Matched

"I guess John and Cindy matched themselves together. You really need to work on your app…"

"You're kidding," Marina says, her mouth wide open. "What on Earth? They weren’t a match at all." She turns to me, taking hold of my arm. "I'm so sorry, sug. You must be crushed."

"Oh, I'm terribly crushed," I say, barely able to hold back a grin.

"You're joking?"

I laugh out loud at that. "John's handsome, but he didn’t do it for me. I'm actually going to go now. Maybe I'll stop by the hospital and see my mom before she goes to bed."

"Oh, sure, I understand," she says and gives me a quick hug. "Give her my love, okay?"

"I will." I hug her back and then pull away.

"You sure you're okay about this?" she asks, squinting at me. "Not too depressed about it not working out with John? He was a really good match for you."

I shake my head, my relief that I wasn't the cause of the problem making me almost giddy.

"Not at all,'" I say with a laugh. "It is what it is. I'm just sorry that MATCHED seems to have such a bad track record. Aren’t you worried?"

"Nah," she says and waves her hand dismissively. "It's fine. Not every match is going to work out."

"It's zero for three for me and zero for two for Jon."

She shrugs like it's nothing. If I were her, I'd be going back to the old drawing board to fix it, but she seems oblivious. "It's a sample of two. That’s not nearly enough to learn anything statistically valid."

"If you say so." I smile and point to the door. "I'm going. I guess I'll ask Jon if he can give me a ride to the hospital."

"Okay, sug. You let me know how your mom is."

She waves at me and turns to the living room. I turn and walk over to where Jon stands with his hands in his pockets, a smile on his face.

"You ready to go?"

I nod and walk to the door. Jon follows. I turn when I get to it. "Can you drive me to the hospital? I want to visit my mom."

He frowns. "I thought you were coming home with me."

"I will," I say softly, "but I want to stop in and see my mom first."

"You want me to come in with you? I won’t intrude."

"No, it's fine. I can get an Uber to your place after. You go home."

"India…" He glares at me. "You're not trying to escape me, are you?"

I shake my head. "Of course not," I say.

"You're changing your mind," Jon says. "I can see it in your face." He glances away, his hands on his hips and I can see a muscle tense in his jaw. He looks down at the floor.

"Okay, whatever, India. You go to see your mom. I'll drop you off. I'll go to my place and if you show up, great. If not, well, I guess I'll just deal."

"Jon, don't be like that. I just want to see my mom…"

He looks at me without speaking and then turns to the door, opening it and walking out ahead of me. I can tell he's angry.

We get to his SUV and he holds the door open for me. I get inside and try to catch his eye, but he won't look at me.

We drive in silence, and there's an awful iciness that fills the space between us. I want to reach out to him, but at the same time, I want him to agree to be exclusive, and all that it entails.