Page 78 of The Player Next Door

Toni sighed. “You can delete the Facebook app yourself, you don’t need me to do it for you.”

“Not with that,” Clare said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve decided I need a new project.”

Annie took her phone and widened her eyes. “You’re on a dating app again?”

“It’s time for me to move on.”

“It is?” Devi asked.

“It is, because I want to,” Clare said firmly. “But I want someone normal this time.”

“Normal?” Annie echoed.

“You know, nerdy. Like us. Someone who would fit in.”

“Logan fit in just—” Toni started, but Devi threw her a dark look and she broke off awkwardly.

“I know he got along with us, but he just . . . he didn’t fit, you know?” Clare said. The rest of the table exchanged looks and she sighed. “Are you guys going to help me or not?”

“This is really sudden,” Devi said cautiously. “Like, really sudden.”

Clare knew they’d react this way, but she also knew the only way she could move on from Logan was to force herself to move on.

Or maybe she just knew that she’d neverreallymove on from him, so she might as well figure out how to start faking it now.

“I’ll help,” Annie said warily, looking back down at Clare’s phone. Sitting next to Annie, Clare could just make out what was on the screen. “What do you want me to do?”

“Help me find someone for a date. I’m bad at picking, obviously, so one of you should do it for me.”

Annie kept her eyes on Clare’s phone, frowning. “Wait, you want a date? These sorts of apps are way more about hookups than dating, you know. Are you looking for someone to date, or just someone to get Logan out of your system?”

“Hookup, date, whatever. I just want to find someone who will take me out for coffee and talk aboutStar Trekor something before making out with me.”

“Star Trek?” Devi interjected. “Do you even likeStar Trek?”

“Oh my god, are you on my side or not?”

“We are, we just want to make sure you’re making the right decision,” Devi said.

“It’s my life and my decision, okay?”

“Technically, you’re making it Annie’s decision,” Chase piped up from the other end of the table.

“Quiet, you,” Clare snapped.

Chase shrugged and Annie paused with her finger above the screen. “Should I just swipe on the good candidates? What even constitutes a good candidate for you?”

“Nerdy but not incel.”

“Good to see you’re setting that bar real high there,” Toni said drily, taking a handful of tortilla chips from the basket and sliding it down toward Chase.

“I prefer to think of it as casting a wide net.”

“Okay then,” Annie mumbled. She started swiping through the app, pausing occasionally to check someone’s profile. “How many do you want me to—” Annie stopped and jerked the phone toward her in an incredibly unsubtle attempt to stop Clare from seeing the screen. “Sorry, uh, a guy had a picture of, um, himself with a dead deer and I wasn’t expecting it.”

Clare knew immediately. “It’s Logan, isn’t it? He’s dating again?”

Annie looked at Devi desperately, and then nodded. “Yeah.”