Vadir made his way along the seawall, dodging tourists taking photos of themselves against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. It was early afternoon, and the sun had already turned the skin of many of the humans around him a painful shade of pink. Most of them seemed oblivious to their discomfort thanks to the wide array of sights and sounds that served as enticing distractions.

The city itself was noisy and crowded. In many ways, it was the same as a hundred other places he’d visited. It was clearly a hub of trade, with a bustling port system and a steady stream of visitors arriving to admire the natural beauty of the area.

He could make a killing here if he were allowed to initiate trade with this planet. Unfortunately, the Interplanetary Council had very strict rules about contacting species before they had reached a certain level of development, and humans still had a long way to go.

As frustrating as it was to be denied a chance to make a profit, Vadir had to admit, he was enjoying his brief visit. The weather was pleasant, and the views were stunning. The air was laden with the scent of a myriad of tempting foods and confections, and there were any number of stalls and stations selling everything from artwork to jewelry.

Humans might be a primitive species in many respects, but they clearly had an appreciation for commerce.

In theory, the Council’s rules made sense. The no-contact policy was meant to ensure that a species didn’t acquire power and technology they weren’t ready to use responsibly. It also meant some races, like Earthlings, were left to struggle with global issues that could have been easily resolved if they had the right tools. He had researched everything he could about this world, and it was entering a period of transition that not every species survived. Taking his mate away from here would be an act of kindness.

He still struggled to come to terms with that term: mate. If that’s what this human female truly was. He’d read the report confirming that she carried Pyrosian DNA and gone through all the documentation that verified their compatibility. He still didn’t believe she was his mate. His match, yes. The science all confirmed that he should be able to have children with this female, which was good news for his species. With only one female to every six men, the Pyrosian race was in danger of going extinct. But being compatible didn’t mean she was his true mate. How could a female from the other side of the galaxy be his soul’s other half, the one destined to unlock his abilities to manipulate fire? It didn’t make any sense.

Not that it mattered. He was under orders to claim the human female and bring her to Pyros, and that was what he intended to do.

According to the limited amount of information that had been gathered about his supposed mate, she was an artist who spent the summer months selling her artwork to tourists somewhere along the seawall. She wouldn’t have been contacted yet, but he wanted to see her. To watch and learn what he could before they met. He never entered negotiations until he had all the information he needed, and he didn’t know enough about her. Not yet.

It was her laugh that drew his attention first. It wasn’t a polite chortle but a full-throated exclamation of happiness. He turned to look for the source of such unfettered emotion, and there she was. Lisa Woods. The woman he had crossed a galaxy to meet.

She was perched on a small stool, making faces at a child as she sketched the boy and his parents. He couldn’t see the drawing from this angle, but that didn’t matter. Her talent wasn’t what he’d come here to see.

It took a few minutes to find a vantage point that suited his purposes. He needed to watch without being noticed. A nearby vendor offered roasted tubes of meat wrapped in bread, and he purchased one, selecting several of the offered toppings at random before taking a seat nearby.

From here, he could observe and learn. She had an easy, approachable manner. A natural saleswoman, she made everyone she spoke to feel special. He could see it in the way they reacted to her. It didn’t hurt that she was quite beautiful. Her pale blonde hair was loose around her shoulders despite the summer heat. Her multi-hued dress was light enough that every breath of wind made it swirl and flutter against her body, showing off her slender form and long legs.

He watched her for the next twenty minutes. By the time he finished eating the strange but tasty street food, he had discovered more than he’d learned in the hours he’d spent reading her files. Those had been the facts of her life. Useful in their own way, but none of them had prepared him for the vivacious energy and inherent gentleness of this female. Finding her price to leave with him would be a challenge, but spending time in her company would be no hardship at all.

He pulled his communicator out of his pocket and punched in a brief request to the ship in orbit. It was time to initiate the match.

He rose from the bench and slipped back into the crowd, resisting the temptation to linger. Lisa would be getting an email soon, with his picture. He needed to be out of sight before that happened.

The next time he saw his future mate, he’d make his pitch and start negotiations. By this time tomorrow, he should have closed the deal and completed his mission. He was rich, powerful, and could offer her a life of luxury and safety. What female would say no to that?

Lisa was having her best day of the season so far. There were plenty of potential customers out enjoying the sun, and she’d already made enough to cover next month’s rent, with a little extra to go into her rainy-day fund. She loved times like this. The energy of the people walking past was happy and upbeat, which in turn energized her and her muse. She was doing a brisk business, even selling two of her bigger pieces.

A break in the crowd finally gave her a chance to catch her breath and pull a peanut butter and banana sandwich out of her bag. She nibbled on her lunch while checking her phone for messages and emails. She was almost done when a new email popped up, and she read it with a gleeful squeal. After months of waiting, the dating site she and the others had signed up for had finally come online, and she had a match!

She didn’t bother to read the terms and conditions. Instead, she scrolled to the bottom of the email and clicked the link to her match. “Please let him be cute. Please let him be cute.”

“Hello, hotness.” She stared at the image on her screen, then squealed in delight, crammed her sandwich in her mouth, and hopped off the stool to crouch beside her bag. She grabbed her sketch book, thumbing through the pages.

Gotcha.

Phone in one hand, sketch book in the other, Lisa compared the two likenesses. The only detail that differed was his eyes. His were dark brown instead of the gold she’d envisioned. She set the book aside and sat down again, happily nibbling on her sandwich while she read through the rest of the information on her mystery man’s profile. His name was Vadir, and he was an entrepreneur with a wide range of corporate investments. She wrinkled her nose. Her match was a corporate suit-and-tie guy? How was that going to work?

She scrolled back up to his picture and took a better look. He wasn’t wearing a suit in the photo. It was a dress shirt, unbuttoned at the throat. Well, at least he knew how to be a little unbuttoned already. The rest, she’d just have to teach him. There was no doubt in her mind that she’d have the opportunity. His face in her sketch book proved they already had a connection. All that was left was for her to click the little button labeled “Accept Match.”

A tap of her finger and it was done. “Alright, Mister Corporate hottie, tag, you’re it.”

She set the phone to vibrate and left it on her easel while she finished her lunch. She was still wiping the last traces of peanut butter off her fingers when the phone buzzed.

It couldn’t be him already, could it? She checked to make sure there weren’t any potential customers nearby and then grabbed her phone. She had a new message on the dating site.

“Hello. Couldn’t be happier to know you accepted me as your match. I’m intrigued by your profile and entranced by your picture. I’m happy to communicate with you by email, but to be honest, I’d rather talk to you in person. Would you be interested in meeting me for dinner?”

No spelling mistakes. Complete sentences. No sexual innuendoes and he’d used multi-syllable words. Vadir had already managed to outperform eighty percent of her online dates, and they hadn’t even met yet.

Why don’t we do both? Chat now, meet for dinner later? Do you have time for that? Her heart was racing as she typed out her response and sent it.

The answer came back within seconds. “For you, I’ll make time. What would you like to chat about?”

Wow. Feeling flushed and giddy, she typed out her answer. “We should probably start by deciding where to meet for dinner. What’s your favourite food?”

While he was answering her question, Lisa called Maggie, eager to learn if she’d been matched, too. When it turned out she had, Lisa had bounced off her stool to do a victory dance right there on the seawall.

“You got one too? Who did you get? My guy is gorgeous. His name’s Vadir, and he’s stunning.”

Maggie, ever the cautious one, confessed she hadn’t clicked the link yet, which led to some cajoling and minor threats. Once she saw her match, Maggie was excited, too, even if she tried to hide it. Lisa knew her friend too well to buy the act. Maggie had a crunchy shell, but underneath, she was a gooey romantic who wanted what they all did--someone to share their lives with.

Once she was sure Maggie was on board, Lisa let her go and called Gwen. She was probably tucked away in her favourite corner of the used bookshop where she worked, reading through her lunch hour again. Gwen didn’t pick up, another sure sign she was reading.

“Hey, Gwen. Call or text me when you get this. Just checking in to see if you got your match from Star-Crossed dating agency, yet. Maggie and I did, so the odds are good you got one, too. I hope yours is as hot as mine.”

Two hours later, the wind was rising, and the ocean had turned from blue to greenish-grey, a sure sign that the weather was about to turn. The crowds had thinned, and Lisa decided it was time to head home.

She messaged Vadir to let him know she was finished work. They’d been messaging back and forth all afternoon, and the more they talked, the more Lisa wanted to meet him. He was smart, witty, and had asked her all sorts of questions about her instead of talking about himself.

“See you at six. Looking forward to continuing this conversation in person.”

His message made her want to kick up her heels and dance. It was about time things started looking up for her and her friends. They’d been on the downside of Fortune's wheel for what felt like forever.

The three of them had met in foster care, forging a friendship that survived every test and trial the world had thrown at them. Gwen was the first real friend Lisa ever had. They had arrived at their first home within days of each other, both of them reeling from grief and loss. Lisa had still been wearing the same clothes she’d worn to her mother’s funeral. They were the only ones she owned. The rest of her things had still been in an evidence locker, silent witnesses to her mother’s violent murder at the hands of her husband, Lisa’s father.

Gwen had lost her grandmother, the only family she had left in the world, and had only been in care for a week when Lisa was brought in. Lisa had recognized her on sight and run to hug the older girl. It didn’t matter that they’d never met. Lisa had sketched her face more than once, and she knew in her heart that this girl was destined to be her friend. Maggie had come into their lives a year later, and their little trio had been born.

Thoughts of Gwen had her checking her phone again. She had to have checked her messages at least once by now. There was only one reason her friend would have gone radio silent. Lisa sighed and looked skyward. “Come on, universe. Just once, couldn’t you let all three of us be happy at the same time?”

She packed up her homemade bike trailer a little faster, the need to get home and talk to Gwen pushing Vadir and their date to the back of her mind. Gwen wouldn’t want to ruin her friends’ good news, so she was probably already home, baking up a storm and trying to pretend it didn’t bother her that she hadn’t been matched. Gwen would see it as more proof that she was destined to be alone. As her thirty-fifth birthday loomed, Lisa could almost see her friend’s hopes for a family fade away.

Lisa still lived like she was in her twenties, and it was only recently that she’d felt any inclination to change that. It had been a gradual thing, but somewhere in the past year she’d stopped having short term flings and started looking for something more. So far, she’d come up short, which is why she’d joined Star-Crossed Dating Service.

The sky was darkening by the time she got home, and she pedaled the last few feet just as the first fat raindrops started to fall. She stashed her bike and trailer in the shed, locked it up, and made a run for the house she shared with her two best friends.

The scent of fresh-baked cookies was the only clue she needed to know where Gwen was the second she walked through the door.

Shaking the last stray raindrops from her hair, Lisa headed down the shared hallway until she reached Gwen’s door. Their living arrangement was a little different, but it worked. Each of them had their own suite on different floors. Lisa lived upstairs, Gwen had the main floor, and Maggie claimed the basement.

“Hey, cookie momma, I’m coming in.”

“It’s open.”

Lisa opened the door and was enveloped in a fragrant cloud of sugar, chocolate, and cinnamon. Racks of cooling cookies covered the small kitchen table, and there was even a tray of brownies sitting on the counter. “I’d ask if you were okay, but I can see you’re not. Cookies and brownies? How bad a day are you having?”

Gwen groaned and gestured around her. “There’s an apple pie in the oven, too. Does that answer your question?”

“Oh man. That’s bad.”

“They’re closing the bookstore. Jeff says he just can’t afford to lose any more money.

We close the doors at the end of the month, but Jeff offered to keep me on to help him pack up and get the place ready to sell. But I’m going to be out work soon.”

“Shit. No wonder you’re baking. You’ve had that job for what, ten years? That store is like your second home.”

Gwen nodded and wiped her eyes with a corner of the brightly patterned floral apron she was wearing. “I’ll find something else, but I don’t think it’ll be the same. That was the one thing in my life I was good at, you know?”

“You’re good at so much more than selling books.”

“I’m thirty-five years old, and all I know how to do is read and run a cash register. I can’t even get a date right now. How am I going to find a job in this economy?”

Lisa winced. “No dates? So, you didn’t get an email from Star-Crossed like Maggie and I did?”

“Oh, I got an email. Basically, it said thank you for your interest, but there’s no match in our database for you at this time as they are catering to a younger age group. At least I’ll get the money, they’re mailing me a cheque. I’m going to need it.”

“They said you were too old? You’re only two years older than me! How can they say that? You’re young, gorgeous, and amazing. I’m going to email and tell them they made a mistake.”

Gwen shook her head, making her black curls bounce slightly. “Don’t. Whatever they’re looking for, I’m not it. I’m okay with that. Not every guy wants a borderline spinster with a double helping of curves. I’ll just have to look for my forever guy somewhere else. I haven’t given up on him, but I wish he’d get here soon.”

Lisa wished her friend could see herself the way others did. She was beautiful, inside and out, but Gwen couldn’t see it. “Your forever guy is out there. I know it.”

“Forget me and my non-existent love life. Show me the guy they matched you with.”

“Which one do you want to see, the picture they sent me today, or the drawing I made of him months ago?”

Gwen’s mouth fell open. “You drew him? But you only do that when…Oh my god. Show me both!”

They talked for another twenty minutes, and when she left to get ready for her date, Gwen had stopped baking and was starting to clean up her kitchen, which Lisa took as a good sign.

Soon, the three of them would have a girls’ night in and make sure that Gwen was truly okay. She’d have to check with Maggie and find out when she had a free night.

As she made her goodbyes, Gwen tucked a baggie full of cookies into her hand. “If the date goes badly, they’re good comfort food.”

“What if it goes really well?”

Her dark eyes gleamed with amusement. “Then they’ll be a great high energy snack between rounds of mind-blowing sex. I’m living vicariously through you, so have fun!”

Lisa nodded and dashed upstairs to get ready for her date. Tonight was going to be something special, she could feel it. The only thing darkening her mood was the fact that Gwen wasn’t sharing in their good fortune. Sometimes, the universe was grossly unfair.