Chapter Fourteen. Compatibility
Chapter Fourteen
COMPATIBILITY
As promised, Cam ventured into town to locate a BIRTHDAY BOY sash.
Drew was ecstatic when she returned with the cheap satin, immediately slipping it over his wet hair and Adams T-shirt.
He snapped a selfie of the two of them, and as she took off for the bathroom, her phone pinged with the snapshot in their group chat.
Thirty minutes later, she emerged to find him in the same position in the living room, his face still glued to his phone. Danny disappeared for his own post-beach shower, and with time to spare before their night at Beau’s, she joined Drew on the sofa with her nail kit.
“You look like an iPad kid. What are you doing that’s got you so consumed?” she asked, filing her nails.
Oh, how she missed getting manicures.
His attention flicked to her, and right back to his phone. “Funny you should ask, Camille. Humans tend to seek out companionship on their birthdays.” He sighed dramatically and turned his phone, showing off the familiar interface of one of the big dating apps. “Such a shame to celebrate alone.”
“Wait—alone? What happened to Aditi?”
Cam had only met her in September, when she was introduced as his new girlfriend. And while Cam didn’t know much about her, what she did know—a job in PR, a magazine-worthy sense of style, super affable—made her a great match for Drew.
Drew blinked, his screen finally going dark. “We broke up in February.”
“February?” Her head spun because what—how— “Why?”
His jaw locked, and he glanced out the window, shrugging.
“I was supposed to be her date to her sister’s wedding, and that meant meeting her parents.
I guess that gave her cold feet. She thought I’d embarrass her.
That I talked too much. That I didn’t take anything seriously.
The usual.” He cleared his throat. “Why did you think she wasn’t here? ”
“I … don’t know. I figured she was working, or you wanted guy time.” She stared at her nails. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I thought everyone knew.”
“Oh.”
That familiar tightness gripped her chest, a fist around a stress ball. She was back in middle school, wondering why she hadn’t been invited to the mall or included in the group chat. Even at twenty-five, she wasn’t free from those feelings of exclusion.
Because there was no way Danny didn’t know. Or Cory. Or Morgan.
Just her.
Unable to get anything else out, she whispered, “I’m sorry, Drew.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” he replied breezily, attention back on his phone. “You weren’t the one to dump me on a forty-five-second voicemail.”
“A voicemail?” She winced. “That’s just cruel.”
“Love always is.”
They sat in silence, with Drew focused on his phone and Cam finishing her first and second coats. But once her nails were drying, she scooted closer, watching over his shoulder as he swiped through the profiles.
“Can I swipe for you?” she asked. “If you say no, I’m just going to sit here and give my opinion on every profile.”
He threw his head back and groaned, phone outstretched. “I’m being poisoned with nail polish fumes and nosy friends.”
Giddy, Cam got to swiping. It was fascinating to see how much effort her fellow girls put into their profiles.
The styled candid shots, the pithy prompt replies, the honesty about their dating goals.
Her time on the apps was spent weeding through mirror selfies, apathetic answers, and the occasional infamous fish pic.
It’s why her app usage was cyclical—a couple months spent hating every minute she needed to swipe, followed by a few terrible dates, and culminating in the apps being uninstalled from her phone.
Until she was lonely, and the cycle restarted.
But with everything happening back in DC, romance hadn’t been a priority—in fact, she hadn’t been on the apps in more than a year.
Actually … she hadn’t been on a date in more than a year.
“You’re just swiping right on every profile,” Drew complained, leaning over her shoulder. “That’s not fair!”
“I thought that’s what guys did,” she joked. “Besides, all women are catches. You’d be so lucky.”
“I have standards!” he cried. “You just swiped right on a Cowboys fan!”
“Cory is a Cowboys fan and you two have a bromance for the ages.”
“What’s a bromance for the ages?” Danny asked, emerging from the hallway with Reggie scampering behind.
At the sight of him clad in only a pair of jeans, Cam nearly lost her grip on Drew’s phone. Wet hair teased his temples, and stray water droplets decorated his bare shoulders, illuminated by the soft glow of the living room window.
It took the guys conversing to snap her out of her gawk. Embarrassed, she quickly handed Drew his phone and distracted herself by eyeing her nails. They were a peachy-coral color, and she couldn’t help but wonder if the shade now matched her cheeks.
What the fuck was wrong with her? Maybe Drew was right about those nail polish fumes.
“—started swiping for me,” Drew explained, hugging his phone to his chest.
“I’m sure Cam has excellent taste,” Danny said.
“Then give her your phone and see if you like it!”
Cam straightened, gaze darting to Danny. “You’re on the apps?”
“Everyone is on the apps,” Drew replied.
Danny laughed, shrugging. “He’s got a point. So … yeah, sometimes.”
“When he’s feeling lonely and the dog isn’t enough,” Drew added in a singsong voice. “Now hand it over!”
Joining her on the sofa, Danny passed off his phone. “Have at it.”
Cam clicked into the familiar app, trying to ignore her hair sticking to her neck and her T-shirt sticking to her back. Danny needed to turn the AC up. The sun might’ve been going down, but she was much too warm in that apartment.
Shaking off the heat, she went to his profile, curious to see how he represented himself. Two sentences. Four pictures.
Laughing on the beach, dark hair lifted in the breeze. Reggie in his arms, the pair somehow wearing identical grins. Leapfrogging over a blurry Drew, a forest of trees behind them.
A smiling candid, with a loose cherry blossom tucked behind his ear.
Her breath caught. She’d taken the picture when he visited her in DC two years ago, a way to immortalize a fun trip with a friend. And now, it was on his dating profile, for every single woman within a thirty-mile radius to see.
Which was totally fine. Because friends helped friends and that was what they were.
Really good friends.
Clearing her throat, she clicked into the profiles in his area.
On the first woman—Allison, 26, Tiverton—her thumb froze.
Allison was beautiful, with dark red hair and big blue eyes.
She was a dental hygienist, and an extrovert based on the number of photos with friends.
But she also had a cat and … Danny and Reggie with a cat?
It didn’t make sense. And so, she swiped left.
Bethany, 24, Warwick. Pilates instructor, loves to hike, looking for something long-term.
Hike? Danny didn’t hike. He preferred runs on flat surfaces, like the beach. He hated hills.
And so, she swiped left.
Mei, 27, Providence. Graduate student at Brown, music lover, rescue dog named Muffin.
Cam blinked. Sure, Mei had a dog, and was playing guitar in one of her photos but …
She cycled back through the pictures and prompt answers, because—well—clearly, they weren’t a match. There was just—something didn’t—there it was! An offhanded mention of six months of veganism. Danny would be supportive, but he certainly would prefer a girlfriend without a wildly different diet.
And so, she swiped left—
“You’re swiping left for him!” Drew cried. “Where was that level of pickiness for me?”
When Danny leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing, she turned the screen off.
“They all lived in Boston,” she blurted out, shaking off the humid scorch of the room.
Why the fuck was his apartment so hot? “They’re probably here for the holiday weekend.
I just didn’t think it was practical to see someone that far away. ”
Drew stood, stretching. “Well, Danny will be making that drive plenty if he wants to visit you and me.”
“You both in Boston?” Danny repeated, eyebrows furrowed.
“Sorry, I’m jumping the gun! Just manifesting. Camille can tell you all about it.” Drew winked. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be getting ready for my birthday dinner.”
As Drew left, Danny asked, “What is he talking about? Are you … moving to Boston?”
“No—well—I don’t know.” She sank into the sofa. “Drew offered to send my résumé around Farley & Company to see if there were any open roles that fit my background. We literally only discussed this yesterday so nothing’s official, and … I’m not sure I see myself at a massive company again.”
Yet even knowing that, she’d kept Drew’s business card, tucked into her wallet so it could mock her beside her collection of maxed-out credit cards. She’d been up into the late hours last night, updating her résumé to send off to him on Tuesday.
“Of course you can’t see yourself there. It’s a big consulting firm. It’s suits and sixty-hour weeks. You hated your last place and that was the minors compared to Farley.” He ran a hand through his wet hair, shaking his head. “Your next steps can’t be moving backwards, Cam.”
He was right. But a job through Drew’s connections would be easy and fuck was she tired of doing things the hard way.
“I know. I was just entertaining the idea for Drew’s benefit.”
“There’s something else out there for you,” Danny promised, standing. “Now, let’s get ready so we don’t keep the birthday boy waiting.”
Her gaze dropped to his phone, lying abandoned on the sofa.
When she picked it up, his lock screen brightened, his wallpaper a picture of a very guilty Reggie with a bread loaf in his mouth.
A few notifications remained unread. Warnings of rain that weekend.
Texts in their group chat, including the picture from Drew and a Have a drink for me—no J?gerbombs response from Cory.
And one from the dating app.
Come back! 16 people like you
“I guess you’re pretty popular.” She held out his phone, staring at the notification. “If you give me some time, I can find you the perfect date for tonight. Drew said it would be a shame to celebrate alone.”
“I’m not alone. I’ll be with two-fourths of my favorite people.”
With a smile, Danny took his phone and disappeared, leaving behind a whining Reggie and the fading scent of his woodsy bodywash. Cam straightened on the sofa, shaking out her hair so it’d stop sticking to her neck.
Out of habit, she grabbed her phone, her thumb hovering over the screen.
Forget the apps for the guys. Maybe it was time she got back on.