Page 3 of Matched (LSU #5)

T urning away from the two girls, I grabbed Charlie’s arm and tugged him over to the wall next to an empty sofa. “I don’t know what the fuck is happening, but are you using the Matched LSU app?”

He nodded slowly, biting down on his lip again. Unlocking his phone, he turned it to show me his screen.

There was a check mark next to my username and the same message about meeting at the bar. Silently, I opened my own app and showed him the screen.

Shaking his head, he let out a disbelieving laugh. “How can this be? I specifically put that I wanted to be matched with women only.”

“Yeah, I did, too, and I’m one hundred percent straight. Fucking Jonas,” I muttered. “He’s got some explaining to do.”

Charlie shoved his phone in his pocket. “Well, that was a waste of time.”

Something about the flash of disappointment in his eyes made me pause. “Wait a minute. We’re both here. We know each other…kind of, and you know I’m not a mugger. Why don’t we have a drink while we’re here? Or—” I glanced around me. “—play some pool or go on the machines?”

“Alright.” He shrugged, a tiny smile appearing on his lips. “This better not be your attempt to lull me into a false sense of security, then you mug me when I least expect it.”

“You have an incredibly overactive imagination. C’mon, drinks are on me. What do you want?”

As we headed back to the bar, I noticed the girls who’d come out from the toilets had been joined by two guys. So, yeah, Charlie was definitely the one I was supposed to be meeting. How had Jonas managed to get it so completely wrong?

“I’ll have a pint of Carling, but I can get it.”

“Nah, I’ve got it. Two pints of Carling, please, mate,” I told the bartender. Returning my attention to Charlie, I tapped my phone screen. “I don’t know what my housemate is playing at, but I’m gonna get to the bottom of this.”

“Your housemate?”

“Yeah, he’s the one who designed this app. That’s why I’m here, really. It was a favour to him.”

“I got lured in by the prospect of winning credit to spend in the student union.”

I gave an exaggerated sigh. “So you really weren’t joking when you said you had no money.”

He smirked. “Nope. Really not. You can try to mug me, but you’re not gonna find anything exciting.”

“So suspicious.” Tapping my phone on the card reader, I slid Charlie’s pint across the bar towards him and then grabbed my own. “Want to sit down or have a go on those?—”

“Pinball.”

“Yeah.” A grin tugged at my lips. “Good choice. That would be my first pick, too.”

When we were in front of the pinball machine, I let Charlie go first while I sent a text to my housemate.

Me:

Is this your idea of a joke, or is there something wrong with your app?

Jonas:

What? Why! What happened?

I glanced over at Charlie. “Mind if I take a photo of you?”

“What for?”

“My housemate, to show him how he fucked up.”

“Go for it.” Charlie leaned up against the machine, folding his arms across his chest. He stared at me with a raised brow, and I laughed, shaking my head before snapping a photo of him.

“Honestly, what was Jonas thinking?”

“I don’t date muggers. Especially not if they’re men.”

“Are you saying you’d make an exception if your mugger was a woman?”

“Dunno. Depends what she looked like.” Charlie turned back to the machine, and I opened my photo gallery to check the image before sending it to my housemate.

Me:

This is who your app matched me with

We’re both straight and both said we wanted women only when we filled in our details

Jonas:

What the fuck! That shouldn’t have happened!

I’m so sorry bro. Promise I didn’t do it on purpose. Pass on my apologies and I’ll work on the coding right now

“He says it shouldn’t have happened, and he didn’t do it on purpose. I believe him. He wouldn’t do shit like this just to fuck with me. What would be the point?”

Charlie straightened up. “Yeah, it would be kind of fucked up.” He tapped the machine, nodding towards the LCD display showing his score. “Your go. See if you can beat that score, mugger.”

“You call that a high score? I’m not worried.

” Stepping up to the machine, I took a moment to familiarise myself with the controls.

It had been a while since I’d played on a pinball machine.

A while since I’d done anything like this on a date, actually.

Not that this was a real date, but it was supposed to be.

Most of the dates I’d been on had either involved a coffee shop, chain restaurant, or just hanging out at the student union.

There was nothing wrong with any of those things, but it was nice to do something different for a change.

“Remember, I’m the fucking pinball king.” He jerked his thumb towards his chest.

A laugh burst from my throat. “Sorry, what?”

His lashes swept down as he scuffed the toe of his trainer against the floor, his cheeks flushing. “I don’t know why I said that.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“Okay.” His gaze flicked back to mine. I realised his eyes were a light green, with a darker green ring around the edge.

Hmm. Unusual. “I worked at my friend’s brother’s pub last summer.

They had a pinball machine just like this one.

When the pub was quiet, we used to play on it, and I ended up with the highest score at the end of the summer. ”

Stretching out my arms, I cracked my knuckles. “You may have been the pinball pub king, but I was the undefeated pinball youth club champion for five years back home. Watch and learn.”

Then, I proceeded to demolish his high score in ten minutes flat.

“Oh yeah. Still got it.” I fist-pumped the air, and Charlie gave me a wry grin.

“You fucker. This is not fair.”

“How isn’t it fair?” Without any discussion, we drifted towards a sofa in the corner of the Game Room, placing our pints down on the pitted wooden coffee table before sinking into the cushions. “Bloody hell, I feel like this thing’s gonna swallow me.”

Charlie shifted into a more upright position. “Yeah. This sofa could do with a bit more support. Uh, so. Unfair.” He held up his hand, ticking off points on his fingers. “Great at pinball. Great at football—as evidenced by you being on the LSU team. The type of…uh…vibe women go for. The?—”

“Whoa. Hold on a minute. What do you mean by ‘the type of vibe women go for’?”

“Y’know.” He flicked his hand out. “The whole dark hair, potential mugger thing you’ve got going on at first glance. Then you smile and it’s all…oh, fuck. This sounds so weird when I’m saying it out loud.”

I laughed, and he gave me the finger. It was weird how we’d instantly fallen into this banter with each other, like we’d been friends for a while instead of meeting each other less than an hour ago.

“What I’m saying is,” he continued, “you know what you look like. Conventionally good-looking. That’s all I’m saying.”

Well…I guess I couldn’t dispute that. I was aware of how I looked, and I had been told I had a nice smile. But Charlie… I took my time to study him properly. “I can counteract every single one of your points.”

He snorted. “Unlikely.”

“Shut up and listen, or I really will mug you. When you least expect it, as well. You’ll be walking alone across campus, in the dark…”

His brows flew up. “Okay, stalker. Thanks for making this situation a hundred times more uncomfortable.”

“When you least expect it,” I said again.

“I’m gonna start carrying pepper spray and a Taser. I don’t care if they’re illegal.”

My wide grin matched his. This whole conversation was so fucking weird, but I was having fun. Way more fun than I’d had on any actual date in a long time. “Scary. Anyway . Back to your points. Your pinball score was literally fifteen points below mine, which is nothing?—”

“Which means I’m not the pinball king anymore.”

“The pinball prince, then. Now, can you shut up for more than five seconds so I can finish a sentence without you interrupting?”

He slammed his hand over his mouth, nodding as he widened his eyes dramatically.

“Good. As I was saying. Only fifteen points lower than mine, and you still smashed the previous high score. You’ve got that cheeky kind of look girls like.”

“Cheeky. Great,” he muttered from beneath his palm.

“Shut it. You own a mirror, use it. Now…one of your points is that I’m good at football. Yeah, that’s true, but there are sports you’re good at.”

He slowly lifted his hand away from his mouth. “Am I allowed to speak now?”

“You may.”

“Wow. Thanks.” Another eye roll. “I don’t know how you concluded that I’m good at sports, since you don’t even know me, but yeah, I’m good at football myself.

I really wanted to join the uni team, in fact, but I needed a job more, and I needed to make sure I didn’t commit to anything else before I got one.

I needed as many hours free as possible, y’know? ”

He stared at me almost defiantly, his lips pressed together as he held my gaze. Picking up my pint, I took a swig, tearing my gaze away from his. He was right—I didn’t know him, despite the fact that it felt like I did, but I was fairly certain I was reading him correctly.

“I get it,” I said, turning back to him and seeing his whole body relax at my words.

I hid my smile in my pint glass. “My housemate was the same. Kind of. There was a tabletop gaming club thing he wanted to join. I dunno exactly what it was. Some Dungeons and Dragons shit. He was doing shifts at the student union bar the same night it was on, so, yeah. He couldn’t join. ”

“I’ve—”

“Are you still looking for a job?”

His mouth snapped shut, and then he nodded. “Yeah. Uh, I do shifts in the library, but it’s not many hours, so I’ve been looking for something else I can fit around that and my lectures. Why?”

“I just remembered Jonas mentioning that they were gonna advertise for a new bartender to cover a few shifts in the student union. Want me to find out?”

“Yeah. If…if the subject comes up.”

“Charlie. I’ll ask.” I unlocked my phone and slid it across the table to him. “Give me your number so I can let you know what he says.”