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Anyway, it did not matter what I thought of her. The important thing was that she enjoyed her time at the hotel.

This game was supposed to be a fun way to bring the couples together, but Edward was taking it too seriously and upsetting his match in the process which I did not like.

Especially because Samantha told me earlier that Edward ticked many of her boxes. This did not surprise me. The Love Hotel matchmaking team had an exceptional track record of bringing the right people together.

But nothing was perfect. And it did not matter how detailed and rigorous the selection process was, sometimes, there were things that no amount of questionnaires, research and analysis behind the scenes could uncover.

Sometimes, the only way to know whether a match worked and whether or not two people had chemistry was when they interacted together in person.

But I could be wrong.

Perhaps I had misjudged Edward.

This was only the first activity and maybe Edward’s competitive nature had affected his behaviour.

Tomorrow was the first external excursion.

The couples would spend the time together visiting thetrullihouses in Alberobello and usually visiting beautiful places like this helped our matches to bond.

If this fairytale town could not work its romantic magic on Samantha and Edward, I did not know what would…

9

SAMMIE

I flopped on the bed and blew out a frustrated breath.

The pool volleyball was a total bust.

Me and Edward just weren’t in sync.

We should’ve worked together as a team to get the ball over the net, but instead he tried to hit it all the time, so it was like I wasn’t even there. And then whenhemissed the shot that caused us to lose the game, he blamedme.

We were supposed to stay until the end to see the winners crowned, but Edward stormed off early because he said he had to make an ‘important call’.

Talk about a bad loser.

I still had no idea how Edward felt about me and to be honest, right now he wasn’t at the top of my Christmas card list.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t thinking about throwing in the towel. Like I’d said to Romeo, Edward had a lot of the qualities I’d asked for. But some of the things he did cheesed me off.

My mind was more tangled than a bunch of computer cables. I needed a second opinion.

After picking up my phone, I dialled Stella’s number. Luckily, she answered on the third ring.

‘Hey!’ she chirped. ‘I’ve been waiting to hear from you! How’s it going? How’s your match?’

‘He’s…’ I paused as I tried to search for the right words, ‘fine.’

‘Fineas in,girl, he is fine,’ Stella put on a terrible American accent, ‘orfineas in,yeah, whatever?’

‘As crappy as it sounds to say it out loud, it’s more like he’sfineas in,meh.’

‘Thanks for that extremely detailed explanation.’

‘I know thatmehisn’t the most descriptive word in the dictionary, but it’s how I feel. I’m kind of indifferent. It’s strange because he’s decent-looking, has a good job, lives in London, wants to settle down and he likes swimming.’

‘That all sounds great! So what’s the problem?’