Page 10 of Matched (LSU #5)

M y cousin Renée’s twenty-first birthday should’ve been a celebratory occasion.

It was the reason Sophie and I had come back to Swindon for the weekend, after all.

We had a table for eighteen booked in a local restaurant, and after the meal, my cousin and Sophie were meeting up with some of their friends to go to a club.

They’d invited me to join them, but the last thing I needed was to be surrounded by the single friends of my sister and cousin, drunk and probably flirting with me.

Fuck, maybe that was what I needed.I wasn’t going to do it, though.

“Look. There he is, training with the football team.”

“Whoa! He’s hot , Soph.”

My gaze snapped to Sophie and Renée, their heads bent together, studying Sophie’s phone.

“I know. He invited me to go out with him tonight, but because I was coming here, he said we’d do something when I got back instead.”

“He’ll do you, you mean.” My cousin smirked at my sister, and her cheeks flushed.

“Shush! Don’t talk about that here.”

“Got you. We can talk more later.”

I gritted my teeth hard enough to make my head pound. Reaching for my glass of wine, I downed it, grimacing at the taste, and then poured myself another from one of the open bottles set out on the long table. I ignored the raised brows of my uncle as I topped up his drink as well as mine.

“One of those nights, is it?” he commented. “Go on, then. Might as well finish off the bottle. Fill those glasses all the way to the top.”

With a nod to acknowledge him, I split the rest of the bottle between both our glasses. I knew my uncle—not Renée’s dad, a different uncle—had gone through a messy divorce recently. As in, the ink was barely dry on his divorce papers. It seemed like we’d be commiserating together.

What the fuck, Nate? You’re not commiserating .

“Cheers.” He lifted his glass. Across the table, I heard Renée say something about Charlie’s thighs, and I swiped my glass from the table, a little of the wine sloshing over the edge.

“Cheers,” I muttered as I raised the glass to my lips and took a huge gulp, followed by another.

I caught my dad’s eye, watching me with his brows pulled together.

The last thing I needed was to attract his attention for acting out of character, so I lowered my glass and grabbed a bread roll from the basket in front of me.

I methodically tore off pieces, not bothering with butter, chewing slowly as I tried to work out why exactly I had this same stomach-churning nausea I’d felt earlier in my dad’s kitchen.

Last summer, my dad decided to downsize to lower his mortgage payments and ended up buying a small two-bedroom house on the outskirts of Swindon.

Sophie had the second bedroom, and I was on a camp bed in the small dining area that led off the kitchen because the front door opened straight into the lounge, and my dad hadn’t wanted me to be disturbed by people coming and going.

Lying on the camp bed in the dark, with the glow of my phone charging providing a sliver of light to my left, I was still wide awake with my racing thoughts when I heard the front door open.

A few moments later, the stairs creaked, and I exhaled as I rubbed my hand over my face. Sophie was back, and now I could sleep.

In theory, at least.

After another half an hour of tossing and turning on the tiny, uncomfortable bed, I gave up, reaching for my phone.

Unlocking it, I scrolled through my social media, viewing Sophie’s stories.

She’d posted a photo from the meal and a short video of her and Renée dancing with their friends in the club, holding up flutes of Champagne or prosecco.

When I reached the end of the video, the next story automatically began playing.

Charlie’s story .

He was also in a club. I spotted Levi and his boyfriend, Asher, in the background as several of my teammates raised their glasses to the camera.

Charlie had a wide grin on his face, mouthing something I couldn’t make out at the camera.

I tapped the screen to like the video before I could think twice, and no more than a few seconds later, a notification appeared on my screen.

Charlie:

Still awake?

My lips curved upwards.

Me:

What gave it away?

Charlie:

You stalking my social media

Me:

You love me stalking you

Charlie:

If you want me to justify your life of crime, your gonna be waiting a long time

You’re, I mean

Me:

Yeah ok. Don’t forget to watch for those dark corners. I’ll be there ready to mug you when you least expect it

Charlie:

I told you before. You’ll be disappointed if you mug me. Why are you awake anyway? Was the birthday thing good?

Me:

Couldn’t sleep. The birthday was ok

Looks like you had a good night

Charlie:

Yeah it was fun. Have you been to Sanctuary before?

Me:

No, can’t say it’s been on my radar. Bit out of my student budget

Charlie:

Haha me too but JJ sorted us out with tickets. Hey remember when we went to The George together? We should do that again

I stared down at my screen.

We should do that again .

My fingers shook when I typed out a reply.

Me:

Yeah we should

Charlie:

I knew you wanted a third date

Me:

You’re the one who suggested it

The stairs creaked again, and a few moments later, I heard the soft click of the door opening, a faint light spilling into the kitchen from the lamp my dad had left on in the lounge. I dropped my phone to the floor, tugging the bedcovers up over my shoulders.

“Nate? Are you awake?” My sister’s soft whisper cut through the silence.

“Just about.” I blinked, shifting onto my side and propping myself up on my elbow. “Good night?”

“Yeah. Sorry to disturb you. I just wanted to get some water.”

“S’okay. Heard from Charlie tonight?”

The second the question spilled from my mouth, I wanted to take it back. Fuck. Why had I asked that?

It was too dark to make out the expression on Sophie’s face, but I could see her nod.

She turned away from me, reaching into the kitchen cupboard for a glass before padding across to the water dispenser on the fridge door.

“He sent me a message earlier saying he hoped I had a good night and to let him know that I got home safely. I replied when I got back, but he hasn’t replied again. He’s probably asleep now.”

I glanced down at my phone, the screen showing an unread message icon. My heart pounded.

“Yeah, probably,” I said hoarsely, collapsing onto my back and throwing my hand over my eyes.

Part of me was on top of the world, and the other part was in the fucking depths of despair. I was the world’s worst fucking brother.

As soon as she’d left, closing the door behind her, I swiped my phone from the floor and returned to my message thread with the guy my sister was into.

Charlie:

I did suggest it, but that’s because I have a nefarious plan to make you buy me drinks and then I’ll mug you

I smiled despite myself. There was nothing wrong with talking to Charlie, anyway. Was there? If he and my sister liked each other, it was my duty to get to know him better.

I didn’t even believe myself, but nothing would’ve stopped me from replying.

Me:

You’d mug me AFTER I spent all my money on drinks? Doesn’t really seem like a great plan

Charlie:

I admit it needs some tweaking

Me:

How about we agree not to mug each other? A temporary truce

Charlie:

I guess I can agree to a temporary truce. Where do you want to go and when?

Me:

Have you been to Hyde Park?

Charlie:

Yeah, but I’m happy to go again

Me:

OK. We can ride our bikes there if you want

Charlie:

You’re not planning to drag me into your bike mugger gang are you?

Me:

I’m choosing to ignore that comment. Bikes? Or Tube?

Charlie:

Meet at the park with our bikes? We can ride through the park?

Me:

Yeah. When?

I ignored the fact that this had started with a jokey comment about going to the pub again, and now we were planning to meet up to go cycling in the park, like it was an actual fucking date.

Charlie:

What time are you back tomorrow? Today I guess. Fuck it’s 3 am. I’m doing some extra shifts in the week so I don’t know when I can fit it in otherwise

Me:

I should be back by lunchtime

My plan had been to have a lazy morning and drive back later in the day, but fuck it. Calculating how long it would take to get back to south London on a Sunday morning, I quickly set an alarm for 7:00 a.m. to give me time to shower and coerce Sophie out of bed.

Charlie:

It’s a ‘date’. Message me when you’re back and I’ll meet you

I grinned at his use of inverted commas around the word “date.”

Me:

See you then. Get some sleep

Charlie:

You too

Instead of letting the conversation conclude there, I kept on texting.

Me:

Did you see Glevum beat Newcastle 3-1 today?

Charlie:

Yeah! Did you see the goals? Emery’s overhead kick was fucking amazing

The room gradually grew lighter around me as the hours passed, and night turned to day.

My conversation with Charlie didn’t stop until my dad came shuffling into the kitchen two minutes before my morning alarm was due to go off.

“Already awake?” He glanced down at me.

I never fell asleep . “Uh…yeah,” I said. “Are you making coffee?”

“Black? One sugar?”

“Please.”

He gave me a thumbs up, and I quickly tapped out a final message to Charlie.

Me:

Got to try and wake myself up enough to drive back to uni. See you later?

Charlie:

I didn’t even notice the time. How the fuck did we manage to talk all night?

Good question .

Me:

No clue

Charlie:

I’m gonna nap now but I’ll set an alarm for 12 so I don’t miss you

Me:

Alright for some. Enjoy your sleep while I try to stay awake so I don’t crash on the way home

Charlie:

Coffee. And red bull. Don’t crash

Me:

Thanks for the advice. See you later. I’ll text when I get back and we can sort out the details

Charlie:

I’m full of good advice. Sounds good, see you later

I exited my messages to find my dad watching me with interest. Shaking my head, I closed my eyes. He snorted, and I opened my eyes again. “What?”

“Nothing. Just wondering who’s put that smile on your face.”

“It’s—it’s nothing. No one. A friend.”

“A friend ,” he said, his words loaded with sarcasm. “Whoever she is, if she’s making you that happy at a time of day when you’d usually be a grumpy git, you should hang on to her.”

“Whatever,” I muttered. “I’m going to wake Sophie up. We need to get back early today. Uh, you know, final-year projects. It’s busy for me at the moment.”

“Okay. Here. I made Soph a coffee, too. You can take it up with you.” He stepped forwards, clasping my shoulder. “If you want to talk, I’m here.”

“I know. Thanks, Dad.” Taking the two mugs of coffee from the counter, I made my escape, heading upstairs. Sophie was already awake, sitting up in bed and scrolling through her phone.

“Coffee! How did you know that was what I needed?”She made grabby hands at the mugs, and I handed the one with milk to her.

“You’re awake early.” I sank onto the edge of her bed, blowing on my own coffee before taking a sip.

“I know. I didn’t drink much last night, and I dunno, I think I’m just not used to sleeping here, so I couldn’t sleep properly.”

“Do you want to go back this morning?”

She nodded. “Yeah, that would be good. Dad’s playing golf with Uncle Rob today, anyway, isn’t he?”

“I think so. Okay. Let’s leave in an hour or so, yeah?” Rising to my feet, I stepped over to the door and paused. I wanted to ask her if Charlie had messaged her back, but I knew I shouldn’t. It wasn’t any of my business, anyway.

“Nate? Did you want something else?”

“No.” I shook my head, forcing my feet to move.