My One and Only: Book 1 in the Love and Weddings Trilogy (14 page)

              Asher looked up at the sky and stuck his hands in the pockets. “People are strange. Come on. I’ll help you shop.”

              After grabbing a few necessities including five Symphony bars that she needed for emotional well-being, she had Asher drop her off at home. He seemed eager to get to work, so she stood at the corner and waved as he drove away. She stared after his car and felt strange for a moment. Like she was missing something.
Or someone
.

              Meredith put away her groceries and grabbed her laptop. She clicked onto Youroneandonly.com and squealed when she saw that they had 5 more profiles. Three girls and two men had joined just since their meeting that morning. She glanced through the men’s profiles and was irritated that Pule’s wasn’t one of them. He’d promised her he’d sign up.
And he better keep his word.

              She clicked through a few emails and came to one from Jo. Her plans for the reception were coming along nicely. She just needed to collect the deposit on the venue and they were in business.

             
Hey, Meredith. Just wanted to let you know that we decided to elope. Sorry! We’re here in               Vegas right now and having the time of our lives. I just couldn’t do it. All that stress and money               when I don’t really even have any family just seemed stupid all of a sudden. I hope we can still be               friends though.

              Good luck with everything, Jo

              Meredith gasped in horror. She’d just lost one of her two clients. “
Agh
!” she screamed and felt like throwing her laptop. “This cannot be happening to me,” she said out loud, standing up to pace around her small apartment.

              Now, all she had was Anne Downing and the woman was notorious for changing her mind a thousand times a day. She could very well get irritated with her and fire her on a whim. Meredith grabbed her hair and shook her head in frustration. So that left her with what? A hobby really. Wedding planning was now a hobby. Her real business was now matchmaking. Well, thank heavens she had something. She could now spend all of her time and energy on planning the social mixers for all of the singles on their site and helping Anne Downing on the side.

              What other choice did she have? Meredith groaned and walked into the kitchen and grabbed one of her Symphony bars. This called for some chocolate. She whimpered a little and wished Cleo was home so she could whine and complain. Cleo was the best listener in the world. Not only did she listen, but she usually offered good advice if you ignored all of the meditation she tried to throw in.

              She grabbed her phone and began texting Asher and then stopped, putting her phone down. Normally she wouldn’t hesitate to tell Asher everything going on with her life, but that little kiss in the car coupled with the fact that they were a four level connection, made her hesitate. He might read more into it than she wanted him to.

              She collapsed on the couch and pulled her laptop over again, clicking on their site. She smiled as she saw that in just ten minutes time two more people had signed up. Those Facebook and Twitter ads were a good investment. At this rate they would have over a hundred clients by the end of the day. Offering an introductory offer to sign up had been genius. Brogan really did have a brilliant mind. She clicked on the profiles.

             
Still no Pule
. “Darn that man,” she muttered as she reached for her phone.

              He picked up on the first ring.

              “Pule Matafeo, are you my friend or aren’t you?” she asked without a greeting.

              Pule laughed. “Of course I am. What have I done now?”

              Meredith could hear the smile in his voice and she relaxed. “You promised you’d be our first client and you’re not. If you don’t sign up today, I’m going to be forced to think that you don’t care.”

              There was a pause on the other end before he spoke. “Well, I’d hate for you to think that,” he said in a strangely serious voice. “Tell me the web address and I’ll go sign up right now. I’m on break at the academy having lunch. If it takes more than fifteen minutes though, you’re out of luck.”

              Meredith gave him the information and then hung up so he could focus on all of the questions. Who else could she force to join their site? “Tristan!” she yelled and reached for her phone again.

              He answered on the fourth ring. “Yeah?” he said without a polite hello.

              Meredith frowned and clicked her nails on the table. “Hey, brother dear. Have I got the opportunity of a lifetime for you,” she said in a super sweet voice.

              Tristan sighed loudly. “No, I don’t want to join your multi-level marketing scam. So are you coming to dinner Sunday?”

              Meredith rolled her eyes. “I’m thinking about it and this isn’t about anything multi-leveled. Look, I need your help. I need you to sign up for my dating website. I’ll even give you a code for half off the regular price.  It’s practically free, it’s so cheap.”

              Tristan groaned loudly. “
No
.”

              Meredith banged her hand on the table. “
Sign. Up
.”

              Tristan was silent for a moment. “Here’s the deal. I’m on a break from dating. You know this. I’ve been enjoying my freedom from pain. Why in the world would I want to throw myself into shark infested waters just to put money in your bank account?”

              Meredith closed her eyes and prayed for patience. “It’s been over a year Tristan.  When Dane died you were after me constantly to date again.  It’s not healthy to stay in your cocoon forever.  I know you were hurt. I was hurt. I know what it feels like and I’m not marginalizing that at all. But yes I need my business to grow and
yes
, you need to come out of your cave and see that there are nice women out there who aren’t heartless losers.”

              Tristan snorted. “Julia would disagree with your assessment of her character.”

              Meredith glared, thinking of the gorgeous, rich vampire who had sucked the life out of her brother. “Well, she hasn’t heard anything yet. I still haven’t had the chance to tell her what I really think of her.”

              Tristan sighed, sounding tired all of a sudden. “Well, she’s married now. I got the invitation last month. It doesn’t matter. Look, I’ll think about it. Okay?”

              Meredith nodded and smiled a little. It was a start.  “Sounds good. And Tris? I love you.”

              Tristan made a grumbling sound on the other line and hung up. Meredith smiled at her phone and knew her brother loved her. “Next in line,” she said and went down the list of her contacts.

              By the end of the hour she had gently
or maybe not so gently
, pressured twenty of her friends and acquaintances into joining their site. She sent a text to Brogan asking for numbers and how many matches were made so far. He texted her back twenty minutes later that they were up to twenty-seven clients. But only one match so far. Hers and Asher’s.

              She swallowed hard and pushed her phone away.
How could that be?
How could she and Asher be the only match out of twenty-seven people? It didn’t make sense. She’d ask again that night. By evening there was sure to be more matches. Meredith smiled grimly. There better be. She worked for the next half hour making flyers to hang up at Cleo’s yoga studio, Tai’s Diner, Belinda’s Bakery and the employee lounge at The Iron Skillet. She included the code for a discount rate and tear aways for people who wanted to take their web address and code.

              Brogan was working on an app for I-Phones and Androids but that wouldn’t be up until next week sometime. Until then, they were doing this the old fashioned way. Putting it out there in everyone’s faces any way they could. Most people had to see something at least a few times before they caved and actually did something about it. Well, she could do her part. She changed into her jeans and tennis shoes and grabbed a warm jacket, white fluffy scarf and matching hat so she could walk around town with her flyers. She locked up and ran down the stairs, excited to get out of the house and away from thoughts of failure and impending financial doom.

              Her first stop was the bakery. She stopped in and chatted with Layla for a moment. She had no idea how Layla could look so gorgeous and work part-time, be a mom and step-mom and a wife. She was juggling so many balls so effortlessly she could be the poster girl for the woman who had it all.

              She stared longingly at a simple glazed donut and sighed. Not in her budget. At least not yet.

              “You know, those glazed donuts haven’t been selling well. They’re so old fashioned and everybody wants the cronuts or cupcakes these days. I was going to put up a sign this morning and totally forgot. We’re selling them for only twenty-five cents in case you’re interested,” Layla said with a friendly smile.

              Meredith licked her lips as she stared at the decadent glazed sugar and looked through her purse. Who couldn’t afford a quarter? She groaned as she looked through her empty change purse and then dug around in her jean pockets. She felt something hard and smooth at the bottom and squealed as she pulled out a shiny quarter. She jumped up and down excitedly. “I get a donut!” she shouted, more excited than she had been on Christmas morning.              

              Layla laughed and pulled out a donut for her, taking the quarter and motioning to the table. “Why not have a seat and we can chat?”

              Meredith nodded eagerly. She secretly loved talking to Layla just as much as she did Jane. There was just something so calm and serene about her that had her relaxing and pouring her heart out. As soon as she sat down she was telling Layla all about her wedding planning business, Jo’s elopement, the dating website and Asher.

              When she was done talking, she looked down and realized that her donut was gone and that she felt much better about life in general.

              Layla frowned at her and crossed her arms over her chest. “I get that you want to make a living and be successful. But you know what it’s like to be hurt. You know what it’s like to lose someone you love. How could you do that to Asher knowing that you have feelings for him too?” she asked with her forehead pinched and lined.

              Meredith blinked in surprise. “
Wait a minute.
You always back me up. That’s what you do. You sit there, you feed me something yummy and you tell me that I’m right about everything and then I go out and do my thing. What’s with all the judging?”

              Layla snorted and rolled her eyes. “Is that what you think I do? Maybe when you’re right that’s what I do. When you came in torn up about how to make things right with Kam and Bailey I supported you in that, because it was the right thing to do. Meredith, we’re friends. I don’t support you when you make mistakes or the wrong decisions.”

              Meredith frowned at Layla, not feeling serene at all anymore. As a matter of fact, the donut she’d just eaten was now sitting in her stomach like a heavy rock. “And you think I’m wrong and that I’m making a mistake?”

              Layla nodded her head and stood up. “Absolutely. And can I point out how ironic this is? Here you are in the business of love. You plan weddings when you can and you just started a website where people can go to find true love. And here you are,
you could have it
and you’re throwing it away.”

              Meredith licked her lips and looked away, feeling almost ashamed. “I don’t need to justify my decisions to anyone,” she said calmly.

              Layla shrugged and wiped down the table. “You’re right. But you will need to justify them to yourself and from where I’m sitting, I don’t see how that’s possible,” she said quietly before walking away.

              Meredith glared at her back and stood up, throwing away her napkin and walking out of the bakery without another word. Layla Bender was a brat. B.R.A.T. Who did she think she was telling her that she was making a mistake by choosing not to have a relationship with Asher?
Like it was even any of her business.
Okay, she had told her everything, so she had invited her opinion, but if it wasn’t going to be a good one, then she should have just kept it to herself.

              Meredith glared all the way to Cleo’s yoga studio which was practically next door to Tai’s Diner. She could kill two birds with one stone. She walked in and tacked the notice to the cork board holding all of the other notices. She read a few of them and smiled. Most of them were for classes being held at the studio. One was on how to make your own Kombucha. One was on how to cook with hemp hearts. The other was on how to get your chakra levels to their peak. She snorted at that one and turned around and came face to face with Maya, one of Cleo’s most popular yoga instructors. Meredith was slightly intimidated by her. She was tall, almost six foot and so toned you could see every muscle in her arms accentuated. Her face was gorgeous. She had to be a mixture of something because her large, mocha brown eyes were too exotic. Her lips were full and her cheek bones were high. She had runway model written all over her but instead, she was working for Cleo in a little town like Fircrest. So strange.

              “Hi, Maya. Is Cleo around?” she asked politely trying to make nice with Cleo’s friends.

              Maya smiled and motioned with her chin behind her. “She’s talking a beginner class through the basics before I take over. Did you find something interesting on our board? You sounded amused a second ago.”