Page 74 of Swiped
Relief, nerves, and excitement poured out of Nat in a rush of words. “Totally! No one can understand what I’m feeling right now except you, because we’re the only two people stupid enough to get roped into this.”
Rami put down his glass, softly cleared his throat, and leaned toward her. “Well, we make a good team . . .”
Nat nodded into her martini. “I mean, my new boyfriend just took me out to this amazing dinner, like the nicest food I’ve had in maybe my entire life, and I was basically a cold zombie to him all night.”
Rami jolted. “Boyfriend?”
Nat winced at the word coming from his mouth in spite of herself. “He’s literally perfect for me. I put in enough search filters to give SETI a run for their money, and my algorithm served him up to me on a silver platter.” She gave him an “oops” shrug and held out a picture of Thom on her phone. “And he’s also the hottest guy in the world, look.”
“Thom?” Rami’s face darkened.
Nat leaned in. “You know him?”
“Unfortunately, I do.” Rami pulled the phone from her hand and squinted at the picture up close. His face darkened at some hidden memory. “He dated my sister for a year before he cheated on her with, like, a dozen other women, and basically treated her heart like his own personal gym rag.”
Nat laughed as panic flared in her chest. She grabbed her phone back. “No, you must have the wrong person.”
“You wish!” Rami hit her with a cruel smile and raised his glass in a salute. “Also, he used BeTwo to cheat, so hey, congrats and thanks for that.”
“Again,wrongperson. Thom told me that he’d just moved here and that he’d never used my app before then.”
Rami pursed his lips in mock thought. “Well, he definitely has used your app in San Francisco, because that’s how he got caught cheating on Sana. Her friend found his profile and sent her a screen grab.” He smirked and shrugged. “Busted!”
Nat hunched over her cocktail. A thousand rationalizations flew into her mind like startled birds. Maybe Thom just wanted to impress her so badly that he was waiting to tell her the full truth. He said he already knew about the BuzzFill contest, so maybe he just wanted her to focus on winning before they had any complicated discussions, which was considerate, one could argue! But even her desperate mind couldn’t quite swallow these excuses whole. Something jagged and dark still sank in her chest, especially since she was still sitting next to Rami. She recalled the awkward way Thom had asked if Rami would be at the interview — the interview that was the very next day.
“Speechless?” Rami swirled his glass with his long fingers. “Look, I’m sorry to tell you like this.” He shifted with an awkward littlehmmphand put a hand on Nat’s shoulder. “I really can’t believe I am cleaning up that asshole’s mess a second time.”
The warmth of Rami’s hand only made Nat’s heart ache harder. Now he felt sorry for her. Her feelings for him might be tangled up in chaos, but the one thing she knew that she didn’t want from Rami was pity, especially not for her love life. She stiffened under his hand and cast him a hard look. “So that’s what I am now? Thom’s mess?”
Rami drew back like she was a hot stove. “Are you serious? No.” He ran his hand over his face, and Nat could see the tiredness around his eyes. “I swear to God, I always say the wrong thing around you. Or maybe you just make me realize that I say the wrong thing around everyone.”
Nat managed a bitter laugh. “I know the feeling.” She bit her lip to quell the tears pooling in her eyes. She could still feel Thom’s naked body on her skin. But how much of him was actually still hidden from her? She could imagine how stupid she would look to Rami if she told him that Thom was in her bed at that very moment. Even if Rami was telling the truth, what could she do about it now? And did it change anything? She still had to take someone to the interview tomorrow. She couldn’t do better than Thom — for the contest, and maybe in real life, too. She took a heavy swallow of her martini and shrugged. “Well, whatever is in Thom’s past is the past.”
Rami laughed, then he scoffed, then she watched a shield form over his eyes like ice. “So, let me get this straight. You’re OK being involved with a guy who I have personally witnessed treating women like shit, multiple times, and who has clearly also lied to you?”
“He’s my ninety-nine percent match,” Nat insisted. “There’s no way he was that high of a match with your sister.”
“That is dark as fuck.” Rami’s thick brows furrowed, and he shook his head. “Seriously, that is some chilling sci-fi shit that you just said.”
“Why? Because I trust my own data?”
“Because you can’t just admit it. Your algorithm can’t capture the fact that he’s a dirtbag! Because no algorithm can! Dirtbags just tell the algorithm what it wants to hear, and also what you want to hear too, apparently.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nat scowled into his face. By this point, she’d argued with Rami many times, but this time felt different, and it wasn’t because they were arguing about Thom. This time, his witty comebacks and uncanny ability to find the holes in her thinking didn’t light a fire inside her that made her want to scream and order another round. This time it just made her want to cry.
But Rami continued. “And yet instead of owning up to this patently obvious fact, you’d rather ignore me and wait until some dickhead guy treats you just as poorly as he treated my sister.” Rami rolled his eyes as another point occurred to him. “And yes, I know how hot Thom’s accent is, OK?”
Nat scoffed. “You don’t get it. People lie all the time!” Hurt panged in her heart as she spoke. “It’ll turn out that they never really liked you, no matter how many times they said that they did. Or, best case scenario, they’ll just change the way they feel about you on a whim! Poof!”
Rami’s shoulders dropped, and his full lips twitched with sadness. He fixed her with a serious look.
Nat continued. “You can never trust that anyone really truly likes you, ever — never ever ever — no matter what they say or do.”
Rami’s coffee-colored eyes softened ever so slightly. He drew a long breath. “Do you really think that?”
Nat raised her palms at the obvious affirmative answer to that question. “Iknowthat! I’ve lived that! Over and over again,” she cried. “That’s why my algorithm matters. It’s compatibility data.Data. It’s the closest thing I have to a guarantee that someone isn’t going to just up and leave me!”
“Anyone would be an idiot to leave you, Nat.” Rami shook his head and ran a hand through his curls, unwilling or unable to look at her. “But I’m saying that Thomwillleave you.” He sat up straighter, and then his eyes flashed into hers. “Or rather, that you should leavehim,because you deserve better.”
