Page 22 of Wild Abandon

Reluctantly, I reach into my purse and hand her my phone while I savor every bite of my dinner.

Naomi is taking forkfuls and flipping through my dating app. “You have thirty new matches. That’s impressive.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, just like last week’s date, who didn’t even read a word on my profile. Or the guy the week before that.”

“Ooh! This guy’s cute!” She holds the phone in the air, facing me, so I can see the photo.

The picture is of a guy standing on a hilltop, wearing cargo shorts and sneakers—nothing else. “He’s shirtless,” I deadpan.

“Uh, yeah.” Her voice goes up at the end.

“That’s a total D-bag red flag.”

Naomi looks at the photo again and scrunches her nose. “You can tell that from a photo?”

“Yes. I have rules.” I tick them off for her. “Never say yes to a guy who has a profile picture of his bank account, his car, his penis, or himself in shirtless selfies.”

Her right hand, holding the phone, falls to the table as her left hand flies in front of her face, palm up. “Okay, I get the bank account…and the penis. Wait, do they really show you pictures of their junk?”

I lean forward. “All. The. Time.”

She shakes her head and brushes her hair that was falling in front of her face behind her ear. “Wait, what’s wrong with a car?”

“Ugh. Guys who are obsessed with their cars are total meatheads.”

She points a finger. “You have too many rules.”

“I do not,” I state matter-of-factly.

Naomi raises the phone and starts typing.

“What are you doing?”

“Telling Dallas you’d like to meet him.”

“Don’t do that!”

I lean over and try to grab the phone from her hands, but she twists so that the phone is low to her side as she types viciously.

“Too late.”

I fall back to my seat. “His name is Dallas?”

“Yep!” Her eyes light up at something on the phone. “And look at that. He’d love to meet up!” She types quickly.

“Now, what are you doing?”

“Asking him if he wants to meet in an hour.”

“Naomi!”

The patrons at the table next to us look over at my sudden outburst.

I lower my voice. “I don’t want to meet up with him.”

She holds the phone to her chest to ensure I won’t try to rip it out of her hands. “Give me one good reason, other than he has his shirt off.”

“I haven’t even read his profile yet.”