Page 10 of Faking It With The SEALs

“Nothing,” I answer, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of telling me again that Chelsea’s off-limits.

“By nothing, he means a certain PA he met today,” Logan teases. I glare at him whilst flipping him the bird.

“Chelsea is.”

“Off-limits. I know I heard you.” I sigh and lean my head against the back of the couch. “But let’s just say she wasn’t,” I start, but one look from Calvin stops me in my tracks.

“You know why we can’t date someone linked to us professionally.”

I roll my eyes and go back to looking through the pictures on Tinder. I’m casually swiping left when a familiar face appears on my screen. I smile to myself as I look at the picture of her. So, she’s forty-two? I never would have guessed she was four years older than me. She looks so good for her age. Her blue eyes are sparkling in the picture as she sits in a bar with a cocktail in her hand. Was this picture taken tonight? Is she out celebrating her promotion?

“Is that her?”

“Fuck.” I turn my head so fast to look over my shoulder at Logan. I don’t know how I didn’t get whiplash.

“What have I told you about sneaking up on me fuckface!” Fuck I hate it when he does that. He’s always been stealthy, which was why we would send him in first when out on the field.

“She’s pretty. I see why you’re stuck on her,” he says, walking over to his chair. I look back at the screen and consider swiping right to see what happens. Let’s face it: she isn’t interested in a younger guy like me, especially when I look younger than I am. Most are happy to look ten years younger, but the others in the SEALs loved making my life hell for it. It earned me several nicknames, the foremost being “Bambi”. I fucking hated it to start with, but once you get a nickname in any of the forces, it’s with you for life. I soon got used to it, though. Now it feels weird if the guys call me anything else.

“She’s come up on mine too,” Logan says as he shows me his phone. I hadn’t even realised he’d started using the app. Since I signed him up, all he's done is complain that he doesn’t want to take anyone to these events. But here he is, looking at Chelsea, and I feel somewhat jealous.

“And mine.”

I turn to look back to the table where Calvin is now looking at his phone rather than the paperwork.

“There’s no way that woman is forty-two! She looks the same age as you guys!” Logan announces. Calvin and I are the same age at thirty-eight. Calvin’s always looked a couple of years older than he is, so people assume he’s more Logan’s age. Logan’s the eldest of the three of us at thirty-nine. He will be forty just before Christmas.

“Why don’t we all swipe right and see if she matches with any of us?” Calvin asks, looking at the two of us.

“Oh, you’ve changed your tone, Mister ‘She’s off-limits’. You want to see ifyoumatch with her, don’t you? What are you going to do if she does? Will she be off-limits if she is interested in you too?” I demand as my eyebrows disappear into my hairline. I hear Logan chuckling from his seat and turn to look at him. “And you, ‘I don’t need a date’, are going to join in too, aren’t you?”

Logan shrugs whilst looking at his phone.

“I’m not bothered either way. It’s just fun watching you squirm,” he teases as I flip him off again. I look back at my screen and consider swiping right to see if we do, in fact, match. If we do, then surely I should be able to take her on one date at least to see if we get along. It would be rude not to, right?

“Well, now I just want to match with her to annoy the hell out of you,” Logan teases from his seat. He starts laughing as I throw a cushion at him, yelling “asshat!”. Calvin and him laugh harder as I look down at my phone again.

“Fuck it,” I snap, swiping right and looking up to see the other two grinning at me before showing they also have.

“What happens if she likes both of you?” Logan asks, chuckling.

“She won’t like any of us,” Calvin laughs as he puts his phone on the table and returns to the paperwork in front of him. Logan places his phone on the coffee table in the middle of the room and picks up the TV remote. I quickly lock my phone, as I’m too anxious to see if we get matched or not.

Why the hell do I care if I do or not? She’s one woman. Yes, she may be beautiful, intelligent, and funny, but so are many women I have met. What makes Chelsea so special? Probably the fact that Calvin has said she’s out of bounds. Like everything else in my life, if I get told I can’t do something, I make it my mission to achieve it. Are my feelings for Chelsea another example of that? Do I want to prove to Calvin that I don’t need his permission and can date who I want?

“Oh fucking hell!” Logan bursts out laughing. I look over at him to see him looking at his phone. He turns it around to show the screen. “She must like what she sees,” he laughs as Calvin laughs from the table.

“Snap, I matched with her too,” he laughs. I grab my phone and look at the app.

“Fuck.”

“Don’t worry, Bambi. She obviously likes the older-looking man,” Logan teases. I shake my head and hold up my phone.

“Obviously not, as she matched with me as well,” I reply smugly. The two look at each other, and we all burst out laughing.

“I can’t believe she has matched with all three of us. What are the odds?”

“Well, she hasn’t met Houdini over there, so she doesn’t know about his winning personality,” I reply, nodding towards Logan, who just rolls his eyes at me.

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