The Love Hack

Ch. 3

Arty

It was a Friday night, and instead of having any semblance of a social life, I was comparing the data for probably the hundredth time.

The thing about hacking was that it was generally low-stakes, you know, minus the whole getting caught part. But I was very good at evading that. The main question was just whether I would be able to successfully get the information I needed.

This time it was different, I only had one chance at getting this right. One small mistake in the code and suddenly Leo would be matched with a completely random person.

To be clear, I didn't make a habit of hacking. In fact, I would hardly call it hacking. When the information is that easy to access, are they even really hiding it? It wasn't my fault that more people didn't believe in investing any money into cybersecurity.

I stared at the screen as my fingers hovered over the keyboard.

Name: Leo Rhodes

Interests: Coffee, EDM, photography, cooking, running, rock-climbing

And ignoring my existence.

I snorted at my own joke.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang against my bedroom door.

"Yeah?" I called back, and it banged back again.

"Hands full," Ben called out from the other side.

"That's okay, I can wait!" I called back, not being able to stop the smile forming on my face. I heard Ben huff in annoyance.

"Oh weird, this beer is just disappearing on its own," Ben called back, acting unbothered although his repeated kicks against the door gave him away.

I rolled my chair over to turn the knob. Ben was leaned against the door frame with a six pack of beer in his left hand, and a bag of ketchup chips in his right. He blew at a piece of hair that had fallen into his eyes.

Ben was wearing a vintage Miami Hurricanes sweater that he clearly stole out of my clean laundry, and black cargos that were covered in various stains. All of Ben's clothes kind of looked worse for wear, and Ben's mentality was that they were meant to be worn. The stains, apparently, gave them character.

Ben deposited the snacks on my bed and then sprawled himself next to them, propping his head up in his hands so that he could see my computer screen.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to watch a movie, but clearly you have more exciting plans," Ben laughed, opening up the bag of chips.

"Sorry, just, you know, holding my entire romantic future in my hands at the moment," I quipped back.

I held out my hand to Ben, the universal sign to pass me a beer. He held up the beer just a few inches out of my reach and I looked at him, confused.

"You sure your hands aren't too full of your future?" Ben teased.

I narrowed my eyes at him, making an attempt to snatch the beer from him, but Ben pulled it back further, grinning like a little kid. "Oh, come on, Benji," I whined.

Eventually a tug of war ensued over the can of beer, which turned increasingly violent. I pulled with all my might and Ben pulled back. But Ben actually worked out, he carried people out of burning buildings for a living. Me? I trip trying to walk on the sidewalk.

So all it took was one really good pull from Ben to send me sailing forward, falling next to him on the bed. I landed gracelessly with a resounding thud, and Ben dropped the beer in his fit of laughter. I could feel his body vibrating next to mine.