Twenty-Nine

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The smell of curry drifts from downstairs. My mouth waters at the smell of toasted spices and coconut.

"You sure we can't stay for dinner?" A smirk sits on Autumn's lips as she voices exactly my thoughts.

"Sorry, we have family coming over." Priya bites her lip and offers an apologetic smile.

"It's okay," Zoe says. "We get it."

"Maybe I can get some naan for you to take home, though."

For all the baking Mom does, she has not been able to master dumplings, samosas, or naan, despite Mrs. Tsai and Mrs. Das sharing recipes with her.

"We have work to do," Zoe says, opening her laptop.

"We could use the thinking fuel now," Autumn says.

Priya bites her lip. "Okay, I'll see what I can find." She leaves while we set up our laptops. I pull out my phone and open SoulDate. It takes a minute for the loading bar to reach one-hundred percent. Then, the interface pops up. Already, I have a 'one' icon by my messages. I click on it, and my message chats with my previous matches pop up.

One is the weird deleted chat, the other is the one with Evan, one has a notification beside it...

Wait, why are there four chats?

A strange sense of deja vu overcomes me as I view part of the last message.

Yo, you gon—

That's all I can see. I tap the chat, and a loading icon swirls on the screen, pulling up the message history. Anticipation grows in my fingertips. The messages load, and...

The door shuts behind me. I yelp, dropping my phone on the carpet with a dull thud.

"You good?" Autumn laughs.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Priya says. Warm spices fill the air with a delicious, savory fragrance. "I brought samosas though."

"Ooh, yes," Zoe says, grabbing one from the plate.

"Thank you," Autumn says. She bites into one, then peers at her laptop while munching on it.

Priya holds the plate out to me. I take one. As I chew on it, I quickly exit the chat I had just opened.

"So what's this about another date?" Priya asks.

Zoe and I exchange glances. She inhales a breath before debriefing them on all that they've missed out on. I find myself holding my breath. Will they be mad that we've been excluding them?

"So you've been investigating Evans' murder this whole time?" Autumn asks, incredulous. We nod. "And you have another date through the app?"

Again, Zoe and I nod.

"That seems dangerous, don't you think?" Priya shifts on the floor. "I mean, shouldn't you just let the police handle it?"

"They haven't done much so far," Zoe points out. "It's already been almost two months, and they haven't figured out who the killer is. That shouldn't happen."

"I think they're looking for a serial killer," I add. "Which could very well be the case. There's a chance we could catch them in the act if we make the player play our game, instead of playing their's."

"So what are you thinking?" Autumn asks, popping the second half of her samosa in her mouth.

"I think we should plan a dinner date," Zoe says. "We just need to find a good location, one we can all easily get to without our parents, and one we can close off the exits to in order to watch everyone who enters and leaves."

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