Mismatched

Ch. 6

I'd never been particularly known for my relationship-ending skills, as evidenced by my current reputation around the town. On the other hand, I was incredibly successful in starting them.

In that respect, I should've thanked Riley for actually giving me a challenge.

I'd contemplated a few excuses to get me out of seeing Riley again. You know, the usual—missionary work, arctic research, really anything that involved moving to another continent and being unreachable. And while I possessed the willingness and the commitment to this charade to leave town, I lacked the money, which was what got me into this mess in the first place.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that I had fun on our date, but I was just beginning to tolerate Riley as a person. Plus, having someone to hang out with that was not related to me would be nice.

So, as another night of playing matchmaker at Judy's shop drew to a close, I wasn't completely dreading the idea of seeing Riley afterwards. I even did my laundry so he would have one thing less to criticize about me.

Riley had made reservations at Gallo's, a local Mom-and-pop Italian restaurant. He insisted on planning everything because apparently my taste was "questionable at best". I was just relieved that he had chosen something casual and low-profile.

Just as I placed the last of today's entries into the filing cabinet, the phone started to ring. I decided to let it go to voicemail. I would deal with it in the morning.

I tucked in the desk chair, threw my messenger bag over my shoulder, and grabbed my car keys, heading for the front door. Just as I turned off the lights, the phone rang again.

I looked at the time on the grandfather clock in the corner. If I could wrap up the call in five minutes or less, I could still make it on-time to meet Riley.

I shrugged my bag off onto the floor and made my way back to the desk, sitting in complete darkness.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Nate, you haven't even made it two weeks yet and you're already getting lazy. You know that you are supposed to be reading off the script that I left for you. What if I had been a client?"

I could practically hear Judy's scowl.

"You sound pretty tense for someone who is supposed to be sipping on a mimosa poolside, Aunt Judy," I joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. I was met with complete silence.

"I've been using the script, Aunt Judy, I swear. My familial telepathy just sensed that you were calling." I laughed, but Judy didn't seem to find it as amusing, letting out an exasperated sigh in response.

"Familial telepathy? Nope, you know what, I'm not even going to entertain that. Anyways, how are things? Has everything been going okay?"

Just tell her, Nate. Admit you messed up.

No, it was already too far gone to tell her.

Explain that the system couldn't find a match for someone? Sure, maybe she'd understand.

Explain that I was posing as the match for a client and was about to meet them for our third date? Judy would hire a professional hitman to take me out for ruining her business. No expense would be too great for Judy to ensure my demise.

"Everything is going great, Aunt Judy," I lied, and she let out a sigh of relief on the other end. "Trust me, by the time you get back, I'll have this place running so well that you will be begging me to be your partner."

She scoffed. "We will see about that when I'm back. Anyways, I'm just calling to make sure you dropped off the paperwork that I left on the desk with the sticky note?"