Finding Forever (10 page)

He nodded, giving me a smile. “I feel like I’m in good hands.”

“You are,” I assured him as I stood to escort him to the door of my office suite. Melanie gave me the evil eye as I passed. “We will be in touch with you tomorrow for the scheduling, ok?”

We exchanged goodbyes, which included a little sideways hug that caught me off guard. Even the brief contact of his body against mine made my nipples painfully hard, something I desperately hoped he didn’t notice. When he was on the other side of my door, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief and turned around, only to find that Mel was standing right behind me, one hand on her hip, the other pointing an accusing finger. “
You’ve slept with him.
Is he an ex?”

Surprised by her question, I took a step back, swatting her hand away from my face. I should have known she would notice something was up. Mel was better than I was at picking up the subtle hints of underlying emotion, which is why I’d hired her. In the few months she’d worked at
Matched
, she, along with her psychology degree, had already proven valuable, but today was a day I wished she had taken a late lunch— or better yet, the day off.

“No, I haven’t, and he’s not an ex. He’s Desiree’s brother.”

“Does Des know you slept with her brother?”

My eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

“It’s
all
over your body language Tori, don’t front,” Mel said, laughing. “You walk around here all bubbly and confident any other day, but today you’re all demure, talking about ‘
good afternoon Mr. Anderson, whatever makes your comfortable Mr. Anderson’.
I’m not blind, girl. It must have been
good
too, to have you all nervous,” Mel insisted, catching my hand as I headed for my office door. “There’s something else you aren’t saying.
When
did you sleep with him?”

I rolled my eyes, pulling away from her grasp. “I didn’t!”

Melanie gave a quiet gasp. “Why are you such a liar, and how are you doing it with such a straight face?”

“I don’t have time for this conversation right now Mel.”

“Oh don’t you dare try to drop this! I want the
whole
story!”

I lifted my hands to massage my temples, gritting my teeth as I spoke. “There is no story. He was a jerk to me, then he gave me a half-assed apology.”

“The flowers?”

“How did you know about the flowers?”

She raised her eyebrows. “
Duh,
I’m the one who signed for them. They were nice flowers.”

“Not nice enough.”

“So why are you working with him?”

Heaving out a sigh, I placed my hands on my hips. “Because Des asked. She’s a good friend, and doesn’t ask for much, so… I’m going to do this for her. Now can I get to it, please? So I can get it over with?” Not waiting for an answer, I sidestepped Mel and pushed open the door to my office. Collapsing into my chair, I threw my head against the back. I felt a little bad that I hadn’t given Mel the complete truth, but I knew if she thought there was anything there, she would bug the hell out of me, and I certainly didn’t need that. If I was lucky, I would get Avery matched quickly and could go back to never seeing him.

As I sat down at my computer, I noticed the query I’d started before showing Avery out had finished. I clicked the button that would show the results I needed — the top five women that were qualified matches. I got excited when I saw that one of them was a 98.24% match. Anything over 97%, in my experience, was a sure thing, unless, of course, it didn’t ‘feel’ right.

I picked up the phone to call her, to make sure she was still indeed single. Something about her number… seemed strange, but whatever. It wasn’t until my cell phone began ringing that I
really
looked at the name and photo attached to the profile. The phone dropped from my hand, making a loud clatter against the sleek, polished surface of my desk.

No. No, no, no, no.

The person who had a nearly 100% compatibility match with Avery… was
me.
Shit! I’d put myself in the system initially to assist in the creating my database. I needed
real
people,
real
answers to my questions to build software that actually worked, and it made sense to use myself. My profile, as was the intention for them all, was
me
, stripped down, no walls, no lies, and no cover-ups. It was the basis of who I was, and I
rarely
showed up as a match in anyone’s top fifteen. I had shown up as someone’s top match exactly twice. Rafael, and now Avery. If I thought about it too hard, it was a little disheartening that what I needed, and could offer, was so atypical that it was shocking that I had a match. This little discovery confirmed that maybe I wasn’t crazy for feeling a strong sense of connection with him, but that still didn’t matter.

Avery had come to my office to be matched, but it
certainly
wasn’t going to be with me.

— 5 —

— Tori —

I sank back into my pillows, waiting on my friend Renee to respond to the drama-bomb I’d launched into our chat. Renee and I had been friends for
years
after meeting and bonding via social media, and every year, I made a trip to the West Coast to see her. She and I ran very similar services, but Renee lived with her husband in California.

ReNasty: “So… wow. What are you going to do? Are you gonna keep him as a client?”

T.K.Oh: “Well yeah, it’s not
his
fault we’re a match. This is my issue, I’m not gonna take it out on him.”

Dropping my tablet, I picked up my bowl of gelato with both hands, and contemplated sinking my whole face into it. The spoon wasn’t working nearly fast enough to help me drown my feelings. The LED light that indicated I had a new message lit up as I was shoving a huge spoonful of caramel cookie crunch into my mouth, and I grimaced against the brain freeze I had given myself as I turned the screen back on.

ReNasty: “I get that, but… I don’t know, from what you told me about this Avery guy, it seems like there may be something a little more than just sexual chemistry there. And then finding out you guys are actually a match… this doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

That’s because it was a
terrible
idea. I passed ‘not a good idea’ back when I agreed to take Avery as a client, knowing I had slept with him.

T.K.Oh: “What do you mean more than sexual chemistry? There hasn’t been a chance for much of anything else.”

ReNasty: “…you told me you spent 6 or 7 hours with this man. Yeah, you screwed each other’s brains out, but are you trying to tell me that was all? You already said you talked for a while before you decided to hop on his dick, so you can’t convince me there wasn’t more.”

T.K.Oh “I mean, of course there was some pillow talk… maybe a
bit
of cuddling. He’s interesting, intelligent, charming, and he’s fine as hell. So yeah… we kicked it.”

ReNasty: “Kicked it? Let me find that ‘eye roll’ emoticon real quick.”

T.K.Oh: “I didn’t do nothin’ though.”

ReNasty: “Oh please. First, it was just that you had sex with him. Now, you’re naming off all of his good qualities, and you two cuddled, and ‘kicked it’. I don’t think you know
how
you feel, but I do know you were way madder about what he said to you at breakfast than you would have been if there weren’t more to it than a one night stand being a little rude to you.”

I sucked my teeth before tapping out a response on the screen.

T.K.Oh: “Come on, Renee, don’t act like my response was unreasonable.
Anybody
would have gotten mad about that.”

ReNasty: “Yeah, maybe ‘anybody’ would, but not
you
. Do you remember that time you video chatted with me during that crazy ass date you had a few years ago? You snuck your phone onto the table with me on the line because this guy was dumping you because you wouldn’t screw him again because the first time was a disaster. He was going through this
long
list of everything that was wrong with you, you were too introverted, but you talked too much. You didn’t dress sexy enough, but he didn’t like the way other men looked at you when you were out. Your boobs were too perky, ass wasn’t small enough, and I believe he said your hazel eyes were
demonic.
This guy was
railing
on you. Then, his drunk ass
wife
comes stumbling into the restaurant, and threw up all over you, and it was pure chaos after that. You remember that, right?”

Of course I remembered. I had to file a restraining order against that fool
and
his wife, but that ordeal had been a good source of laughs.

T.K.Oh: “Yeah.”

ReNasty: “And do you remember your response, Tori? You
laughed
at that! You sat there and let that man pick you apart because it was comedy to you, but Avery makes some — admittedly rude— comments about your business and stuff, and were ready to hire somebody to bring you his head! ”

T.K.Oh: “No, let’s be clear. It was funny to me that he was saying that crap because he wasn’t a catch himself. I didn’t even like him, and I wasn’t planning to see him again after that night
anyway
. Avery was different. He and I had this surreal connection, and it… damn. Okay. I’m making your point right now, aren’t I?”

ReNasty: “Yeah, you are.”

I eyed my empty bowl with contempt before shoving it onto my bedside table. I really, really wished Renee hadn’t pointed that out. It was just another complication for me to navigate.

T.K.Oh: “Well, claps for you. I’ll admit I was feeling him a little before he went all Incredible Hulk, but it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I promised Des I would help him, so I’m going to deliver on that.”

ReNasty: “I understand keeping your obligation, and I admire that about you. I would just hate for you to involve yourself in another situation that doesn’t feel right, and ends up out of control.”

T.K.Oh: “Like Rafael.”

ReNasty: “Precisely.”

ReNasty: “And by the way, kiss my ass for hiding that from me. I mean, I get it, it was
his
secret you were protecting too, but still.”

T.K.Oh: “I know, I know.”

ReNasty: “I still luv you though.”

T.K.Oh: “You’d better! You and Des are all I have besides my family.”

ReNasty: “I’ve been with you for the last ten years, I ain’t goin’ nowhere girl!”

T.K.Oh: “I know. And don’t worry about this ending up like Rafael, because Avery will never know we’re a match. I politely skipped over myself, and contacted the next women on the list.”

ReNasty: “And how are you going to handle seeing him date other women?”

What kind of question was that?

T.K.Oh: “Just like I handle being alone with any of my other clients. I’ll talk to him, coach him, and counsel him, like anyone else. We actually have a shopping outing this weekend.”

ReNasty: “Eek! He’s one of
those
?”

T.K.Oh: “Yep. I wish I hadn’t told him I would do it, but that was before I knew about the… complication. I would have Mel do it, but…. oh hell, I’ll be honest. She’s too freaking pretty, and I didn’t like her flirting with him. My sister? Hell no.”

ReNasty: “So you’re really gonna refer to your crazy high compatibility as a “complication”?”

T.K.Oh: “Stay focused on the things that matter, Renee.”

ReNasty: “Like you being jealous of seeing him flirt with your sister, who is just a natural flirt, but you claim you’re going to be able to handle sending him on dates. Okay, we can talk about that.”

T.K.Oh: “Would you look at the time? It’s almost 2am here, I should get to bed. Why are you keeping me up like this, girl?”

ReNasty: “Mmhmm. So you’re pulling the time difference excuse?”

T.K.Oh: “Yes. Yes I am.”

ReNasty: “Whatever. Go to sleep. Tell me how this shopping thing goes.”

T.K.Oh: “You know I will.”

I tried to force myself to get a few hours of sleep, even though my brain wouldn’t stop running wild until nearly 4AM. At a little after seven in the morning, on a Sunday, my alarm woke me up, and I spent the next hour showering and getting ready for the shopping meet up with Avery. I was nervous about being around him, but I couldn’t let that affect whether I could deliver a good result.

When I climbed into my car to meet Avery at the mall, I stuck my key in the ignition and turned, like always. I got… nothing, except a strange sputtering, choking sound. Confused, I turned it again. I had
just
gotten my car back from the mechanic the day before. How the hell could it not be working?

I don’t have time for this shit.

I pulled out my cell to call a car, and forty-five minutes later, I was
finally
walking into the front entrance of the mall to meet Avery. He was waiting in the atrium, talking to someone on his phone, and he stood, smiling when he saw me approaching.

This is bullshit
.

Annoyance crept over me at how good Avery looked in a tee shirt and basketball shorts, and tennis shoes that looked brand new. The muscles of his arms bulged a little against the crisp white sleeves of his shirt, making them more pronounced, and I certainly wasn’t the only person who took notice. Alone, I caught a few people stealing second and third appreciative glances at him as they passed, and the people in pairs or groups would point him out to their friends, blushing and giggling behind their hands. Avery either didn’t notice, or didn’t care. I stayed a few feet away until he ended his call, then approached me with a pensive smile.

“Sorry I’m a little late. I ran into some unexpected trouble this morning. Are you ready to shop?” I asked, giving him a warm smile of my own, hoping to put him at ease.

He grimaced a little, scratching at the thick, freshly groomed layer of hair on his chin. “I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?”

I wrinkled my nose, giving him an apologetic shake of my head. “Unfortunately….”