by Amanda Abram
My eyes widened as I glanced back at the envelope. I was so confused, still reeling from everything Logan had just said to me. I didn’t know what to say. What to do.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, finally finding my voice. “Who is he?”
“Your real Number 7.”
I shook my head slowly back and forth. “I don’t…I don’t get it.”
Logan sat back in his chair. “I decided last night there was only one way to make all this up to you: I had to go back to the beginning. To the test. So, I called a few people and got the contact information of one of the Computer Club geeks—Alex Porter. I went over to his house and explained everything to him and asked if he would run your test results against the algorithm again—without my test in there to screw everything up, of course. He was hesitant at first, but a few Andrew Jacksons later, and he was on board. He ran the tests again, and that envelope—” he pointed to it, “contains the name of the guy you should have been matched up with.”
I could feel his eyes on me, as he waited for my reaction. I wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Did he want me to jump up and down, cheering? Did he want me to thank him profusely? I wasn’t even sure how I felt about all of this. One minute he was telling me he liked me and the next he was encouraging me to go be with someone else.
And boys thought girls were confusing?
“Logan,” I began, but once again, he interjected.
“I don’t know who it is,” he said. “I told Alex I didn’t want to know. But he saw the name, and good news: he happens to know for a fact that this guy’s match didn’t end up working out for him. But for now, he hasn’t been notified of his true match. Alex figured he wouldn’t let him know just yet, that way you could see the results first and if you weren’t happy with them, this guy doesn’t ever have to know. No harm, no foul. But if you are happy, then…” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Then Alex will notify him and you two can spend the rest of the summer together. Fortunately, you’ll still have plenty of time together before school starts back up in the fall.”
He pushed his chair back and stood. “I know this doesn’t make up for everything, but I hope it’s at least a start.” He took a step back. “Take care, Emma.”
With a small, sad smile, he turned and walked away. I opened my mouth to call after him, to stop him, but no sound came out.
I didn’t know what to do. I had never been so conflicted about anything before in my entire life. Part of me was elated to know that Logan liked me. He liked me. But another part of me really wanted to know whose name was in that envelope. This was the main reason I skipped the Florida trip. To spend the summer with my soulmate. And Logan had just delivered that opportunity to me.
I frowned as I watched him turn the corner around the side of the house.
What are you waiting for? Go after him! He likes you! You like him, too!
I stood with the intent of following him, but my feet remained planted firmly on the ground, not allowing me to move. My eyes fell to the envelope. Inside of it was the name of my perfect match. The guy I was most likely destined to be with. At least, for the summer.
There was no way I could pass up this opportunity. Just because I’d spent some time with Logan and we were getting along now, that didn’t mean we were meant to be together…right? If he had answered every question on that test honestly, he would have literally been the last person that algorithm would have ever matched me up with.
And then none of this would have happened.
Chewing on my bottom lip, I swiped the envelope off the table.
I knew what I had to do.
Chapter Thirty-Two
LOGAN
I was an idiot.
What the hell was I thinking? Confessing to Emma that I liked her? And then handing her an envelope containing the name of another guy who was perfect for her?
Moron.
And then, I failed to plead with her not to go on her date with Justin, nor did I even attempt to grill her on where they were going.
Imbecile.
Oh, and then I just walked away, not even giving her a chance to respond to my confession. “Oh, hey, Emma, I really like you. Okay, bye.”
Fool.
Not that I wanted to hear her response, anyway. The girl hated me. And rightfully so.
Jerk.
“Dude, are you okay?”
The sound of Matt’s voice broke me out of my loop of internal self-hatred, and I was thankful for the interruption. Blinking over at him, I said, “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
“Because you keep getting killed,” he replied, pointing to the TV screen. “In the same spot. Because you haven’t moved from it in like two minutes.”
“Oh, right,” I grumbled. With my thumb, I pushed the left stick on the controller to move forward in the game…and immediately got killed again by some punk to my right. “Whatever.” I dropped the controller onto the couch beside me, crossed my arms over my chest, and scowled at the TV screen.
Matt and I had been playing video games in his living room for a couple of hours now. After I left Emma’s house, I went straight to Matt’s, hoping that spending some quality time with my best friend would take my mind off everything.
No such luck.
With a sigh, Matt paused the game and turned to me. “You did the right thing, Logan.”
“I know. But it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Hey, you had your chance to tell her how you feel—”
“I did tell her.”
“Yeah, you told her, and then you handed her the name of her soulmate in an envelope. You should have just told her you loved her and then kissed her.”
“Easier said than done,” I mumbled. “Obviously, she doesn’t like me back. If she did, she would have followed me when I left her house. She would have called me by now. She would have done something. She didn’t do anything, and that’s fine, but now I’m freaking out not knowing if she’s still going on her date with Justin tonight.”
“Why don’t you call Justin and ask him?” Matt said with a shrug.
It was a great idea. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Taking my phone out of my pocket, I dialed Justin’s number.
He picked up on the second ring. “Logan, my man, what’s up?”
I tapped my fingers nervously against the arm of the loveseat.
“Hey, Justin,” I said casually. “I heard you’re going out with Emma tonight?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I was, until she called up about an hour ago and cancelled on me.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “She did?”
“Yep. Girl sure knows how to bust a guy’s ego. Brutal.”
I couldn’t help but smile. That’s my girl.
Except, she wasn’t.
“Why are you asking?”
“Um…” My voice trailed off as I realized I had no good excuse to be asking Justin about his dating life.
“Ah, I get it,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m stepping on your toes, aren’t I?”
I suppressed a groan. Even Justin knew how I felt about Emma?
“Dude, I thought you two were just friends,” he continued, taking my silence as confirmation. “If I had known you liked her, I never would have asked her out.”
We both knew that was a total lie. Justin didn’t care who liked who, or who was dating who. If he wanted a girl, he did whatever he had to do to get her. I could count on more than two hands how many relationships he’d broken up since Freshman year.
I didn’t know what to say, but that didn’t matter. He wasn’t done yet.
“Well, maybe you’re in luck. She gave me the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ spiel and then said there was someone else.”
A tiny glimmer of hope ignited within me before I realized that someone else wasn’t me.
It was whoever was in that envelope.
“She didn’t happen to say who that someone else was, did she?”
“Sorr
y, man,” Justin said, not sounding sorry at all. “Are we done talking about my rejection? I’ve got stuff to do.”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, sorry, I just—”
The line went dead.
I turned off my phone and sighed.
“So? Is their date still on?” Matt asked.
“Nope,” I said, dropping my head back and staring up at the ceiling.
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Yep.”
“But you don’t seem happy about that.”
“I am,” I assured him. I leaned forward and buried my face in my hands. “But she told him there was someone else.”
“Oh yeah? Maybe she was talking about you.”
I removed my hands to look at him. “She wasn’t. If she had been, she would have called me, or texted me.”
Matt shrugged. “Not necessarily…”
“She knows how I feel about her,” I said. “I laid it all out there for her. If I were that someone else, I would know by now.”
She was probably meeting the guy right now. They were probably at Dream Bean, sipping on iced teas and discussing their favorite Jane Austen books. His was probably Pride and Prejudice, just like hers. Because, you know, they were perfect for each other. They had everything in common. That’s why the stupid algorithm paired them up.
Matt gave me a sympathetic half-smile. “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere and do something?”
I blinked over at him. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Like go on a road trip or something. Or go see a movie. Or anything, really. Whatever will get your mind off Emma.”
At this point, nothing was going to get my mind off Emma. I couldn’t stop wondering who her Mr. Right might be. I hadn’t lied to her; I really didn’t look to see who he was, but now I was regretting that decision as I racked my brain, trying to think of what guy at our school could possibly be worthy enough to be with her.
I came up blank.
“I don’t know…” I said finally, not convinced I wanted to do anything but go home and sulk.
“How about we go to the beach?” Matt suggested. “Might do you some good. There will be plenty of eye candy in bikinis there to distract you.”
I held back a snort. Who cared about random girls in bikinis? I’d seen Emma in one and there was no way any girl at the beach would compare.
Still, Matt was right. It would probably do me some good to get out and try to clear my head of everything.
“Okay, let’s do it,” I said, jumping up from the couch.
Matt set down his controller and turned off the TV. “Great.” He tossed me his keys. “Go get the AC running and I’ll be out in a sec.”
I nodded as I left the living room and headed for the front door.
The first thing I noticed upon exiting Matt’s house was that Emma’s car was missing from the driveway across the street. Presumably, she had taken it to go meet with her new Number 7. Taking a slow, deep breath, I walked over to Matt’s Jeep, opened the door, turned the vehicle on, and cranked up the AC as requested. Since it felt like a sauna in there, I chose to shut the door and wait outside of it.
Where is Emma? I couldn’t stop myself from thinking. And who is she with? Why didn’t I look in that envelope? Why didn’t I tell that nerd to give me the guy’s name? I lightly banged the back of my head against the side of the jeep. Stop it, Logan. It’s over. It doesn’t matter now. This is none of your business.
But I had to know. Taking out my phone, I dialed Alex’s number. Surely, he would tell me. He would have told me last night, if I’d wanted him to.
After a few rings, I was brought to his voicemail. Swearing under my breath, I ended the call without leaving a message. Okay. Who else would know this information? Besides Emma, that is.
Chloe and Sophia. Of course! There was no way she wouldn’t have called her best friends and told them about this. Turning my phone back on, I scrolled through my contacts, hoping to see either of their names in the list. Sure enough, Chloe’s number was in there. I couldn’t remember ever asking for her number in the past, but I had half the school programmed into my phone, and couldn’t remember how I’d gotten their numbers, either.
I tapped on her name and listened in anticipation for her to pick up. I only had to wait two rings.
“Logan?” she greeted me slowly. She sounded confused—and rightfully so. Even though her number was in my phone, this was the first time I’d ever called her.
“Hey, Chloe,” I said casually, as if we were the best of friends who talked on the phone every day. “What’s up?”
“Um…not much…” she replied. I heard her whisper something to someone in the background, but I couldn’t hear what she said. “Why are you calling me?”
No sense beating around the bush. “Have either you or Sophia talked to Emma since yesterday?”
“Maybe. Why?”
My eyes flickered over to Matt, who had just walked out the front door. He glanced at me curiously as I held up a finger to indicate I’d only be a minute.
“Did she tell you I gave her the name of her real Number 7?”
“Maybe. Why?” she repeated.
I pinched the bridge of my nose as I tamped down a sudden, intense feeling of annoyance. “Did she happen to tell you who it was?”
“Maybe. Why?”
“Oh my God, Chloe,” I muttered through clenched teeth. I took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it back out. “You’re not going to give me any information, are you?”
There was a long pause on her end. “Honestly, Logan, why should I? You hurt my best friend.”
“I love your best friend,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
Another pause on her end. “Wait, what?”
Interesting. Did Emma not tell her friends that part? The part where I told her I liked her? Why would she leave that out?
“I’m in love with Emma,” I said, resting my head against the Jeep again and staring up at the blue sky above me.
“Whoa,” Chloe breathed. I heard her whisper something to someone again before saying, “Okay, Logan, I’m putting you on speaker.”
Great, just what I needed. With a sigh, I said, “Hello, Sophia.”
“You’re in love with our girl?” she said in response, cutting right to the chase.
I shut my eyes tightly and nodded. “Yeah, I am.”
“And now you want us to tell you who her real Number 7 is?”
“Yes, I do.” I rolled my eyes at Matt, who was still giving me a quizzical look.
“Logan, we don’t know who it is,” Chloe said.
I pushed off the side of the Jeep. “You just said a minute ago that she did tell you who it was.”
“I lied. Emma called last night and told us you handed her an envelope with the name of her real match in it, but she wouldn’t tell us who it was. I’m not even sure she knew who it was at the time she called us.”
“But she didn’t tell you anything else?”
Like how I’d confessed my feelings for her?
“No,” Chloe replied. “Why? Is there more to the story?”
“Apparently not,” I mumbled. “Thanks anyway, guys. Sorry to bother you.”
“Logan—” Sophia began, but I hung up before she could continue.
“Dude.” Matt stalked over to me and snatched my phone out of my hand.
“Hey,” I protested, “what the hell?”
“I’m confiscating your phone for the rest of the day,” he said, placing it in his pocket. He knew there was no way I’d reach in there to grab it back.
“Why?”
“Because if I don’t, you’re either just going to check it every three seconds to see if Emma has texted you, or you’re going to call every single one of your contacts and ask them if they know who Emma’s mystery man is. Neither one is healthy and neither one is going to get your mind off Emma.”
He was right. “Okay, fine,” I grumbled as I made my way to t
he passenger side of the Jeep.
“Oh, by the way, there’s a party at Jackson’s house later. We should go.”
I groaned. Jackson—the jerk who pushed me and Emma into the lake at Justin’s party. Why were there so many parties going on around town lately? Didn’t these kids have anything better to do with their time? Like, couldn’t they just read a book or something?
Oh, God. Emma had ruined me. I was now thinking that reading was a preferable activity to partying.
“That’s fine,” I found myself saying, even though the idea of attending yet another party was about as appealing as…well, the idea of reading a book.
“You’ll get through this,” Matt said as he opened the door and got into the vehicle. “There are plenty of other fish in the sea.”
“Yeah,” I agreed glumly as I climbed into the passenger seat.
Sure, there were a lot of other girls in the world. In our town, even. The problem was, though, I didn’t want any of them. I wanted Emma.
She just didn’t want me.
***
“Oh, man, you have got to try the punch.” Matt held out a red plastic cup for me to take, but I politely pushed his hand away from me. An hour into the party, he was already buzzed, and now he was quickly working his way toward wasted.
Matt and I ended up having quite the Bro’s Day Out. After spending a couple of hours at the beach, we went to Rodeo Roy’s for a bite to eat. After that, we went bowling, went to see a movie, and now we were at Jackson Rowe’s party. While it was great to spend the time with my best friend, who I’d barely seen since school let out, I was both mentally and physically exhausted from our day together.
“No thanks,” I said. “I’m apparently the designated driver now.”
Matt laughed. “Whoops, sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay.” It really was. When it came to drinking, I could take it or leave it. I was often a casual drinker at parties. I never got drunk because I didn’t like to let my guard down around Grace. I didn’t trust her. Besides, she did like getting drunk at parties, so I was already used to being the designated driver.
I glanced down at my watch. It was a little after eleven. If Matt had it his way, we’d still be here for another two hours at least, and that thought made me want to go bang my head against the nearest wall.