Miss Matched [COMPLETED]

1. Tayla

Love Miss Matched? Pre-order your print copy today!

With the click of a button, my bank balance hits zero. Shouldn't the moment be punctuated by something? A choir, maybe? Or perhaps a flock of doves zipping out of the computer in front of me? Or since they've decorated the whole office like a Valentine's Day commercial, maybe a flock of hearts? That much cash vacating my account should be celebrated or mourned. Something should happen.

"As soon as the money is deposited, Miss Murphy, we can get started," Cade, the client representative in front of me, demurs. "Wifi must be slow today." He's staring intently at his screen.

Fingers of panic crawl up my throat, but I swallow them down. The words my dad used to say ping pong around my head. You know the good thing about money? You can always make more. Except I spent five years making this money. I could have gone on a trip around the world, paid off more of my mortgage, paid down my student loans, invested in my business, hired a male prostitute to pretend to be my husband.

God, that would have been so much cheaper. Why didn't that occur to me sooner?

Except you don't want a husband, you want your happily ever after.

The voice in my head is mocking. Six years ago, I thought I had a lock on happily ever after. What a disaster that had been. Lucky escape, I'm sure. Instead, I'm taking this cue from my best friend Ruby who invested in finding her soulmate with GameSetMatch, and she's never been happier.

"Are you staying in New York long?" he asks.

"No. I'm headed back to Grand Rapids, Michigan tonight. Well," I say with an uneasy laugh, "unless my match is here. He could be anywhere in the world, right?"

"That's right, but we do find pairings tend to happen geographically or culturally more often. Values and the ways people are raised play a big part in who they're attracted to as life partners."

"Right, yeah, makes sense." All of this was explained in a video call before I arrived in New York and sent my money down a virtual tunnel. Still, it's nice to be reassured I may not have to move to Australia to meet the guy for me. Would my veterinary license even transfer to another country? A cold sweat breaks out under my armpits.

"Okay," Cade says. "The payment cleared." He rises from his seat behind the giant desk and gestures to the hallway. "Your match awaits you at the end of our complex pairing algorithm."

"There's no way to get a top five is there? Choice is good, isn't it?" My traitorous hand shakes as I stand at the threshold of the narrow, softly lit hallway littered with screens. After a series of personality tests, the last pane will be the name of my soulmate. That's right. I paid an exorbitant amount of money to enter an arranged marriage. Well, not really. Whoever pops up on the screen can deny the match. So, there's that. Not depressing at all.