Drew shifted his weight as he waited outside the studio for Kate to arrive. His feelings vacillated every couple of minutes between anxiety and excitement about the viewing parties. He and the host of Finding Your Soulmate, Rodrigo Martinez, were supposed to pop in on a few viewing parties his fans had announced on the show's website. And tonight was the first night they'd be crashing the parties.

Drew loved his fans and how enthusiastic they were about him and his journey to find love. But he worried he'd end up being a disappointment in real life.

Kate drove up in her white Jetta and came out wearing a light pink blouse tucked into a gray pencil skirt. Her skirt had ridden up on her drive, but instead of taking in her long toned legs, Drew forced his gaze to meet her eyes. But that was almost as bad because her eyes had always been hypnotizing to him. Aqua blue—the same color as the ocean in Hawaii.

"I'm not late, am I?" she asked, tugging her skirt down. "I was with my mom and my nephews this morning, and then had to go home and shower before coming here."

"Did you end up staying the night after your dinner there yesterday?"

She tossed some of her golden blonde hair over her shoulder. "Yeah, I didn't feel like going home alone."

Home alone? Why would she be going home alone? "Where was Nolan?"

Her face went blank for a moment before she said, "H-he's out of town. I don't like staying home by myself." She chuckled somewhat awkwardly, and Drew couldn't ignore the feeling that there was something she wasn't telling him. "I'm kind of a big baby now, I guess."

Something was off. If he asked, would she say what was going on between her and Nolan? Her husband never seemed to be around, and Kate only said something about him if Drew brought up the subject first. Most newly married women he knew couldn't stop bringing their husbands up in conversation.

"Actually, that reminds me," she hurried to say. "My family wanted me to invite you to lunch on Sunday. We'll be celebrating Aiden's birthday so they have a few things planned, but everyone would love to see you again and have you be a part of it."

His gut twisted.

Aiden's birthday.

He'd be turning twenty-eight if he hadn't died at twenty-one.

"So what should I tell them?" Kate said, interrupting his thoughts.

Drew looked at Kate's upturned, hopeful face as she stood in front of him. Was it possible her family didn't hold anything against him after everything that had happened the night Aiden died?

"Yeah, I'll come," he finally said, even though the thought of celebrating his best friend's birthday without him made Drew feel hollow inside. It had been seven years, but it felt like it was only yesterday when Aiden was speeding down the road, trying to get Drew as far away from Kate as he could after he caught them making out on his couch.

"Great! I'll text my mom." And she pulled out her phone, not seeming to notice the knife of guilt that twisted in Drew's stomach at the memory of that last night with Aiden. When she was done typing, she put away her phone and smiled. "Did Dion tell you which viewing parties we'll be crashing tonight?"

"Last I heard, they found two in Santa Monica that looked fun." Drew held the studio door open for Kate then followed her inside, hoping to escape the ghost that still haunted him.

He almost felt normal again when Dion greeted them in the main office. Dion shook their hands before giving them the particulars of the night.

"So, what will everyone be seeing on Finding Your Soulmate tonight?" Kate asked as they followed the SUV with the other people from the show. Kate had been nice enough to bend the rules and let Drew drive the company car.

Drew tried to remember back to the first week of filming. "Tonight, the audience will meet Ebony. We go on a date to the horse track. She ends up being way better than me on a horse, but she doesn't brag about it too much."

"Well, that’s good, since we all know what a sore loser you are," Kate said with a smirk.

He let his mouth hang open in mock offense. "I'm not a sore loser."

"You totally are."

"Am not!"

She laughed. "Remember that time when I was totally wiping the floor with you in Monopoly? And the board game somehow got tipped over along with everything on it when we came back from our snack break?"

Drew shook his head and chuckled. He did remember. She had practically danced on the table when she started winning, and all he had wanted to do was pull her on his lap and kiss her until winning that game was the last thing on her mind.

But Aiden had noticed the look in Drew's eyes, and since Kate was bent on playing the game until it was over, Aiden had taken matters into his own hands.

"You know Aiden was the one who tipped the game over, right?"

Surprise formed in her expression. "What? Why would he do that? He was already out of the game."

"He was ready to call it a night and take me home."

Her face scrunched up. "Why?"

"Because he knew I'd probably end up kissing you if we spent much more time together that night."

Drew pressed his lips together, surprised he'd just said that.

Kate gasped. "Why would he think that?"

Drew studied her face in the dim light. He might as well say it. It's not like anything would change. It was all in the past and they were friends now. He could be an adult about this.

He drew in a breath. "Because he'd been telling me for months that if I kissed you he'd kick my butt."

Kate was quiet, her mouth forming an "o" as she processed what he just said. "I guess that makes sense. I remember trying pretty hard to get you to kiss me that night."

Drew turned his gaze back at the road, suddenly feeling overheated. "It was only a matter time before it happened, though."

He saw her nod out of the corner of his eye. She was probably remembering the same thing he was. The late-night movie. Aiden sleeping on the floor in her family's basement. He and Kate tangled up on the couch, kissing as if they were starving and the only way to feed their hunger was to kiss each other like there was no tomorrow.

The car was silent for a while as they both got lost in their thoughts. Why hadn't Drew just been able to wait a few more months? Wait until Kate had graduated from high school and joined him and Aiden in college? If Drew had been more patient, if he had only ignored his feelings for a little while longer, maybe things would have been different. Aiden might still be here with them, making fun of Drew for being on a reality TV show. And Kate…well, maybe Kate wouldn't be married to someone else and he wouldn't have needed to go on a dating show in the first place.

After the silence had stretched on for a few minutes, Kate cleared her throat. "So what happens next on your date with Ebony? I totally cut you off before."

Drew blinked, trying to remember what he'd been talking about before he'd brought up old memories and the feelings that went with them.

"Let me guess," Kate spoke before he could. "You guys go to dinner, don't eat any of the food on your plates, and then she gets the first kiss of the season. It's magical, and you feel a connection you didn't think you could have so quickly?"

Wow, Kate really knew the show's formula by heart.

"You make it sound so cheap when you put it like that," Drew said. As if his whole journey to find love had been written by some screenwriter.

Kate laughed, not seeming to realize she'd hit a nerve. "I'm sure it was all very special. I've just been watching the show for, oh, about ten years."

"Well, I never watched it until I was on it. And I'll have you know that yes, maybe we did eat in our rooms before dinner…chewing isn't so great sounding in the microphones…but they at least never told me when exactly I had to kiss a girl. In fact, I'll probably go down as the bachelor who kissed the least number of girls."

Why did he say that? He was practically handing out reasons for Kate to think he was a loser and thank the heavens that she'd dodged that bullet.

"The least? Really?" Kate's eyebrow lifted. "How many did you kiss?"

Oh well, he might as well keep digging his grave. He counted them off in his head, still not believing that had been his life for a few months. He'd never imagined dating, let alone kissing multiple women on the same day. But that was what had happened. The show and all the candles and romantic dates just seemed to make it happen without him even trying.

"Seven. I kissed seven."

Kate leaned back in her seat. "Hmm, seven's not so bad. And that's a lucky number, so it probably means you're gonna end up really happy at the end of all this."

Drew sure hoped so. But he really wasn't sure. Gwen was great and all, most of the time, but could they really work it out when they came from two completely different backgrounds and lived across the country from each other?

"Did you initiate all of those first kisses, or did some of the girls sneak them in on you?"

Kate certainly was nosy about this. But he guessed when you put your love story out there for the world to see it kind of becomes an open book. But Drew wasn't about to reveal all the show's secrets.

"You'll just have to keep watching the show to find that out." Drew took his eyes off the road for a second to smirk at her.

"Oh poop. You're no fun." She crossed her arms.

"Did you really just say, ‘oh poop’? Are we, like, five now?"

"No. I just—"

"Wait—" Drew couldn't believe it. All these years later… "Do you still have that no-swearing bet going?"

Kate looked down and tugged on a loose thread in her skirt. "Well, it was still going when Aiden died, so I decided to just continue it. It helps me remember him, I guess."

Back when Drew and Aiden were in high school, they had started hanging out with a couple of guys who used profanity all the time, and it only took a few weeks before they started using it themselves. But perfect little Katie, who was probably eleven at the time, thought they were on the road to hell. So to help save her brother's soul, she had talked Drew and Aiden into joining her in a No Swearing Contest. The loser had to do the winner's chores for a month.

And so the replacement curse words were born. It had been pretty funny to watch Aiden, the captain of the basketball team, say things like dang, oh my heck, poop, and bum when he got frustrated. But he was bound and determined to win. Drew eventually forgot about the contest, and yeah, swore here and there…but Aiden and Kate were still going strong clear until the accident.

Drew gave Kate's hand a quick squeeze, hoping to get her to look at him so she could see he was sincere. Her wedding ring poked his palm and took away any warm sensation he might have felt at touching her skin. "I think that's actually really cool. Maybe I should start on that bet again. My mom probably wouldn't mind."

She gasped. "What? Saint Drew has a potty mouth?"

Drew rolled his eyes. "Sorry to disappoint. I just can't live up to that nickname, I guess."

Kate laughed. "It's okay. I've been pretty close a few times myself."

Kate's phone rang. She answered it and spoke to someone for a minute before hanging up.

"We're supposed to stop at the gas station after the next stop light," she told Drew. "Once it gets closer to show time, we'll pop on over to the viewing party."