I take a deep breath and try not read into it.

She didn't even elaborate. Her text simply says, "No, thank you."

This morning, when I suggested dinner tonight before she left my place, she sounded like she was all for it. Something casual this time, I was thinking of taking her to the little Mexican place near my house.

I thought we might walk down there, have a few margaritas, enjoy the walk back.

When I texted her this afternoon to remind her that she might want to stop by her house and bring over a few things if she's going to be doing more sleep overs and ask if we're still on for tonight all I get is "no thank you."

Of course I asked what she meant-- she just hasn't given me an answer.

I haven't heard back from her at all and when I called, it went to voicemail.

"Rod?" I find him at the other end of the building, "Can you do me a favor?"

He looks up at me as if the request is already too much.

"Yeah, I just need to get this finished," he tells me in a tone that is uncharacteristically tired sounding for the man.

"OK, well when you get a chance, can you contact Amanda for me? See if you can coordinate our schedules and set up a few dates between us?"

"Yeah man, whatever," Rod grumbles as I head back to my office.

I'm not used to my assistant being uncommunicative. Normally he'd have given me an unsolicited explanation of exactly what he was busy doing, complete with hand gestures and possibly some hand drawn diagrams.

I'm barely back in my office when I hear heavy footsteps running down the hall just before Rod bursts through my door in a dramatic entrance that's a lot more like the Rod I'm used to.

"Did you tell me to set up dates with Amanda?" he says it like I just asked if he could get me tickets to the Beatles.

"Yeah, tonight doesn't work for her." I say it nonchalantly, like she merely told me she couldn't make it. I don't want to acknowledge that her reply felt more like a brush off.

We've been together every night-- and most mornings-- for the last few days. Things have been going well. Very well.

Which reminds me, I ought to have Rod contact Raven and tell her thank you...scratch that. I pick up my pen and jot a note down; I should contact Raven and tell her thank you. I know she hasn't been the biggest Christopher Bennett fan since she took me on as a client but she really did live up to her reputation by finding Amanda for me.

I can't imagine a better mate. Vibrant, witty, intelligent, driven, beautiful-- Amanda is everything I'd hoped for in a wife and so much more.

I expected a match maker to find me a wife that would fill certain criteria, not one that I'd actually fall in love with.

Rod's staring at me from the doorway.

"You OK, Chris?" He asks, looking at me oddly like maybe I don't feel so good.

I feel great. I just realized I'm the luckiest damn man on the planet. I get to marry Amanda Peterson.

Nodding, I feel the smile spread across my face and I'm sure I look pretty damn goofy but I can't bring myself to give a shit.

"Yeah, I feel great. Could you just work out some times that are good for Amanda, please?"

"Dude, you told me to call Raven and have her get started on a new match, remember?"

The smile falls from my face. "What?" I ask as if Rod just answered me in Swahili.

"You told me to tell your match maker that you were not impressed with Amanda." Rod spits the words out in staccato syllables. "In fact, the specific verbiage you used was that you found her 'primary choice to be insufficient.' So that's what I relayed to Raven this morning."

"You called Raven this morning?" My mind scrambles to put the last 2 weeks into chronological order. Somewhere in my memory, I vaguely recall telling Rod to contact the match maker and tell her I wanted someone...shit.

I groan, dropping my head into my hands and rubbing my eyes.

I wanted a match that was worthy of my status. I remember barking at Rod on our way back from that first coffee date with Amanda. When she acted like she was the one doing me a favor by agreeing to meet me. I wanted a woman that was going to fawn over me and think she was lucky to be married to me.

Now I know better. Amanda was doing me a favor. And I got damn lucky when she agreed to go to dinner with me. I got damn lucky when she agreed to go bed with me. I got damn lucky to get matched to a woman as amazing as Amanda and now I understand what her last text really meant.

I can hear her voice in my head as if she said it in person. That professionally eloquent yet acidic sarcasm that she can lay down so casually that most people miss the fact that they've been insulted.

"Why didn't you call Raven when I told you to?" I explode at Rod. If he'd done what I told him to when I told him to do it I'd have never gone to dinner with her. I'd never have discovered how perfect we are together. I wouldn't be facing the biggest fuck up I've ever made.

"You told me to wait." Rod's voice is tense. I know he wants to tell me off, "You agreed to meet her one more time. That was dinner last Thursday. I never got an update on how that went so I figured it didn't go well. I called Raven this morning."

I groan again, trying to figure out how to do damage control.

"Fix it."

"Excuse me?" Rod is about to tell me to fuck off. We've worked together for years and we know each other too well. He puts up with a lot of my shit but he's got a breaking point and I'm pretty sure he just reached it.

"Fix it yourself, Bennett! I had no idea you changed your mind about Amanda. I've been jumping through hoops for you to find you a wife that might actually be able to put up with you for over a year now, I'm done with this bullshit. You want a wife, go find one the old fashioned way. And good fucking luck with that, by the way."

Rod shakes his head in frustration with me as he steps out of my office and pulls the door shut as he goes.

He's right. This is on me.

I have no idea how to fix it, I'm not even sure where to start.