“Sorry, T. No luck this time either. -MatchedAce”
“Hi Avery. What happened? -MatchedTori”
“Nothing. -MatchedAce”
“What does that mean? -MatchedTori”
“It means nothing happened. She was nice, but I wasn’t feeling it. - MatchedAce”
Great. Another failure. Avery with his ‘ not feeling it’ and Lauren with all her complaining were messing up my record.
“Okay. Let’s have a meeting next week to discuss options. Mel will call you. Goodnight! -MatchedTori”
“Damn. - MatchedAce.”
“Damn? - MatchedTori.”
“Yes, Damn. -MatchedAce.”
“Care to elaborate? -MatchedTori.”
“You shut me down :( -MatchedAce.”
“I wasn’t trying to shut you down. My apologies. -MatchedTori.”
“And is that a… frowny face? -MatchedTori.”
“Yes, it is. Never had a grown ass man send you a frowny face before? -MatchedAce.”
“I have, just not you. -MatchedTori.”
“Does it make me less manly? -MatchedAce.”
“You’re all man, Avery. - MatchedTori.”
Wait, what? Why the hell did I say that?
I was still frantically wishing I had included a ‘recall message’ feature when I built the Matched app when I received Avery’s response.
“Tell me more about that. :D -MatchedAce.”
“Shut up. -MatchedTori.”
“What are you doing right now? -MatchedAce.”
“In the bed. Why? -MatchedTori.”
“Come on another ‘not a date’ with me. -MatchedAce.”
I sucked in a breath. It had been three weeks since I’d met Avery for that test date, and neither of us had mentioned it since then. Personally, I’d been making it a point not to think about what it meant that Avery had very nearly kissed me, and tried to ask me out. I felt a little guilty about telling the lie that we weren’t a match, but that was easier than explaining the truth— I just wasn’t good at relationships. Avery wanted something long term, which I couldn’t give. Add that with the minor detail of him being a client, and no matter what the computer said, it wasn’t happening.
“Don’t over think it. I like being around you. Don’t make an excuse. You’re in the bed before ten on a Friday, you don’t have anything better to do. Be ready at ten-thirty. I’m coming to get you. -MatchedAce.”
The hell you are.
I raised my thumb to the screen to tap out a response, but hesitated before I hit send. Maybe I was over thinking it. The ‘not a date’ with him the month before was the most fun I’d had since when I was with him in the Maldives. Hell, I liked being around him too, and it’s not as I was about to spend my night doing anything else. I erased what I had already typed, and sent back one word.
“Okay. -MatchedTori.”
— & —
“I thought you said you weren’t drinking? Clearly you had a few too many glasses of wine if you think whatever that shit is looks better than mine.” I tossed Avery and his pitiful looking painting a playful scowl as we stood in front of them, waiting on them to dry.
He shook his head, leaning forward to squint at my canvas. “Well… I guess if I look really close, I can tell it’s supposed to be a bunch of paint splashed all over. Your composition is great though.”
Dodging my hand as I attempted to slap his shoulder, he grabbed me around the waist, pulling me into a sideways hug. “I’m playing, it looks good. I guess I can give you your props, you have some talent. I thought your pops was just bragging on you.”
I took a quiet breath, trying to ignore the warm, familiar flutters of arousal created by the close contact with his solid body. And he smelled good. God, he smelled so good. “What? What does my dad have to do with anything?”
“How do you think I knew you liked to paint? That day I went to your parent’s house, he told me you were always into art and stuff.”