Ruby Fox can tell when a room has bad energy. Men are harder, mostly because she keeps talking herself out of what she notices.

After one date critiques the wine and another brings crystals for her "feminine receptivity," Ruby is ready to take a break. Instead, the Portland home stager gets a rush job at a gorgeous 1912 Craftsman that buyers can't wait to leave.

The house has great bones, impossible energy, a box of old photographs tied with a faded blue ribbon, a girl named June, and a door that keeps opening after contractor Graham Ellis fixes it.

Graham is calm, practical, and irritatingly good at listening without turning Ruby's feelings into a project. But just as the house begins giving up its secrets, Ruby's ex reappears with perfect lighting and an almost-apology polished enough to be tempting.

Now Ruby has to decide which feelings are fear, which are history, and which are simply information she has spent too long explaining away.

Bad Date Energy is a funny, emotionally sharp romantic comedy with a slightly spooky old-house mystery, terrible dates, female friendship, slow-burn chemistry, and one extremely suspicious tiny fork.