Make Me a Match (Noble Matchmaking Series #2)

Part 1

When Julia Cruz first started at Noble Matchmaking, she was told to do two things: answer the agency's incoming calls and stay out of everyone's way. While it certainly wasn't her dream to be a receptionist, she had been happy to wiggle her way into a company once described by the Chronicle as "one of the most interesting ventures in Houston." She had to start somewhere to prove herself--behind a phone was as good a place as any.

She had quickly discovered, however, that it isn't easy to prove yourself when your entire job is answering the telephone in a perky voice. Getting her foot in the door was one thing, but getting promoted was proving to be harder than she had thought it would be, and other than arriving at the office at an ungodly early hour, she wasn't sure what else she could do.

She headed down the hall to see if her friend Savannah Durand was in. "Hey, chica, I'm making a coffee run, you want anything?" Julia asked, sticking her head in Savannah's office.

"Way ahead of you," Savannah said, gesturing to the venti-size Starbucks cup at her elbow. "I was up late."

Savannah was one of those effortlessly beautiful women, with flawless pale skin and large green eyes she occasionally remembered to emphasize with eyeliner. Her eggplant-hued Hugo Boss suit flattered both her copper waves and her body's slim lines. Julia raised one hand to smooth her own messy top knot, absently aware that she had applied her own ombre color following a Youtube tutorial. "Big date?" she asked.

Savannah grimaced. "He told me," she said in precise tones, "in great detail about his taxidermy collection."

Julia tried to conceal her laugh. "Sounds like it'll make a good story for your blog." For the last year, Savannah had written an anonymous blog, Dating is Hell, where her entertaining descriptions of her dating misadventurers punctuated by animated gifs were gaining a modest amount of online notoriety.

"Screw the blog," Savannah grumbled as she turned back to her monitor. "At this point I just want to go out with a normal, boring guy."

Despite her grousing, Julia knew Savannah thrived on the attention her blog received--and it hadn't done her career any harm either. When Veronica Noble, the owner of the agency, had learned of Dating is Hell, she had warned Savannah that she would be fired if her identity were ever linked with the blog--but she had also asked the matchmaker to begin managing the agency's online presence.

Of course, it was Julia who actually had a degree in Marketing, and she wasn't sure their target audience was interested in the cutesy images and chatty articles Savannah posted to the agency's Facebook page. But rather than say anything and annoy Savannah, she bit her tongue, answered the phone, and stayed out of everyone's way.

Julia quietly passed the only other open door in the hall, where she was sure another matchmaker, Riley Brennan, was already hard at work despite the early hour. Though Riley had only recently joined the agency, she was quickly rising to the top of Veronica's list of favorite people, having recently closed the case on the agency's biggest client, tech mogul Trevor McKnight.

However much Veronica liked her, however, Riley Brennan hadn't ever struck Julia as especially likable--professional, yes, but more polished than approachable. As she quietly passed Riley's cracked-open door, she realized the up-and-comer was on the phone when she asked, "I don't know, what do you think I'm wearing?"

The question, and the low teasing tone in which it was asked, made Julia freeze in the hallway, shock rooting her feet to the berber carpet. Even more stunning than the office-inappropriate question was its follow up: a very office-inappropriate giggle. Perfect, proper Riley Brennan giggled at work.

Riley finished the feminine laugh with a breathy, "Oh, you're so bad," and Julia figured she had heard enough—more than enough, really. To remind the matchmaker that others might overhear her, Julia stuck her head through the open door and mouthed, "Coffee?"