Page 5 of Matched

“You have an incredibly overactive imagination. C’mon, drinks are on me. What do you want?”

As we headed back to the bar, I noticed the girls who’d come out from the toilets had been joined by two guys. So, yeah, Charlie was definitely the one I was supposed to be meeting. How had Jonas managed to get it so completely wrong?

“I’ll have a pint of Carling, but I can get it.”

“Nah, I’ve got it. Two pints of Carling, please, mate,” I told the bartender. Returning my attention to Charlie, I tapped my phone screen. “I don’t know what my housemate is playing at, but I’m gonna get to the bottom of this.”

“Your housemate?”

“Yeah, he’s the one who designed this app. That’s why I’m here, really. It was a favour to him.”

“I got lured in by the prospect of winning credit to spend in the student union.”

I gave an exaggerated sigh. “So you really weren’t joking when you said you had no money.”

He smirked. “Nope. Really not. You can try to mug me, but you’re not gonna find anything exciting.”

“So suspicious.” Tapping my phone on the card reader, I slid Charlie’s pint across the bar towards him and then grabbed my own. “Want to sit down or have a go on those?—”

“Pinball.”

“Yeah.” A grin tugged at my lips. “Good choice. That would be my first pick, too.”

When we were in front of the pinball machine, I let Charlie go first while I sent a text to my housemate.

Me:

Is this your idea of a joke, or is there something wrong with your app?

Jonas:

What? Why! What happened?

I glanced over at Charlie. “Mind if I take a photo of you?”

“What for?”

“My housemate, to show him how he fucked up.”

“Go for it.” Charlie leaned up against the machine, folding his arms across his chest. He stared at me with a raised brow, and I laughed, shaking my head before snapping a photo of him.

“Honestly, what was Jonas thinking?”

“I don’t date muggers. Especially not if they’re men.”

“Are you saying you’d make an exception if your mugger was a woman?”

“Dunno. Depends what she looked like.” Charlie turned back to the machine, and I opened my photo gallery to check the image before sending it to my housemate.

Me:

This is who your app matched me with

We’re both straight and both said we wanted women only when we filled in our details

Jonas:

What the fuck! That shouldn’t have happened!

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