“I don’t think so.” I hated that he worried. “We’ve always felt like that was what was meant to be. Besides, if a female showed up who was fated to only one of us, it’s not as if we’d push her away.”
“We should check the app.” Dash was on his feet, his machine still now. “And have some lunch.”
Chapter Five
Aideen
The rest of last weekend was a bust.
Usually, I would come into the office and get ahead on some things, but instead, I rotted on the couch and avoided my phone with the exception of the messages from my friends checking on me.
Erin apologized for Tate. Apparently, he was a friend of her mate’s who thought we would get along.
I asked her never to try and set me up again, and she agreed.
While riding the bus to the office, I let myself peruse the app again. I had some more matches since the reindeer shifters, but none of them caught my eye. They were all handsome. Some were shifters and others human, but time after time, I found myself going back to the reindeer.
“They are something,” the older woman next to me said, laughing.
“They certainly are.” I’d seen the woman before on my daily commutes. I went in early most days so I could have a few hours to work before everyone else came into the office. She and I had made small talk before. “Want to see some more?”
Her smile widened. “Oooh, yes! Haven’t seen any men that fine since my Sammy passed a few years ago.”
Ava—I finally learned her name—and I scrolled through the pictures while I explained about the app and how I was matched with them.
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? I reluctantly got off the bus knowing my upbeat and lively conversation with Ava would be the highlight of my day, and the sun had only just peeked over the horizon.
The crisp winter air woke me up in a way caffeine never could. I was as much a coffee addict as the next person, but I enjoyed the morning coldness. It made me feel alive. That was a rarity in my life lately.
I sat at my desk with a steaming-hot latte in my hand and blew out a breath. I had maybe three or four hours of work to complete, but I was expected to be here a minimum of six hours a day. My job was the worst. Sitting here, staring at a screen in a gray cubicle. That was me, a piece of paper in a cubicle. Bland. Blank. Boring.
In between working, I went back to the app time and time again.
It all seemed like a farce. Well-traveled and cute reindeer shifters were matched with me? Did I even want a relationship with three men at the same time? I went back to look at my profile and found that I had answered the question about polyamorous relationships in the affirmative.
Gosh, if I was with them, did that mean I would have my own reverse harem? Like in the romance novels I read?
That would turn my life from boring to exciting pretty damned fast.
But was there love? A real soul-bond?
Maria said her bond with her dragon mate was true love. The beginning was pure biology and Fate but now, she loved her mate with all her heart and he returned it.
That was what I wanted.
By the time my lunchtime rolled around, my work was done, and I was driving myself to madness with the sheer flatness of my life.
It couldn’t hurt to reach out and message them, right?
It wasn’t like I was giving them my address and inviting them over. It was a message through the app, and I knew the appvetted those who signed up, so there was a slim chance they were weirdos or worse, fake profiles.
Over my homemade sandwich, I made the decision.
I clicked on the shared profile, going back and forth about what to say.
Hello? What’s up? Hi, we’re a match? No. They already knew that. Which begged the question as to why they hadn’t reached out first? Maybe because my profile pic looked silly. I was halfway to Drunkville after all.
