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“I had a great night,” the woman told her at the end of their dinner when they walked out to their cars in the parking lot.

“Yeah, me too,” she said more out of habit than anything else.

“So… I’m only about fifteen minutes from here, if you want to come over for a drink.”

And here it was. Sophie really should have expected it: the woman had been giving her signals all night. But it was something she still wasn’t used to. These seven dates were the most she’d had in a single calendar year in her entire adult life, and now, she knew why. Sophie hated dating. She didn’t want to go on a blind date or have someone set her up. She wanted to meet a woman on her own and have that connection with her that told them both that they needed to meet up again before it would go from there.

“Oh. I’m pretty tired, and we had coffee with dessert, so I think I’ll just head home.”

“Are you playing hard to get, trying to be noble because you know what I’m really asking for, or blowing me off?” the woman asked. “Just so I know.”

Well, Sophie had to admire the moxie.

“I don’t know,” she said, clearly lacking the same moxie. “You’re great. I just–”

“Blowing me off.” The woman nodded. “Got it.”

“I’m sorry. I’m just in a weird place at the moment.”

“But you went out with me anyway?”

“I thought I was okay, and that’s my fault. I’m sorry. You reallyaregreat.”

At least, Sophie assumed that she was. She hadn’t been paying much attention at dinner and hadn’t caught many details about her date’s hopes, dreams, aspirations, or, really, anything beyond her first name.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated.

“It’s fine. I only went on this date because I wanted Monica to donate to a charity I’m on the board of.”

“Monica asked you todateme before she’d donate–”

“Oh, no.” The woman chuckled. “Not like that. She just brought up her friend, who was single, and I thought that if I mentioned thatIwas single, too, she’d set us up, and I’d be more likely to get a nice donation.” She shrugged. “No harm. I’m kind of doing this on-again, off-again thing with a friend of mine, anyway, and it’s been off for a minute now. I think I’ll call her and get it back on again.”

Then, without saying goodnight, her date climbed into her car, and Sophie watched her use the touch screen in her vehicle to call someone. This woman was arranging herself a new date with someone else for later that night while her current one was still standing right there. Sophie had dodged a bullet with this one and would definitely let Monica hear it.

???

“She did what?!” Monica asked when Sophie called her after arriving home.

“I think she made a booty call,” she replied, flopping onto her sofa in her sweats.

“I can’t believe her… And she thought that if she went out with you, I’d donate more?”

“Basically, what she said.”

“Soph, no. I’d never do that. I–”

“I know,” Sophie replied. “I know you well enough to know that.”

“Part of me wants to take back my donation, but it’s not like it goes toher– it goes to people in need, so that would only make things harder on them.” Monica sounded like she was talking to someone on her end of the phone. Then, she laughed and added, “Bridge said I should give a bigger donation to another member of the board to spite her.”

Sophie laughed and replied, “I’ll leave that up to you, but I think I’m going to be done dating for a while. No more setups, please.”

“Iamsorry, Soph.”

“I know.”

“There haven’t been all that many dates, though,” Monica added.