The Date Maker: A Disastrous Dates Prequel Read online

  The Date Maker

  A Disastrous Dates Prequel

  Kayla Tirrell

  Copyright © 2018 by Kayla Tirrell

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  To J who believed in this story from day one

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Let me know what you think!

  Don’t worry!

  Acknowledgments

  Let’s Keep in Touch

  Also by Kayla Tirrell

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  Chapter One

  Sick of swiping?

  Tired of endless surveys?

  Hoping to find that special someone?

  Let the Date Maker help you find your soul mate!

  Morgan hurried through campus, careful not to bump anyone on the sidewalk. She'd spent the entire morning working on the giant stack of pink flyers she carried. Everything had been overanalyzed to the point of exhaustion, from the wording to the font choice. One small detail could mean the difference between success and failure.

  Case in point: all the memos at work, written by her middle-aged manager, always used Comic Sans. No one at work ever took the notes seriously, and they were the butt of countless Snapchat jokes sent between employees.

  Morgan couldn't afford to make the same mistake. She'd given her Date Maker idea plenty of thought and knew it would work. She just needed a way to get people's attention. The pink paper was cheery and shouted romance. She hoped it would catch the eye of her fellow college students.

  As she approached her dorm room at Florida Southern College, she couldn't help but appreciate the beauty of the central Florida campus. From the unique architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to the beautiful rose gardens, this was the most beautiful place in Lakeland. At least it was to Morgan.

  The hall that she had called home for the past three years was much older than the dorms overlooking the nearby lake, but the old brick building that housed a substantial portion of the female population was charming. You had to walk along tree-lined sidewalks to get to it, giving it a hidden, off the beaten path feel.

  She was just approaching the dorms when she bumped into her best friend and roommate, Lacey—literally. Morgan managed to hold on to most of the stack she carried, but a few stray papers fell to the ground. Lacey picked one up and began to read it aloud.

  Morgan held her breath, but her heart sank when Lacey's voice lacked the enthusiasm Morgan had hoped to convey in the advertisement.

  Lacey remained silent for a full minute once she’d stopped reading. About to explode from nerves, Morgan finally asked, “So, what do you think?”

  “What is this?” Lacey's voice carried a hint of exasperation.

  Morgan's shoulders slumped at her friend's reaction, but she put on a bright smile and continued. “It's a dating flyer. I went down to the copy place and had them print up a hundred copies. I thought I'd put them up around campus.” Morgan paused and bit her nail. “Unless you think that's too old school. Maybe I should put something on Instagram?” Her brows furrowed as she started mentally accumulating a list of hashtags that people would search.

  #LakelandLove

  #LoveinLakeland

  #Looking4LoveinLakeland

  Yeesh, Morgan thought. The last one seemed too much like a creeper looking to lure someone to his unmarked van filled with candy. The Date Maker was intended for a specialized clientele: college students looking for lasting relationships.

  “No, Morgan.” Lacey interrupted her train of thought and handed the bright sheet of paper back to her. “Why are you doing this?”

  Morgan took the paper and let out a short laugh. “Well, private college ain't cheap, and people are always telling me how good I am at putting people together. I thought, why not? I can make a little money doing something I enjoy.”

  “But you already have a job.” Lacey rolled her eyes.

  “Yeah.” Morgan snorted, thinking about the clunker she drove. "But my car is way past due for an oil change, and the tread on the tires is non-existent. If I don't find a way to get some extra cash soon, I'm afraid I might end up stranded on the side of the road, or without a way to get to work."

  “If that happened, I would give you a ride.”

  Morgan arched her brows. “Oh, yeah? At six a.m.? Saturday morning?”

  "Then I'd just give you my keys." Lacey shrugged.

  “And I love you for that, but you wouldn't want to be without a car.” Morgan smiled. “Besides, I’m good at setting people up.”

  Morgan was known as the Date Maker in high school. Everyone wanted her opinion on who to ask to Homecoming or Prom. Even in her first two years at college, she'd been known to set up a classmate or two. She loved seeing the moment when two people clicked.

  She tucked a strand of long blond hair behind her ear and sighed before looking up at Lacey. “I know you don't get it. But I need you to be happy for me. Please.”

  Lacey shook her head and shifted her weight as they stood outside the dorms. “It's not that I'm not happy. I'm just concerned. You have a full class load and a part-time job. When exactly are you going to find time to do this and not let anything slip?”

  Morgan reached into her giant tote bag, a graduation gift from her mom for being named valedictorian at the end of her senior year of high school. Leather and monogrammed with her initials, it had been her faithful companion ever since. When she pulled her hand out of the bag, she held a planner.

  “I’ll just have to be more organized,” she said with a nod that hopefully looked more confident than she felt. “I have classes in the mornings on Monday through Thursday, work in the mornings on Friday through Sunday. That gives me my evenings free. If I take one client per evening, that should still leave me a couple of hours every night to get my assignments done.”

  She opened the planner and held it out to Lacey. Written in cursive was the week's schedule. She'd already booked three new clients.

  Well… booked wasn't exactly the right word, and neither was client. Morgan had begged three girls in her Psychology lecture hall to be her guinea pigs. She'd agreed not to charge them as she built up her list of potential dates.

  “What about your social life?” Lacey crossed her arms over her chest. They were experiencing another late February cool front, but Morgan thought it had more to do with Lacey's mood than the weather. “You promised you were going to be better this semester.”

  Morgan had anticipated this complaint from her friend, and already had her response ready to go. “I can do that too. We have three weeks until spring break. I figured I could spend that time gathering clients, conducting screenings, etc. Then I can give a hard push during break since you're going to visit your parents anyway. By the time you get back, I should be past the initial growing pains.”

  Lacey lifted one of her perfectly groomed brows. It was enough to intimidate even the most confident adversary, but Morgan had watched Lacey practice the move one too many times in the mirror to be affected.

  Morgan continued. “That means I can start the Date Maker service and still be a good friend.”

  “You really think it'll only take four weeks to get a business up and running?”

  “Um…” Morgan felt her
bravado slipping. “It's not like it's a full-fledged business. It's just me setting people up in exchange for gas money.”

  If it grew and became something more than that, it would be an added bonus.

  After scrutinizing Morgan for what felt like an eternity, Lacey eventually nodded. “Fine. I'll give you until the end of spring break, but I expect to have my best friend ready to par-tay when I get back. I'm talking late nights downtown. Maybe line-dancing on the North side.” She pointed a stern finger at Morgan. “Partying doesn't mean bringing pizza back to the room and binge-watching TV shows from the nineties.”

  Morgan resisted the urge to argue. She didn't think there was anything wrong with a pepperoni pizza and DVDs of Friends on a Friday night. But instead, she straightened up and said, “I get it. Four weeks.”

  Lacey looked down at the flyers and back to Morgan. She leaned in and said very seriously, “Four weeks.” After staring intently into Morgan's eyes for enough seconds to make her squirm, Lacey straightened and ran her hands down the front of her shirt.

  “I’m heading down to the cafeteria,” she said. “Want to come get lunch with me?”

  “Can't. Gotta get started,” Morgan answered, looking back down at the stack of papers in her hand. She had four weeks to get this business underway. “I’ll see you later.”

  Lacey lifted her fingers into a delicate wave before walking off, but Morgan didn't bother watching her. She used her free hand to swipe her card that granted her access to the dorms.

  Morgan hurried up to her room. As of right now, she had three female clients. Without a broader list of potential dates, Morgan was going to have to get creative with how she set people up. She wanted to make sure her percentage of satisfied customers would be 100 before launching wide.

  She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through the feeds on her many social media apps, but with so many privacy options, she wasn't able to lurk in a way that was productive. She started searching tagged locations around campus, and while it was slightly more useful, she kept hitting dead ends.

  If Morgan wanted to find people to recruit for her dating service, she was going to have to bring people to her. She started searching Instagram usernames, disappointed when the ones she wanted were taken by people who weren't even using the accounts to their full potential. The name she really wanted? Taken, with one generic post about finding true love. Screw that guy.

  So she added a couple underscores to the name until she found an available account.

  “There,” she said to herself, nodding her head in satisfaction.

  But soon she found herself stuck again. She had the skill, she had the account, but how would she draw them in?

  Chapter Two

  A week later, clients started trickling in. Morgan wasn't sure if it had more to do with the promise of a $100 gift card to the local coffee shop, or a real desire to find true love.

  But after trying to build a following organically and getting nowhere, Lacey had suggested throwing a massive giveaway for people who signed up for the service.

  “Do a week where you give everyone fifty percent off the cost you would normally charge, and have a drawing for everyone who signs up,” she had suggested to Morgan, initially causing her to panic.

  Just the thought of giving that much away had started a fit of heart palpitations, but the response had been overwhelming. Either people loved their coffee, or they were desperate to find their soul mate. Morgan only hoped it could be both.

  She stuck to the schedule she'd given Lacey. School and work in the mornings, then playing the role of Date Maker in the evenings. She'd even conducted six in-person interviews in the last three days.

  After acing her Humanities quiz that morning, and eating a quick dinner in the cafeteria, she was ready to head back to the dorm and get started on some of her “other” homework. Part of the Date Maker agreement was access to all social media accounts. The success of each pairing relied on how well she knew each client.

  In the past, it had been easy. Morgan set up her friends with other friends. Now, she was dealing with people she barely knew. Scrolling through their random thoughts on Twitter, pictures on Instagram and Snapchat, even their interactions with people on Facebook gave her a well-rounded view of each person she wanted to match.

  Lacey was out at an off-campus party with a bunch of frat boys, which meant Morgan had the dorm room entirely to herself. She made herself comfortable by putting on an oversized tee and shorts. Then she put her hair up into a messy bun on the top of her head.

  Out came her uncomfortable contacts, replaced by her thick-rimmed glasses. She was officially in for the night. Morgan spent hours scrolling through feeds, every once in a while pausing to scribble a note about what types of flowers a girl preferred, or what sports team a guy rooted for.

  They seemed like insignificant details, but putting a Gator and a Seminole fan together could be disastrous. Morgan needed to account for every aspect. And the details were becoming more difficult than she had first anticipated.

  When her eyes started hurting from staring at her screen, she put her laptop aside and began brainstorming the perfect dates. The beach, the theme parks, even low-key putt-putt golf made the list of potential dates. She didn't know where she was putting everyone yet, but she didn't want to waste a single moment.

  Morgan continued to brainstorm and at one point put the pad of paper down and set her head against the wall. She closed her eyes imagining all the happy couples she would put together and all the things she would do with the extra money when her business took off.

  She didn't mean to fall asleep with the lights on. She hadn't even realized she had until Lacey was stumbling into their room. The smell of beer and cigarette smoke assaulted Morgan's nostrils from across the room.

  “Oh, good, you're still awake,” Lacey said more loudly than necessary. “I wassint sure if you'd be asssleep.”

  Morgan sat up in bed. Her glasses had fallen askew on her nose thanks to her accidental nap. She straightened them while running her hand across her cheek. She tended to drool in her sleep and wanted to wipe away the evidence.

  “You've been drinking.” It wasn’t a question.

  Lacey kicked off her shoes. “Not that much.”

  “Did you drive?”

  Lacey put her hand on her hip and rolled her eyes. “No, Mother, I did not drive myssself. Todd drove me.”

  “The guy with the acne?” Not that a bad complexion was the only thing Morgan had against the guy. She'd seen him post one too many offensive things online and couldn't understand why Lacey was into him.

  Her friend pinched the bridge of her nose. “I knew you would act like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “That.” Lacey waved her arm in Morgan's direction. “All ‘I know everything about dating, even though I've never had a boyfriend. No one can find love without my help. Blah, blah, blah.’” She'd deepened her voice in a mock-impression of Morgan that sounded more like a wheezy grandmother than a college junior. She hated to admit how accurate it was.

  “You're drunk,” Morgan said, turning her body in her bed, poised to get up and take care of Lacey. Despite the mean thoughts swirling around in her head, they were still best friends.

  Morgan knew Lacey was lonely. She wanted so badly to find that special someone but didn't trust Morgan's methods. Lacey thought if she went out enough times, talked to enough guys, she would eventually discover the right guy. And maybe she would, but Morgan wished she would accept her help.

  She'd been secretly putting together a profile of her best friend. She didn't need unrestricted access to her social media accounts to know what made her tick. She just needed more time and a bigger client list.

  Seeing Lacey stumble as she tried to get dressed in her pajamas, only served to increase Morgan’s motivation. She hated seeing such a funny and awesome girl lose herself like this.

  “Here,” Morgan said, getting up and grabbing the shirt that had gotten s
tuck over Lacey's head and shoulders. “Let me help.”

  Her friend allowed the assistance and plopped into her bed as soon as she was dressed, not bothering to wash her face or brush her teeth.

  When Morgan turned off the light, the room was flooded with darkness, and thankfully silence. No one roamed the halls of their dorm, and the only sound that entered their room was the soft wail of a siren in the distance.

  She expected snoring any second from Lacey's bed but was surprised when she heard her voice instead.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Morgan didn't respond, so Lacey continued. “Todd is a jerk.”

  “I know.” Morgan's voice was so soft, she worried Lacey might not hear her. She cleared her throat to try again, but Lacey spoke first.

  “I don't think your dating service is horrible, you know. I'm just scared there's no one out there who will be a good match for me.”

  Morgan wanted to argue, to tell her dearest friend that she was wrong, that there was someone out there for her. Unfortunately, she hadn't found the perfect match yet. Lacey was a frustrating jumble of contradictions: loud but sensitive, outrageously offensive but kind.

  Morgan didn't want to put her with another guy who only wanted one thing. She wanted Lacey to find true love. She deserved it.

  “I’m not good enough for any of the good ones.” Lacey’s mumbling interrupted Morgan's train of thought.

  She was wrong though. Sure, it would take a specific type of guy to love Lacey—not because she wasn't good enough, or undeserving of the devotion of another.

  No, it was because she was so unlike anyone she'd ever known before. Which was just another reason why Morgan made it her secret mission to hook Lacey up with one of the good guys.