Miss Matched [COMPLETED]

27. Tayla

There have been a few days in my career where I've cursed how difficult it is to call in sick. If I didn't go to work today, a full day of clients would need to be contacted, appointments moved, and for what? Heartsick doesn't mean anything when so many people are counting on me.

At the end of one of the longest days I've worked, Ruby opens the door and slides a glass of wine into my hand. "Fucking Simon," she mutters.

"What a dick," I agree, dropping my purse on the floor by the door and following her into the living room. On the coffee table is a thick slice of chocolate cake, a bowl of raspberries, and a jar of caramel sauce. I groan and sink into the plush couch. "You, however, are not a dick."

Ruby chuckles. "I made Dean stop at The Cake Shop on his way back from his lecture."

"I wish you hadn't married Dean. I'd marry Dean." I pour the raspberries and caramel sauce over the cake.

"So, the shoe dropped, huh?" Ruby's arm runs along the back of the couch, the other cradling her own glass of wine.

"Like a fucking bomb." I pop a mouthful of cake into my mouth and moan. Nothing better than heaping calories for a broken heart.

"His Jada story never made sense to me. Why not tell you right away if he wasn't responsible somehow?"

"Signing up for a dating service while we're still together must have made him feel guilty." I spear another piece of cake and stop with it halfway to my mouth. "Fucking Simon."

"Is that what happened?" Ruby raises her eyebrows. "He admitted to putting himself forward for GameSetMatch's algorithm?"

"How else would he be in there?" I set down my fork and take a big gulp of my wine. Pixie's at home, and I'm not calling an Uber tonight. So, as much as I'd like to drown my sorrows, I'm only letting myself drown in one glass.

"Strange that he'd be in there for Jada and again for you, though, right? Two matches is weird enough given what GameSetMatch claims, but six years apart?" Ruby purses her lips in thought. "You talked to him about it?"

"Uh, no." The next bite is halfway to my lips. "I drove out of the parking lot so fast I probably left half the tread from my tires behind. I just—I felt like a fool." He dangled everything I wanted in a partner in front of my face, and I fell for it again. There were gaps in his story, and I ignored them. I wanted him to be someone he's not.

"You left him alone with Protection-Order-Jada?"

I flush. Simon is well over six feet, and unless Jada had a gun, she wasn't going to be forcing him to do anything he didn't want to do. "I checked the news. No reports of shootings or stabbings in his apartment complex." It hadn't actually occurred to me she might be dangerous. Delusional? Yes. Dangerous? Nope. But I didn't stay long enough to be sure.

Ruby sips her wine without responding, and I eat my cake in silence for a few moments. Should I have stayed?

"I had to leave," I say, giving her the side eye. "I couldn't stay once I knew he lied to me."

"You left because he lied to you?"

Had he even lied? He omitted details, but as far as I could tell, the information he gave me about Jada was honest. So, what made me storm away? "She called him her soulmate."

Ruby plucks a berry off my plate. "If some other woman referred to Dean as their soulmate back when we were getting to know each other, I would have been bothered."

"Simon and I aren't getting to know each other."

"Maybe not. Doesn't make it any less hurtful to hear." Her voice is gentle. "Especially if you were starting to genuinely think of him as that guy for you."

I hate it when she nails how I'm feeling before I realize it. Whether or not I want to admit it, I've spent the last few days thinking of Simon as mine. "Can I forgive him for signing up for a dating service at the same time he was considering proposing to me?"

Ruby's lips twist. "I mean, if that's what happened, he deserves to be hogtied to the flagpole outside your clinic with the words 'I'm a dirty dog' spray painted on his body."

The imagery is enough to garner a laugh from me. "Where would I paint it? That's too many words for—"

Ruby holds up a hand. "Seriously, if you bring up his dick again, I'm going to side with Simon about your penis fetish."

I throw a raspberry at her. "Wrong head, Ruby. I was going to say FOREhead."

"Right. Sure you were." She grins. "You're distracting me with all this dick talk. The point I was getting to was that you don't know exactly what happened because you didn't stay to talk to him."

"You'd have stayed?"

"Aww, hell no." She waves a dismissive hand. "Doesn't mean I don't think you should talk to him now that cooler heads have prevailed."

"How do I know he'll tell me the truth?" I've had to drag every piece of information out of him, and at this point, I'm worried I still don't know everything. What if I go talk to him and it's even worse than I thought?

"You two broke up six years ago. He waltzes back into your vet clinic two weeks ago and you're already head-over-heels for him again. Do you want to be wondering six years from now whether you made a mistake? Whether you should have gone to talk to him? Has he tried to call you?"

I blocked his number last night in a rage. I haven't checked my voicemail for fear of hearing his voice and caving. "Um, I'm not sure," I admit and bite my lip.

"Life's hard enough without piling regret on top of it."

"Speaking of regret—remember when I applied to the vet exchange?"

"I remember when you said you were applying, and I suggested you wait until you knew what was happening with Simon."

"Yeah, I didn't listen to you. Drunk applications seemed like more fun."

Ruby drinks her wine and raises her eyebrows waiting for my point.

"Well, last night, in another massive 'fuck you', possibly to myself, I replied to a vet from Scotland with a 'hell yes'. So, I guess I'm moving to Scotland in a month?"

She chokes on her wine, and I pat her on the back. "Scotland?"

"Yeah," I say. "In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have replied when I was feeling so emotional."

"Scotland," Ruby says again, shaking her head. "Have you told Mike or Sandy or Ciro or your parents or your brother...or Simon?"

I pick up my wine glass and sip in silence. "I told Simon," I mumble.

"Ah," Ruby says. "Parting shot? Backed yourself into a corner?"

Heat rises to my cheeks. "I wanted this exchange."

"I bet a day and a half ago, you wanted Simon more."

"You're not helping."

"I'm trying to make sure you don't leave the country on a whim with unanswered questions."

Last night, saying yes to the exchange seemed like the right thing to do. I applied for it. Scotland was an acceptable country. Living on a farm would be fun and exciting, right? Ruby is also correct, though. Had Jada not shown up at Simon's house last night, I wouldn't have emailed the vet exchange partner back in a flash of triumphant annoyance. I might not have said yes at all. "I don't want him to hurt me anymore."

Ruby squeezes my arm. "You've come this far. You're already hurt. You owe it to yourself to be sure he's Fucking Simon and not Soulmate Simon."

I also have content on Radish if you read there. wendy.million is my username there.

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