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As she watched, he slowly shook his head as if accepting defeat She knehat he was thinking--that his life would never be different, that he would never get the girl He was trapped--just like her Only his proble any idea what she was doing, Jesse jumped up, tossed her empty coffee container in the trash and went outside She could see Matt walking up the street

"Wait," she called

He didn’t turn around Probably because it never occurred to hi to hilanced over his shoulder, then frowned She hurried toward him

"Hi," she said, still without a plan "How are you?"

"Do I know you?"

"Not really I just, ah--" Noas her turn to stahtmare"

He shoved both hands into his jeans and ducked his head "Thanks for the recap," he said and kept walking

She went after him "I didn’t mean it like that Obviously you’re really bad omen"

He flushed "Nice assessment Is this what you do? Follow people around and point out their flaws? I’"

"It’s not that I can help"

She had no idea where the words came from, but the second she spoke them, she knew they were true

He barely slowed "Go away"

"No Look, you have a lot of potential, but no clue I’m a woman I can tell you how to dress, what to say, what topics to avoid"

He flinched "I don’t think so"

Suddenly thisabout so about her own Besides, his life was fixable

She rement she’d seen on the news a couple of weeks before "I’ to be a lifestyle coach I need to practice on soe you forthis up as she went "I’ll teach you everything you need to know You’ll get the girl"

He stopped and looked at her Even through the glasses she could see his eyes were large and dark Bedrooo crazy for the," he said flatly "You’re not a lifestyle coach"

"I said I was in training I can still help I know guys I knoorks Look, you have no reason to believeto lose"

"What’s in it for you?"

She thought about the ongoing fights with her sister, the job she hated and the lack of direction in her life She thought about how she spent every single day feeling like the biggest failure on the planet

"I get to do so the truth

He studied her for a long time "Why should I trust you?"

"Because I’ What’s the worst that could happen?"

"You could drug me and ship me off to some country where hed "At least you have an i Say yes, Matt Take a chance on me"

She wondered if he would No one ever believed in her Then he shrugged

"What the hell"

She grinned "Great Okay, first thing--" Her cell phone rang "Sorry," she orgeous How are you?"

She wrinkled her nose "Zeke, this isn’t a good tireat ti up, not wanting to hear what sex with her was like She returned her attention to Matt "Sorry about that Where was I? Oh, yeah The next step"

She pulled her Starbucks receipt out of her back pocket, then took one of the pens sticking out of his pocket protector After tearing the receipt in half, she wrote down her cell number on one piece and handed it to hiing you will be ive me your number"

He did

She handed hiet a plan together, then I’ll be in touch" She sreat Trust me"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Yes, but pretend you don’t"

JESSE DROPPED HER heavy backpack on a chair at a table and set down her latte She and Matt had agreed to meet at yet another Starbucks to discuss her plan

She pulled out her list and dug through the ht for a pen, then shifted impatiently as she waited for him to arrive

She was early She was never early Even more unusual, she was actually enthused about her makeover project She couldn’t re Not that Matt had sounded that thrilled when she’d called to set up their reed

Five minutes later he walked into the Starbucks He was dressed just as badly as he had been the first time she’d seen him What ith the too-short jeans? And the pocket protector? They had to go first

He waved at her and walked up to the counter to order Her cell phone rang

She grabbed it "Hello?"

"Babe Andrew Tonight?"

"Andrew, has it ever occurred to you that things would go more smoothly in your day if you used verbs?" She looked up and smiled as Matt approached "I’ll just be a sec," she whispered

"I don’t need verbs, babe I got the goods So we on or what? There’s a party We go there, come back here Everybody wins"