Finding Forever (28 page)

I shook my head. “So instead of talking to
me
about this shit, you decided to cheat? Were you sleeping with us at the same time?”

“We always use protection, so why does it matter?” she shrugged. “Besides, it’s not like you would have told the truth anyway. That night at the garage, when Nick walked in on us? I overheard you two talking, but there were little parts I missed.
Still
, I heard enough to know it wasn’t ‘just business stuff’, which is what you said. You were talking about another woman, and I
knew
something was off, but I thought it was insecurity. Even Tori reminded me I shouldn’t let my old st—” She stopped, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head to the side as if she’d realized something. “Tori.
That’s
who you were talking about.
Tori.
The way you reacted when she sent us those flowers, how uncomfortable those meetings after our dates were, how completely confused you seemed when she introduced us… the awkward little scene I walked in on, with you hugging her at your sister’s house… you’re in love with
her
aren’t you?”

I scoffed. “Maya, that’s ridiculous.”

“Uh-uh,” she laughed. “You look like a deer caught in headlights, I’m
spot on
. What the hell is
wrong
with you?
Both of you
? Hiring someone you’re in love with as your matchmaker?”

“When I hired her, I wasn’t—”

“Awww,” Maya said, interrupting with a sneer on her face. “You fell in love with the pretty matchmaker in the process? That is the silliest, corniest, romance novel bullshit I’ve ever heard. I cannot believe you and that girl wasted my damned time! Get your ass out of my restaurant, okay?”

“Maya…”

“Bye Avery.”

I raised my hand to my forehead, rubbing my temple with my thumb. Why was I fighting this? This was exactly what I wanted, and there wasn’t anything more to say. I turned to head out of the door, and as I was turning the corner Maya called out to me.

“Avery!”

“Yeah?” I stopped, and turned to see what she wanted.

She put her hand on her hip as she pressed her lips together, struggling with what she wanted to say. “If you’re going to try to pursue Tori… good luck to you. And that’s not some passive-aggressive thing. I mean that.”

“Uh.. Thanks.” I gave her a little nod, then turned.

“And…” she said, causing me to stop in my tracks again. “Tell that bitch I want my money back.”

— & —

“Alright man, you gonna tell me what’s going on with you, or what?” Brandon leaned back in his bar chair, eyeing me across the table as he took a swig from his scotch. We shared similar tastes, in sports, food, liquor, and women, and he and I had become friends after he and his company worked as consultants on several smaller acquisition deals for Ignition. Naturally, when it was time to do the
big
deal, I called him. We’d been at the bar for hours, relaxing — or attempting to— after settling the last negotiations of our deal. This was something we always did, usually with Nick in tow.

I shook my head, finishing off my drink. “No idea what you’re talking about, man.”

“Yeah right. Ace, come on, man. You haven’t cracked a single joke all night. Something’s eating you up.”

After staring into my empty glass for a second, I blurted out a response. “My girlfriend dumped my ass.”

Brandon’s eyes widened, amazed. “Damn, Ace.
You
got dumped?”

“I think we had a pretty mutual dislike for each other at that point, but yeah, she dumped my ass,” I admitted, with a chuckle. “Completely flipped the script on me. I was supposed to be mad at her, and
I
ended up cursed out.”

“Sorry to hear that, man.”

I shrugged. “I’m not tripping about it. It had only been a few months anyway. What about you, man? Any prospects?” I asked as I motioned for the server to come over.

Brandon took a heavy swig from his scotch. “Not anybody I want to be serious about, but I’ve always got a little something available. But man, I’ve got one girl I’ve been sweating for
years
, and I can’t close the deal.”

“
You’re
tripping over some ass you haven’t gotten?”

“I’m as surprised as you man, but this one… she’s not
that
kinda woman. Not just ‘ass’, she’s different.”

“What, so you’re in love or something?” I teased.

He shook his head, grinning. “Nah, man, but I like her. I
kissed
her a few weeks ago, and she turned me down, said she was still getting over her man or something, he still has her heart, all of that.”

Well, at least she’s up front with you about her bullshit, before she— never mind.

“You’re probably better off anyway, man. She’s probably crazy as hell, driving whoever this guy is up a wall with drama.”

Brandon laughed at my assessment. “Nah, man. She’s not like that.”

“Oh, she must be
banging
if you can’t see the crazy.”

“She
is
man. Soft ass golden-brown skin, nice little body,
beautiful
face with these sexy ass lips and eyes, a head full of hair I’m
gonna
get my hands in one day.”

“Sounds pretty damned nice,” I said, laughing at how similar our ‘ones who got away’ sounded. He could have been describing Tori.

“It
is
nice. But for real man, it’s not all about her physical. This woman is smart, driven, down to earth, she’s the kinda woman you lock down… but you’ve gotta catch her first.”

“Yeah,” I said, with a heavy sigh. “I know exactly what you mean, man. There’s a woman, from
before
Maya. She’s somebody I’m… let’s say
extremely fond of
, but she’s not open to the idea of a relationship. I don’t want to put any pressure on her.”

“But you want to be with her?”

“Hell yeah,” I said, with a dry laugh. “I’ve wanted her since the day I met her. You have to know her, to know what I mean, but Tori… she’s different, for me.”

He stopped, with his drink held in midair. “Did you just say… Tori? As in Tori Kennedy?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah…”

Brandon filled his cheeks with air, then blew it out in a slow, controlled stream. “Alright… Avery, I’m about to tell you something. Only because you’re my boy. If I were
any
less of a man, I would keep this shit to myself, and ride it out for my benefit, but… I guess I’m feeling generous today.”

“B, what the hell are you talking about?

“I’m talking about Tori, Ace. I
do
know her, from back home.
That’s
the woman I was talking about! She’s close with my boy Eric’s wife, and we talk whenever she comes to Cali to visit.”

Well damn. So I wasn’t alone. Is this what Tori did, get guys hooked on her then drop them? Did she just have a trail of men like Brandon and me in her wake?

I lifted an eyebrow. “Talk?”

“Well,
flirt
, but it never went any further than that. I can’t believe you’re the dude she was talking about.” He shook his head, and swallowed the last gulp of his drink. “Look, man… I like Tori, but she’s my friend too. I want her to be happy. I’m not going to tell you what do, but I
will
tell you if you mess this up… I’m gonna kick your ass, Bruh.”

“I don’t know what to do, man!
She’s
been the one pushing
me
away, not the other way around,” I explained, crossing my arms.

“Forget all of that, man. You said you wanted her, right?”

“Right, but—”

“Ace, listen.
Fuck that.
Call her.”

So I did.

As soon as I got home that night, I took a shower, then climbed into my bed and pulled out my phone. I stared at the number for a while, then decided not to do it. Then, I changed my mind, and I dialed, hoping she would answer before I changed my mind again. While it was ringing, I agonized over whether she would answer my call, until… she answered my call.

“Hello?”

Damn, she
sounds
good.

Her already sultry voice was raspy with sleep.

“Hey… did I wake you up?”

She giggled into the line. “Well…it’s one o’clock in the morning Avery, and I just got back from Cali today. What do you think?”

“My bad… I didn’t look at the time before I called. I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok,” she said softly, something about her tone leading me to believe she had closed her eyes again. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah… everything is fine. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Humph I’m a popular girl today, I see.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I have some time tomorrow— well,
today
— if you wanted to maybe have lunch or something?”

“I’d like that,” I said, tempering the little surge of happiness that burst in my chest. “Let’s say one o’clock? I’ll meet you at your sushi spot you like.”

“It’s a date.”

Don’t over think that
.

We got off the phone, and I tried to settle into sleep, but I couldn’t. I found myself in my home office, first organizing paperwork, then going through my personal email, looking for a phone number I couldn’t find. Anything I could do to distract myself from tomorrow’s lunch with Tori. My eyes landed on one of the last emails I had gotten from
Matched
, addressed from Melanie. I remembered her being annoyed I had never looked at it, so I downloaded the attachment, and opened the file.

It took a second to figure out how to navigate the document that opened, but soon I was clicking away, through the questionnaires I’d answered, personality assessments, summaries of my dates, and finally, on a folder named ‘matches’. A list populated on my screen, with a name, compatibility score, and a picture of each woman.

My mouth dropped open at the first name on the list.

All this time…

What the hell?

All this time, she had to have known we
were
a match. She had used that as an excuse, repeatedly, while I was trying my best to figure out how I felt. Tori had the answer the whole damned time, and she’d kept it to herself… for what?

No more ducking.

No more dodging.

I wanted answers.

So I went and got them.

— Tori —

What the hell?

I was pulled out of my sleep by the sound of pounding on my front door. After a few moments, I closed my eyes again, thinking it was the sounds of the storm that had been raging for the last few hours, but the insistent beat told me it was someone at my door.

At two o’clock in the damn morning.

I climbed out of the bed and grabbed my pepper spray and taser from where they were still stored in my nightstand drawer. Carefully stepping around the piles of boxes and other moving paraphernalia on the floor, I made my way to the front, where I was relieved to see I had actually remembered to turn on the motion detector lights, so my front porch was already bright enough to see without giving away my presence.

When I got to the door, I looked through the peephole before I reached for the lock.

Avery?

I lifted an eyebrow, letting my confusion show on my face as I flipped on my living room light and opened the door. “Avery, hi. What are you doing… here… ?” I let the words trail off as he sidled past with no greeting or anything, just Avery, dripping wet from the rain, with no regard for the puddles he was making in my freshly shampooed carpet.

“You’re a liar,” he said, turning to me as I was digging through one of my boxes for towels.

“Excuse me?” I tossed one to him, but he didn’t move to catch it, just let it hit him in the chest and fall to the ground. Then he wiped his face with his hand. I’d never seen this Avery. Nostrils flared, rigid jaw, shoulders tensed… he was
angry
, presumably with me, and I had no idea why.

He took a step toward me, with his eyes narrowed, and instead of following the compulsion to take a step back — because, angry man, coming your way, get the hell out while you can— I stayed rooted to the spot. He was mad at me.

Why was he mad at me?

“You heard what I said, Tori. You’re a
liar
.”

I flinched, as if that word had actually touched me, slapping me in the face. “Avery, what the he—”

“Science and algorithms.”

My shoulders slumped, and tightness gripped my chest and throat as it clicked for me what he was talking about. He knew. I held up my hands. “Avery, please, if you—”

“You were never gonna say anything, were you?”

“Can you let me—”

“
Were you
?” he repeated, slightly raising his voice.

I managed to look away from him as tears pooled behind my eyes. “No.”

With my lip pulled between my teeth, I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes, not daring to look directly at him. He looked angry enough —
disgusted
enough — in my peripheral.

He sucked in a deep breath before he began to speak, with his voice low and controlled. Too controlled. “All of this time, Tori. Over, and over, and over, you claimed that us not being a match was the reason we couldn’t explore something further. You
clung
to that shit as if it was your motto. Hell, all I had to say was ‘science and algorithms’ and you knew exactly what I was talking about. But now, I know, it’s a
lie.
”

“I never actually said that, Avery.
You
said it, and I … let it stand.” I was grasping at straws and I knew it.

Avery obviously knew it too, because he laughed, but there was nothing joyful about it. “Semantics, Tori? That’s what you want to do right now? Okay. How’s this? You intentionally participated in a distortion of the truth, to manipulate me into doing what you wanted me to do.”

“
No.
It wasn’t about manipulating you!”

“Then what
was
it about? Huh? We’ve established you’re a liar, and we actually
are
a compatible match, so can I please know the truth? Can you stop bullshitting me?”

My eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape, but he closed the distance between us, then cupped my chin with just enough force that I didn’t
want
to look away, even though I certainly could. “I just… need a minute, Avery.”