Page 51 of Just Friends
But that prideful, possessive person wasn’t me. I don’t knowwhoshe was, but … not me.
“Uh.” Jax tried to speak. Looking similarly stunned, he lowered in his seat. “It’s, um—it’syou, Piper.”
We watched in silent horror as the chat rapidly filled with outraged reactions, ranging from the incredulous to the vitriolic.
“LOL”
“I’m shocked. Not.”
“Welp, looks like this really was a scam all along. Bye everyone, I’m out.”
“THIS IS BULLSHIT”
“Gee guys.... his #1 match is PIPER! How convenient! What were the odds????”
“Thanks for wasting my time with this fucking bs. Deleting your shitty app right now.”
“I HATE YOU PIPER! FUCK YOU TOO BIG RIG!”
“What the fuck kind of name is Piper Eaglestorm anyway? Everything about this bitch is fake.”
Whatever misplaced sense of pride I had a second ago was quickly stamped out. Because matching with Jax wasn’t worth this backlash at all—I was watchingeverythingI’d worked so hard for fall apart before my very eyes.
The viewer count sank like a rock as our audience started leaving the stream in droves. I needed to speak up and say something to keep them from leaving, butwhat?My mind raced in search of a rational explanation. I needed to dosomethingto save this app before it was late.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said. “Hold up. Something’s wrong. Out ofmillionsof girls, I’m your number one match? I don’t think so.”
“That’s what it says, Pipes,” he said quietly, so our audience wouldn’t hear.
“But that can’t be right. Just hold up, everyone. Let me think for a second.” Then the crux of the problem hit me—and it was so obvious, too, I couldn’t believe I’d missed it. “Your location settings. Did you change them from the default?”
“No. I didn’t mess with any settings. I just took the test, that’s all.”
Oh, thank God.
“That’s got to be it, then,” I said. “Let’s take a look.”
As I went into his settings, I explained to our audience that the default location setting is set to find local matches, which is defined as one mile or less.
“So, guys, it’s not exactly ahugestretch that I’d be Jax’s number one local match,” I said. “After all, we have been really good friends for five years. And while Soulmate already has several million users, there are probably not that many users within a mile of our zip code just yet. Hopefully there will be plenty more local users soon, as Soulmate becomes more popular!”
I pulled up the settings menu. Jax and I both let out a huge breath of relief when it was confirmed:Maximum Distance: One mile or less.
“Sorry about that everyone! False alarm,” I said, able to breathe again. “Let that be a warning to everyone: always be sure to check your location settings! Heh!”
Jax turned to smile at me, his eyes crinkling up with relief. “Well, that got a little weird for a second there, eh?”
“Sure did,” I said. “My bad, people. I should’ve double-checked Jax’s settings beforehand. Anyway, this promotion is forallof North America, so we’re going expand that distance to the max,” I said, dragging the slider all the way to the right. “There we go. Let’s try again.”
Jax began the search once more, and the loading wheel started to spin all over again.
Thankfully, we’d stopped hemorrhaging viewers since I caught the source of the screw-up. While the app went back on the hunt for Jax’s number one match, I took the time to do some damage control for our remaining viewers.
“Guys, if anything, this should just, um, serve as a testament to how good Soulmate’s personality matching algorithm really is. Right, Jax?”
“Yeah. Yeah, totally,” Jax agreed, trying to sound convinced. “And hey guys, I see your comments in the chat, andha ha,you’re all very funny. But listen, Piper and I have been really good friends for five years. So obviously, thereisa strong personal connection between us.”
“Just not a romantic one,” I added.
