Page 11 of Her Former Bear Mate

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Aditi

Aditi truly,desperately hated dating apps.She wasn't ready to be on the apps either but she was tipsy from the margaritas and Alix had already hijacked her phone.

"Hobbies!"Alix shouted, entirely sprawled out on Aditi's sofa like she owned it.

"Ha!Funny.I don't have time for hobbies.I work and sleep."

“Yeah, but you can’t say that.You’re trying to make it sound like you have time for a partner.”Alix hummed.

Frustratingly, Aditi had to concede that saying she never had time was a good way to start a relationship.“What if we wrote down hiking?”

“You hikedoncetwo years ago,” Alix pointed out in the way only a lifelong best friend could.“Oh, what about poetry?You write those really snappy poems about your job."

"That's not really a hobby," Aditi rebuffed, heat rising up to her cheeks.She felt embarrassed enough that she'd drunkenly shown her awful poems to Alix that one time, she didn't want to be reminded of it.And she certainly didn't want it on her dating profile.

Alix groaned in frustration."Why is this so hard?"

"Let's just cancel the whole thing," Aditi said with a sigh.“Maybe this online dating thing isn’t for me.”

"Don’t be silly.You know what?I'm just going to write down that people need to ask you if they want to find out."Alix grinned, seemingly proud of herself for that solve."There.Now we just add some bear emojis so people know you're a bear shifter and tadaa!Alright, now pictures!At least that should be easy, you gorgeous thing."

Aditi winced when her gallery was opened and her latest pictures started filling the screen.Her and Lena at the beach at sunset, her and Lena at the food fair, her and Lena at their favourite restaurant, her and Lena in be---

She snatched her phone back and quickly swiped past the intimate pictures.They weren't doing anything spicy, they weren't even naked, but they both wore such deep genuine smiles.It hurt seeing themselves so happy, so blissfully in love and blissfully unaware what was coming.

"Definitely not those," she muttered, sighing as more pictures of them together flew by.All those snapshots of their life together, it was bringing tears to her eyes which was how she knew she had to move on because these beautiful moments were gone.What was even the point of keeping them?

"I should delete these, I just haven't got around to it," she mused.And yet, she couldn't bring herself to press the delete button.Even if she was moving on, she wasn't really ready to accept that it was truly over.

She didn't want it to be over.

Alix gave her a compassionate smile."You also don't have to.She was a big part of your life, you don't have to pretend it didn't happen."

As comforting as that was, it was also haunting.What if Aditi never got over this?What if she spent her whole life missing Lena and cursing herself for not just being brave and impulsive and going along with the move.

Why did she have to ask for the one thing she knew Lena didn't want, never wanted.A fated mate.

She sighed.Maybe it was for the best that they never went into Crescent Lake.At this rate, they would've likely discovered they weren't fated anyway and that would've been the end of the relationship too.

Yeah, once these thoughts of fate grabbed hold of her, there'd been no winning in Aditi's book.It was cruel, cruel, cruel that she'd started wanting this, especially because her younger self actively rejected anything related to fate.

Maybe fate was just making her pay the price.

She kept swiping, passing over the picture in her bear form.As nice as her dark coat looked, this wasn't something she just showed to anyone.She'd even been reluctant to reveal this form to Lena, back when they just started dating.

The next pictures all included Lena, all with that beaming bright boyish smile of hers.Aditi was glad when she found a selfie that didn't include her ex.It wasn't the best picture but she was smiling and didn't have those dark bags and worry lines that she currently sported.

"How is this?"she asked, twisting her phone to show it to Alix.

"Hmm?"Alix squinted at the picture."Yes, that's nice.You look hot."

"Thanks."With a sigh, Aditi finished creating her profile and her parameters.She set a small radius because if she wasn't going to move for Lena, she definitely wasn't going to move for a stranger.She ticked only women since she had no interest in men and added the box that stated she was looking for love.

Ugh.Love.It sounded horrible but that was what she was here for.

Then it was time to match.The profiles were already queued up, all Aditi needed to do was swipe.

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