“Holy hell, he’s hotter than hot.”
Sofia watched as Hattie took over and began flipping through the other pictures in the file. It looked like he worked at a community center or something. There were pictures of him with a bunch of teenagers, then one of him and a German Shepherd, but the last picture was the one that took her breath away. He was standing by himself on the beach, wearing a tuxedo. It looked as if it were custom made for his body and fit him perfectly in all the right places. His smile was wide and even though he had sunglasses on, you could tell by his stance he was genuinely happy.
“It says here his name is Ozzie Ashford, and he manages the Paradigm Youth Center. He’s the same age as you and a Florida native. That’s weird. No one is from here.”
“Well, it appears Ozzie is. What kind of name is Ozzie, anyway?”
“I think it’s short for Oscar. Sofia, you hit the jackpot. This man is beautiful, and he works with kids. I mean, if this isn’t the making for a Hallmark movie, then what is?”
“So what do I do now?”
“I think we just click this box here, allowing you two to reach out directly, or we schedule the appointment with the matchmaker and she will contact him for you.”
“Then do that. I don’t want to have to message some random guy. This whole thing is still a little too weird.”
The next morning, Sofia woke up with a wine hangover that was fierce enough to kill a lesser person. She pulled herself out of bed and shuffled into the kitchen to make some coffee, drink a gallon of water, and find her phone. Her apartment was the size of a postage stamp, which made things like finding her way around in the dark easy. The thought of putting a light on made her nauseous, so she didn’t bother. After she started the coffee, she dug around in the cushions of the couch and pulled out her phone. The bright light from the screen made her curse, but once she turned the light down, she saw she had two missed calls from the matchmaker from Just Coffee. Suddenly, it all started coming back to her. The dating site, the hot ass dude and Hattie’s terrible influence all resulted in her going forward with requesting a call. She was going to have to make herself semi presentable if she was expected on a video call today. Technology had its benefits though, and as long as she looked good from the waist up, she could likely pull it off. At least it was online, so no one would smell the wine seeping from her pores. It was only nine o’clock on a Saturday and she was already off to a rough start.
An hour later, she had fully caffeinated, changed her top and thrown on some lipstick. It was days like these that she was grateful for her short hair. For most of her life, she’d had thick, long, dark brown hair, but about two years ago, she decided she was over it. She and Hattie tried to cut it one night, which turned out disastrously, and she ended up paying way too much money for someone to fix it. She learned her lesson though, never trust Hattie with scissors... or a dating site for that matter. Since she didn’t have a laptop of her own, she had downloaded the app for Just Coffee and propped her phone up on some books in her bedroom. It was the only room in the house where the walls were still white and the sun shined through. Everything else in her apartment was old and faded yellow. Not something that would leave the best impression. Housing in Miami was stupidly expensive and her job as a temp didn’t pay much. It was days like today that she let herself daydream just for a minute what it would be like to have even some of the money Micah offered her. There was no way she could though. It didn’t feel right taking money from a family she’d just met. The sound of a video call made her jump, and she shook out her hands before she pressed the little green button. On the screen in front of her appeared a perfect blonde beauty. She must have been dressed in a suit and she’d pulled her blonde hair back, which left you with nothing to stare at other than her bright blue eyes.
“Good morning, you must be Sofia.”
“Yes, hi... um... I mean, good morning.”
“My name is Vicky, and they have assigned me as the matchmaker for you and Mr. Ashford. I see that you downloaded his file last night, so I wanted to see if you had any questions or if you were ready to move forward.”
“Move forward? Move forward how? I downloaded everything. Am I supposed to have questions? I’m not really sure how this works. I mean, my friend made me sign up for it and I didn’t think this would happen so quickly. If I don’t have questions, what happens then? Do I have to meet him?”
Vicky gave her a small smile, “Yes Sofia, the idea around using a matchmaking service is to meet the person you are matched with. Was Mr. Ashford an appropriate match for you?”
“I don’t know. I mean, he’s hot but... ugh. I’m sorry. I really have no idea what to do, and I ramble when I’m nervous.”
“It’s okay, really it is. I will level with you here. Mr. Ashford is a new client of ours as well. I spoke with him before calling you and he’s available this afternoon for coffee if you are. He’d like to meet you at the coffee shop on Miami Avenue at one o’clock. I’d be happy to give you more time to decide, but he is leaving town tomorrow and will be gone for a week.”
“A week?”
“Yes ma’am. If you would prefer, I can let him know that you are considering him as a match and we can follow up when he returns.”
“Um... no... it’s okay. I can meet him today.”
“Perfect. I’m going to send you the details through our portal. For safety reasons, we ask that you check in when you arrive and update us when the meeting it over. After your first encounter, you will both be asked to complete a survey and if you both agree to move forward, then we will outline what our involvement looks like after that.”
“Okay. Sure, that sounds good. Can I ask one question?”
“Of course.”
“Did he have any questions about me?”
“Actually, he did,” she said as she shuffled some papers in front of her, “He wants to know how you feel about dogs?”
Sofia couldn’t help but smile. If his dog was his biggest concern, then she liked him already. “You can tell him I love dogs.”
“Sounds like a match made in heaven. I hope you love coffee!” Vicky said before saying their goodbyes.
Sofia looked at the clock. She had maybe two hours before she would need to leave in order to fight traffic and get there. Miami Avenue wasn’t far by miles, but it was far in traffic. She needed food, aspirin, and a nap, but there wasn’t time for all that. More coffee and a shower were first on her agenda, and if she had time for anything else, that would be just a bonus. She stood and looked at herself in the mirror. She was rough all over, not just around the edges. Of all the nights for her and Hattie to get drunk on cheap wine, it just had to be the night before she met one of the hottest men she had ever seen. Shaking her head, she made her way into her small bathroom and turned on the water. Her shower had two temperatures, ice cold and scalding hot. She was aiming for scalding hot this morning. Maybe the heat would wash away the wine.