Page 12 of The Singles Club

I pulled my car up to the building’s valet.

“Good morning, Mr. Cooper.”

“Morning, Sergio. How’s your mother feeling?”

He grinned. “Much better. Thanks again for asking your doctor friend to get her in to meet with Dr. Kim. He had a three-month waiting list, and she was in a lot of pain.”

“Glad I could help.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Would you mind waiting a moment?”

“Not at all.”

He came back with a loaf of bread wrapped in plastic. “My mother made this for you. It’s Portuguese sweet bread—an old family recipe.”

I took the loaf. “She really didn’t need to do that, but please thank her for me.”

“Will do, Mr. Cooper. Enjoy your day.”

“You too.” I waved to Sergio before heading to the garage elevators.

The moment I stepped on, my mind was on Vivian again and I smiled. I had to admit she had handled herself well with Isabella’s bet. She was very attractive—auburn hair and big brown eyes that were quite expressive. She seemed like the kind of woman who could light up a room and knew exactly what to say. And she’d been right about my suit and Rajesh.

Maybe I should call just to thank her, since the night went well.

The doors slid open to my floor, and I waved to Courtney after her usual greeting.

Yes, I’ll call and thank her… but then again, she could take it the wrong way and assume I’m interested… which I’m not.

After dodging Lisa and another one-sided conversation with Giselle, I headed straight to my office door, where Isabella sat at her desk. She avoided looking my way and pretended to be busy on her computer.

“When you have a moment, I’d like to see you in my office.”

She closed her eyes briefly. “I’ll let you settle in first.”

As soon as I sat down with coffee in hand, Isabella lightly knocked on my door.

“Come in.”

She warily stepped into my office, fumbling with the phone in her hands. “Are you ready to go over your daily to-dos?”

I leaned back in the chair. “Close the door, please.”

I almost burst out laughing when she moved as slow as molasses to avoid what she knew was eventually coming. As she turned to face me, she held up her hands in defense. “Before you say anything, just hear me out.”

I put my hand over my mouth to keep from smiling.

“I’m sorry I used you as part of a bet, but ever since Vivian’s breakup, she went sort of AWOL and came up with this insane theory about love and attraction and how it doesn’t exist and it’s all psychological.”

I set down my hand and listened more closely. “What doesn’t exist? Love or attraction?”

She let out a frustrated sigh and threw up her hands. “Vivian doesn’t believe love exists, that it’s all biological…andshe seems to think she has the whole attraction and dating game figured out. To be honest, though, she has been on a roll with solving all these love-life problems for people.” Isabella hesitated, chewing her bottom lip. “Since you’re not interested in pretty much anyone, I thought that maybe if you turned her down, she would finally rethink her whole theory and realize that maybe it’s full of crap.”

“Or perhaps you were interested in winning a bet?”

Isabella shook her head and plopped down in the chair in front of my desk. “Vivian is competitive. All you need to do is challenge her or tell her she can’t do something, and she’ll go out of her way to prove you wrong. The truth is, we care about her, and that’s why my friend Crystal and I came up with the bet idea… using you as the target.” Isabella gave me the sorry puppy eyes. “Forgive me?”

“Well, it looks like your plan backfired.”