Page 35 of Swiped

Nat pulled the plush, velvety robe around her neck as she stepped into the open-air hot tub suite. Thom was perched on the edge of the natural stone bench in the same cream-colored robe.

“This is officially too much,” she said as she padded toward him with bare feet on the cool stone.

“Well, you’ll notice that I’m partaking in everything, too,” he said, standing as his robe winked open against his body, and she clocked the toned V leading into his swim shorts.

“I noticed,” she breathed.

“So, it’s hardly a sacrifice for me.”

Nat sighed and craned her neck to take in the burnt orange sky of dusk above them. Gray-blue clouds drifted across the open-air roof as the first stars twinkled into sight.

“Shall we?” said Thom. “They tell me it’s quite important to them that we test out this part of the property, specifically.”

“I mean, if they need our help . . .” Nat gestured to the steaming water. “It would be a crime not to.”

In one fluid gesture, Thom shrugged his robe to the floor.

His black trunks clung to him as he slowly lowered himself into the aqua water.

He cupped water in his hands and slicked it back over his head.

His darkened blond waves framed his high forehead.

His cheeks flushed with the heat. Water droplets ran over his pink lips, and his deep eyes were on her, round and open.

Nat could barely move in her robe.

“Shall I turn around?” he asked, somehow making the question sound proper and unbearably suggestive at the same time.

“Stop, it’s fine.”

He gave her a devilish grin through the steam. “No, no! I insist on being a gentleman lest you think this is merely some tawdry ploy.”

Nat’s face scrunched with charmed delight. “No, how could getting me into a hot tub ever be a ploy?”

Thom laughed. “It’s medicinal, I tell you!” But he turned around and made a show of covering his eyes with both hands.

Nat gingerly slipped out of her robe. There had been a selection of black two-piece swimsuits hanging in the spa changing room when she’d gone in. In a karmic burst of mercy, one was her size and also, in a true gift from the gods, high-waisted.

She also thanked those gods that she had done a full armpit-to-ankle shave to get her head in the game for her date with Nick. “I don’t usually wear suits like this, but it’s all they had.” She put a toe in the bubbling water. “And thank you, by the way.”

“If I could see it, I’d say it was lovely on you.”

Nat sank into the warm water with a deep sigh. She peeked at Thom. He was still turned away with his eyes covered, but she could see a schoolboy blush on his face.

She giggled and flicked a splash at him. “You can look now.”

He dropped his hands into the water and drew closer to her. “So,” he said softly. “Are you having a nice time? I mean, I know this is a little unorthodox for a first date, and I’m realizing now that it might be a lot of pressure.”

“No, I’m having a nice time,” she said, bobbing closer to him. “It’s a grand gesture, but I think it’s romantic.”

Relief washed over Thom’s face. “Christ, I was really hoping you would say that. While I was waiting for you to change, I had some truly sobering thoughts about the thin line between romance and, I don’t know, being too intense and scaring you away.”

“I’m not scared.” Nat let her lips curl into a smile as she realized how true her words actually were.

She kept forgetting that it wasn’t as though she was on this date without a safety net.

Yes, it would have been a big ask for her to trust Thom right away, but she wasn’t on this date by random chance — she was here because of her algorithm, her real profile, and her heart’s full desires.

They were what had brought Thom into her life at this moment, and they were what she could trust.

Thom narrowed his eyes with a theatrical wince as he gestured to their picture-perfect surroundings. “I guess it’s a bit hard to hide how much I wanted you to like me, though, isn’t it?”

“Yeah . . .” Nat watched him bite his plump lower lip to catch a droplet of water. “But how did you know that you were going to like me?”

“I didn’t,” he said. He bobbed closer to her in the water, and she felt the solid muscles of his legs graze hers. “But I do.”

Nat wondered what one should be thinking when their dreams were literally coming true. She wanted to memorize every atom in front of her. She brought her hands around his broad shoulders and leaned into him. Thom softly closed his eyes and cupped a hand behind her head.

“Champagne and strawberries!” said a waiter, rapping at the door.

Thom grimaced and pulled away. “OK, now that was too much.”

Nat giggled and watched Thom climb out of the water to fetch the tray. Her whole body buzzed with happiness in the soothing rumble of the hot tub jets. Her heart felt like it might burst. Every single atom.

* * *

Rami stood next to Allison on the observation deck of Coit Tower. The sweeping city views he knew so well were completely hidden by a thick gray curtain of rain. The whole deck was empty and dark. Allison shivered with a sudden chill.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s an iconic view. Trust me!”

“It’s OK.” She gave him a cheerleader’s smile. “How could you possibly know that it was going to rain?”

“Because the ratio of moisture saturation didn’t correlate with the range of variable temperatures in this microclimate.”

“What?”

Rami pulled out his phone to show her his app. He saw the text from Nat and scoffed, clearing it away. He waited until Fun Sun was loaded on the screen and showed it to Allison. “Whither, Weather, that’s my app.”

Unfortunately, Fun Sun was currently doing gleaming, muscle-y cartwheels across the whole week. Every single day shone yellow with his forecast for sunny perfection.

“Whoops,” said Allison.

Rami brought his phone to his face and squinted at Fun Sun’s grinning, flossing figure. “My Sphinx,” he muttered. “The more I learn about you, the farther away you get.” He slipped the phone back into his pocket as a guard approached.

“Shutting down! Let’s go!” she bellowed into the empty space.

Allison shrugged politely. “Well, predicting the weather is basically like fortune-telling, right?”

“Sometimes it feels like that,” Rami granted.

“But my algorithm actually reads and ranks multiple feeds of raw meteorological data to improve the accuracy of our data points. It’s not unlike how an app with millions of users might .

. .” He trailed off. He knew Allison’s glazed-eyed nod all too well.

“Sorry. Sorry, you’re right. I do have a lot in common with a county fair palm reader. ”

Her face lit back up. “Does that mean you’re gonna tell that I’ll meet a great love by a large body of water?” She batted her eyes and looked out at the downpour.

“Now that would just be statistics . . .”

The guard clapped her hands and circled them with a pointed stare. Rami winced again at his ruined plan.

“Actually, I’m kinda glad that it’s closing.” Allison took a huge step back from the domed windows. “I’m kinda afraid of heights.” She swallowed with another big step backward. “Like, a lot.”

“Oh my God!” he cried. Rami quickly ushered her back into the elevator lobby.

She jammed the button.

“So, I just took you to the one place that’s your absolute nightmare? On your birthday?”

Allison gave a nervous laugh. “I mean, no clowns here yet, but . . . yeah.”

They hopped into the antique elevator with a creak.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

The doors closed, and the tarnished iron grate slid across the car as they lurched down.

“You just seemed so excited,” she said, still clutching her hands to her chest.

“I can make this up to you. I know another spot — all indoors, all ground-level.”

“Is that their motto?”

“It’s actually, ‘We Will Not Terrify Nice Girls.’”

She relaxed a little. “I feel bad, though. I mean, you must have other stuff to do today?”

The elevator doors pinged open, and they walked into the lobby, just two more figures among Diego Rivera’s colorful mural.

“Seriously, this is what I’m doing today. It’s your birthday! We can’t give up now.” Rami knew he sounded like the overly earnest hero in a children’s cartoon, but he didn’t care. Cringe be damned! He was going to make this a romantic day, no matter what.

They paused at the doors, looking out at the sheets of rain cascading through the street.

He sighed. “Why let one humongous miscalculation get in the way of an adventure, right?”

She hit him with a mischievous smirk. “Now you’re speaking my language.” She stepped backward into the rain with a small, “Whoop!”

He watched the rain darken her red hair into tight curls as she lifted her arms and tilted her face back into the downpour. Patches of water instantly spread across her oversized athleisure pullover and streamed down her black leggings.

She grinned at him with sparkling, manic eyes. “Is this what you’d call a data point?” she yelled through the gray sheets of rain.

Rami felt his heart swell, as his mind saw a rush of invisible cartoon hearts swirl around Allison’s laughing frame. He stepped out into the rain with her.

* * *

The rain reached Nat and Thom in their open-air hot tub suite as a sudden downpour. Cold drops pelted Nat’s skin as she clambered out of the steamy tub. She shrieked.

Thom grabbed their robes and opened the door for her.

Nat registered anew that their suite was in the middle of a large, grassy field. It had seemed perfect on the way in, but that had been before the sky opened up.

Thom pointed to a large barn in the near distance. “There! I see a roof.”