"He wants to what?"

"Go on a date with you," my sister tells me.

"Why?"

"I don't know, because he's supposed to marry you?"

I lay on the couch and stare at the ceiling, thinking it over.

Christopher Bennett is a radio talk show host. He's a local celebrity with a significant following. He plans on running for city council in the next election and, from what I understand from talking to his assistant Rod, he's hoping to move up from there.

It turns out, I might be the only person in town that hadn't heard of Chris.

He's wealthy, he's good looking, he's well known and respected in the community, and-- on paper-- he's a perfect match.

In reality? He's kind of an ass.

This wasn't what I was hoping for when I applied for an arranged marriage with a high profile marriage broker.

I don't want to waste my time kissing toads, hoping that one of them will turn into a prince. I want to get married and start a family soon. There's no point in going through the night mare of dating when people like Raven Swann exist.

When I started looking online for match makers, I never dreamed that I'd find Raven. I figured, at best, I'd find an high quality dating service. Maybe one that vetted its applicants and, if I was really lucky, applied some actual effort at making personalized recommendations.

There are tons of services like that out there. All with varying degrees of success and feedback from their clients.

Raven, however, is something truly unique in the world of online dating. She calls herself a "marriage broker" for starters-- not a match maker or a dating service-- and as soon as I started filling out her application I knew I'd found what I was looking for.

Well, that's how I felt up until I met Christopher.

I can't blame Raven entirely though. She doesn't just make matches, she utilizes people from her clients' personal life to help narrow the choices down.

It's a true, modern day, arranged marriage.

Or it would be-- if I had any intention of marrying Christopher Bennett.

Kari's voice through the phone pulls me out of my thoughts, "Look, you guys are both busy as fuck, Rod's trying to pin down a night when you're available. All I'm trying to do is help him out. Don't shoot the messenger."

"Yeah, I like Rod too," I sigh, "I don't know why he puts up with Chris."

Kari laughs, "Maybe you should go out with Rod."

I laugh with her. "I think he's already married," I tell her.

"Well yeah, I guess if that's a deal breaker for you..."

"I just don't see the point in going to dinner with him, sis," I say, "I get that we look good together in theory, but my first impression of the man was not very impressive."

I sit up on the couch, "Besides, since when were you on team Bennett? I thought you'd be thrilled that I was planning on having Raven hit the reset button on the match making."

Kari is quiet long enough that I worry the call has gone dead. Just as I'm pulling the phone away from my face to see if we're still connected, she starts talking again.

"I wouldn't say I've joined 'Team Bennett' but Chris does have some redeeming qualities and Raven was very convincing in her argument for him as our primary consideration."

"Raven likes him?" I ask.

It's hard not to trust Raven. From our first phone conversation, I instantly felt like she had my best interests genuinely at heart. She's incredibly intuitive and it was easy to understand her success rate with setting people up after talking to her for just a little while.

If Raven thinks Chris and I are right for each other, I feel obligated to give him a second chance.

"Not really." Kari says with obvious amusement, "She told me she thinks he's kind of a douche."

"Oh great. My high profile match maker thinks I should marry a douche bag," I say.

"Sorry," Kari says, "so does that mean I should tell Rod you're not interested in seeing Chris again?"

"I don't know yet, let me think about it. I'll let you know tomorrow, OK?"

It's late, it's a weeknight, I still have cases to review and I find the subject of Christopher Bennett exhausting.

I say my goodbyes to my sister and get back to work.

Well, first I fire off an email to my marriage broker. It's too late to call her, but I really want to know why she's rooting for me to marry a man that even she doesn't like.

Then I spend some time wondering why the man is so eager to see me again.

When we tried to set up the first meeting, it was clear that making time to meet wasn't a priority for him. Everything was being dictated by his schedule. Two days ago the only options for our first date were right then or a month out.

As soon as I insisted on a date that was convenient to me, all of a sudden it was super important to him to meet me this week. That's how I ended up with a 7 AM pre-court coffee date.

Now he's got his minions working to set up a second date? And not even a month out. No. Chris suddenly wants to take me to a nice dinner within the next week.

He is hot. We do have enough in common that we ought to be able to hold a conversation. I did sign up for an arranged marriage and this is the guy that the best match maker in the country seems to think I should end up with.

Do I trust her enough to keep an open mind about Christopher Bennett?

Shit, for the money I paid Raven to find me a husband, I better trust her.

I pick up my phone and open up my calendar, looking to see when I might be able to squeeze him in.