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Chapter 1
“I’m going to assume you’ve lost your mind. Are you really this desperate?” Abagail Carpenter asked her best friend, Chloe, who was showing her the dating profile of a man she was planning on meeting.
Chloe Bennett’s green eyes looked up from the profile and shrugged, pushing a lock of her black hair out of her eyes. “People go out on dates with people they meet on online dating sites all the time, Abby.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know anything about this guy.” She motioned to the profile, which was devoid of a picture or any type of physical description. “You don’t know his name, there’s no photo, you don’t even know what he looks like.”
“Looks aren’t the most important thing. We’ve talked…”
“You’ve texted back and forth and sent some emails,” Abby corrected. “You’ve heard of the term catfish, haven’t you? This guy or girl or whatever could be some pedophile. Or he could be looking to hook some foolish woman and rob her of all her money.”
“I’m 19 so I think I might be a little bit old for a pedophile to be interested. And I’m a to-be college student so how much money could he really rob me of?”
“Or a rapist!” Abagail continued, not fazed by my rebuttal. “You could be setting yourself up to be raped!”
“Oh for the love of God, Abby, stop being so melodramatic.” Chloe motioned toward the computer screen. “I feel like I know him, ya know? Besides, I’m meeting him at the coffee shop at the park.” A wide grin spread across her glossed lips. “We have it planned. We’re both going to wear red scarves. His idea. Isn’t that romantic?”
Abagail shook her head, her blonde ponytail whipping back and forth behind her head. “No, I don’t know what you mean. And no, it’s weird. I meet men the normal way and so could you if you’d just come out of your shell a little bit.”
I cocked a brow up at Abagail. “So you suggest I sneak into bars with you hoping to snag some jackass who’s only looking for a night of fun instead?” It was something Abagail was notorious for.
Abagail’s cheeks turned rosy. “That’s not the only way. Besides, in a couple of months we’ll be college girls! Think of all the hot college men we can have our pick of.”
Chloe huffed. Abagail might be able to pick up guys face to face, but she wasn’t plagued with chronic shyness. While Abagail would go from guy to guy, dating the majority of the hot guys from their high school, Chloe played sidekick, sometimes dating the friend of the guy she was into. Usually that friend was also chronically shy and one thing Chloe had learned over the years was that two shy and introverted, teenaged strangers did not a fun night make.
Turning off the computer, Chloe pushed her chair back, nearly running over her friend’s bare toes in the process. “How about instead of being negative you help me pick out an outfit?” Standing, Chloe made her way over to her room with her roommate in tow and went directly to her small walk-in closet and opened it wide. “I have to look perfect.”
~*~*~*~
“She’s going to be a complete dogface, you realize that, man?” Corey Harrington stated from the sofa of their fraternity’s living room, before taking a drink from his can of beer. Normally their fraternity house would be buzzing with people; for some reason tonight was an exception. “Every person I’ve talked to who has gone on an Internet date has said the same thing. They don’t look like their picture.”
Reed flopped himself into an armchair adjacent to his friend Corey, grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned on the large-screen television mounted on the wall, flipping through the channels until he came to the football game. Satisfied with his channel selection he
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