Page 7

5

FOR HER OWN GOOD

Dex

I just saw Margaux’s relationship status change from ‘in a relationship’ to single. I wasn’t prying, it just showed up as a notification. I mean, I follow her, so I get updates when she changes things like this.

I hack into her dating apps and emails.

Not too difficult, given what I do for work. Something at the more simple end of my skill set, you could say.

Maybe if I identify any real losers, I can unmatch with them before she notices.

She needs help, because her picker is clearly off.

There was the emotionally unavailable guy who she was with for what seemed like an eternity, but at least he was safe. I guess she just broke up with him–they must have been together for five or six years. I never felt like they were a good pair, but I left them alone because he seemed to pull his weight and be a decent guy overall.

And before that, she saw a few chefs. Nothing serious, but I remember a few of them treating her like garbage, playing silly games, ghosting, that sort of thing .

The one creep who she found shooting up Adderall into his veins with a syringe in her bathroom. That guy was absolutely insane, and two of her friends had to help her get him kicked out.

There was the one small-time coke dealer and bartender who tried to invoke squatter’s rights in her house when she broke up with him. The audacity.

Oh, and that waste of space bar manager with a secret habit of stealing from his workplaces. She stuck with him for far too long.

Yep, Margaux needs help in the dating department. I don’t know why she’s always settled for these types of guys, ones that clearly aren’t good enough for her.

I know she’s self-conscious about having been married multiple times, but her mother’s been married four times, so I know it never carried quite the same weight it does for a lot of people. And there were extenuating circumstances for two of the three. There was the one she married in high school to get emancipated from her mother when her dad was dying. Then there was the cop—he was a good guy. Ugh, and the one she married last, the one who threatened to break her jaw and couldn’t keep a job to save his life—he was helping her to escape from her rapist, even though he harmed her in other ways.

Hell, I can’t blame people for proposing to her, and I’m not judging her. But just because people propose, doesn’t mean she needs to say yes. For whatever reason, this last guy didn’t ask her to marry him, which I was happy about. Less paperwork to deal with, and a cleaner break.

I’m worried, though, because she’s in a vulnerable state again now, although I’ll always probably see her a bit that way.

But she’s fresh out of a long-term relationship, and about to embark on a new life in a new city. She doesn’t know anyone there, even though I know she’s moved alone to different cities before.

Based on the emails I’ve seen flying back and forth, she has to change jobs, so there’s not the continuity there I imagine she was expecting.

Everything about her life is going to be new for her, except for her cat. And even then, her cat’s going to be in quarantine for a while. So it will just be Margaux, out alone in the wild.

While I’m excited for her about making this move, I feel like she’ll be easy prey.

I scan through her recent matches.

Colin, the actuary. Nope. Delete. She’s not dating anyone named Colin, and especially not an actuary. I just don’t see that for her. Unmatch.

Russell the trail-blazing entrepreneur with all the cannabis leaves after his name. Nothing against cannabis, even though it’s not something I’m into. But I think she can do better. Unmatch.

Brad the personal trainer. I swipe through photo after photo where he’s barely clothed and looking for ‘short-term fun.’ Oh hell no. Unmatch.

Three chefs. Nope. Nope. Nope.

I continue flicking through and unmatch a few more, and then I force myself to close out of the app even though I haven’t gone through the hundreds of guys who have already liked her profile. I know I can’t go too crazy, because she’ll notice if suddenly her Tinder is empty. That would be a hard one to explain.

And this is probably a creepy thing to do. But I’m doing it for the right reasons.

To protect Margaux. Just like I always have.