3. Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Riley
“R iley, wake up.”
I pulled the covers over my head only to have them yanked away. I opened one eye to see Emery standing over me. Her toothbrush hung from the corner of her mouth and she shoved a mug of coffee in my face with one hand.
I sat up to take it and reached toward the nightstand for my phone. It felt too early to be awake on vacation. My hand met only the empty wood surface. What the…?
I opened my other eye and looked back to my increasingly more annoying little sister. She held my phone in one hand and brushed her teeth with the other.
“I think you’ve been on my phone more the past twenty-four hours than I have,” I grumbled into the coffee. It felt like I hadn’t had any time for scrolling since we got here because she had been hogging my phone so much.
She walked toward the small bathroom to finish brushing her teeth.
“Phone!” I yelled after her.
“Hold on,” she said. I waited while she rinsed her mouth and then returned. She sat down on the edge of the bed and turned the phone toward me. “I think I found someone.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Someone?” I closed my eyes and took a sip of coffee. I guess we were still doing this. I really needed to delete those apps.
“He looks like your type. No dead animals in his pictures. He looks sweet. Looks strong but not in the spends all his free time in the gym way. More so in the can lift you but still will be comfy when you lay on him way.”
The coffee shot out of my nose coating my sinuses and hands in burns on its way out. “Em, what are you talking about?”
“Just look at him.”
She forced the phone into my face. A picture of man with dark blonde hair short on the sides but longer on the top and styled pushed back out of his oval shaped face filled the screen. His smile showed all his teeth, the two in the front a little too big. His downturned eyes squinted from smiling but I could just barely see a peek of ice blue. There was a light dusting of stubble on his face.
I swiped to the next picture. In this one he wore an ugly Christmas sweater and Santa hat, his face turned slightly like he was talking to someone out of frame. He wore thick framed glasses, and his hair was falling down onto the sides of his forehead. Even while talking he smiled.
“So, is he for me or you?” I asked. I moved the mug of coffee to the nightstand.
“You. He’s way too sunshiney for me. You know I like them tall, dark, and grumpy.”
I swallowed the retort on the tip of my tongue regarding her type and what she shared last night, instead choosing to motion for her to hand me the phone so I could look over the details of his profile.
Matt F.
29
5’9”
Looking for: Not really sure
About me: Passionate about teaching and music. Going through some life changes and am not sure what I want. Not good at casual but willing to try. I’m pretty good at making people laugh. My favorite hobby is learning new things.
“He doesn’t seem like the type that spends a lot of time on these apps,” Emery said as I read.
I shrugged. I didn’t spend enough time on these apps to know how to tell if he was or not. If either of us was going to know if that was the case it would be her. “Yeah, I guess he seems different from the ones last night.” I couldn’t place my finger on why I thought that.
“You already matched. You should message him.”
I shook my head and pushed the phone back toward her. “It just feels weird. Plus, he said he’s not good at casual.”
“He could just be saying that.” She pressed one hand against the edge of the phone to push it back to me.
I look at the picture again. “He just looks so genuine. I don’t think he’s the type to just say that.”
She took the phone away and swiped at the screen. “And that is exactly why he’s perfect.” She scrunched her face up in concentration for a moment before she started typing.
My skin prickled with nervous sweat as I watched her type. It felt like an eternity before she finally tossed the phone in my lap.
“Get up and take a shower,” she wrinkled her nose up to emphasize the shower. “Mom is making French toast.”
I stared at the back of the phone until she left the room. My palms tingled with desire to check what exactly she had gotten me into. I tapped my nails against it a few times before I flipped it over and swiped to unlock the screen.
Good morning!
So, teaching and music? Does that mean you’re a music teacher?
That wasn’t that bad. In the grand scheme of things she could have chosen to say, that didn’t even make the list of so mortifying I’ll never be able to vacation here again. The exclamation point was a little cringey even if I was the type to overuse exclamation points.
Three little dots appeared to show he had started typing. My heart jumped into my throat, and I threw the phone at the end of my bed.
It buzzed once. Then twice. Then a third time.
I swallowed and patted my chest where my heart should be. I should look. He was nice enough to message back promptly. I thought about that smile in his photo. He really did look so sweet.
I took a deep breath and opened the messages.
Matt F.
Good morning, Riley.
Band teacher, actually.
So, your sister is making you do this?
I bit my thumb nail and smiled. He used my name instead of just calling me babe. It shouldn’t have felt like a green flag, but after last night it did.
Band teacher/ music teacher…Aren’t those same thing?
Yes, she says I need to meet people and have some fun.
I laid my phone face down on the nightstand and counted to three before I stood from the bed. I walked toward the bathroom. When I reached the doorway, I stopped and drummed my fingers against the frame.
What if he messaged while I was in there? I couldn’t just leave him hanging.
It was a dumb thought. Of course I could leave him hanging, he was a stranger on a dating app. I didn’t owe him an immediate response or to even continue the conversation. I sprinted back to the bed to grab my phone, opening the message thread again. I should just put a stop to this, let him know that I didn’t have any intention of following through with anything on here. A new message from him popped up.
Matt F.
No, not the same thing. That sounds like something my sisters would say about me if they were making me do this.
There it was, the perfect opportunity to apologize and end the conversation. I tapped my thumb nails against the screen trying to think of the best way to let him down. Or maybe I could keep messaging him a little longer? It wouldn’t hurt to just try to talk to him. He knew Emery was making me do this so surely he took that as a sign that I wasn’t actually interested in anything. A little conversation to distract me couldn’t hurt.
Riley H
Hmm, if you say so. Maybe you’ll have to explain the difference to me sometime. Happy to hear no one is making you talk to me. Tell me more about your sisters.
Why did I say that? I shook my head and tried to delete what I had typed. My thumb slipped and hit the button to send the message instead.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I do say so. I might take you up on that one day but until then you’ll just have to trust me that they’re different. Is it weird that I’m happy your sister is making you talk to me?
I have three sisters – two older and one younger.
I’ve never been very good at trusting people…. It must be rough being the only boy in the middle of that many sisters. I have an older brother that my sister and I used to torture growing up. I don’t know how he survived.
That was too honest. What was wrong with me? I closed the app and pressed on the icon to delete it. No, I couldn’t just ghost him like that, that was mean. I had to tell him and then I could delete the app.
Maybe we can work on the trust thing. It wasn’t too bad. There was some torture for sure growing up but for the most part it was nice. I think I grew up to be a much better man than I would have without them.
There’s no working on the trust thing. I’m permanently broken. Don’t try to act like you don’t have trust issues, everyone does. Funny enough, my sister-in-law says the same thing about my brother.
My only trust issue is that I trust too much.
I smiled at my phone as I walked down the cabin stairs into the sitting room. This was stupid, reckless even. There was too much honesty happening in the conversation.
A conversation with a stranger.
Why couldn’t I bring myself to put a stop to it?
Emery grabbed my shoulders before I could make it to the kitchen.
“That smile looks promising,” she whispered as she used her full body to block me from the view of everyone else. “May want to get rid of it before anyone starts asking questions.”
I schooled my face into a neutral expression. “It’s nothing.”
“Riley, I know you and I know your face. That smile isn’t ‘nothing’.”
I shrugged her hands off and pushed past her, tucking my phone against my chest to hide it from her. I promised her I would give things a try until tonight, so that’s what I would do, distract myself with some harmless messaging for the day and then I would let him down tonight.