“I have concerns about Gary.” Ethan sat down on the side of the bed and watched as I got dressed for the day.
“How so?” I slid a t-shirt over my head and turned to face him.
“He’s a lot different than the other guys. I’m not sure he will be on-board with this arrangement.” Ethan shrugged. “I guess six soulmates aren’t bad, right?”
Ethan started to tell me about Gary and I couldn’t help but feel the same concerns he had. Gary sounded nice enough, but after spending the night with Miguel, I wasn’t sure any of the other guys could hold a candle to him in the bedroom. It was a shallow point of view, but I couldn’t help how I felt. Ethan had arranged for Gary and I to have a whole day together because he wanted to make sure I gave everyone a fair shot, even if he had hesitations. I felt like the bodyguard was a bit much, but I understood why Ethan wanted to have someone go with me. I was glad to hear that the charges against him appeared to be bogus, but it didn’t erase the concern.
“YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE Sammy.” Gary grinned with a smile that covered his whole face. “He’ll melt your heart, even if you’re not a dog person.”
“I like dogs.” I smiled and nodded.
Gary definitely seemed more excited about seeing Sammy than spending time with me. It was cute in a way. If he cared about his dog that much, then he had to have a good soul. After the jet took off and we started making small talk, it was almost refreshing to have a conversation with someone who wasn’t laying their seduction game on me from the get-go and staring at me with eyes that let me know they were only thinking about one thing. Still, I had some reservations. Miguel had seemed like a sweet guy at first when we went on our date, but he definitely became a beast once we were behind closed doors. We arrived at a small airport in Madison Grove, where Gary was from, and after a short car ride, I got to meet Sammy for the first time.
“Hi, Sammy.” I knelt down next to the shaggy haired dog after Gary had a lengthy reunion.
“He doesn’t always let strangers pet him, so don’t be offended.” Gary leaned down and patted Sammy on the head.
Sammy tilted his head when he walked over to me. He lightly sniffed my jeans, my arm, and then he sat down and started to whine. I held my hand out slowly and I saw his tail wag. He pushed himself up against my hand and turned in a circle. After that, I think we became best friends. He licked my hand, ran to get his ball, and instead of dropping it at Gary’s feet, he brought it straight to me. I threw it as hard as I could and Sammy chased it down. Once again, he brought it straight to me, put it down at my feet, and whined. I threw the ball several times before he finally brought it over to Gary and let him have a turn.
“You must be okay, Violet.” Gary chuckled as he threw the ball across the fenced in yard. “Sammy’s a good judge of character. He hated my ex-girlfriend.”
We played with Sammy for several hours. Gary was a bit older than the other guys I had been matched with, but he looked like a kid when he was sprinting around the yard playing with his dog. I might not have been completely sure about Gary, but I had already fallen in love with Sammy. By the time we left the resort, I was exhausted and a storm appeared to be forming on the horizon. The bodyguard Ethan had sent with us kept looking out the window as we approached the airport. When we got to the terminal, the skies opened up and it started to rain fairly hard. A few seconds later, there was a bolt of lightning immediately followed by thunder. I nearly leapt out of my seat when I heard it.
“Yeah, I’m not a big fan of storms.” I leaned against the window and looked up at the sky.
“The jet won’t be able to fly in this.” The bodyguard reached for the door. “Let me go see how long it’ll be before this clears up.”
I didn’t have a great feeling about the storm and a few minutes later the bodyguard returned to let us know that the jet wasn’t going to leave until morning. It appeared that we were stuck in Madison Grove for the evening. I suggested that Gary show me where he lived and possibly even stay at his place for the night, but he said he didn’t live in a good part of town. I called Ethan, let him know what was going on, and he book
ed us a suite at a local hotel for the night. After spending the day with Gary, I no longer had any real concerns about my safety with him, so I convinced Ethan to dismiss the bodyguard for the evening. A couple of hours later, we had a scenic view of Madison Grove beneath us and a mini-bar that was calling my name.
“Do you want a drink?” I pulled out a small bottle of wine and poured the contents into a glass.
“Yeah, I’ll have a beer.” He walked over and leaned against the counter.
“Coming right up.” I twisted off the top and handed it to him.
“So, you really believe in this soulmate stuff?” Gary took a swig and followed me over to the couch.
“I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t.” I sipped my wine and smiled. “I did write the algorithm, after all.”
“Out of all the matches you found, you were the only one that ended up with more than one soulmate?” He tilted his head to the side. “That seems kind of strange.”
“Well, the algorithm is designed to find the person that matches with you perfectly, in every way. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that you might not understand.” I shrugged.
“Try me.” He chuckled and sipped his beer again. “I used to be a software developer.”
“Wait? What?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Ethan said you worked construction.”
“Yeah, but that’s not what I went to school for.” Gary shook his head back and forth. “I just ended up there because it was the only work I could find after I got arrested—I’m sure Ethan filled you in on that.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “He said the charges were bogus, though.”
“Not bogus enough to send you on a trip with me without a bodyguard.” Gary chuckled and sipped his beer.
Gary started telling me about how ex-girlfriend, Wendy, and all of the awful things she did to him following their break-up. I hated the woman and I had never even met her. I knew she had him arrested and took his dog, but I had no idea how awful she had truly been. The conversation shifted to his work and then I started telling him about the app. I probably revealed a bit more than Ethan would have liked, considering that Gary actually understood how the algorithm and coding worked. It was easy to talk to Gary. He seemed to match me on an intellectual level and he was incredibly sweet.
“I can’t believe you designed something that complex all by yourself with no experience in the industry. Hell, I’m not sure some of the guys at my old company with twenty years of experience could have created it.” I shook his head in surprise after he heard how I put together the algorithm for the Soulmate app.