Crush

Chapter 1 - Men and Floors

"It's a numbers game. I figure that with all of these frogs at least one of them had to be a prince."

Agatha tried not to roll her eyes. "B, did you even like all of those guys?"

"Well not exactly, but maybe they'll pike my interest when we go on our dates."

Agatha laughed quietly at that. "I don't think that's how it works, B."

"Well what about you? How many did you check," Bethany snatched Agatha's folded checklist from her hand before she had the chance to react, causing her napkin and cookies to fall to the floor.

"Damn it, B. I was eating those."

Bethany ignored her unfolding the list to look it over. "Two people, Aggie? Out of fifteen men you only chose to check two of them?"

"It's not like there was a minimum, Bethany." She shook her head at her friend as she bent to pick up her now broken and dirty cookies. "Dammit, you got one under the table." Dropping to a squat Agatha tried to maneuver under the table to get all of the cookie pieces. She was trying her hardest to not actually touch the floor in her white pants which made the task a little more difficult.

Taking advantage of her friend's preoccupation, Bethany quickly pulled out a pen and checked of a few more guys on Agatha's list. She only chose the ones that she felt were a little too boring for her speed, and one that she had checked herself but wasn't quite sure about. This way they would only have two matching dates, one of which Agatha had already selected. If they both ended up liking the same guy she would just let Aggie have him; she wanted her friend to live a little more and stop spending so much time alone. Besides she had plenty of other men to choose from.

Agatha gathered up the mess in the napkin and returned to her full height. While she went to deposit the trash in the nearby trashcan, brushing the crumbs from her fingers, Bethany folded the checklist and pasted a smile on her face. When her friend returned to her side she handed her the list back as if nothing happened.

"Come on let's go turn these in before the next session starts."

The women took the checklist to one of the moderators of the event and were given told which of their selections wanted dates with them. Bethany's list rounded out at ten while two of Agatha's choices had declined, leaving her with three dates. They were told that someone from the Cupid Society would contact them with the details of their dates. Agatha noticed the addition to her list, but, she chose not to say anything— except for the glare she threw her way when she got her results back. She knew her meant well and the guys she had chosen weren't that bad. Bethany chatted to her about her picks for the last few minutes before the hostess rang a bell and started giving out the instructions.

♥♥♥♥♥

This group is turning out to be better than the first. Agatha and Bethany were nearing the end of the second set of speed daters and already Agatha had four guys that she wouldn't mind going on a date with. And she was actually having fun.

While she had been reluctant to come out at first, she had to admit that it was nice to have some human interaction. Even better was the fact that the algorithm the Cupid Society had created seemed to be working well because she had a least a couple of the same interests with most of the participants. She kept an easy conversation going trying to not make it too formal. She had just finished listening to her current date tell a story about his roommate super gluing all of his school supplies to his desk when she heard the bell ring indicating that it was time for the men to switch seats and start the next date. They exchanged salutations as he moved on to Bethany on her left.

Agatha had to reign in her laughter as her next date took his seat in front of her. She made quick work of giving the last guy a checkmark as her date settled himself, she would definitely like to see him again; humor was good. She moved to take a sip of her juice as the cappuccino colored man sitting across from her introduced himself.

"Hey there, I'm Trevor."

Agatha quickly looked up and into a face that was even more familiar than the voice that came out of it. Her sudden movement caused her punch to slosh out of her cup and into face. She coughed and sputtered as the liquid went up her nose.

"Oh shit, are you okay?"

The man who had introduced himself as Trevor hurriedly reached over the table to hand her the napkins that were resting on her side of the table. Agatha accepted his help just as the bubbles from her drink started to tickle her nose causing her to sneeze. The sneeze forced her hand to brush against Trevor's causing a shock of— electricity? energy? magnetism? – Something to shoot up her arm. The exchange was so startling it made Agatha snatch her hand back too forcefully. Before she could stop herself her chair was toppling backwards and she was rushing towards the floor with a yelp.

There was a small murmur of excitement that shifted the atmosphere in the room, much to Agatha's dismay, as most of them had obviously seen her very dramatic performance. Her theater teacher would be proud.