Perfect Match by J. Minter

donate him to
you
today, Camille.”
    â€œOh, you guys, I couldn’t possibly accept such a gift,” Camille said, swatting her hand. “Well, okay, if you insist.”
    But hey, if my friends wanted to nudge Camilletoward drooling over other guys, I was definitely all for that.
    We filed down the tranquil hallway into the lavender candlelit group massage room. Five beds were set up like lotus petals, with all the heads facing one another so we could chat while the spa technicians worked their magic. We all lay down on our stomachs and grinned.
    â€œIt’s been too long since we’ve done this,” Harper said.
    â€œWaaaay too long,” Morgan agreed, closing her eyes. “The last time we were here, they were playing Carrie Underwood on satellite radio.”
    Leave it to Morgan to categorize time according to what music was in or on its way out.
    â€œMaybe I should get dumped more often,” Camille said. “You know, to give us a reason to indulge.”
    When everyone’s face fell, she added, “I’m
kidding
, you guys. I don’t want us all to feel like we have to tiptoe around it. Xander broke up with me. Life goes on, right?”
    â€œRight,” we all agreed, looking down at our beds.
    In a rare moment of chattiness, Georgio leaned down to Camille and said, “Whoever hurt you is an idiot, Princess. A beautiful flower like you should have any man she chooses.”
    Even in the dimly lit room, I could tell Camille was bright red. But Georgio was right: Camille was a total catch. Maybe what she needed now was a guy who wasn’t afraid to remind her of that. It was a shame Georgio wasn’t a viable option.
    Camille sighed. “Maybe I just need to, you know, put the whole thing out of my mind.”
    Exactly!
I thought. Put Xander out of her mind with the help of an older, more mature, more Georgio-like guy.
    â€œExactly,” Morgan said. “Which is why the rest of us have sworn off boys indefinitely to support you. Right, girls?”
    â€œRight,” Harper chimed in evenly, and Amory nodded in agreement.
    â€œRight,” I added. Sigh.
    I looked up at the other girls to see if I could gauge what they thought of Morgan’s guy-ditching doctrine. Harper looked stoic as usual. In fact, something about the way she was lying there, sheet-clad, reminded me of someone. …
    It struck me out of nowhere. She looked exactly like the subject of a painting in our country house in Connecticut! Patch’s artist friend Trevor had painted it last summer when he was studying at Julliard, and my mother thought he was so talented that she’dbought it to hang over our fireplace. I remembered my mother grilling Trevor about his blossoming talent, but when she’d asked him who his muse was, he’d blushed and stammered that he hadn’t met her yet. He had just painted his ideal beauty.
    I wondered if Trevor was still painting in New York. And I wondered how quickly I could arrange to introduce him to his future muse. …
    â€œFlip,” my decidedly un-Georgio-like masseuse commanded. I turned over onto my back so the hefty Swedish woman could slather the cool green seaweed mask on my other side.
    I closed my eyes and continued to let SBB’s matchmaking advice marinate in my thoughts. Where was I? I’d already come up with a type of guy for Camille—now I just had to think of the right older, handsome man for her. And Harper would be totally excited when I told her about my plot to make her an artist’s muse. I craned my neck to the side to look at Amory to see if inspiration would strike a third time. She caught my gaze, winked, and stuck out her tongue at me.
    Good, now what guy did I know who was as much of a ham as Amory? He would have to have the same stylish exterior and goofball interior—ooh! What about Alex’s actor friend, Phil, from the moviepremiere? He’d looked pretty amazing in his