Page 9 of Someone Like You

Poppy nods. ‘That’s our experience too. Quite a few of our potential matches come from Flutter – and a couple of other apps that focus more on love than casual dating or hookups,’ she says, revealing a facet of matchmaking I hadn’t considered before – where the matches come from.

Freya catches my eye. She knows I use those apps – the casual dating ones, not the ones solely for hookups – but I trust her not to mention it to Poppy. Some things are sacrosanct between best friends.

‘Anyway,’ Poppy continues, ‘taking everything I know into consideration, including Raff being on Flutterandplanning to propose to Winnie only six months after they started dating… I’d say there’s a strong chance he wants to find real, lasting love.’

‘Wait – what are you saying?’ I ask her.

‘I’m saying that I can see Freya’s point.’

‘Hah!’ Freya exclaims, being uncharacteristically smug.

‘Rude!’ I exclaim back.

‘Agreed, Frey, and calm the farm,’ says Poppy, busting out one of her Australianisms. ‘You may have made your point, but there are alotof other considerations. Mostly, that I’m not wholly convinced this is a good idea.’

Oh, thank god.

‘Why?’ asks Freya.

‘Becausematching someone who doesn’t want to be matched – that’s setting us up for a fall –allof us, especially Raff. He could get hurt, Frey, and if this blows up in our faces, it could ruin your friendship.’

Two-four-six-eight, who do we appreciate? P-O-P-P-Y! Poppy!She reallyisthe voice of reason. Now we just need Freya to listen.

‘But you’ll consider it?’ Freya asks, hopeful.

‘I’ll consider it. But to say yes, I’ll need to be convinced Raff is on board – even subconsciously.’

I hadn’t thought of that – Raff wanting Freya to match him, but not realising it.

‘And if we are doing this,’ she continues, ‘Idefinitelywon’t have you traipsing around London in disguise. This isn’tMission Impossibleand you’re not Tom Cruise.’

‘Hah!’ I say to Freya, and we both crack up, her with a self-deprecating eye roll.

‘So, what now?’ she asks Poppy excitedly, getting ahead of herself again.

‘Now I figure out how to be sure – about Raff’s true aim,’ Poppy replies.

‘I could just ask him,’ says Freya.

‘No,’ Poppy and I reply together.

Freya looks between us. ‘Why not?’

‘Do you want to take this one?’ Poppy asks me.

I turn to Freya, quickly assembling my argument. I’vegotto get through to her.

‘Because of what you said at CiCi and Devin’s – about Raff still being devastated by the breakup. Think about it, Frey. For years now, we’ve seen Raff go from one relationship to the next looking for “the one”. Then there was Winnie – and yes, she was a piece of work and totally wrong for him – but he clearly loved her enough to propose. It might be too soon to be matching him with someone else.’

She gives me one of her I’m-not-sure-I-agree frowns.

‘Besides,’ I add hurriedly, ‘he’s recently come off this win, he’s about to change careers… Maybe Raff doesn’t want his true love sprung on him in the middle of everything else that’s going on.’

Freya’s still frowning, but her head bobs in a short, sharp nod as if she’s finally getting it.

I turn to Poppy. ‘Look, everything you’ve said today… it makes a lot of sense. Even though Raffwaskidding when he said to go ahead?—’

‘He wasn’t k?—’

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