Chapter Seven

Audrey

So far, I didn't have a whole lot of faith in the app, but as I prepared for another night at home, I told myself it didn't matter. My life was really good, even if I didn't have a mate. Charlotte found her happiness in her own way, and there was no reason that her life and mine had to be the same.

I'd created a cozy little home here in this apartment. One bedroom and an open living space for cooking, eating, watching YouTube videos…and working. It was nice with just enough furniture for comfort but not enough to make the place seem crowded. My job as a content creator was something I'd dreamed of, both working on contract and my own content that was finally starting to take off. It had a long way to go, but I dreamed of being able to work only for myself.

Not that I'd ever be an influencer, nor did I want to be, but there were a lot of types of content that did not assume everyone would choose to be me. So far, I was putting up a vid once a week, though, because my life did not have the content. I suppose I could talk about being a cat shifter, but since I got so little respect for it in real life, and lots of people didn't even believe in shifters… I don't know .

Tonight, I sat down to work on this week's video and I decided to make it about the app. I mean, surely there were a whole lot of people like me who wanted a mate/spouse/partner and did not have one. And how many were trying to find their other half online?

It was a good reason not to give up on the app. I might never meet the person I wanted there, but I could at least use my experiences on my channel. So far, it had been random stuff in my week. I called it My Week at a Glance, but how the few thousand people who watched and subscribed stayed awake during it was beyond me. I had been told I had a nice voice, soothing, so maybe they used it to go to sleep?

Cheerful thought.

But maybe one I could capitalize on? There were a lot of "falling asleep" sites where someone read you a story or talked about history or something. Sitting at my desk, I brought up my laptop and set the background I wanted. It was actually very similar to my apartment decor, but I preferred to have some privacy.

I took a few minutes to back up and review the "sleep" channels I'd seen before, and while I could make it happen, it felt like taking my mundane life and pushing it into the boring category. Some of the creators had really great skill at what they did, so not putting them down at all, but it just was not what I wanted.

Returning to my channel upload, I got a wild idea. The very least boring thing I could come up with. I had only done it once before at the very beginning and without much success, but I had to do something to knock myself out of the everyday, and without giving it enough time to percolate, I went live.

Probably, I wouldn't get many people on there since there had been no advance promo or notifications of an upcoming live, but I did it anyway.

"Hello, friends. It's me, your week-at-a-glance girl, and do I have exciting news for you. On the recommendation of some very good friends who are worried about me not getting out and having enough fun, I have signed up for a dating app." I changed the background to a 1980s discotheque I'd been dying to use but had no good reason for until now. "If all goes well, you may see me out boogying with somebody special soon. As long as they don't mind being on the channel.

"Should I make that a requirement? Willingness to share?"

The number of people watching was climbing. Into the hundreds…passing a thousand. Could I have found my niche? I mean, it wasn't monetizing numbers, but it was looking pretty good.

"Okay, I am going to pick up my phone and access the app and see what Fate has in mind for me tonight. I will admit I've already dipped in, with not such great success. So, friends, I leave it to you. Would you like to share my possibly terrifying existence?"

Holy cow! My very first Super Chat popped up on the screen. Someone paid $5.99 to be noticed.

I'm so excited to share your dating app trials!

"SuziM, thank you so much!" I was about to go on when the chat line went crazy. Super chats, sticker chats, and regular. I had everything set up, although I hadn't had much activity, but I sure did now. And they all wanted in on the dating debacle. I replied to as many as I could before holding up a hand. "Okay, I have a match here. He's about twelve years older than me, six foot two, blue eyes, and he's a general. Also a doctor."

The chats exploded again, most warning me off, a few wanting me to do it just to toy with him, and one who was also a general doctor and thought he sounded like a stand-up guy. I reported the match to the administrators before he could do any real damage and went on to the next one. Suddenly, I didn't feel as alone as I had. Sure, they were all just chat-line people, but they really seemed to care about what I was doing. How I was doing. I kept things going for about an hour and a half, mostly rejecting matches but actually setting one up to chat another day.

The next live.

Should be…interesting.