark, and you didn’t get to find out who your date was until the end, and only if both people agreed. It was a genius idea that he’d immediately backed and believed would do well. So far, it had.
It was starting to get stuffy in here. He looked around Cade’s game room as he pulled on his tie. He was less worried about the dates themselves and more worried about if it didn’t work.
“Hello?” Luke waved his hand in Evan’s face.
He pushed it away. “What?” Evan snapped.
“I think you don’t want to do this,” Cade commented. “This was all your idea. You can’t back out.”
“I wouldn’t complain if you did,” Jake told him.
Jake had gone first. After a run of bad dates, the worst being Luke’s pick, he’d finally found a good date in Lauren, who happened to be Cade’s secretary.
“You’re just saying that because it went well for you,” Luke frowned.
“Why do you care?” Evan turned to Luke.
“Because he has some stupid chick picked out for you already,” Ryker tossed in his own thoughts with a wave of his tattooed hand.
Evan ran a hand through his thick dark hair. He had to give it a try. He wouldn’t know if it would help him find someone unless he tried, and it had worked out well for Jake. Plus, if his friends’ picks were bad, he could use the app to match with someone first based on the test you had to take.
“I’m not backing out.” He was going to pull that constricting blue tie off now, though.
“Don’t let them push you into shit,” Jake told him.
“I’m not,” he defended. “Fucking hell, whose turn is it?”
The poker game had come to a halt when Luke had asked that question. They played every Friday night, though their group was getting smaller lately with Owen and Jake in serious relationships.
“Yours!” his friends yelled.
“It’s been yours ever since Luke tried, and succeeded, to distract you.” Cade rolled his eyes and gestured to the cards on the table. “You might as well fold. You aren’t even paying attention.”
“Whatever.” Evan took a look around the table and realized Cade was right.
He tossed his cards face-down on the table and stood. He ignored the laughter from everyone as he walked off to the bathroom.
Closing the door behind him, Evan leaned forward, towards the mirror, bracing himself with his hands on the counter. He had no reason to be this nervous over a few dates. Hell, it wasn’t like he’d been doing a good job for himself in that department anyway.
He sighed and stood straight, looking at himself in the mirror. He needed to get it together. He turned on the cold water and splashed some on his face before grabbing the towel off the rack and wiping his hands and face off.
One more deep breath and he was ready to go back to the game. No doubt he’d lost plenty of chips to Luke just then. He needed to get his head back in the game and take them back.
He pulled the door open only to find Jake on the other side. “What?”