C19 Chapter 19

The woman waved her hand at the retreating back of the guy who had just been hassling her. “No guy is going to want you if you treat them like that. It's no surprise Dale went looking elsewhere.”

What.

The.

Fuck?

Was it still too early for that drink?

“Fuck,” Finn growled under his breath. Any minute now Carter would be in Finn’s office gloating and Finn would have no more excuses.

“3, 2, 1.”

The office door opened and Carter stood there, a big grin on his face.

“What did I tell you?”

Finn rolled his eyes. The results from the online poll were in and they were overwhelmingly in favor of Finn trying to get Peyton to fall in love with him.

“Fine,” Finn said with a sigh, “you win.”

“I really like hearing those words,” Carter said.

“Yeah, whatever, but don't say I didn't warn you. There is going to be a backlash about this.”

“Pfft.” Carter waved Finn’s comment away. “We are not exactly virgins when it comes to controversy.”

That was the truth. The Playbook had been the focus of quite a few online rants from unhappy women who thought they were sexist pigs. They were just guys being guys. And sure, in the early days they might have pushed the boundaries sometimes. But these days they were respectable businessmen providing a service for other men out there. It wasn't like they were a porn website. In fact, they didn't even have a ‘page three girl,’ or any women featured on their website. There were a plethora of websites out there for women so what was the big deal about having one just for men?

Finn shook his head in resignation. “Just as long as it is on record that I was against this,” he said.

“Whatever,” Carter responded. “I want the first post up this week. You only have four weeks to put your plan into action so bring your best moves, Devereaux.”

Finn rolled his eyes as Carter left his office. The guy was far too happy about all of this. He had no idea what had happened with Mallory, but she must have really screwed him over to get him this worked up. Carter wasn't normally so bloodthirsty or so set on a course of action that he didn't listen to reason.

The problem now, of course, was that Finn had to somehow live up to his online persona as the dating guru. For years he had been helping to get guys laid. It was simple, really. Women liked to feel like the center of the universe. If you gave them what they wanted, then they would give you what you wanted. It was a simple transaction. The sexual revolution meant that women were no longer afraid of wanting sex, they just wanted to feel a connection with their partner first.

One of their very ardent protestors had claimed that his column perpetuated a date rape culture, but that was the last thing Finn wanted. The one thing he made absolutely sure of when he advised men on how to pick up women was that no absolutely meant no. To find a sexual partner, even if it was only for one night, there had to be mutual attraction. Sex was only truly satisfying when both partners were enjoying it. When he advised other men on the art of seduction, his first rule was that he wasn't allowed to come until she did. He had been amazed at how many men had written him saying they didn't know how to satisfy a woman. The simple fact was, he believed, that you had to engage her mind as well as her body. Women were all-inclusive creatures. Men could fuck even if the room was burning down around them, but women needed all their senses engaged. That's what he taught his followers.

Falling in love, on the other hand, was a completely different kettle of fish. He had only ever been in love once and had avoided it ever since. Falling in love meant pain and heartbreak and he was quite happy to go through life never experiencing either ever again. Now he had to purposely go out there and try and make a woman fall in love with him. It was absurd, almost like some bad romantic movie script. The whole situation seemed surreal and he expected any moment to wake up to it all being a bad dream. Except he knew it wasn't a dream and Carter really was expecting him to do this.

Finn looked at his computer screen and the overflowing inbox that was his email. The reader's responses to his poll told him that there were men out there who were not content with just casual sex anymore. They wanted more and they wanted him to be the one to show them how to get it. For the first time since starting the blog, Finn felt out of his depth. Dating he could do. One night stands he was a master at. Casual hook-ups and booty calls came second nature to him. Relationships? Those were something he avoided like the plague.

He knew the goal was to get her to fall in love with him and that he could, and should, keep his heart out of the matter completely. He also knew that for her to really fall in love with him, he would have to open himself up to her. Women knew when you were being fake and if he went into this half-arsed, then she would know he wasn't genuine. The only way to get her to fall for him was to let himself fall for her.

Fuck. Where the hell did that thought even come from? He didn't want her to fall in love with him. He was only doing this so he could protect her against further ridicule. If anything, he wanted to show his readers that there was no formula they could follow in order to get a woman to fall in love. He knew from experience, limited though it was, that falling in love happened organically, even when you didn't want it to happen at all. Falling in love with another person was all about the chemicals in your brain and had nothing to do with how you wooed. That's why women fell in love with the arsehole instead of the nice guy. It was chemical, not behavioral.

If he had to do this dumb series, he would go into it with the intent of dismissing the myth that falling in love could somehow be manufactured. It just wasn't possible to pick a woman out of the crowd and decide she was going to fall in love with you, and he was going to prove it.