Ella
" O kay," Ava says the moment Jamie is out of earshot. "We need all the details. Tell us everything."
"Well, maybe not everything," Mia says. "He is my big brother."
I laugh and Jaxon groans. "Maybe I should have gone with the guys to the bar. I'll leave you ladies to it."
After giving Ava a deep kiss that leaves her a little breathless, Jaxon's gone too. "Okay," she says. "Spill. Are you so happy?"
I nod and smile so wide it hurts. "I've never been so happy. He's...he's just perfect." I shake my head in wonder. "I have to thank you for telling me about the site. If it weren't for you blazing the trail, I never would have signed up and can you believe we were a perfect match?"
"A perfect match?" Mia looks between us. "What does that mean?"
I quickly explain how there are two parts of the site, the listing section where Ava and Jaxon met, and then a matching section. "So we each filled out the questionnaires and then the site ran whatever algorithms or diagnostics or whatever, and then...we matched."
"And it was perfect?" Ava asks.
"Well, not totally perfect. But in all the important areas, our answers were an exact match. It's like a 98% match, which is what they consider perfect." I sit back in my chair and shake my head because just saying it out loud makes it sound even more special. "Isn't it incredible?"
"It is," Mia says. "The guys did a good job, didn't they?"
"They—wait." I stop and shake my head. "Did you say the guys did a good job?" I laugh a little, but something doesn't feel right. "The guys didn't do anything, the Mountain Mates site is the one that did a good job." I smile and look at the ladies. "What guys are you talking about?"
Mia exchanges a glance with Ava, and it's my best friend who speaks. "Briggs and Jaxon," she says. "They signed Jamie up for the website."
"What?" My stomach lurches. "They signed Jamie up? And then he filled out the?—"
The look on Mia's face answers the question I'm about to ask. "They filled out the questionnaire for him," I say. "That's what you mean by the guys doing a good job?"
Ava nods and my heart clenches in my chest.
If it wasn't Jamie who filled out the questionnaire, then it was all a lie. We aren't a perfect match after all because he never answered the questions. He probably doesn't even know what they are. It's a lie. All of it. And I fell for it.
My face burns with shame and I feel like I'm going to pass out right there at the table.
"?" Ava's voice reaches me. "Are you okay?"
"She's not okay," Mia says. "?"
The touch of her hand on mine snaps me out of my trance. I push up from the chair. "I need to go." I reach behind me for my coat and tug it off the back of the chair.
", wait!" Ava's trying to get out of the chair, but her swollen belly is making it hard for her to maneuver.
It's Mia who appears at my side. "I'm sorry, I thought you knew," she says. "It's not a big deal. The guys just thought that Jamie needed a little push in the right?—"
"It's a very big deal." I blink back hot tears as I take off through the busy restaurant. I rush past Jamie and the guys, their hands full of drinks on my way past.
"? Where are you going?"
I don't bother turning around. The tears start streaming down my cheeks the moment I push open the heavy wooden door, out into the snowy, winter night.
Alone.