The Three Date Minimum

Part 2

You could feel your blood pressure rise. "First of all, whatever your name is, I don't think you know me well enough to sit behind your bar counter and judge me!"

The corner of his mouth lifted a little in amusement. And no, he was most definitely not more attractive in that moment. Absolutely not.

"Name's James, but my friends call me Bucky." His head tilted a little and you saw that his eyes were a cool blue-grey color, with just a little obnoxious twinkle in them. "What's your name?"

"Y/N."

"Well, Y/N, do you try?" He had that stupid, infuriating little hint of a smile again. God, it was amazing that this place was still in business with an obnoxious guy like him at the bar.

"Yes, I try. I just sat through five three-minute dates, for fuck's sake. I just...I'm not meant for anything like that."

"You know when I said try, I didn't mean actively push people away." Both eyebrows raised as he assessed you again. "Because I think that's exactly what you're doing, even with me right now."

The door opened then, and a huge crowd of women donning matching pink shirts walked in giggling with a girl wearing a sash that said Bride. That was your cue to get the hell out of that bar.

You downed the rest of your drink quickly, offering him a small fake smile as you set the glass down. "Yes, well...I think I'm going to swipe left on this conversation. It's been...enlightening, James." You reached into your bag to pull out some money, but the bartender waved his hands.

"Call me Bucky. And it's on the house. You seem like you needed it." With a nod and wink, he turned away again to make the million shots a newly-arrived bachelorette party wanted.

As if you would ever accept something for free from someone with that attitude...

"Thanks anyway, James," you muttered. Without a glance back to him, you set the money on the bar and stood up, determined to either pull Natasha away or leave her there.

---

"One date down, two to go." You stretched your legs out under the table and leaned back. Wanda wanted to hear all about the event the night before, so the two of you went to a nearby café for a quick lunch.

Wanda eyed you over her coffee cup. "That only counted as one date?"

"Apparently," you muttered, picking at your scone. "Natasha's rules."

She leaned forward. "Got any ideas for the next two?"

"No, not unless you know someone?"

"There are lots of someones on dating apps, Y/N."

You groaned, putting your head in your hands. "Wan, not now."

"Come on," she chided, gently pulling your hands away from your face. "If you give some of the apps a try, I'll...I'll do your donation calls for a week."

That had you interested. Not only could you potentially be left alone for a month, but have less work to do. "Two weeks, one for each remaining date."

Wanda held out her hand and you shook it.

She had the nerve to look genuinely excited, that absolute witch. "First I think we'll try Tinder. My neighbor's husband's sister met the love of her life..."

You sighed as you tuned her out, trying to enjoy your last moments of Tinder-free life.

---

After lunch, Wanda came over and teamed up with Natasha to harass you until you agreed to download the dating apps.They helped set up your account, even forced you to take about fifty pictures before they were satisfied with your profile.

"Wait, what do I do?" You glared down at the offending app on your phone, trying to ignore the nervous feeling in your stomach.

Natasha flopped down on the couch next to you. "When you see a profile of someone you're interested in, you swipe right. If they swiped right on you too, it'll tell you that you've made a match."

"What's the blue star thing for?"

"A super like!" Wanda's eyes lit up. "I wonder if you will find any of those!"

Unlikely.

"So, in theory, I could like all these people and they could loathe me and I would never know?" That didn't sound so bad. It was like less hurtful window shopping.

"Sometimes you'll get the occasional douchebag and you'll have to put up with bad messages, but yes, that's generally how that works."

You played around on the app in silence for about five minutes, going through and swiping left on most of the profiles you read.

"What was wrong with that last one?" Wanda asked, frowning at you. "He seemed cute? He had a kayak and a puppy! You love puppies."

The last one she was talking about was also wearing a shirt that said Federal Boob Investigator, but leave it to the romantic to not notice that.

"Just wasn't feeling it."

Natasha scoffed. "Are you gonna swipe right on anyone?"

You gave her a look. "Maybe."

Before you could react, Nat grabbed your phone from your hand and started swiping right on almost everyone with a wicked gleam in her eye.

"Stop it! You'll make me look desperate," you screeched, trying to grab the phone back.

She let out a gasp, then turned the phone to you. "Y/N! Look at this guy. Look at him! His name is Wade and he is perfect!"

He was handsome enough, but his profile was pretty weird. "No, Natasha. He probably thinks he's hilarious and has deep-rooted abandonment issues or something."

"Exactly. You need someone different and exciting like that. We're getting you out of your comfort zone, remember?"

You watched in horror as she swiped right.

Then, that wicked gleam in her eye got even brighter as she showed the screen again.

"It's a match!"

"Natashaaaa...."

"Oh shit, he messaged you already!"

"He did?" You snatched the phone back, crawling over her to get away. You didn't want to admit it, but your stomach was in knots. "Oh my god, he did!"

"What's it say?" Wanda leaned over. "Read it!"

"He wants to see me tomorrow."

You read the message over and over. A handsome guy, who most definitely probably definitely had some issues but also seemed cute and funny, wanted to see you.

God, you hoped you didn't regret this.

When you glanced back up, they were both staring at you. Something about this whole situation seemed too good to be true. There was no way in hell that anything would last.

Logically, if you went into it thinking it was just a one-time date with a hot guy, there wouldn't be a problem, right?

"Well?"

"Are you gonna reply?"

And if there weren't feelings involved, you could stand to have a little fun.

You grinned at them. "Of course. I have two bets to win now, don't I?"