"Come on, it's time to check!" Athena said.
"I don't want to do this," Apollo said, shaking his head. "Last night was embarrassing."
"But you have to! What if your true love is out there, waiting for you?"
"I don't think that's likely."
"Loser!" Widget said.
"Widget! Quiet!" Athena said. "Look, aren't you even a little curious to see if you got any matches? Besides, Mr. Wright will be mad at you, if you don't."
"Fine," Apollo said. He closed the document he was looking at, then started up his Internet browser. He went to the NIAB Speed Dating website and logged on. His mouse hovered over the "your results" link.
"What are you waiting for?" Athena asked.
"They said the results don't show up until 10:00 AM," Apollo said. "It's only 9:58."
"You're totally delaying," Athena said. "What's wrong? I thought you said you had fun last night."
"I lied," Apollo said. "It was awful."
"What?" Athena asked. "What are you saying? I had lots of fun at speed dating!"
Apollo's wrist throbbed. "Ow!" he said, grabbing his hand. "See, that's why it was awful!"
"What?"
"Don't you remember?" Apollo said. "My bracelet twitches every time someone tells a lie! And last night, it was twitching like crazy! I'm probably going to have a bruise from this."
Athena was not impressed. ""Then why don't you...I dunno...take your bracelet off?"
"I can't," Apollo said. "This is the only thing I have to remember my mother by."
Athena's hand went to Widget. "I understand," she said softly. "So...you're saying that the girls lied to you last night?"
"They lied a lot," Apollo said. "Maybe they wanted to impress me, or something."
Athena sighed. "Well, that explains why you yelled 'GOTCHA!' at that one girl."
Apollo grinned sheepishly and ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah, I guess I went on cross-examination autopilot, for a moment there..."
"To be honest...oh! It's ten now! Check! Check!"
"Okay, I'm checking!"
Apollo clicked the link.
Welcome, Apollo Justice! Here are your results for the 18-25 year old speed dating event!
You have zero match(es).
"Of course," Apollo sighed.
To her credit, Athena didn't laugh at Apollo. She merely pushed him out of his chair. "My turn!"
"Hey!" Apollo said.
Athena logged off as Apollo, then logged in as herself. "I betcha, I have fifty matches!" she said.
Welcome, Athena Cykes! Here are your results for the 18-25 year old speed dating event!
You have zero match(es).
"Oh, come on!" Athena said. "This thing must be broken!"
Apollo started chucking. "And you gave me so much grief about not wanting to see my results! What happened to you, Lover Girl?"
Athena looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "Okay...I only picked two people as matches."
"Only two? Weren't there, like, thirty guys there?"
"Yeah, but they were all perverts and slobs!"
"They seemed pretty nice to me," Apollo said.
"You can't hear people's hearts," Athena said. "Most of the guys had...ill intentions towards me. Or they just plain didn't like me."
"Ill intentions? What does that mean?"
"Sheesh, don't you know anything? It means they wanted one night stands!" Athena said. "Anyway, how come you didn't pick me as a match? I picked you!"
"I-you-what?" Apollo gasped. "You want to date me?"
"No, of course not," Athena said, rolling her eyes. "We can't date each other. We're co-workers, and besides, you're a little too uptight for me."
"Can't argue there, I guess..." Apollo said. "Then why did you pick me as a match?"
"Because we're friends!"Athena explained.
"I don't need your pity matches," Apollo said, cold-faced.
"Better a pity match than no matches at all, I guess..." Athena said.
That was the end of the conversation, until Phoenix came back from his break. He took a long drink from his bottle of grape juice, then put it down on his desk. "Ahhhhh," Phoenix said. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
"No, sir, boss! Quiet as usual!" Athena said, saluting.
Apollo looked over his computer. "Mr. Wright? The next time you get coupons for that speed dating place?"
Phoenix raised his eyebrows in interest. "Yeah?"
"Give them to someone else. Not us."
Phoenix cracked a smile. "Let me guess. It was a total disaster?"
"How'd you know?" Athena asked.
Phoenix chuckled. "The guy who runs those events is an old friend of mine. Larry. He's the one who gave me those half-off coupons in the first place. It's not too surprising if the event didn't work out like it was supposed to. Larry's track record with romance is...less than stellar."
"And he runs a speed dating business?" Athena asked.
"I know, right? Some of my friends are weird like that," Phoenix said.
"I'll say," Apollo muttered.
"Get back to work, Apollo!" Phoenix ordered.