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I shake my head. He's here to find his perfect someone, the one who can look good on his arm when he's out and about for events. Someone who'll look perfect while pregnant and juggling their 2.5 kids. I’m jealous and it hasn’t even happened yet.

It doesn't take long for the technicians to give us the mic packs and get busy with one of the boats on the water. There is a line the size of Texas waiting their turn for these boats and we're commandeering one for at least the next hour.

Someone comes up and starts brushing me with makeup and I wriggle away, not needing my skin to break out with unknown products. Sure, I sound like a snob at this point but I've done a lot of work to get rid of the acne that plagued my teen years. I'd hate to have that problem spiral out of control and not be able to do the next several dates.

“I’m good, thank you. I promise I applied my own makeup before coming here.” I take a step back and grumble.

“You look really good,” Trey says. His eyes widen and he says, “Not that you don’t normally look good, because you do. I, uh, I’m just going to shut my mouth now.”

Even for all the information I’ve known about Trey, it’s still nice to see that he has his quirks too. Seeing him all flustered makes my heart pitter-patter even more.

Because as much torture as this is, I'd rather be here, seeing his interactions with the women he's matched with than waiting and trying to get details from him later without seeming overly interested. All because we’refriends.Ugh, I hate that word in this context.

"Okay, here's how the scene will play out. You'll both meet your date over there by the big tree and then we'll have you wait in the front of the line for a minute or two. You can chat and get to know one another before getting on the boat. We'll have people all over the route getting different shots of the four of you. After the ride is over, you'll get in two cars we have prepped to head to dinner.”

"Sounds good," Trey says. I can only nod. The woman walks away, yelling at several other people with camera equipment.

Trey turns to me and says, "How are you doing? Are you okay?"

"I'll survive."

Meg walks up from behind Trey and says, "Okay, team. Sorry I was late. Parker had a client stay longer and a baby isn't the best idea to bring around cameras. Did they fill you in on everything?”

“Just that we’ll see our dates in a few minutes,” Trey said.

“How did they pick which date we go on first?” I ask, suddenly curious. “Did they just pull the names out of a hat?”

“We’re starting from the bottom going up, so we matched you with a few of your lesser candidates first," Meg says coming from my side.

"Lesser candidates?" Trey and I say at the same time.

"That's the wrong word for it. They’re like an 85% match."

That makes me feel a bit better. I'm struggling with the idea that I'm going to match with a guy who likes two things that are foreign to me. I may not know how to cook, but I do know how to eat. Maybe this will be a good thing.

I turn, trying to take deep breaths. I'm doing this to challenge my fears about dating. And to help Trey, who is looking as cool as a cucumber, despite his rambling a minute or two ago.

Dating this way is not going to give me nightmares. I try to convince myself it’s true, but my heart knows I’m lying.

Trey must have seen the freaking out going on in my head because he moves a step closer, leaning over to whisper. "Breathe. If you need to back out, you can."

He lightly touches my back and I inhale, trying to get anything in my brain to clear. Thirteen-year-old me would be over the moon right now.

Until I remember we're on a date with different people.

"I think we're ready," one of the crew says.

I groan inwardly. Here goes nothing.

24

TREY

I'm regretting the decision to rope Kenzie into this. Her knuckles are white, and I'm worried she's either going into a comatose state or will run away screaming that she never signed up for something like this. Which she totally did but I convinced her.

The crew positions us next to a large tree and a minute later, two people start walking in our direction. I elbow Kenzie.

"I think they are our dates."