A Match for the Marine: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (First Comes Love Book 1)

by Jess Mastorakos

  23

  Dex

  “Pretty fitting that you’d schedule my last date on this boat again,” I said as we stood on the deck of the dinner cruise yacht and watched my twelfth date head toward the parking lot. “Did you do that on purpose?”

  She smiled up at me, but I couldn’t help noticing that her smile seemed sad around the edges. “Yeah, I thought it would be fitting for this all to end the same way it began.”

  “Trapped on a boat?”

  “Trapped on a boat.”

  “But when you say this is ending, you’re talking about me being your client, right?”

  Amy sighed, and stepped closer to me, pulling my arms around her back. “Yeah, you know, you being my client … anyone being my client.”

  I pulled back to look at her. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. Let’s just enjoy tonight. I don’t have any other dates on this dinner cruise to stalk, and I want to sail away into the sunset with you and not think about anything else.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  I pulled her close again, cupping the sides of her face with my hands. Even though we’d kissed countless times since that night on this very boat deck, I still felt so amazed every single time. Amazed that she was real. Amazed that she was mine. Amazed that she’d unintentionally showed up to game night in Zelda cosplay, firmly rooting herself in my heart forever.

  Was this what love felt like? I thought I’d loved Harumi. I’d been ready to spend forever with her. But kissing her had never come close to the feeling of having Amy’s soft lips move over mine. She was everything I had no idea I was missing in my life. Part of me wanted to pull back and tell her I loved her, but then she let out the most knee-weakening sigh against my lips and I pushed away that thought. It could totally wait. We were trapped on a boat, after all.

  “Amy?” a woman said from behind us. “Amy, is that you?”

  I’d completely gotten lost in the kiss, so when the voice broke through the adrenaline rush pounding in my ears, I bit back a curse as Amy jumped out of my arms. The blood burning through my veins only seconds before now went icy cold, and as my skin registered the sudden absence of her soft body against mine, I felt desperate for more.

  Amy turned to where the voice had called from and a small gasp escaped her lips before she covered them with her hand. My gaze darted from Amy’s flushed face to a woman I didn’t recognize. She seemed to be middle-aged and on the heavier side, reminding me of a mom from an eighties sitcom; nearly a spitting image of housemother Mrs. Garrett on The Facts of Life.

  “Belinda,” Amy squeaked, looking at me and then back at the woman. “What are you doing here?”

  I watched Amy’s eyes dart around, as if she wanted to confirm that she was still, indeed, on a floating vessel in the ocean. Amy had said she didn’t have any other clients on board tonight. What were the chances she’d know someone on this dinner cruise who wasn’t there on one of her organized dates?

  The woman—Belinda, apparently—came closer to us. Her appraising gaze snaked its way up and down my body, making me want to squirm uncomfortably as she assessed me. Instead, I stood straighter, anxious to know who this woman was to Amy. I wasn’t a mind reader or anything, but the charge in the air was unmistakably tense. This was no friend.

  “Are my eyes deceiving me,” Belinda began, adopting a sarcastic expression and pointing a plump finger right at me, “or is this Dexter Harrington?”

  I swallowed. Uh-oh.

  Amy’s eyes were pleading. “Belinda—”

  “Yes or no?” she interrupted. “It’s a simple question.”

  My lip curled instinctively at the attitude she was throwing at Amy. This woman was antagonistic and just plain rude. She clearly knew Amy through First Comes Love, but she seemed more like a coworker than a client. I knew she wasn’t Amy’s boss. Amy only answered to Julia. So whoever Belinda was, she had no right to question Amy like she owed her any kind of explanation.

  I stepped forward. “Belinda, is it? Why don’t you head back inside and enjoy your evening. We were having a private conversation.”

  Belinda guffawed. “Oh, sure you were. The thing is, Dexter, I’m not here to enjoy my evening. I’m here to work. Just like your little kissing partner is supposed to be.”

  “I didn’t know you had clients booked for the cruise tonight,” Amy said.

  “It was a last-minute switch. I had Bobby set it up when I heard you’d be here. I thought it would be fun to catch up while our dates were in progress, and I heard Dexter was scheduled for his twelfth date. I wanted to cheer you on, of course.”

  Amy laughed bitterly. “I’m sure you did.”

  Belinda turned her wicked eyes back on me. “Where’s your date, Dexter? Where does she think you ran off to? I don’t see a restroom up here anywhere.”

  My nostrils flared. I got the sense that there was more to this story than met the eye, so I looked to Amy to take cues from her. If she gave me even the slightest hint that she wanted to escape this moment, I’d get her out of here, fast. But something told me she wanted to face this enemy head-on.

  “Belinda,” Amy started again, smoothing her hands down her dress. “Dex isn’t here on a date.”

  I tried not to let her words sting. I knew what she meant. Had I really expected her to call me her date in front of her coworker when it was against company policy? Of course not. But it was also clear that I wasn’t there to have a professional meeting with her, given that we were caught kissing.

  “But, Amy, what about the competition?” Belinda put her hands on her hips, the gleam in her eye as she flicked her gaze in my direction told me she knew exactly what she was doing bringing up the competition.

  And she was right. I had no idea what she was talking about. I cleared my throat, not wanting to ask about it in front of this woman, but the words left my mouth before I could claw them back. “What competition?”

  Amy’s eyes brimmed with tears as she looked at me. “Dex.”

  “Oh, this is riveting stuff, Dex,” Belinda said, clearly enjoying herself. “Amy and I are competing to take over Julia’s position at First Comes Love. She’s retiring.”

  I heard the words, but they still didn’t make sense. Why did Amy look so upset? What did this competition have to do with me? Amy’s sad eyes never left mine.

  Belinda took a step toward us. “You see, the way it works is, Amy and I each have three clients—spoiler alert, you’re one of her three—and whichever one of us finds a match for our three clients in the fewest number of combined dates gets the job.”

  I looked at Belinda, registered the smug smile on her round face, then looked back at Amy. “Which is why you were so upset about my first two dates getting messed up with that computer glitch.”

  Amy might have missed it, but I had a keen sense of observation, and I noticed the nervous change in Belinda’s stance when I mentioned the glitch. I zeroed in on her. My years of experience with cybercrimes and strategy games enabled pieces of the puzzle to click into place for me. I was sure Amy’s optimistic nature would never have led her train of thought down the same trail.

  “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that computer glitch, would you Belinda?” I asked, my mind slipping easily into strategy mode as I surveyed her expression and body language.

  Belinda’s smug attitude faltered under my scrutiny. “Of course not.”

  I glanced at Amy, who looked between us, her face pale with worry over how this would end. Right before we’d kissed the first time, right here on this boat deck, I’d asked her where her path was leading. Without hesitation, she’d spoken about running the company. She wanted to win the competition. She dreamed of beating Belinda and taking Julia’s place.

  When everything went wrong with Harumi, it had been because I’d wanted her to sacrifice the life she wanted to be with me. And she wouldn’t. How could I blame her? Amy’s ex had done the same thing. And rightfully so, she too wouldn’t do it. I wasn’t even going
to ask this time.

  But what had my brilliant plan about twelve dates done to Amy’s chances of winning the competition?

  “Belinda, how many dates are you up to for this competition?” I asked.

  Amy’s face whipped to mine, confusion all over it. “Dex?”

  I held out my hand as if to say, It’s okay.

  Belinda didn’t know what to make of the question either, but she squared her shoulders and tossed her head. “It doesn’t matter. If you finish your twelfth date without matching up, you’re out and Amy has failed.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Answer the question. How many dates?”

  “My last client should be paired up by the end of the evening. That will leave me with a total of seventeen dates.”

  I turned to Amy. “How many for you? Not counting me.”

  Amy bit her lip. “Not counting you, I had six.”

  “And what if I tell you I want to match with someone from a previous date, without needing another one to make sure? That would give me eleven, right?”

  Belinda rolled her eyes and huffed impatiently.

  “Then I’d also have seventeen,” Amy said, her voice barely audible above the wind on the deck of the boat.

  Resolved, I nodded. “Fine. Consider me matched up with Erin. I wasn’t sure, so I kept dating, but now I am. So you both have seventeen. Julia will have to choose a winner based on merit and not the number of dates. I’m sure she had some kind of tiebreaker in mind when she came up with this.”

  “You can’t do that,” Belinda shrieked. “I’ll tell Julia that I caught you up here kissing him. You know she’ll boot you right on your butt, family or not.”

  I snorted. “You have no proof, and I’ll deny it.”

  “Okay, well, wasn’t this your twelfth date?” she countered, grasping at straws.

  I crossed my arms and looked around the deck. “Do you see anyone here? It’s not a date if she never showed up. And if I were you, I’d just be grateful not to be turned in for causing whatever computer issues Amy had at the start of this whole thing. I’d bet my life that you had something to do with it. It really wouldn’t be hard to prove if I dug into the network. Don’t tempt me.”

  The air was thick with tension as the three of us stood on the deck. No one spoke for a long moment as we all let the events of the last five minutes settle over us.

  Finally, I took a deep breath, backing away from them and toward the stairs to the lower levels. “So much for not getting trapped on a three-hour tour with the wrong woman, huh?”

  24

  Amy

  “A tie?” Julia asked, standing at the head of our long conference table on Monday morning. “You can’t be serious.”

  Claire and Bobby looked at each other, then back at Julia. They had each turned in the client files for their respective matchmakers, and neither one of them had known what Belinda and I had already been aware of.

  Instead of updating Claire about the catastrophe Friday night, I’d spent the entire weekend on my couch eating ice cream and drowning my sorrows. And like any self-respecting woman in love with a nerd who wouldn’t return her phone calls, I binge-watched romantic comedies featuring nerdy heroes while I ugly cried.

  Julia blew out a breath and waved her hand, dismissing Claire and Bobby. They moved to sit in the open chairs next to myself and Belinda, each of them looking surprised and disgruntled. I wondered idly if they had their own wager going on the side of the main one and made a mental note to ask Claire about it later.

  “I need a minute to think about how to handle this,” Julia said. “I hadn’t considered a tie.”

  I chuckled dryly to myself, then bit my lip, and tried to play it off like a cough. I wasn’t surprised at all that a gamer and professional strategist like Dex would assume there was a backup plan in place for a tie. But apparently, Julia wasn’t on Dex’s level when it came to being a game master, and she hadn’t thought about it. I wondered if he would have made the same choice had he known this was the case. Not that I could ask him since I was just as dead to Dex as Huck’s ex-wife was to Huck. Ugh, I was even going to miss Wednesday game nights with his friends. I’d only gone twice, and both times Lopez had been impressed that I was down for the geekiest games while Huck just rolled his eyes and said girls didn’t belong at game night. Well, he’d get his wish. I doubt I’d be invited back if Dex wouldn’t even talk to me.

  But he’d likely saved my job, depending on how Julia handled the tie.

  “Let’s move on with the regular Monday morning report while I chew on this,” Julia said to the room of matchmakers, assistants, and Singles Club ambassadors. “We’ll go around the table from the right, today.”

  I tried to pay attention to everyone’s client reports, but my heart just wasn’t in it. For years I’d dreamed of one day taking over this company when Julia retired. For years I’d hoped she would just pick me over Belinda because it was me. Now, I wasn’t sure what would happen. So, even though I knew if I wanted to run the place I should pay attention to how everyone else’s accounts were going during the morning meeting, I couldn’t focus.

  My time with Dex had been … everything. Once we’d finally gotten together, that is. It had been exactly what I’d thought it would be and more. And I had spent a lot of time thinking about it, as much as I pretended I hadn’t. For weeks, I’d imagined kissing those full lips or being held by those strong arms, of being gazed at by those piercing blue eyes. His intense gaze had plagued me from that first meeting we’d had over coffee. Who knew my crush on Chris Evans as Captain America would be utterly eclipsed by Gunnery Sergeant Computer Crimes Guy? Even Claire knew how much I loved Cap. He was my jam.

  In the beginning, I’d dismissed those fantasies of Dex as being purely a physical reaction to his outward appearance. But as I’d gotten to know him better with each interaction, the urge to be his had only grown stronger in my heart. And then when it finally happened, Blindside Belinda had been right there to ruin it.

  Ugh, I couldn’t believe she’d been on that boat. Sure, we’d been playing with fire since that date was intended for someone else, but Belinda? I had no reason to suspect she’d be there. There were only so many date-night spots in our area, of course, but it wasn’t often that we overlapped. And when she’d told me that she’d done it on purpose to catch up? She was so full of it. I knew she just wanted to spy on Dex’s date. She had to have already done the math on his dates and knew she was going to win regardless of what happened that night. She probably just wanted to make sure that was exactly what happened. Well, the joke was on her, thanks to Dex and his quick thinking.

  Speaking of Bluffing Belinda’s conniving ways, was Dex right about the computer glitch being intentional? Claire and I had given nothing more than a cursory thought to if Belinda could have something to do with it, dismissing it when we concluded she wasn’t tech savvy enough to pull it off. But Belinda wouldn’t have to have done it herself. I looked at Bobby. He wasn’t a computer buff by any means, but he’d do anything for his boss. If Belinda had asked him to mess up my dates, he would figure out a way to do so.

  What if Julia picked Belinda as her successor? I sat back in my chair, suddenly convinced that Belinda had cheated with Bobby’s help. And now she’d possibly become my boss thanks to that dishonesty. As certain as I was, there was no proof. Well, no proof without Dex, anyway. But would he help me after what happened this weekend? My heart squeezed. I couldn’t even get him to talk to me, let alone dig around our computer network.

  “Amy?”

  I jumped. “Sorry, what?”

  “Just waiting for the status of your accounts, dear,” Julia said, a wry smile on her fruit-punch-red lips.

  “Right, sorry.” I sat upright and scrambled to open my folder. “Okay, so, you already have my files for the competition. Outside of those, I have Teeny Thompson who just matched with another VIP, Chuck Watson.”

  Ricky, the matchmaker assigned to Chuck’s VIP account, gave me an air high f
ive from the other end of the table. “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

  “Yes, sir,” I replied, then looked back at my notes. “Nikki Stevens is on her seventh date and hasn’t found a match yet. She’s turning out to be a lot pickier than expected. I’m sure I’ll figure it out by the twelfth date, though, don’t worry.”

  “I never do with you,” Julia said. “Even considering recent events.”

  “Right. Um, I also have Carrie Corry, she just had her first date last night and she wants to match with him, but he’s not sure because he has the singles cruise next weekend and doesn’t want to lose his deposit.”

  Julia scoffed. “Psh, if he’s worried about his deposit, he’s not the right match for her.”

  “That’s what I told her. Plus, it was only her first date. She’s eager.”

  Julia held up a hand as if to say, Preach.

  “Lastly, I have a new client named Paul who’s having his first date tonight with another VIP who should be a great match for him.”

  Paul’s date’s matchmaker shot me a confident look from across the room. “She is, I can already tell.”

  “Thanks, Becca,” I replied.

  “That’s everyone?” Julia asked.

  I nodded. “Yep.”

  “Great. Next?” Julia moved on down the line and I sighed inwardly.

  Claire slid a note in front of me, and I discreetly peered at it. It wasn’t a rule that matchmakers and their assistants couldn’t pass notes during the morning meeting, Julia was a workaholic and didn’t expect business to grind to a halt while we were together, but we didn’t want to be disruptive.

  Claire: You tied with Belinda? I can’t believe it. How did you manage to pull that off?

  I picked up my pen and scrawled out my reply, passing the note back to her.