Page 94 of Offensive Plays
“You think?” Michael spits out at him.
I stomp through the kitchen and grab my bag from the coat closet. I need distance.
“Libby, wait.”
I whirl on him. “I’m sorry, like a clueless nitwit, I just assumed that us meeting on a blind dating app was fate. And now I’m learning that it wasn’t fate at all. You were behind it the whole time. Did you trap me on purpose Michael?”
“No, Libby,” he breathes out. “No. I had no idea it was you until…”
“Until what?”
“Until you invited me to your place. I had no idea it was you on the other side of the screen. I swear. That was all real.”
I feel my shoulders relax slightly.
“Okay?” His eyes are worried. “It was fate, Lib.”
I drop my purse and he steps up to me, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m sorry I never told you.”
I breathe in the scent of his cologne. The same cologne I smelled our first night together. It calms me.
“Come here,” he says, sliding my hand into his and walking me down the hall.
The kitchen is now empty as we walk by. The girls have since moved outside to give us some space. And I appreciate them for that.
Michael holds my hand behind his back as he leads me up the stairs.
He pauses in front of the first door to the left. “I want to show you something.”
He opens the door and I follow him inside. There’s a queen size bed with a cushy beige duvet and lots of pillows pushed to the far corner of the room. But the majority of the room is taken up by a giant L-shaped desk lined with multiple computer screens. Five to be exact.
“What the hell?” I breathe out. “Are you some kind of hacker?”
He grins. “No, I’m a software developer. I play hockey but this is what I love to do when I’m not on the ice.”
I walk up to the setup. There’s flashing lights and colorful keyboards.
He turns the lights off in the room, and the computer area comes to life.
“So… you’re a nerd. Is that what you’re trying to show me?”
He bites his bottom lip in amusement and takes my hand.
“Libby, for as long as I can remember. I’ve had a crush on you. First, we were neighbors. Then we were friends. Then Jonah, by some sick joke of the universe convinced you to be his girlfriend. And I couldn’t do anything about it, but sit back and watch. And I was convinced I had lost you.”
I swallow at his confession.
“But then, you guys broke up. And I saw the smallest glimmer of hope.”
I nod. Remembering the conversation when we were younger. The same one that wakes me up on some nights.
“You told me I had to stay away. And that if I didn’t that you would.”
I look down at my hands, fingers fumbling over each other.
“I didn’t know why we couldn’t be friends. Only that you didn’t want me. So I had to try to move on. Then Zane joined the Heatwave. And I knew I was a goner. Because if Zane was going to be around. I knew you would too.”
He steps up to his keyboard and runs a hand over it. “So I tried out some apps. Got catfished. Got ghosted. Got swindled for a lot of money. Girls took advantage. And I knew the only way to forget about you, would be to create an app that would be the ultimate distraction. I did everything I could to teach the algorithm to know exactly all the ways one human could match with another. The ultimate hookup. I spent a year building it. Then it went live.”