Page 48 of Matchmaking for Psychopaths

“I finally found someone who really gets me,” I announced at the COMP meeting a couple of weeks later. Everyone clapped. They were so happy for me! Death didn’t need to mean an end to life after all.

Aidan was now my official boyfriend. We’d celebrated the label by returning to Molly’s apartment to fetch Felix the cat after Molly was denied bail. He started purring the moment that I let him out of the cat carrier, which I took as proof that he was pleased with his new living space.

“I didn’t realize how lonely I was until I wasn’t anymore,” I continued. “For the first time in my life, I have the right amount of love.”

I glanced at Rebecca, who smiled at me. I’d made sure to keep her a priority as my relationship with Aidan blossomed. I wanted them both, the boyfriend and the best friend.

Rebecca and I had plans to get together with Aidan after the meeting.

I was nervous about introducing them. I worried that they would hate each other, a common concern with a best friend.

Molly hadn’t liked Noah to begin with. More than that, though, I worried that Aidan and Rebecca would like each other too much.

There was something similar about their energies, Rebecca with her fast cars and Aidan with his planes.

Before Molly stole my fiancé, I never would’ve guessed she had the capacity to do such a thing.

Rebecca, on the other hand, went after her desires with the brutality of a woman who was used to competing with men.

We joined Aidan at a table at a sushi restaurant where plates of food traveled by on a conveyor belt and diners grabbed what they wanted to eat.

When he saw her, he did a double take, gazing at her, then looking away, and then looking at her again.

There was a spark of envy in the pit of my stomach.

So what? Rebecca was beautiful. That was one of the reasons that I’d gravitated toward her.

I needed to get myself under control. Rebecca wasn’t Molly, and Aidan wasn’t Noah.

“So, you’re Lexie’s new boyfriend,” Rebecca said.

“It’s nice to meet you,” he replied.

I took a plate of sushi off the conveyor belt as they shook hands. I tried not to be bothered by their touch. I reminded myself that Molly was in jail, awaiting trial. I couldn’t be jealous of everyone forever.

“How did the two of you meet?” Rebecca asked. She took a plate of her own. Her fingers were adept with chopsticks, in a way that mine were not. “Lexie’s been vague.”

“We met at a bar. I saw her across the room and thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen,” Aidan told her.

Had he told the truth: I saw her and thought, “That’s the daughter of those killers I’m obsessed with.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet. I love it when people meet in real life like that. It’s great that you can be like, ‘We met in a bar,’ rather than ‘We met on a dating app,’ like the rest of us.”

“It was great. It was fate,” Aidan said.

The word made me flinch. That was one of the ways that my father justified the killings.

It was fate that those women died, he said.

What he meant was: Is something really a crime if it’s bound to happen anyway?

I never bought it. People said things were destined to be when they were convenient to them.

Still, I loved that Aidan thought this about the two of us.

It made it seem like everything bad that had ever happened had happened in order to bring us together.

Was it worth it? a small voice within me asked.

Of course it was worth it. Love is always worth it, I replied.

Rebecca took another plate off the conveyor belt. She ate a lot when we were together, which made me think that she didn’t eat much the rest of the time. My parents were like that too. They either binged or starved.

“What is it that you do, Aidan?”

Both of them were prone to unsettling stares, and the table around me was all eyes. It was unusual for me to be in a position where I wasn’t one of the more dominant people in a room, but their energies overpowered me.

“I’m a pilot.”

“A pilot?” Rebecca glanced in my direction. “That’s interesting.”

Aidan shrugged.

“I like it. It pays the bills. And what about you? Lexie tells me that you sell cars?”

“Luxury cars,” Rebecca clarified.

“I’ll have to contact you next time I’m looking to buy,” he said.

There was something unspoken in the air between us. I could feel it, though I wasn’t certain what it was. I looked from Aidan to Rebecca. I wondered if my parents had ever dined with the women before they killed them.

What do you do?

I’m a teacher.

What is it that you teach?

History.

It must be tiring dealing with kids all day.

It is. Do you have children?

Yes, we have a daughter. She’s at home, waiting to listen to you scream.

“Not to be blunt,” Rebecca said as she popped a piece of sushi into her mouth, “but what are your intentions with Lexie? She’s been through a lot, you know.

She likes to present herself as a tough girl.

There’s something else hiding in there though, something soft.

Are you going to take care of the soft parts, Aidan? ”

Aidan stared Rebecca down as he finished chewing a piece of tempura.

“I want to take care of all of Lexie’s parts,” he said.

She met his gaze.

“Okay, okay. I don’t want to be too hard on you. It’s just, Lexie is like a sister to me, and I don’t want to see her get hurt. Her last boyfriend—he didn’t treat her right.”

“I’m aware of the deficiencies of her ex,” Aidan said, with an edge to his voice.

Sitting there with them wasn’t dissimilar to watching my parents from the balcony in my favorite house, the one that overlooked the living room in which they danced with the women, kissed them, and fed them drinks before they took them to the bedroom.

The problem was that I couldn’t quite figure out who was supposed to be whom.

Was I my father? The charismatic man who spouted off philosophy that sounded good, but in practice was simply an excuse for his own behavior.

Or was I my mother? The beautiful temptress who was the accomplice—or leader?

—in a multitude of murders. I refused to accept the third possibility.

I was never the woman who was about to die.

It was possible that I was a secret fourth thing, the child watching from above as her parents circled their prey.

“I have no intention of hurting Lexie,” Aidan continued. “I’m not a perfect person, but I will be good to her.”

Rebecca leaned back, settling into her seat. She smiled, dropping her accusatory posture. She appeared friendly, nice.

“Sorry for the protective-father act. I just want to make sure that you’re taking care of my girl,” she said.

“I get it,” Aidan told her. “She’s my girl too.”

I left the restaurant with Aidan. He paid for all of our food, even Rebecca’s numerous plates, which had started to tower into the sky.

“She’s a force,” he said when we’d gotten into the car.

“She is. That’s why I like her.”

“How did you say you met, again?”

“She was actually a client of mine at Better Love. I looked her up online, and that was how I found COMP. Why?”

“There’s something about her that’s familiar to me, like I’ve seen her before or something.”

“Maybe the two of you hooked up.”

He shook his head.

“No, that’s not it. I would remember her.”

He leaned over and kissed me, an action that cleansed any lingering jealousy from my palate.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said as he started the car. “If she’s your friend, then I like her.”

“In a platonic way,” I clarified.

The car paused at a stoplight, and he grabbed my hand and kissed my fingers.

“In a platonic way,” he agreed.