Chapter Five

Audrey

"Can you make it up to your apartment?" the Uber driver, Tony, asked, meeting my gaze in his rearview mirror.

"I haven't had that much to drink," I snapped back. My body told on me by letting out a hiccup.

"Be careful out there," Tony chuckled as I exited his compact car and stepped out onto the sidewalk. I loved going out with my friend but lately, I procrastinated at coming back home. My little apartment was cozy and held all my favorite things, but sometimes it felt hollow. My words echoed off the walls. No one else was there to laugh with me at movies or keep me warm at night.

I'd never had those things with someone, but more than ever I craved them.

I got upstairs and made myself an electrolyte drink to take the edge off the never-ending mimosa haze. The dress I'd worn for brunch was tossed over a chair in the corner while I searched for my comfiest pajama set then took off all my makeup. If I was going to be alone, at least I would be comfy.

I sat down with my drink, a book, and the TV remote just as a new notification came up on my phone. Groaning, I reached for it and sat back to see what it was.

The app. The Mail-Order Matings app. Huh. It was too soon to have a match, right? I had been under the impression that the algorithm and other factors would take at least twenty-four hours to conjure up a potential mating match.

I opened the app and clicked the red notification bell, and all those thoughts dissipated.

The app claimed I already had a match, and they had sent me a message.

Presumptuous? I didn't know how all of this worked.

Leaning back on my couch, I settled in to see who this supposed match was. Charlotte had talked me into downloading and getting a profile on the app, but that didn't mean I was 100 percent sold. Sure, it had worked out for her and Jack, but I didn't believe it to be my end-all for finding a mate.

I clicked on the picture of the match. He had longish auburn hair and thick eyebrows. The male's name was Graham, but his profile said everyone called him Tiger. Because he was a tiger shifter.

A tiger shifter and my tiny feisty beast together? What ridiculous computer calculations thought that would be a good idea?

Still, he was handsome and had a great smile. I'd seen stranger matings throughout the years, so nothing surprised me.

His message read: Hello. My name is Graham and I saw we were a match. Let me know if you'd be open to video chatting.

Call me old-fashioned, but that was sudden. I reached out by text to Charlotte and asked her if this was the way things went.

She agreed that texting-chatting came first but encouraged me not to turn him down just because he was a tiger.

I sighed, got back into the app, and sent him a message.

How about text chatting for now. Get to know each other.

I set the phone down, put an ambiance video on YouTube, and grabbed my book. Only a few sentences in, and the ping rang out again. The app. I was already regretting downloading it and putting my preferences in. I should've told my friend I would get to it later.

Still, if I wanted a mate, I had to be proactive, like she said.

He responded: If that's what you prefer. Your pictures are beautiful. What do you do for a living?

We asked questions back and forth for an hour, but neither I nor my cat were getting any mate signals. Tingles and feelings sometimes came only from a face-to-face meeting, but I wasn't taking that chance on someone I couldn't even talk to.

Honestly, the entire conversation was boring. I'd had more invigorating words exchanged during a job interview.

When I asked him what he liked to do for fun, the message was left unread and I didn't hear from him for the rest of the night.

First match? A dud. Apparently, he thought so too. Either that, or he was in a different time zone and had gone to sleep. There were a number of reasons he could've not answered. None of them had anything to do with me. Plus, I didn't really care. There was nothing about him that called out to me.

I read for a few hours and decided that my time with the mating app was over. Maybe Graham and our dry conversation was a sign that this wasn't the way to do things.

Poising my thumb over the app, I almost deleted it but sighed and threw my phone onto the opposite side of the couch. I would keep the app a bit longer, but Charlotte was right.

From now on, I expected nothing to come of it. Expect nothing—you're never disappointed.