Page 14 of Matched (LSU #5)

I closed my message app, then reopened it.

The messages were still the same.

Nate:

Hope your date with Soph goes well tonight. Tip: don’t ask her about the time she was sixth form prom queen. She won’t shut up

That was a joke. If you need a good conversation starter, ask her about the time she had to chase a goat off the pitch when she was playing football

Me:

A goat? WTF?

Nate:

Don’t ask. Or do but ask her not me. You’re welcome. Have fun

Me:

You sure you’re ok with this?

Nate:

I already told you I was. Why wouldn’t I be? I spoke to Sophie and she’s really excited. So don’t fuck it up

Me:

Ok. Do you have a date from the app yet?

Nate:

Maybe. Maybe not

Me:

So mysterious

Nate:

Enough of that, PBP

Me:

What?

Nate:

Pinball prince

Me:

Was that meant to be amusing? Because it wasn’t

Nate:

Tough crowd

Me:

Stick to the day job, mugger

Nate:

I won’t take career advice from someone who tried and failed in his criminal career at the first hurdle

Me:

Noted

Nate:

Gotta go. I have a date to get ready for. Have a good time tonight. I mean it

Okay. This was my fourth read-through of our conversation, and my initial conclusion hadn’t changed.

Nate was definitely fine with me going on a date with his sister.

Not only that, but he had his own date tonight.

Sophie was great. We’d been getting on well, I found her attractive, and it was clear she was into me.

There shouldn’t be any reason for me to feel like something was missing.

Whatever I’d thought I was beginning to feel for Nate was all in my head.

We hadn’t even spoken since that weird moment where he’d made an excuse to run out of my room, other than a brief “hi” during my penultimate training session with the football team.

It was all fine. I was ready to move on with my life, and Sophie deserved a proper effort from me.

With that in mind, I decided that I needed some advice from my housemate Ander.

Jogging down the stairs, I knocked on his bedroom door.

At the muffled “come in,” I threw the door open, to be confronted with a sight my eyes were not prepared for.

Ander was standing in the centre of the room, dressed in a pair of the shortest shorts I’d ever seen in a garish metallic purple.

JJ was circling him, a thoughtful expression on his face, while Elliot reclined on the bed, tapping at his phone.

I cleared my throat. “Uh…hi.”

“Hi.” Ander gave me a bright smile. “What’s up?”

I decided to ignore his shorts as best as I could, because they were very short and very tight. Keeping my eyes fixed on my housemate’s face, I stepped into the room. “I just wanted your advice on what to wear for my date. If this isn’t a good time, I can come back.”

“What look are you going for? Fuckboy chic?” JJ’s gaze raked over me, and I gave him the finger. All three of my housemates laughed, and I glared at them. Three against one wasn’t fair. Where was my remaining housemate when I needed him?

“I have a date with Sophie tonight, and I want to look good for it. You’re…you know.” I gestured at Ander, and his grin morphed into a softer, genuine smile.

“Yeah, alright. I’ve got you. JJ—I’ll be back. Get the next outfit ready.” He darted over the bed, pressing a kiss to Elliot’s lips. “See you in a minute, E.”

When we were in my room, Ander helped himself to my wardrobe, throwing my clothes all over the room as he decided on an outfit.

I hadn’t exactly planned for him to style me; I’d just wanted…

I guess a part of me felt guilty for the way I’d temporarily thought about Nate when something was happening between me and his sister, and I needed to assuage my guilt by making a proper effort.

It wasn’t fair on either of us otherwise.

Ander’s taste in clothing was similar to mine, and before he got together with Elliot, he’d been a bit of a player, so it seemed like getting his advice was a safe bet.

“What do you want out of this?” he said, holding up two of my T-shirts, studying them with his brows pulled together.

“Uh…it’s a date. We’ve met up a few times before on a casual basis, but there have been other people around. This…I guess it’s our first actual date.”

He nodded. “Okay. Where are you going?”

“The Coffee Collective. They’ve started doing late openings a few nights a week. I think they have different themed nights. Sophie suggested it, I dunno. It sounds like it’ll be casual.”

Throwing both T-shirts onto the bed, he scanned the contents of my wardrobe before opening the drawers at the bottom.

“Maybe this one with your jeans with the distressed bits.” He threw me a teal polo shirt Gem had bought me for my birthday that I’d never actually worn. “Wear that chunky leather wristband thing and your brown boots with it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. The teal will make your eyes pop.” He pulled a face, shaking his head. “ Eyes pop . For fuck’s sake. I swear I never noticed anyone’s eyes before I started dating E, and now I notice everyone’s. Obviously, E has the nicest eyes, but yours are alright, too.”

I laughed as he headed for the door. “Thanks for that. Okay, I’ll take your advice and wear this shit.”

“Good. You can thank me later.” Stopping in the doorway, he tapped his fingers on the battered wooden frame as he studied me. “Is it gonna be weird, going out with Sophie when you’ve basically been on three dates with her brother?”

“What? No. Those weren’t proper dates. The first two were accidental—you know that—and the other one was just us meeting up as friends. And Nate’s straight anyway.”

His gaze turned calculating. “So are you…aren’t you?”

I shrugged. There was no point in lying to him. “I thought so, but I dunno now. Whatever, it’s irrelevant either way because I like Sophie.”

“Nate’s definitely straight?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm. Yeah. Probably a good thing he’s not into you. It could get messy if, y’know, you ended up in some weird love triangle with Nate and his sister. Although there was a time in my first year here when these two girls both wanted me, and they turned out to be related. It?—”

“I don’t wanna know.”

“Rude.” He grinned at me. “To be honest, I prefer not to think about my past. Elliot’s my future.” When I rolled my eyes, his grin widened. “It’s true. And if there’s anything you wanna talk about, you know all of us are here. I’ve been through the whole ‘realising I’m not straight’ thing too, so…”

“Thanks. There’s nothing to discuss, though. I’m going on a date with a girl I’m attracted to, and that’s the end of it.”

“Okay. Just thought I’d offer. Have a good time tonight. We want a debrief when you get back.”

“Uh, no.”

“Uh, yes. You’re the only single housemate left. You owe it to us.”

“Unlike you in your manwhore days, I never kiss and tell.”

Giving me the finger, he backed out of my bedroom. “You will.”

“I will not.” I shut the door in his face.

Time to get ready for my date with an attractive, sweet girl who was interested in me.

“This is nice. I’ve never been here in the evening before.”

“Yeah. It’s nice. More cosy.” I placed the sparkling mocktail down on the wooden table in front of Sophie before collapsing into my seat across from her.

Dragging my Coke closer to me, I took a sip.

The Coffee Collective was in the process of obtaining an alcohol licence, but they didn’t yet have one—hence us sticking to soft drinks.

I had an early shift at the library tomorrow, anyway.

The atmosphere tonight was much more intimate than it was during the day.

The blinds were closed, and the lights had been dimmed, with little tealights in jars set on the tables.

Soft music played from the speakers, and when I glanced around me, I realised that the place was full of couples, staring into each other’s eyes and holding hands across the table.

I shifted in my seat. This suddenly seemed all too romantic for what was supposed to be a low-key, casual first date.

“So…” Sophie cleared her throat, eyeing me from beneath her lashes. I smiled, my gaze dropping to her mouth as she wrapped her lips around her straw. Fucking hell, it was crazy just how similar her mouth was to Nate’s?—

I blinked, forcibly averting my gaze. “So…?” I prompted, watching her cheeks flush lightly.

“Um. How was your week? Did you have any shifts at the student union? Sorry I couldn’t come to see you training, by the way. I had an assignment due.”

“Yeah. I had two shifts this week. Uh…one was right after my library shift, and then I had to submit some coursework the same night. That was a late one.” We both laughed a bit awkwardly, not that there was anything particularly funny about what I’d said.

“I try not to be last minute with my assignments, but sometimes I just can’t help it.”

“Yeah, me too. Oh. The training. That reminds me. Nate said to ask you about something that happened with a goat on the pitch when you were playing football?”

She groaned and covered her face with her hands, her glossy golden-brown hair swinging over her shoulder as she threw her head back. “Why did he have to bring that up? Seriously, Nate!”

Now I was intrigued. “Okay. You have to tell me the story. Why was there a goat on the pitch?”

Lowering her hands, she sighed. “Fine. Bloody Nate. It was when I was in school and playing for the girls’ football team.

We had a three-counties sports day thing with some other schools, and it was being held at Hatherley Hall.

Um, that’s a private boarding school in the Cotswolds.

Anyway, all you need to know is that it’s out in the middle of the countryside with all these fields and farmland around it.

Somehow, a goat escaped from a local farm and ended up on the pitch when we were playing one of our matches.

I was in goal, and the goat ran into the goal and wouldn’t leave.

” She groaned. “Everyone was laughing, and I was trying to shoo it out of the back of the net.”