Falling for the Matchmaker [ Chaennie ]

Chapter 1 : Jennie

Jennie

I'm running late for one of the most important meetings of my life, and I have my six-year-old niece in tow. What else could go wrong? Don't jinx it. Right. My life is already incredibly screwed. I was made to understand that I was being given this client to work with because everyone else was already overloaded. I was also made to understand that my last six clients all failed to find lasting matches. One gave the company a seriously negative review that my boss had to beg and plead to get removed from social media sites. One asked for her fees back, and the other four tried the company's services again. Not with me. With one of my co-workers. Out of those four, three declared themselves to be undyingly happy, or some cheesy, romantic version of it.

"Where are we going again, Auntie?"

I haul Matilda out of her booster seat. I did a terrible parking job when I hurriedly stopped the car in the one open spot on the whole street, and the car door almost scrapes over the sidewalk. I wince. Tildy laughs at my sour face.

"To the coffee shop. I have an important meeting with a lady that I couldn't reschedule."

"Why don't you have meetings in an office?"

"Well, we do. Sometimes. But some people don't like that. Some people think that's impersonal. And I want to make a good impression because if I don't, my butt is going to get kicked out the door."

Tildy laughs. "Butt. That's funny. Who would kick you? That doesn't sound very nice. I'm not allowed to kick people. I got in trouble at daycare because I kicked someone."

"I know." I lift Tildy out of the car and set her down on the sidewalk. Taking her small hand in mine, I walk over to the meter. "Shit," I breathe. "I mean, shoot. Dang it. Darn." I glance at my curious little niece. She's very precocious and has the most massive ears. Not physically, just metaphorically. She giggles again while I stare at the meter in dismay.

"Of course it would be out of order. Just of course." Makes sense, though, as to why the spot was open. I don't have time to find a new spot. I'm running late, and I passed the coffee shop six blocks ago. I'm going to have to risk it.

"Ready to run?" I ask Tildy.

She grins back at me and nods. We take off together, me with my huge messenger bag filled with all my writing materials, files, and laptop bouncing at my hip. Tildy keeps up for about half a block, then she starts to whine.

"My feet hurt. Can you carry me?"

Jesus Murphy. "Alright." I scoop her up. Thank god she's pretty small for her age. It's one of the things her parents fight over. The fact that they can never get her to eat anything. She's fussy. What six-year-old kid isn't?

"Here we go." I try to make a game out of the fact that I look like a lame horse running down the sidewalk.

"Why are you meeting this lady?" Tildy asks as she bounces furiously up and down. Her face is only level with mine every other second. I have to keep glancing around her to see the sidewalk and the intersections coming up.

"Because. That's what Auntie does. You know that I help people fall in love."

"Yeah. You should help my parents."

My heart stops. I don't think anything could help Mandy and John. They've fought since day one. I thought they were the worst match ever, even before I started working for a dating website for a living. It was pretty obvious to everyone that they wouldn't last six months, but then they did. They were going strong, albeit with pretty rank fights and breakups in between, for two years before they got married. They had Tildy six months later. I'm not saying they wouldn't have gotten married anyway. That's just the timeline. Long story short, the fights got so intense that the relationship was more fighting than anything else. Like the people who ask if you'd like some fries with your ketchup if you like it too much. That's them. Would you like some good times with your fighting?