The Promotion (Contemporary Reverse Harem 3)

“Oh, I don’t have—”

But before I could finish, he’d looked at me over his shoulder, winked, and was gone.

Shit.

I’d fallen for his trick. Now he knew I was single.

The question was, was he?

I went back to my desk, passing Eva’s office. I was in luck. She was on the phone and had swiveled her chair away from the desk to face the floor-to-ceiling window. She was gesturing wildly, and through her closed door, I could hear her loud, animated voice. I rushed by before she turned around and saw me.

Sparkle had thoughtfully sent me a couple more matchmaking agencies to get in touch with. I looked them up on my computer, all the while with an eye on Eva’s door. I never knew when she’d come flying out, ready to berate me for something.

“Thank you for calling the Tuscan Group,” a voice crooned.

Sounded like a travel agency.

“Um, hi. My name is Maizy Strong—”

“Yes, Miss Strong?”

“Well, I wanted to talk to someone about your…” I looked around to make sure no one could hear me, “matchmaking services.” I’d whispered the last few words when the guy from the mailroom came barreling through.

“Let me email you some forms to fill out, Miss Strong. As soon as you send them back with three photos—current photos, please—we’ll get you set up in the database.”

Sounded easy enough. “How long does it take to get dates?” Shit, that sounded bad. I hoped I hadn’t disqualified myself by revealing too much desperation. But my review was coming like a freight train, and Eva never hesitated to hang it over my head.

“Well, that depends on you. How fast can you get your forms back to us?” God, she was cheerful. She probably had first pick of all the guys who came into the place. Kind of like working in a store, where you got to see the new merchandise before anybody else.

I craned my neck. Eva was still bitching somebody out. Probably her unfortunate husband.

“I can fill them out now.” Why not?

“Super! I’ll get them right over to you. As soon as we get you in the database, you’ll start receiving emails about your matches.”

Sounded so easy. What had I been waiting for? I should have done it ages ago.

“Oh, before you go,” I said, “how much does all this cost?” I held my breath.

Please don’t be too crazy.

“We have a couple different packages. If you sign up for an entire year, you get a twenty-five percent discount. If you go month-to-mo

nth, it’s a bit more.”

“How much more?”

Papers shuffled in the background. She had to look it up? Didn’t they get questions like this all the time?

Maybe they based the price on how desperate they thought you were.

“It’s one thousand dollars a month.”

Huh?

She didn’t say a thousand dollars, did she?

“I’m sorry. Could you repeat that?” I asked.