"Well, there you go! Maybe you'll find your happily-ever-after just in time for my wedding!"
A wry smile worked its way to my face. Maria and I weren'tquiteon the same wavelength, but her idea sparked inspiration.
Because I wasn't looking for a real boyfriend. Just one to tide me over and get me past this excruciating event as painlessly as possible.
I looked down at myself. With my age, my chubby belly covered in hair, the fact that I lived alone in a messy apartment and spent all day staring at code... I wasn't exactly a catch. No alpha in his right mind would ever want me the way I wanted him.
My family was right, in a way. Theremustbe something wrong with me. Why else would I be single at this age? Maria was sweet to think I'd find a happily-ever-after, but it wasn't gonna happen.
"We'll see," I told her. "Anyway, I better get out of the tub before I turn into a prune."
"Okay. I'll message you soon. Don't forget to log into one of those applications!"
I rolled my eyes, grinning. "I won't."
After we hung up, I dragged myself out of the tub and sat on the couch wrapped in a towel. My eyes were glued to my phone screen as thoughts muddied my mind.
The idea sounded good at first, but how was I going to do this? To sign up for a dating app, I needed a real picture of myself. The idea alone made me cringe. I wasn't exactly confident in my appearance. Maybe a photo of myself from when I was ten years younger? No, I didn't want to catfish anyone either.
I bit my lip as I slowly thumbed my way over to the app store and downloadedAlphOmeg, a crudely-named dating app for alphas and omegas seeking love. I'd heard that omegas were always in higher demand on these apps, but would that include me, too? Surely the app would be full of young, 20-something omegas that garnered all the attention instead.
I bit the bullet and filled out my profile, including my name, job, interests, and approximate location. In the description I mentioned that I wasn't looking for anything serious, since I didn't want to lead anyone on. The final nail in the coffin was my profile picture so I spent twenty minutes wrangling a decent photo of myself before submitting it.
"There. Done."
I slumped in my seat and let out a big sigh of relief.
If this worked, it worked. If it didn't... Well, it wouldn't be the first time I'd white-knuckled it through a family gathering.
I left my phone on the couch and went to the kitchen. Just as I was about to toss a frozen dinner in the microwave, my phone blew up. Notifications fired off one after the other. There were so many of them that my phone tumbled off the couch and onto the carpet, still buzzing.
"Holy shit.”
Hunger instantly forgotten, I scrambled for my phone. All the notifications were fromAlphOmeg.
And all of them were from alphas wanting to meet up.
A hot blush spread over my cheeks. Were they really all interested? Inme?Had theyseenmy picture?
Hell, I didn't even care that half of them clearly only wanted sex. That was still more interest than any alpha showed me in my life.
I laughed, feeling giddy and flirty. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.
I ignored the creepiest messages and combed through the ones that seemed decent. I paced around my apartment with a fuzzy feeling in my chest, savoring the attention. At the end of the night, I'd narrowed down the best prospect to one guy, an alpha named xXd3monl0rdXx. Sadly he wasn't actually a demon lord. He told me his real name was Paul.
Regardless, we made plans to meet up the following evening for dinner. After I put my phone away for the night, I was so excited I could barely sleep.
I smiled up at the ceiling, my heart fluttering with joy.
I had a very good feeling about this.
2
Miguel
After a long dayof distracted coding and fussing with my appearance, evening rolled around. It was time for my date with xXd3monl0rdXx.
Er, I mean Paul.
