Free Cupid's Mistake by Chantilly White Page B

considered Allison. "What feeling?"
    " The Feeling.
You know. The thing."
    "The family thing?"
    "Yeah."
    Mia frowned again, running one delicate fingertip around the
rim of her teacup, but instead of scoffing, she said, "Well, then. It
sounds to me like Cupid's Cavalry might have made a love match."
    Allison stared at her, nonplussed. What had happened to her
pragmatic friend? "It wasn't Cupid, it was Dee, and it's not a match, it's
a gigantic mistake. We're too different."
    "So what?"
    "I just don't see how it can work. I don't even know if
he has a job. He took off for six years ,
Mia, he might take off again at any time. He's all wrong for me."
    "The boy toys are all wrong for you. If he's that
different from them, maybe he's not so wrong after all."
    Trying to follow Mia's logic made the pounding in her head
worse. Negating her friend's opinion with the swipe of a hand, Allison said,
"Anyway, none of it matters, because I'm not ready for all that."
    "What about your Kelly Intuition?"
    "I thought you never believed in that stuff."
    "I thought you never did," Mia countered. "Besides, I've, um, had a change of
heart."
    "Since Derrick, you mean."
    Mia shrugged, her smile blooming. "You won't know until
you give it a chance. It's obvious you're interested. Go get him, Alli."
     
     

CHAPTER
SIX
     
    Go get him. Right.
    The next few days flew by with all the speed and excitement
of a snail racing competition.
    Waiting by the phone, something Allison couldn't remember
ever doing in her life, sucked. She refused to call him on principle—Ben
had said he'd call, so he'd better call. But that didn't mean she had to sit
patiently by, waiting for the ring tone she'd assigned him to go off.
    So she wouldn't. Anyway, cell phones being portable took a
huge chunk of the Miss-Lonely-Hearts drama out of the whole ritual.
    "You're being ridiculous, Alli," Mia said when she
called Saturday morning. "It hasn't even been twenty-four hours."
    "That's not the point."
    Allison tapped her fingers impatiently on her kitchen table,
wishing she hadn't brought Ben into the conversation in the first place. She
needed to get ready for the events she had scheduled later in the day. There
was no time to brood.
    Still, Ben's silence irked.
    If he thought she was sitting around pining for him, though,
he was sadly mistaken. She had plenty of work lined up to keep her busy, and
she vowed to say yes to every invitation she received to make up for the last
two weeks of no dating. Maybe she did check her phone's battery and reception
more often than usual, but that was no one's business but hers. Never mind that
no one else seemed to have any trouble tracking her down.
    She spent the rest of her Saturday working two different bar
mitzvahs, one a luncheon and one an elaborate sit-down dinner and late night
party. She followed the party by accepting an invitation for drinks at her
favorite sport's bar with studly boy-toy, Brad Cooper. Afterward, he looked
confused when she kissed him on the cheek at her front door, but Allison didn't
ask him inside. She told herself she was tired from her earlier events.
    Fatigue didn't help her sleep, however. She spent a long
night tossing and turning, her body tingling with needs her vibrator couldn't
soothe.
    And the snails raced on.
    Early Sunday morning, she blew off a stack of paperwork in
favor of a trip to the local farmer's market with the very yummy Wendell
Johnson. If his company seemed less stimulating than usual, at least she scored
plenty of fresh produce.
    A sixty-fifth wedding anniversary was scheduled to take up
most of the day, giving her a handy excuse for leaving Wendell at the curb
after their brunch, much to his disappointment.
    Circling the crowd later that afternoon, Allison smiled with
satisfaction. The party had gone off without a hitch, and her bitchy baker had
behaved like a professional business woman instead of a fishwife. For once. The
anniversary cake had been a piece of art, and delicious