Afternoon Delight by Mia Zachary Read Free Book Online

himself to never hearing from her. She would end up being a fond memory of a phenomenal night and nothing more. Too bad, but it wasn’t like he was looking for a relationship anyway. On the other hand, though, his client was.
    Eric was a tall, thin, African American man with big ears, a big heart and an even bigger smile when he bothered to use it. He was a nice guy with a good job but he had zero self-esteem. Chris studied his poor posture and downcast eyes.
    “Is this how you talked to Michelle?”
    Eric finally looked at him. “What do you mean?”
    “Women are verbal communicators, men are physical. Everything about your body language right now says, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ You can’t connect with a woman if you don’t make eye contact. You can’t let her know you’re open to a relationship if your attitude is closed. Come over here.”
    He grabbed Eric by the shoulder and pushed him toward the triple mirror in the corner. “Look at us. What’s different?”
    Eric’s dark-brown eyes showed a spark of humoras he took in Chris’s paler, blonder reflection. “You mean besides the obvious?”
    “Yeah, besides that.” He smiled.
    “You’re bigger than me, and better dressed.”
    Chris shook his head. “I might look bigger, but I’m not. We’re about the same build. Now, stand up straight. Hold your head up and put your shoulders back. See?”
    In the mirror, all three of Eric appeared larger and more self-assured. His expression revealed that he saw it, too.
    “Now watch this, watch what I’m doing while I’m talking to you.” Chris hunched his shoulders and let his eyes shift from Eric’s mouth to his hair to a point beyond his shoulder. “My lack of focus tells you what? That I don’t care about you, about who you might be beneath the surface and that I’m looking to see if there’s someone better to talk to.”
    “Ah, man. That’s probably what Michelle thought, when really I was just nervous. No wonder she blew me off.”
    Chris clapped him on the shoulder. “Now that you know, be aware of it. If you don’t get anything else out of these sessions, get this—confidence is sexy. It’s all about knowing who you are inside and out. Nothing will impress a woman more.”
    He worked with Eric for another forty-five minutes, mostly trying to convince him that eventually he would find the right woman. Four more individual sessions with male clients followed, effectively keeping him from thinking about Jade. Sort of.Several times, she crept into his thoughts and he had to remind himself to focus on the job. It was a lot of extra work when he could have just let the computer program handle the matchmaking. But Chris felt it was worth the time and effort.
    Just because he’d never fallen in love didn’t mean he couldn’t make it happen for someone else.
    Not long after he opened Lunch Meetings, Chris had realized that too many of his early applicants just wanted to get in, get off and get out. Even those men who wanted to fall in love were more likely to screw up a budding relationship than the female clients. Either they made mistakes at the beginning or they weren’t willing to put in the effort to keep it going and they walked out when things got too complicated.
    Like his father.
    So Chris began quietly offering courtship counseling to the men who seemed genuinely interested but totally clueless. Using his own experiences and education, he helped his clients reform their self-image and destructive behaviors. Sure, it was manipulative. But it worked and that’s what mattered.
    At least it worked for other people. He’d seen it happen, helped make it happen, but in that hollow void inside him he didn’t believe it would happen for him. He was much better at fixing other people’s lives than finding lasting happiness in his own.
     
    T HE AFTERNOON DOCKET cleared quickly and the day ended on a high note, as Rei approved the adoptionof a seventeen-year-old girl. A special hearing had