Page 35 of Matched

The atmosphere tonight was much more intimate than it was during the day. The blinds were closed, and the lights had been dimmed, with little tealights in jars set on the tables. Soft music played from the speakers, and when I glanced around me, I realised that the place was full of couples, staring into each other’s eyes and holding hands across the table. I shifted in my seat. This suddenly seemed all too romantic for what was supposed to be a low-key, casual first date.

“So…” Sophie cleared her throat, eyeing me from beneath her lashes. I smiled, my gaze dropping to her mouth as she wrapped her lips around her straw. Fucking hell, it was crazy just how similar her mouth was to Nate’s?—

I blinked, forcibly averting my gaze. “So…?” I prompted, watching her cheeks flush lightly.

“Um. How was your week? Did you have any shifts at the student union? Sorry I couldn’t come to see you training, by the way. I had an assignment due.”

“Yeah. I had two shifts this week. Uh…one was right after my library shift, and then I had to submit some coursework the same night. That was a late one.” We both laughed a bit awkwardly, not that there was anything particularly funny about what I’d said.

“I try not to be last minute with my assignments, but sometimes I just can’t help it.”

“Yeah, me too. Oh. The training. That reminds me. Nate said to ask you about something that happened with a goat on the pitch when you were playing football?”

She groaned and covered her face with her hands, her glossy golden-brown hair swinging over her shoulder as she threw her head back. “Why did he have to bring that up? Seriously, Nate!”

Now I was intrigued. “Okay. You have to tell me the story. Why was there a goat on the pitch?”

Lowering her hands, she sighed. “Fine. Bloody Nate. It was when I was in school and playing for the girls’ football team. We had a three-counties sports day thing with some other schools, and it was being held at Hatherley Hall. Um, that’s a private boarding school in the Cotswolds. Anyway, all you need to know is that it’s out in the middle of the countryside with all these fields and farmland around it. Somehow, a goat escaped from a local farm and ended up on the pitch when we were playing one of our matches. I was in goal, and the goat ran into the goal and wouldn’t leave.” She groaned. “Everyone was laughing, and I was trying to shoo it out of the back of the net.”

I laughed. “Did you get it to leave?”

“Eventually. A couple of my teammates and some of the teachers helped to chase it off the pitch. Of course, Nate found the whole thing hilarious. He still has photos, probably.”

“I’ll have to ask him to see them.”

“Please don’t.” She dipped her head to her drink, taking the straw between her fingers and angling it towards her mouth. It really was so similar to Nate’s…“What was that about Nate’s mouth?”

My gaze shot up to hers. Oh, fuck. “What?”

“You just mumbled something about Nate’s mouth.” Her brows lifted. “Any reason?”

I swallowed, gulping down several mouthfuls of Coke in an attempt to stall the conversation. “You have similar features,” I said finally. I could feel how hot my face was, and there was no way she hadn’t noticed it. “Uh, when he first showed me a photo of you, I noticed you had the same mouth shape.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “Oh. Well, I can’t say anyone’s ever mentioned it to me before, but I suppose it makes sense, since we’re siblings.”

“Yeah. People say my brother looks like me, although I can’t really see it myself.”

“Do you have any photos?”

With a nod, I pulled my phone from my pocket, glad of the distraction. As Sophie scrolled through pictures of my siblings while I traced patterns in the condensation on my glass, my face cooled, and my tension slowly melted away.

The sounds of the coffee shop were muted now we’d stepped outside, and the street was quiet. I nodded in the direction of the uni campus and Sophie’s halls of residence. “C’mon, I’ll walk you back.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Nate would kill me if I didn’t.”

She laughed at that, falling into place next to me as we began walking towards campus. “I suppose that’s true. He can be a bit overprotective. It’s one of the reasons I strongly advocated for him to apply for his master’s at Plymouth uni. It’ll do us good to have a bit of distance. Who wants their brother cramping their style, after all?”

I stared at her. “He’s going to Plymouth?”

“Yeah. I guess you wouldn’t know…it’s not like you hang out much, do you, being in different years?”

So I guessed that meant Nate hadn’t mentioned our “dates” to her. Which was a good thing, because it wasn’t exactly easy to explain, especially to his sister, and it was why I hadn’t brought up the subject with her.

“Uh. Plymouth?” I said again.

“He’s going to be doing his postgrad degree there in September. I think he’s moving in the summer after he’s finishedhis degree. I’ll miss him, but I always feel a bit weird seeing him on campus. Or not weird…but say if I’m with you when he shows up, for example, I know he’s going to pull the overprotective big brother act, and I can’t relax when he does that.” She paused, playing with the strap of her small crossbody bag. “It can be a bit off-putting for boys I’m interested in, too.”

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