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Kevin, another friend, joined us. “Hey.” He frowned at my serious expression. “What’s going on?”
“Brad’s just giving me shit about my new guy,” I murmured, taking a deep drink from my water bottle.
“The straight daddy bear?”
I almost spat out my water. “What the fuck?”
Kevin grinned. “You didn’t know? It’s all over the gay Austin network. Benson Gray’s found himself a daddy bear, breaking the hearts of all the muscle heads that he hadn’t fucked yet.”
“Wow,” I murmured as I set my drink down. “You guys are hilarious.”
Trevor chuckled. “We’re just messing with you. Not to say that Leo isn’t a nice guy, and I know you’ve known him forever. But you’ve always dated muscle Marys. Now you’re suddenly into hairy daddy bear types?” Trevor shrugged. “Just an odd change.”
“No judgment here,” Kevin added, raising his hands defensively. “Just making an observation. You do you, buddy.”
“Thanks, Kevin. Your unwavering support means the world to me,” I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm as I wiped sweat from my brow and tried to ignore the tightening knot in my stomach. I didn’t like the idea of people talking about me and my sex life like it was a hot topic of discussion and using Leo’s body as a point of contention.
My friends were just teasing. I know they were teasing, but the timing was poor. Knowing what Leo was going through with his family just struck a nerve.
Trevor and Kevin glanced at each other. Trevor walked over to a nearby set of weights as Kevin nudged my shoulder. “We’re just messing with you, Ben. Ignore us. You deserve the best, man. But seriously, if you really like this guy, then screw what everyone else thinks.”
That was the best advice I had gotten all day, but I wished it was as easy to do as it sounded.
The next afternoon at work, I met up with Steve, one of my co-workers, for lunch in the office lounge. Steve was one of the guys who played basketball with us on Saturday mornings, so he knew Leo. As we unpacked our sandwiches, Steve shook his head with a smirk as he unwrapped his BLT. “So, you and Leo. How’s that working out?”
I sighed, picking at my turkey club. It seemed like my new relationship was the topic of conversation everywhere I went. “We’re good.” I took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “It’s still new, but we’re having fun.”
“Good, that’s good.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Any particular reason you’re asking or just being nosy?” I kicked Steve under the table with my foot, playfully.
He laughed, flicking a stray piece of lettuce that had fallen from his sandwich toward me. “Mostly nosy. I’ve known you guys for a couple of years and never expected anything like this after all this time.”
“That makes two of us,” I murmured, then shrugged. “But so far, we’re pretty happy.”
“Good,” Steve replied, taking another bite. After swallowing, he continued, “I was asking because one of my Discord chatrooms has a lot of programmers, and last night they had a total field day mocking Mangle’s matchmaking algorithm. One of those guys was talking mad shit about the developer.”
I raised an eyebrow as I set my sandwich down. “Oh yeah? Do tell.”
Steve chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Apparently, they all think it’s some kind of joke. Like there’s no way an AI could ever come close to finding your perfect match, not the way they coded their app. They said it’s actually a step backward in design, that the analytics tools aren’t as good as existing dating prediction software.”
Hmm. “Who knows, maybe they’re right,” I mused aloud, a half-smile on my face. “Maybe it’s all just random chance. But it brought me and Leo together, so there must be something to it.”
“But even that doesn’t make sense. When you think about what a dating app does—matching people based on common interests and similarities. On paper, you two make zero sense. It isn’t like the AI matched you based on any sort of compatibility. You two are like night and day as far as a computer program knows.”
I was about to disagree, but wasn’t what Steve said the truth? Leo and I, on paper, in black and white binary code, were not each other’s perfect match.
So why did it match us? Sure, the physical attraction was powerful, but the computer couldn’t know that.
“Maybe it’s the fact that we’re so different that makes us work.” I ran my fingers through my hair, a nervous habit. “Like puzzle pieces that don’t look like they fit together until you actually try to connect them.” But doubt crept in as I wondered if we’d put too much stock in what was a computerized dice roll.
Steve laughed. “That’s poetic as fuck, Ben. Didn’t know you had it in you.” But Steve seemed to notice the worried expression on my face. “Look, man. I didn’t mean to shit on what you two have got going on. You deserve happiness, Ben. Don’t let a bunch of coders who probably haven’t had a date in years get into your head.”
I chuckled at that. “Yeah.” I took a deep breath and tried to push aside the doubts. “Thanks.”
“Anytime,” Steve said before finishing his iced tea, then crumpled up his sandwich wrapper. “Oh hey, I forgot the big news—next Friday’s my last day of work here.”
I broke into a wide smile—I’d almost forgotten that Steve got that great new job in Phoenix and would be leaving us. “Fuck, that’s great, Steve. Good for you.”
