Exposed. Zoey Williams

scared to find out who Jasmine—who once dated a girl who carried around pictures of her rabbit in her wallet and would take them out at any given opportunity—would set me up with.

      “That’s nice of you, Jazz, but I don’t think I could do the blind date thing,” I say, trying to spare her feelings. “Could we start smaller?”

      “Are you saying you’d start online dating or something?” Jasmine asks, her voice full of hope.

      I look at my two friends, holding hands, staring at me with the same expectant look my grandmother gets when she’s waiting to hear the winning lottery numbers announced on television. I’ve known them long enough to understand that it’s not worth putting up a fight when they’re like this. They have this idea stuck in their brains, and there’s no way I can convince them to let it go.

      I look up at the ceiling helplessly. Lord, give me strength. “Fine,” I say. “I’ll do it.”

      Jasmine and Daniella jump up and down and emit screeches only dogs can hear.

      When she finally calms down, Ella says, “Great. Now all you need to do is tell work you’ll need the entire week off.”

      “Hey, wait a minute. You never said I’d have to take time off from work. I can’t do that.”

      “Tell them there’s been a death in the family,” Jasmine says simply.

      “But there’s a big show coming up next week—some fashion thing. I always have to be on call for other events I’m not assigned to, you know.”

      “You’ll always have a big show coming up,” Ella says simply. “If you wait until you don’t have work to do in order to start dating, it’ll never happen.”

      She’s right, but I shake my head. “Even so, my boss is in Paris until Monday. I can’t call her when she’s on vacation. Even if she works half the time she’s there.”

      “Macy—” Jasmine starts to whine.

      Ella puts her hand on Jazzy’s forearm to stop her. “Wait. Let’s give her the weekend. She needs time to prep. Like get a manicure, get some waxing done...”

      I raise a hand to my face self-consciously. “Yeah, I guess my eyebrows could use a little cleaning up.”

      “She doesn’t mean your face,” Jasmine says automatically.

      “Come to my house tomorrow afternoon and I will show you all the joys of online dating,” Jasmine says breezily. “Oh, and bring a bottle of wine, too.”

      “Why?” I ask. “You know I’m not a big drinker.”

      Jasmine exchanges a knowing glance with Ella. “Because you’re going to need it.”