Mismatched

Ch. 12

The reality of everything hit me like a truck the next morning.

Even if I did have feelings for Riley, it wasn't like there was any future for us in this carefully constructed reality I'd created. I wasn't who I said I was. Our relationship could only ever exist in secret, and I didn't think that was part of Riley's long-term plan.

The only way forward would be if I told him the truth, but I couldn't do that. Judy would kill me, Riley would probably never forgive me, but even if he did, he probably wouldn't even like me at the end of it.

Riley liked the Nate that I had carefully curated to be exactly who he wanted me to be. He didn't know that I listened to alternative music, I hated reading, I thought debating philosophical questions we would never have answers for was stupid, I was an annoying drunk, I was unemployed and uneducated with no life plans and, possibly worst of all, I did not like cats.

I was the one who had criticized Lesley about how Riley was a real person with real emotions at the other end of this, yet somehow, I'd lost that vision. I'd let myself get lost in the moments and the feelings of being with him.

I knew I needed to let him go, that was the right thing to do. He deserved that much.

But I also was selfish, and I wasn't ready to let go yet. So, naturally, I was supposed to pick him up after I finished work.

The whole day, I was trapped in a tortuous whirlwind of my own thoughts. I felt like I should tell him about what happened with Bea, but at this point, with everything else I was lying about, what difference did it make? Plus, although one would assume that the whole matchmaking setup guaranteed a certain degree of commitment, we hadn't actually defined anything.

For all I knew, he could be seeing other people too.

I still flinched at even using the words in my mind. I was seeing Riley, another guy. I couldn't make any sense of it, but all I knew was I wanted to keep seeing him.

At a quarter to close, the bell to the front door chimed, and I looked from my desk to see a man that looked like he was in his late twenties standing in the entrance, surveying the place. He had a strong, confident posture that made him seem intimidating.

I recognized him instantly as Jack McKee. He had been the talk of the town for years. He was in Lesley's grade in high school and was the pitcher for the baseball team and voted prom king. Scouts came around town to see him play, and people really thought he was going to make it to the MLB and put Shelburne on the map.

But prom night, he was spotted in a locked bathroom stall with the captain of the debate team, Henry Stewart. After that, he became a ghost, and left town for years. When he came back, he opened up a veterinarian practice on the outskirts of town.

He had gone from a promising, small-town baseball star that had the hearts of every woman under twenty, to the guy that you called when your cow was giving birth.

He spied me at my desk in the back and smiled slightly.

"Hey, do you work here?" His voice was deep and smooth, with the slight country twang we all had from growing up here.

He was wearing faded blue jeans and a black peacoat with a white shirt underneath. He was growing out his hair from when I last saw him, his dark brown hair falling to his ears.

"Well, I'm not here for fun," I joked, and he laughed in return, approaching the desk.

Jack leaned against the desk, the confident glint still in his dark blue eyes. "I was wondering if you could help me out. My sister convinced me to try out this whole matchmaking thing, and I finally gave in and signed up. But I'm a bit confused, it looks like I didn't get a match."