Learning Curve (BBW Romance) by Adriana Hunter Page A

the domain for a popular dating service.
    “ Because in an online
setting, potential partners are looking for personality, not just a
size. You’ll have the opportunity to actually talk to someone, and
the two of you will have to learn about each other. The idea is
that you’ll get a feel for the guy and decide whether or not it’s
worth it to set up a face-to-face meeting.”
    Susie bit her bottom lip. “Personality, huh.
Okay, what do I got to lose?”
    “ This one looks
interesting,” Susie said aloud as she clicked on a dating category.
“Singles Hookup. ‘One in Five Relationships start online’,” she
read aloud. “Huh. I had no idea.”
    Callie smiled. “You’d be surprised at just
how popular online dating is.”
    Susie filled in the account information,
indicating that she was a woman seeking a man, the age range she
was searching for, and her local zip code. She gasped when the page
loaded, featuring a ton of guys living in her city.
    “ Oh God, Callie.” Susie
placed a hand to her trembling lips. “These guys all look so
gorgeous. What the heck would they want with me?”
    “ You know, Susie, you need
to change your way of thinking,” Callie patted her other hand but
the look on her face indicated her annoyance. “You hate how people
judge you based on your size, yet you’re judging these guys based
on their looks assuming just because they are good looking that
they are only interested in skinny girls. Maybe they’re looking for
a genuine woman and don’t care about whether they are a size one or
a size twenty.”
    Susie nodded. Although she couldn’t imagine
that any of these beautiful men would have trouble finding a woman,
she knew it was futile to argue with Callie. She still believed in
true love, after all, and what did Susie really know about men? She
certainly hadn’t had much success with figuring them out.
    They spent a good thirty minutes filling out
the personality questionnaire, a brief bio, Susie’s likes and
dislikes, and an email address for men to contact her at if they
were interested. Suzie debated setting up a separate email address
exclusively for the site, but since she didn’t think she would get
any responses, figured it wasn’t worth it. She would just end up
checking an empty email box for weeks until she went insane.
    When it asked her to upload a profile
picture, she bit her lower lip nervously, but Callie patted her
hand again. “You don’t have to put up one of yourself if you don’t
feel comfortable.”
    They settled on a nice image of a pale pink
rose with dewy petals. Susie thought it looked healthy, bursting
with life and sensuality—exactly the kind of image she wanted to
get across.
    “ Alright, girlie,” Callie
said once it was done. “Click the ‘finish’ button.”
    She hesitated only briefly before doing so,
and then let out the breath she’d been holding and smiled widely.
“That wasn’t so bad.”
    “ We’re done. Now let’s
crash on the couch with some popcorn and a movie, and wait for
those emails to roll in!”
     
    ****
    Ryan Marshall sighed, slumping into his
couch and loosening the tie from beneath the color of his
button-down shirt. His blazer was somewhere on the floor by his
shoes, marring the perfection of his brand-new, luxury apartment,
and he didn’t care. He just wanted to sit for a while and do
absolutely nothing.
    Being a corporate executive was anything but
easy, but Ryan loved the job. He’d fought hard to climb that
ladder, fueled by ambition and the desire to be in charge, to use
his vision and innovation to expand a company with his own hands.
He had a great job, a flush bank account, and some pretty damn good
friends, too.
    But when he set foot in
his apartment, when he was alone, he wished he had a woman in his
life. Someone who he could sit down with at the dinner table and
talk to—not just to unload his worries, but for real, stimulating
conversation. Someone who could entertain and fascinate,