“Todd, you did meet him on a dating website. What did you expect?”
“Not to be insulted, that’s for sure.”
“You know how I feel about people who sign up on those things.”
Todd dipped a piece of bread into the artichoke appetizer and popped it into his mouth. “Do I really look that skinny to you? You know I watch my girlish figure, but I ain’t exactly Miss Twiggy either.”
“There is a reason why they call those skinny jeans,” Holly said, arching an eyebrow.
“Honey, you can be downright hateful sometimes. Do you know that?” Todd took the lemon out of his water and playfully threw it at her. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“Hey, I could be worse,” Holly teased.
“I imagine you’re right, which makes me glad I’m not one of your clients.”
Holly took a bite of bread and replied with a snicker, “Oh, you have no idea.”
“My God, how rude of me. I’ve just been sitting here blabbing away about myself all this time. How are things in Holly world?” he asked as he spotted another familiar person a few tables away.
“I guess I’ve been hanging in there since the break-up.” Holly followed her friend’s line of sight and noticed him staring at someone or something a few tables away. “What is it?”
Todd seemed to stiffen, as if he’d seen a ghost. “Nothing, sweetie,” he said, looking down at his plate.
“Todd, don’t lie to me. You’re acting weird all of a sudden. What’s up?”
“Just don’t look behind you, all right?” Todd whispered.
“Why?” Out of curiosity, Holly looked over her shoulder and darted her eyes around to search for whatever it was that had Todd in such a panic. As soon as she figured it out, she was just as shocked as he was. “Oh my God!”
“Girl, I told you not to look.”
“I can’t believe he’s here…and with another woman.”
Two tables away, there sat Matthew, having lunch with a model-looking brunette who looked right off the pages of some expensive clothing catalog.
“Holly…” Todd placed his hands on top of hers. “Just pretend like you don’t even see him. He’s not worth it.”
She huffed and struggled to her feet. “Easy for you to say.”
“Come on, Holly! Please don’t make a scene,” Todd pleaded. “You’re so not going to do what I think you’re gonna do, are you?”
She threw her white linen napkin down on the table. “There’s no way I’m just going to sit here and take this, Todd.” Holly swallowed her pride and made her way over to Matthew’s table.
“Holly, no!” Todd tried to grab hold of her dress to keep her from going astray, but she slipped away from him. He felt like a fool when the commotion caused all the other diners to stop chewing and stare at him, wide-eyed. Sure, Todd had wanted to be in the spotlight at one time, but never like this.
Holly walked straight up to Matthew as he was having a good laugh with his female companion. He looked so handsome in his dark, navy-blue suit that she could barely breathe when she looked at him. That overpowering physical attraction was one of the many reasons why it was so hard to let him go. “Hello Matthew. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Holly?” Matthew replied, caught off guard. “Wh—what are you doing here?”
With one hand on her hip, she retorted, “Eating lunch, like everyone else.”
“Well, yes… of course.” Matthew laughed nervously, like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“So who’s this?” Holly asked, looking straight at the brunette and giving her the evil eye.
“Um…” He cleared this throat. “This is Alene. Alene, this is––”
She cut him off before he could even finish his sentence. “So this is what—no, who— you’ve been doing behind my back?”
In a state of confusion, Alene asked, “Matthew, what is she talking about?” She was model thin with high cheekbones to match. Her large breasts threatened to spill over the top of her designer dress, just like her plastic surgeon had intended.
“We’ve been broken up all of two weeks and you’ve already found a new floozy?”
“Floozy? Excuse me?” Alene said with her collagen-filled lips agape.
Matthew’s face went pale beneath that beautiful golden tan. “Holly, what the hell? That’s way out of line!” he spat. “I think you should apologize.”
Holly crossed her arms and shook her head at the two of them in disbelief. “Me? God, Matthew. You’re even more unbelievable than I remember.”
“Matthew, who is this ghastly woman?” Alene asked.
“Listen, Matthew. I’ve got one thing to say and then I’ll leave you and your new girlfriend alone.” Holly stared Matthew down like an angry queen looking at a lowly jester. “At one time, I really thought we had something—that we meant something to each other. I guess I was wrong about that. Now, you go and add salt to my wounds.” She picked up his glass of ice water from the table and without so much as a second thought, promptly emptied it in his lap. “There. That oughtta cool you down.”
Matthew instantly went into convulsions.
Holly walked back to her table without the slightest hint of remorse. “Todd, I’ll be in the car,” she said over her shoulder as she made her way to the parking lot.
Todd slapped a $100 dollar bill on the table and with trembling legs, scurried over to Matthew’s table. He got close enough to Matthew’s face that he noticed the small, green bit of lettuce stuck in between the man’s bottom front teeth. “Bitch,” he hissed before he followed Holly to the parking lot.
***
That evening, it was a nice change of pace for Holly to have her new roommate around without the kids. After a disastrous day, Holly let herself unwind and lounge on the couch as she sipped on a glass of red wine and chatted with Madelyn about the day’s events. Although, after about five minutes, the conversation about Matthew was quickly morphed into a discussion about Madelyn’s love life.
“After dinner, Mohammad put his arm around my waist and we walked down the street, just the two of us,” Madelyn said. “It was the sweetest thing ever, girl.”
When she was sure Madelyn wasn’t looking, Holly rolled her eyes. If that’s the sweetest gesture the girl can come up with, she obviously hasn’t lived much.
“Anyway, what did Matthew say when you caught him?” Madelyn asked, finally turning the conversation back to Holly.
Holly looked down despondently into her wine glass and replied, “He just stared at me like I was crazy. He wouldn’t even admit that he was wrong and actually had the nerve to tell me to apologize. All this time, I thought I knew him, but I’ve been terribly mistaken. ”
“Oh! I forgot to tell you.” Madelyn took a large swig of wine and continued, “When we went to this burger place for a late-night snack, I accidently sat in cheese. Mohammad pointed it out and pulled it off. I can’t believe what a gentleman he is.”
Holy hell! Him pulling cheese off your ass is considered being a gentleman? You’ve gotta be kidding me! Holly thought.
The doorbell rang in the middle of Madelyn obnoxiously blabbing on and on about the rest of her date.
“Are you expecting someone?” Holly asked.
“No. The boys aren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow,” Madelyn said, shaking her head and wearing a look of utter surprise. She fixed her stare on Holly’s, and for a long moment, they both gazed at each other as if the Gestapo were at the front door.
Holly finally mustered up the courage to glance out the peephole. Her heart nearly stopped like an unwound clock when she saw Matthew standing on her doorstep.
“Holly, we need to talk,” Matthew said when she opened the door.
Without a word—or much of a choice, for that matter—Holly let him through the doorway.
Madelyn jumped off the couch as if she was spring loaded. “Oh, hey.”
“Madelyn this is Matthew.”
“Oh, I totally re
member you,” Madelyn said.
“Yeah, we met for a brief moment several years ago.” Matthew was a bit confused as to why Holly’s old roommate was visiting at such late hours. He didn’t feel it was his place to question it, and the last thing he wanted was to upset Holly into dousing his crotch with arctic-temperature liquid again.
Madelyn felt the tension in the air intensify as she stared at the two of them. “Oh, you two probably want your privacy, huh? I’ll just go.”
“No, it’s okay. Stay put, Madelyn. We can talk in my room,” Holly said.
In silence, she led Matthew to her bedroom. As she walked, her body temperature rose, as if she were in the midst of a 100-yard dash. She closed the door, having no idea what she was going to say after the little stunt she’d pulled at The Ivy. Finally, she turned to him and asked, “So…what is it, Matthew? Whatever you want, it must be pretty important for you to come over at this time of night. Does your girlfriend know you’re here?”
When Matthew sat down on the edge of her bed, memories of their past washed over him like a refreshing shower on a hot summer’s day. “We need to talk about what happened today.”
“I think what I saw did all the talking.” She stood with her arms crossed, gazing at him harshly and feeling her heart rise to her throat.
Matthew replied in frustration, “Look, this is not the way I wanted our break-up to turn out and—”
“Hmm. That’s interesting. Haven’t you ever heard that actions speak louder than words?”
“You’re always jumping to conclusions and thinking the worst of people, Holly. She happened to be one of my clients and you totally freaked her out. I might have lost a deal because of you.”
Holly felt her face flame red. “You have a client who looks like that? What happened? Did Hef get tired of her and throw her out of the Playboy mansion or something?”
Matthew got up, pulled her in close, and looked into her eyes like she was still the love of his life. “You really think I could jump back into the game that fast? Do you think I actually wanted to break-up with you?”
Standing there in his arms, Holly almost melted like wax in the hot sun. “Yes. It was your decision.”
“With good reason… and I did what I felt was best for both of us.”
Holly entwined her fingers with his. “Matthew, we can work on it—I can work on it.”
“Baby, sometimes people grow apart and I think that’s what happened to us.”
“But it’s all so…so one-sided, Matthew. I still love you as much as the first day I met you.”
“And of course I still love you, Holly, but for the time being, I think we’re both better off just being friends.”
She shook her head in disagreement. “You know how I feel about that. It never works.”
“Well, I’m willing to try if you are,” he murmured into her hair. “I don’t want to fight, baby.”
A tear fell from Holly’s eye, but she wiped it away as a sudden giggle escaped her throat. “I’m sorry for freezing your balls off. Hope I didn’t do any permanent damage.”
He snorted and then smiled sheepishly. “I think I may have lost my ability to father children, and I’ll never forgive you for that.”
She laughed. “In that case, maybe I did the world a favor.”
***
Male recruiting day had arrived for Sabrina and Jackie. Forty recruits showed up at the office that afternoon, men whom Chris and Emma had scoped out, or invited by phone from email inquiries.
Holly, Chris and Emma conducted a few interviews at a time in the conference room as men meandered in the hallway, waiting for their turn. Handfuls of potential Mr. Rights trickled through the building, filling the hallway like the bottom of an hourglass running out of time. Emma escorted three men into the conference room after they finished filling out their applications. The men resided uneasily at the conference room table.
Holly read over the recruits applications and reviewed their specs. The interviews were a somewhat intimidating part of the process. The men always looked as if St. Peter was questioning them at the pearly gates or they were sitting in front of a parole board, awaiting judgment on what their fate would be.
“Charles, please tell me about yourself.” Holly flipped through the pages of his application and stopped when she came to his headshot. He was the surfer type, a Swedish or Norwegian blond with broad shoulders and a healthy, youthful appearance.
“I’m thirty-one, and I live in Los Angeles. I’m a marketing promoter for pretty much all the popular nightclubs and restaurants in LA.”
“How tall are you?” Emma asked.
“Six-one,” Charles answered. On top of his height, he had perfect teeth and pretty lips that formed a sweet, genuine, gleaming white smile.
Holly took off her eyeglasses and said to Chris, “He’s perfect for Jackie, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Chris answered giving Charles a long onceover. “Totally.”
Holly glanced at his application once more. “What’s your net worth? You left that blank.”
“Yeah, I know. I don’t like to flaunt it, but I’m worth about three and a half mill.”
“Yeah. He’s perfect for Jackie,” Emma said with a wide grin.
“Charles, you absolutely must attend our mixer,” Holly said. “Now James, what about you?”
“I’m a thirty-five-year old, self-employed millionaire. I sell fine art for a living.” James had olive skin, a square jaw, and black hair that curled at the nape of his neck. He looked terrific in his tight polo shirt and faded jeans.
“Okay, here’s what I want from both of you. If you are to take Jackie on a date, you will be taking her to a five star restaurant.”
James held up his hand. “Well, I have a thing about that.”
“A thing?” Holly asked, arching an eyebrow at him.
“It’s just that I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a first date, on someone I’ve just met. I have to actually know if I like the girl, so I usually just—”
“Excuse me?” In disgust, Holly threw the applications down on her lap. “If you want to be a cheap jerk wad, you shouldn’t be here. And as far as what you usually do, that obviously hasn’t been working for you, because once again, you wouldn’t be here in the first place, would you?”
“I just don’t think it’s smart to spend a ton of money on someone you might never see again,” James explained with a shrug. “Sorry.”
She had no time to waste on his insolence. “You can go now. We’ll call you if we need you,” Holly said, pointing to the door.
The two men left sitting at the conference table jolted as they watched James saunter out the door.
Holly continued as if nothing had happened. “Okay, Kyle, make my day and tell me about yourself. It says here that you’re a pilot.”
“Yes, I’m forty-four, divorced, and I have one daughter. I work as a commercial pilot and I’ve flown anyone from Jennifer Aniston to Ronald McDonald around the world.” The attractive older man’s dark hair had receded considerably, but he made up for it by being immaculately dressed in a suit and tie.
“He seems good for Sabrina. What do you think?” Holly asked Chris.
Chris nodded his head in agreement. “Hmm. Maybe.”
“There’s one little thing you need to know about our millionairess, Kyle.”
“What’s that? Tell me this Sabrina’s neither a teenager nor a witch,” he said with a grin.
“She’s haughty and thinks she’s the cat’s pajamas. I need to know if you can handle that,” Holly asked.
“Well, I’m a Scorpio, so I can pretty much handle anything.”
“Ohhhh I like that!” Emma said, impressed by his response.
Holly laughed. “Consider yourself invited to the mixer, Captain,” Holly said.
Chis escorted the next three in the room after both men had left.
The first guy, Mick, looked like a slob. He was unshaven, dressed in a wrinkle
d Pep Boys t-shirt, holy jeans and grimy sneakers.
“What is this you’ve got going on here?” Holly asked, pointing out his ensemble.
“What?” Confused, he looked down at himself.
“You come to your interview dressed like a hobo? Get out of my face. And you,” Holly said, looking straight at an older gentlemen in his mid-sixties. He had light brown skin and gray hair that was thinning around the corners of his temples, and powdery stubble patched his cheeks and chin. “No offense, but you are a bit older than what we are looking for right now. We’ll call you when you’re needed.”
The older man shrugged and followed Mick out the door.
“Jason, you’ve survived the cut thus far,” Holly said. “Relax and tell me about yourself.”
He cleared his throat a bit nervously and said, “I’m a firefighter for the LA fire department, but I’m originally from Beverly Hills.” He was tall and muscular with the broad shoulders of a swimmer.
“And how old are you?” Chris asked.
“Thirty-four.”
“Hmm. You might be a good fit for either one of our millionairesses,” Holly said.
Holly interviewed a hundred applicants that day and ended up only inviting fifty to the mixer. The location was still to be determined, but wherever it was, it was bound to be fruitful.
***
When Holly returned to the office after lunch that day, Emma and Chris were fluttering around in absolute panic, scurrying around like rats feverishly looking for an exit in an experimenter’s cage.
“Whoa! What’s going on with you two?” Holly asked.
“It’s Dr. Cat Adams,” Chris explained, stuffing files and paperwork into a desk drawer. “She’s on her way.”
Upon hearing the name of the relationship coach, marriage and family therapist, Holly freaked out as well. Dr. Adams referred to her own teachings as “politically incorrect, but scientifically accurate,” and she was a Goddess in her chosen field. For the last thirty-eight years, she’d been featured on numerous talk shows and radio programs. The eighty-year old woman was a genius when it came to matters of the heart, and she had the power to break a business just because she was so influential. The good doctor had been married three times to men who had all died prematurely.
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