The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            “Can we?” she asked. “Won’t that throw off the numbers?”

            “Nah,” he said, turning his gaze to the woman sitting down across from him as he spoke to Hallie in a low voice. “There are two of us, so it’ll still be even. If these two aren’t love matches let’s go when the bell rings.”

            Hallie met her next candidate while wearing a huge smile, eager to finish the date quickly and painlessly. “Hi, I’m Hallie.”

            “Nick,” the guy said, giving her a very nice smile.

            Nick looked good—as in, someone she might actually be interested in dating if appearances were all that mattered. He was wearing a Yankees hoodie and jeans, he had dark hair and light eyes, and his smile was easy, like he did it a lot.

            “Nice to meet you, Nick,” she said. “How’s your night going so far?”

            He gave her a look with his eyes, like come on, and they both laughed as she said, “Okay, I get that. So, um, what do you do for a living, Nick? I think that’s what I’m supposed to ask you.”

            “That is the norm, isn’t it?” He leaned back a little in his chair and said, “Well, I don’t actually do the work thing at all.”

            Hallie laughed, but he didn’t change his expression.

            So she said, “You’re, um, like, in between jobs right now?”

            He shook his head. “I’m in between no jobs. I grew up with money and invested it well. I’ve got enough to live on, so why would I want to work?”

            “Wow,” she said, shocked and awed by his honesty. And wealth. “You’re literally living the dream.”

            “Right?” He crossed his arms across his chest and said, “I just need a wife and a few kids now.”

            Hallie nodded but didn’t really know what to say. She rubbed her lips together and came up with, “So what do you do all day, since you don’t have to work?”

            She didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t, “I play a lot of COD and Madden.”

            She laughed, but then his eyebrows went down like he didn’t know what was funny. Like he’d meant it for real. She said, “When you’re not, like, traveling the world, right?”

            He shrugged. “I don’t really like to travel. I’m a total homebody.”

            She nodded, even though she absolutely didn’t relate. She knew she should move on, but she had to know more. “So tell me what you do on a normal day. Like . . . you wake up at nine, and then you . . . ?”

            He went on to tell her that he never got up before noon; it was bad for his sciatica. After he was up, he pretty much just played video games all day until dinner. He usually went out to a restaurant, then hit the bars if they were “jumpin’.”

            “Don’t you get a little bored?” Hallie rolled her eyes and said, “I mean, I’m sure you don’t, but it just seems—”

            “I have a lot of money, Hallie,” he said. “If I get bored with my awesome life—which I won’t—I’ll just buy a new one.”

            “A new life?”

            “Sure,” he said, shrugging like he didn’t care about anything, and she found him to be utterly fascinating.

            “What do you usually eat for breakfast?” she asked.

            He gave her a weird look. “Apple Jacks.”

            “Pour them yourself, or does the maid do it?”

            “The cook,” he replied.

            “In a crystal goblet, or normal bowl?”

            “Normal bowl.”

            The bell rang and the guy leisurely got up, like he was in no rush. Because, y’know, he wasn’t—he had all the time in the world. Fascinating. Hallie said, “It was very nice meeting you, Nick.”

            He gave her a chin nod. “Same, Hallie.”