Page 9 of Matched

“Okay, player.”

“No, not really. I think it’s around fifteen, but that’s including girls I’ve just kissed on a night out and not done anything else with. Why, what about you? You’ve had almost three years here. That has to mean you’ve been with a lot of women.”

“Nah, I’m not really a one-night-stand person. I’ve had them, but I normally end up dating the women I’ve slept with. My housemates say I have commitment issues because we always end up breaking up after two or three months at the most.I dunno, I just think there’s no point in getting serious with someone when we’re going in different directions after uni.”

His brows pulled together as he processed my words. Eventually, he nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. What if they’re going in the same direction as you, though?”

“So far, that hasn’t happened. I don’t want to end up in a situation like my parents had. They wanted totally different things out of life, and instead of leaving each other, me and my sister had to spend half our fucking childhood listening to them fight with each other. They got together at uni, wanted completely different things, and then my mum fell pregnant with me in her second year. They divorced when I was thirteen, and they’re both so much happier now.” I rubbed my hand across my jaw. “I don’t ever want anything like that that to happen to me.”

Charlie was silent for a moment, digesting my words as he traced patterns in the condensation on his glass. Eventually, he nodded. “That makes sense. You have a sister. Older or younger?”

“Younger.”

“Can I see a picture?” He shot me a boyish grin. “With your genes, she has to be pretty.”

“Oh, fucking hell. My date wants my sister— Whoa…forget the date thing. I’m gonna have to prep my big brother routine.”

“I’m not your date. Calm down, big brother, I only asked to see her photo.” He held out his hand, batting his lashes. They were abnormally long. Fucking ridiculous, really. “Show me. Pleeease.”

“Okay, fine. Stop doing that thing with your eyes, it’s creepy.” I scrolled through my gallery, giving him my middle finger when he muttered something about me being the creepy stalker. There. Me and Sophie, taken outside her student halls of residence on her first day at uni.

Tugging his bottom lip between his teeth, he studied the photo, grabbing my phone from my hand and enlarging the image. “Really pretty. She looks like you. I mean, you can tell you’re siblings. It’s the mouth.”

“The mouth. Right.”

“Is she single?”

“I am not setting you up with my sister.”

“Okay, but what if you both just happened to be in the same place as me and you introduced us?”

I sighed. “We’ll see. You said you were into one-night stands, and?—”

“I didn’t say that, and I’m open to a girlfriend if the opportunity arises.” His smile dropped. “I wouldn’t string anyone along or anything. I’m not like that. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but everyone I’ve been with has wanted the same thing as me…or if they didn’t, one of us ended it, and I’m on good terms with everyone I’ve been with. Ask Ander or Levi. They can vouch for me.”

“Can we stop talking about my sister? Please?”

“Yeah, course. Sorry.” Charlie handed my phone back to me. “In case you wanted to know, I’ve got a sister, too, but she’s older than me. Gem. She works as a TA at a school close to our house. I have a younger brother as well called Rocky. He’s sixteen now, doing his A levels. Our parents…uh, they split up when I was five, and pretty much as soon as I turned eighteen, my mum moved up north with her boyfriend. Then Gem got sucked in by a wanker who married her and decided married life wasn’t for him about a week later and did a runner. So. Yeah. That’s why I’m looking for another job. My sister worries about money, because, uh, bills and whatever, but she’s always telling me I have to have the full uni experience and not deny myself because of our situation. So I work to send a bit home for her, if and when she actually accepts it, and have money left to do shit like this.”His cheeks were flushed, and he wouldn’t look at me, mumbling into his pint glass as he waved his hand around the room. “Then when she phones me for our weekly catch-up, I can give her a rundown of the social stuff I’ve done. Believe me, she asks.”

“What are you gonna tell her about tonight?”

He swallowed. “Uh, that I narrowly escaped being mugged, and then my would-be mugger threatened to stalk me and took away my pinball crown.”

An amused grin tugged at my lips. “Nice. Let me know what she says about that.” Before I could add anything else, my phone buzzed, vibrating against my pint glass where I’d left it. My housemate’s name appeared on the screen. “Ah, here. Jonas sent me the link to the job application. He says if you have any bar experience, you’re pretty much guaranteed a job. I’ll forward this to you.”

Navigating to my contacts list, I temporarily changed Charlie’s name to Pinball Prince, just to fuck with him, and then forwarded the relevant information. A couple of seconds later, his phone lit up with my message.

“I’m saving you in my contacts as Mugger. Or should it be Stalker?”

I rolled my eyes. “Original. How about Pinball King?”

He gasped, clutching his chest. “How dare you?Drink your pint. I want to beat you atMortal Kombat.”

“Lose to me, you mean,” I said.

4

Forty minutes left, and then I could leave the library. My shift was dragging today. Maybe because I was waiting for a certain call.

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