After last week's unexpected encounter, Liam was happy to see everything was back to normal. It was easier to see Gavin as his annoying client when he showed up at his door again at a time when no one else would dare come.

"Gavin," he addressed him in lieu of a greeting.

The tall man stood in front of the door, staring at the "closed" sign, his gaze so intense it was as if he thought it would magically turn over.

After hearing Liam's voice, though, his attention quickly turned to the blond.

"I brought you coffee." He didn't bother with a greeting either, and it was only now that Liam noticed he had a paper holder with two cups in his hands.

"Is that supposed to be a bribe?" Liam asked, nodding his head toward the locked door.

"No, just me being nice," Gavin assured him. "You do open in five minutes."

The blond wanted to retort that most people didn't wait for the exact time a business would open, especially when it was a service and not a necessary purchase like groceries or a drugstore. The only reason he didn't was because Gavin took advantage of the fact that he was now facing him to hand him his coffee.

It was still hot in his hands, and even though the cup was closed, the delicious aroma rose to Liam's nose, soothing him.

With a sigh, he pulled the keys out of his pocket and put them in the lock. He could feel Gavin's gaze at the back of his head as he watched him unlock the door, but he chose to ignore it.

"After you," he urged the tanned man when he finally managed to open the door.

"The light switch is on the right," he instructed him further after they both stepped inside. The building, just like Liam, wasn't ready for such an early visit.

The blond put his coffee down on the nearest cabinet for a moment so he could take off his windbreaker and hang it on the coat rack. When he turned back to Gavin, the tall man was standing in his usual spot.

"There's a button on the side," Liam revealed to him, deciding to spare himself questions about the board before they could come.

Gavin didn't hesitate and switched on the LED board to reveal the quote of the day — "Love is an endless mystery."

The moment the tanned man saw the words, he started laughing. Liam didn't understand what was funny about it, of course, but he didn't have the energy to ask him about it. Right now, he just wanted his coffee.

"My office?" he suggested as he stepped closer, and thankfully Gavin didn't protest, falling into step beside him.

While Gavin sat down at the desk, Liam turned on the light and then joined him, setting his coffee on the desk.

"What was so serious that it couldn't wait until later?" Liam asked. He wouldn't have dared to utter such a question at any other time, considering it rude, but since Gavin still didn't respect his opening hours, he decided to reciprocate.

"Damn. Are you always like this in the morning?" The tall man wasn't offended; rather, his face showed an amusement he didn't even try to hide.

"It's 7:30," Liam reminded him. "Most of my clients come here at lunch or after work."

"Then why are you here?" Gavin asked.

"I know when my regular clients come here, not the new ones. If someone new decides to look for love, I'll be here for them," the blond replied without hesitation.

The tanned man shook his head in disbelief. "If you keep this up, the real Cupid will be out of a job."

"I like to think we're working together," Liam replied. "I can steer people in the right direction, but in the end, it's not about the right decision — it's about the one the heart makes."

"I've never met anyone who takes love as seriously as you do," Gavin stated before taking a sip from his coffee, reminding Liam that he should do the same before it got cold.

"Someone has to," Liam replied simply, shrugging. Then he finally lifted the cup to his lips and was surprised to find that Gavin remembered his order exactly, as he could taste both the cappuccino and the sugar.

"So, what happened?" He repeated his question, more lightly this time.

"A lot," Gavin replied. "I'm beginning to think that your app is only used by people who are so insufferable in real life that it's their only chance to attract anyone."

Liam almost asked if he counted himself in that group too, but fortunately, he bit his tongue.

"I take it you had another bad date," he said instead.

Gavin nodded. "I decided to switch it up and pick a woman again. Bad choice."

"What didn't you like about her?" Liam asked before he sipped from his coffee.

"You know how men like mysterious women?" He didn't wait for Liam's response and continued. "There was nothing mysterious about her. She told me everything. And I mean everything."

"Care to elaborate more?" the blond prompted him.

The tall man sighed, as if the mere thought of this woman was wearing him out. "Apparently, her New Year's resolution was to be a better person. She told me she'd been a bad friend and partner in the past, and that's why she decided to change. To be more honest."

"What did she tell you?"

"She doesn't shower every day. She makes tea in the same mug even three times in a row if she makes the same tea without washing it. She washes her black socks less often since they don't show when they're dirty," Gavin enumerated. "I know it's stuff almost everyone does, but I don't think it's something you talk about out loud, let alone on a date."

Liam had to agree. Only James knew things like that about him, and that was because they lived together. He couldn't imagine talking about his bad habits to someone he liked.

"Did you tell her it was too much?" he asked. After all, Gavin had no problem with critique, just as he had no problem with pettiness.

"I told her there was such a thing as being too honest," Gavin replied. "She didn't like it."

"I mean," Liam began, "it's not a bad thing to be honest. She had a good idea, just bad execution. I'd rather know too much truth than none."

"Maybe." The tall man at least partially acknowledged that Liam might be right, and even that was surprising. "But even so, she revealed too much for a first date. You're supposed to learn most of those things a few months into a relationship, not right away."

The blond nodded. "I agree. I'm no psychologist, but from what you're saying, it sounds to me like she has trust issues, probably because of some former relationship. Sounds like she's looking for someone she can trust, but she's testing that out in a not-so-good way." He frowned. "If you give me her name, I can see if she's one of my clients so I can talk to her."

So far, Gavin had only been on a date with one of his clients; the rest fell under his aunt.

Instead of an answer, he got a question. "Have any of your clients ever talked about me?"

"No," Liam answered honestly. "Not all of them come to me for advice. It's voluntary."

"Shame." Despite his words, he didn't appear to be really unhappy about it. Not when he sipped contentedly from his coffee and leaned back.

"So... her name?" Liam brought the conversation back to his question.

"Hope Riley Monroe," Gavin replied. "Her mom almost named her Crystal, but apparently it sounded too much like a name for a stripper, so she changed her mind. Her dad wanted Bianca, but she said her mom rejected it for the same reason."

It was that earnestness with which he said it again. Whenever Gavin told him something totally bizarre, he said it as if they were talking about the weather or some news story. There was nothing about his tone that suggested he was saying something completely crazy.

Naturally, once again, it made Liam laugh like so many times before.

"She's not my client," he revealed to the tall man between laughs. Gavin, on the other hand, seemed amused as well, but there was something more hidden in his smile.

"I'm your best client, I know," Gavin assured him, still smiling in satisfaction.

"You're my most persistent client," Liam corrected him. "I don't mean that in a bad way. You're just the only one who wants to hear my opinion after every date."

"You're easy to talk to." Gavin shrugged. Something about his statement made Liam's mind circle back to the question that had been lingering since the beginning but that he hadn't worked up the courage to ask. Was this the right moment?

In the end, he couldn't resist and didn’t let the opportunity slip through his fingers. "Does that mean you're going to tell me the reason you decided to look for love through our agency?"

"Isn't looking for love reason enough?" Gavin returned the question.

Liam didn’t take his intense gaze off him, trying to read more into his face when words wouldn't reveal it. His silence was ultimately more effective than his question.

The tall man sighed, and Liam immediately sharpened his attention.

"It's not that I don't want to look for love," Gavin said at first, but after a few seconds, he followed up with, "Actually, I wasn't looking for it until now. I always thought love was supposed to find me and not the other way around."

Liam couldn't help himself and automatically asked, "What's changed?"

"My parents were pressuring me."

Whatever answer the blond was expecting, this wasn't it. "What do you mean?"

"I'm twenty-eight years old, and in their eyes, that means I should have been married a long time ago," Gavin explained. "When I came out to them, I thought they'd be taken aback and ease up on their demands, but they didn't. Quite the opposite, in fact. They started telling me even more that I should have gotten with someone a long time ago since I have more options."

Liam listened, not yet knowing what to make of this. "Did they suggest you use a dating agency?"

Surprisingly, the tanned man shook his head. "I did." The expression on his face changed and darkened, as if something was weighing him down. Despite the few unpleasant dates he'd been on, Liam hadn't seen him like this before, and it was starting to worry him.

"My parents come from money. It's not unusual in either of their families to have arranged marriages. They gave me a condition that if I didn't find someone on my own, they'd find me someone to settle down with," Gavin shocked him by saying.

The blond's mouth went agape at first as he had no idea how to react quickly. It wasn't something he heard every day, even though he called himself an expert on love and relationships.

"But you're an adult?" was all he could muster in the end.

Gavin chuckled briefly, perhaps amused by Liam's shocked expression, perhaps by his lack of words. "It doesn't matter," he assured him. "Being unmarried means I'm the black sheep of the family."

The blond frowned. "That's cruel."

"Cruel?" the tall man repeated, and this time it seemed that Liam had managed to surprise him. "Outdated, perhaps. But why cruel?"

"Sounds like you're not enough on your own. As if your worth depends on whether you share your life with someone. It's cruel," Liam explained, his voice clearly reflecting that he disapproved.

"You don't have to feel sorry for me," Gavin assured him immediately, but he didn't seem as bothered by Liam's sympathy as he claimed.

"I don't feel sorry for you," the blond responded promptly. "It's just that I've gotten to know you over the past few weeks, and you're too cynical, too stubborn, too funny for anyone not to take you as a whole person."

"So you admit I'm funny?" A wide smile finally appeared on the face of the man across from him.

Liam rolled his eyes before he could stop himself. "Sometimes," he acknowledged at last.

After that, the atmosphere between them relaxed, and instead of continuing the topic, Gavin steered it in a different direction, asking Liam's advice on who he should choose next.

Liam offered him advice, of course—it was his job—but today's revelation stuck in his mind, even if it was pushed to the back of it for a moment.

"Can you imagine marrying someone just because your parents want you to?" was the first thing Liam asked when he walked in the door of his apartment and saw James in the kitchen.

"Where did that question come from?" James answered him with a question of his own, even though he was used to his best friend's philosophizing about love and relationships in all the years he'd known him.

"I can't say," the blond said. Even though he wasn't a doctor or a lawyer, he still took keeping his clients' secrets very seriously.

"So from work," James stated, nodding his head while he prepared instant soup.

Liam gave him a look that was intended to let him know he didn't have to say it out loud. His irritation didn't even last a few seconds, however, as he joined him at the counter, inspired by his idea for dinner.

"So?" the blond reminded his roommate that he still hadn't answered him. "Can you?"

"You know my parents," James pointed out to him, lifting his gaze to his. "I don't even want to imagine who they would have picked for me."

His answer didn't matter in the end, as Liam managed to lose himself in his thoughts anyway. Even though he still thought Gavin was annoying, he also thought he deserved true, fervent love.

"Oh, no," he heard James' voice next to him, but he didn't respond. Instead, he focused on the single goal in his mind. He was determined to find Gavin's true love no matter what it took.

From this moment on, he no longer found Gavin's regular visits annoying—quite the opposite. He looked forward to them.