The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            The bell rang, and Hallie let out a breath. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved that the first one was over or terrified about the next one beginning.

            “Your date looked awesome,” Jack said quietly, and when she looked over at him, he was giving her a half smile. “I bet he wears a man bun on the weekends.”

            “Blayne was nice,” she whispered.

            “Blayne?” Jack rolled his eyes. “I thought Duckie already covered what a stupid name that is.”

            “Nice Pretty in Pink reference.” Hallie straightened as a man began to approach her table. She said out of the side of her mouth, “It looked like you were having a good date, by the way.”

            “Yeah, no. That girl told me the reason why she’s here tonight is because she’s committed to the goal of getting married in the next year.”

            “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.