A Hire Love. Candice Dow

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СКАЧАТЬ my four-inch heels. I tossed my hair behind my ear and called Mya. “Do you know this clown isn’t here?”

      “Tima, don’t get all up in a bundle. Maybe something came up.”

      “He has my cell phone number.”

      “He’ll be there. Just be cool.”

      I looked at my watch. “Whatever. I’m about to leave. I don’t have time for this.”

      “Dating is not easy.”

      “Well, you’ve given me that whole spiel before. Isn’t that why you sent me to that jackleg dating service? Wasn’t that supposed to guarantee a quality guy?”

      I curled my lips and waited for her to respond. She laughed. “No one told you to have unreasonable expectations.”

      I laughed too. “Whatever.”

      “This is the dating game. It’s hit or miss.”

      Standing on a corner in Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon wasn’t exactly my idea of dating. Shit! I could have sat home for another weekend. Mya said, “He’s almost twenty minutes late. Do you want me to come down there and go with you?”

      “No, I’m leaving now. I’ll call you when I get uptown.”

      Damn it. This is not worth one hundred dollars a pop. I want a refund. I could go to any bar for this kind of treatment. Damn if I’ll pay for irresponsible men.

      Just as I stormed up Prospect Avenue, my phone rang.

      He sighed before speaking. “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t find my keys, but I’m on my way.”

      I checked my watch and contemplated if I should even wait. Hell, I spent forty-five minutes traveling here. I’ve stood for thirty-five minutes waiting for this loser. At least, I should get a free movie out of this.

      When he showed up, it was ten minutes to three and I was livid. He leaned in for a hug and I retracted from this caveman. Okay, I did request a guy with an edge, but his edges were ragged and he was rugged.

      Either the untamed weeds sprouting from his face camouflaged the fine guy with a five-o’clock shadow that was on his profile, or I had been bamboozled. As he began to explain the lost key fiasco, my mind was already on the train back to Harlem.

      “I had to go to my mom’s job to get her key,” he said.

      Lawd, please don’t tell me this man lives with his mama. He continued. “She went in her purse to get her keys and she had my keys.”

      I cringed. That damn Black Love. There is no way in the world he is paying a thousand dollars a month. The organization must be a cover-up for some sort of drug-trafficking. Although the date was over before it began, I decided to engage him slightly.

      “So, you and your mother live together?”

      He nodded. “Yeah.”

      “So, what kind of business do you own?”

      “Is that what my profile says?”

      I nodded. As he snickered, I looked around. Is there a comedian performing? He doesn’t have a job?

      “So, do you pay for the dating service?”

      “Nah. If you aren’t doing the selecting, you don’t have to pay.”

      My mouth hung open. “So, I take it, you’re not selecting.”

      “Oh, hell nah. I ain’t paying for no dates.”

      Was that a double negative or a triple negative? Whatever the case, he was a quadruple negative. Late. Lives with mama. No job. And more important, no tact.

      Mya is in for it and so is that damn Gertrude from Black Love. She tried to act like her matchmaking was something special and that she had it down to a science. What a joke. Not that I expected my first date to be love at first sight. Duh! That only happens once in a lifetime and I’ve had my turn, but are there any respectable men out there that are cool enough to just hang out with?

      Neither of us said much from that point on. My body language told him this was our first and last date. His carelessness let me know that he was just a random flunky that Black Love hires to go on dates with desperate women.

      Scene 3

      FATIMA

      Black Love refunded my one hundred dollars on the spot. Mya endured my bitching and complaining all day for two days. When she called to make sure that I at least got my money back, I said, “This is ridiculous. They should have quality men.”

      “Fatima, baby, you’re tripping.”

      “If I’m paying, at least give me quality service.”

      “Looking for a quality man is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

      “I don’t believe it.”

      Mya smacked her lips. “Have you just been ignoring me for the last nine years or what? Remember all I went through before meeting Frankie?”

      “I guess.”

      “You’re going to have to manage your expectations or you’re going to be upset a lot.”

      “Oh well, let’s just forget it.”

      “You can always go the traditional route.”

      “The traditional route?”

      “Yeah, join some organizations, meet new people, and develop relationships like that.”

      “I may as well run a damn marathon, too. That could take forever.”

      “The problem is that you want what you want when you want it. Just because you decide you’re ready to date, what, five days ago. You think it just happens?”

      “Yeah.”

      She mocked Gertrude from Black Love, “Sorry, Fat-a-mah. It might take awhile.”

      “I just need to meet someone that’s cool. He doesn’t have to be perfect.”

      “Your definition of cool far surpasses most women’s definition of perfection.”

      “Mya, I don’t want to talk to you anymore. You’re making me feel worse.”

      “That’s not my intention, honey. Maybe you should try some of the online sites.”

      “Now that’s what I pay you for. Suggestions, not discouragement.”

      “Okay, I forgot. You’d rather be lied to.”

      Instead of defending myself, I laughed off the discomfort of her accusation and got the 411 on Internet dating. While I listened to her strategy, I logged onto the first site she suggested. She recommended СКАЧАТЬ