Simply Be Mine Matchmakers

10. Incompatible

It should have been expected when it happened again, yet it still made Lucy gasp when Tim's hand ended up covering hers on the door handle of the pet shelter. "Hi," she said, surprised, even if they had prearranged to meet at the shelter.

"Hey," he responded roughly and cleared his throat.

"So," they both said at the same time then proceeded to blow out an awkward laugh in unison.

Tim nodded his head to indicate that she should speak first while he continued to hold her hand on the handle.

"I, uh, I'm sorry about last night. I shouldn't have gotten mad at you. I don't know how we ended up at the same bar or whatever, but I shouldn't have blamed you..."

"No, I should apologize. I totally ruined your date," he interjected.

"It's probably for the best. We didn't get along all that well, so I texted Angela last night, and she's already scheduling my next date."

"Your next date? With who?"

"This guy named Chris. He's been our client for about a year now. We're somewhat compatible, so he's a good option." Uncomfortable discussing her dates with Tim, she suggested, "We should pick up Kojo and another dog."

He opened the door for her then asked, "Who's our pet matchmaking client today?"

"Rachel. She's great, and we've been trying to match her with someone. Since it didn't work out with you two, I figured we could suggest a furry friend for her."

"Maybe it didn't work out between me and her, because we aren't compatible," Tim offered.

"You had a pretty high score if I remember correctly," Lucy tried to recall. "Actually, she was your highest compatibility score with a 92%." She committed it to memory, because she hated knowing that a friend and Tim made more sense than she and Tim did.

They reached the back area with the kennels. He took Kojo out first and oberseved her petting a beagle.

"We're gonna take this sweet girl named Fiona with us on our walk today," Lucy proclaimed excitedly.

He retrieved two leashes for their two dogs then paused at the sight of another familiar face. "Mind if we also take Honey with us, too?"

"The more the merrier," she answered.

As they began their walk with three very different dogs trotting in front of them, Tim felt it was time to ask, "So, you found your matches for our bet in your matchmaking database, too, right?"

"I did."

"Which means you're also in the database."

"I was the first person ever inputted in there."

"What was our compatibility score?" Because she looked up at him as if that was a completely unexpected question, he reasoned, "Come on, Lucy, we've spent a lot of time together. I don't need some fancy algorithm to tell me that we might be a little bit compatible."

She chewed on her lip, since she had been genuinely curious what their score was, but because she had yet to confirm the actual number, all she could share was, "I don't know what the exact score is, but I know it's less than 50%, which is really bad. We tend to only set people up with an 80% compatibility or higher." Her heart felt heavy divulging that.

"Your scoring system is clearly flawed."

"Excuse me?" Lucy was incredibly offended. "I've spent years working and perfecting our algorithm, and we've had one HUNDRED successful couples. How could you say that?"

"Because you and I-"

"Clearly aren't compatible," she finished for him. "The algorithm knows something we don't."