“I’d like some!”
“Yes, please.”
“I miss your tea.”
That last one was Carolina, of course, who was the one who had originally suggested us meeting at Iko’s place. Not just because of how much she apparently liked his tea, but also because Iko had enough space and furniture to fit our group. Between me, Rowan, Daniella, Xiánlü, Chuck, and Carolina, we were a full house.
“I shall deliver sometout de suitetomorrow,” the cyclops declared.
“Don’t you dare! I’m not letting you get sick again. The last time you got a cold, your ears got clogged, and it was literal hell for you.”
The cyclops muttered something, which none of us quite caught, but he didn’t argue beyond that because he knew she was right. I’d heard man-colds mentioned plenty of times teasingly, but cyclops-colds were the real deal. And stealing or even dulling the senses of someone who relied on scent and hearing to get around was especially cruel.
“Besides, I’ve been brewing the custom tea bags you sent me.”
“Good. You had better.”
“I never got any custom teabags,” Chuck murmured, only for Daniella to shush him.
“Mind your business.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Guys, guys,” Carolina interrupted. “The mirror!”
All of our gazes snapped to the large looking glass we’d mounted on the wall; it was taller than me (not like that was difficult) and its frame was golden filigree woven in intricate loops of metal. Much fancier than anything I owned, but it was afitting splurge considering it was our portal to the scrying mobile network.
But the frame wasn’t what captured our attention. No, what did was the swirling miasma of multiple colors churning in the middle. It was barely the size of my fist, but expanding rapidly in kaleidoscopic bursts of iridescent shades.
“We’re connecting! Oh my god, we’re connecting!” Daniella crowed.
I was right there with her, except my heart was so high up in my throat I could barely speak. All our hard work was coming to fruition in front of me, and Ireallybelieved this could be a game changer for so many people.
“Connection at ninety-three percent!” Xiánlü added.
I held my breath, because even something as simple as inhaling seemed like it might jinx it. My hand found Rowan’s, and he squeezed three times, his wordless way of sayingI love you.
Because he did. I had no doubt of it. After a year and a half together, I’d learned much more about the natural pace of such a significant age-gap relationship, and he’d learned more about dating a relative youngster. And as a now thirty-six-year-old woman who was about to turn thirty-seven, I wasn’t mad about being the one robbed from the cradle.
I squeezed back, and that simple exchange helped ground me for the remaining seconds as the miasma filled the mirror, and then clarified into an actual picture.
“We have full connection to the network!Mis-Matchedis now live. Expect a fifteen-to-thirty minute delay in our numbers at first, but hopefully soon, we’ll have more expedient metrics.”
“I can’t believe it,” I murmured, staring at the welcome screen for our project. Although we weren’t on the app itself, I’d wanted the launchpad of our server interface to have the same image that our clients would see. Maybe I was crazy,but I always had to make sure we were connected to all those who used the platform and that we didn’t lose sight of why we were doing all of this. Sure, we’d hopefully make some coin, but that could and wouldneverbe theraison d’etreofMis-Matched. Our priority would always be genuine connection—whether friendship, networking for jobs, living arrangements, or whatever magical folks on the fringes needed and were often denied access to, or even romance.
We were going to make a real difference in the world.
Wehadto. Because things couldn’t keep going how they were. It wasn’t viable foranybody.
“I’d say this calls for a toast!” Carolina cheered before being interrupted by a small bout of hacking. We waited for her to finish before all enthusiastically agreeing, and somehow Iko was right there again with a tray of champagne flutes. It turned out that the cyclops could move quite quickly and quietly in his own territory.
“ToMis-Matched!” he declared, lifting his glass. “So that everyone, no matter what their situation, will know there’s a place and a people for them!”
“ToMis-Matched!” I agreed, echoing his move. “To the people who made this happen, and all the people who it will help!” I was on the verge of crying, but I didn’t even mind. Because they were tears of joy, salty and full of all sorts of hope Naomi in her twenties never had.
“ToMis-Matched,” Rowan agreed. “And the beautiful mind and heart who came up with it. I can’t wait to be by your side on our next adventure and all the ones to follow.”
“ToMis-Matched!”
