Matched Pt. 02

They chatted a lot through the dinner, they had a lot in common. They laughed at each other's jokes, and she actually managed to lift Elliot's miserable mood, but one thing he knew was certain. She wasn't his match. Or at least, not anymore.

Perhaps Elliot from two months ago would have fallen head over heels for this girl, asked her to marry him, loved her for the rest of his life. But now... he liked her sure, found her intensely beautiful, made him feel happy and at ease, but almost the same way he felt chatting to his sister. Her face was cute, her eyes pretty, but they seemed plain. She was sweet but for him, almost forgettable, and the whole time he wished he was sat across the table from... him.

The dark hair and piercing eyes that could freeze him with a look. The pale skin that looked like snow but felt like naked flames, the strong voice that made demands that Elliot would follow blindly, willingly. Damien. If he walked up to him right now and told him to leave the restaurant without another word to Ella he would do it without question, maybe even eagerly if it meant leaving with him. Damien. He ached for the loss of him.

"Look," he said gently "you're amazing Ella, but I'm already in love with someone else."

She frowned and then her eyes widened, "oh! Are you one of the ones that were mismatched?"

"Yes, and I want to want you, you're beautiful and funny and kind. But I don't."

Her eyes looked sad but understanding, "I get that. You should be happy."

"But?"

"It's selfish really. I just wonder what that means now for md? You're my match, if you don't want me... do I get another?"

Elliot frowned, he hadn't thought of that.

"I'm sorry, I don't know."

Chapter Four - Nightcap

Damien

For this first time in his life since he was a young boy, he had cried. He had waited until Elliot was deeply asleep, his eyelashes spread delicately on his cheeks, his lips slightly parted, hair bedraggled across his forehead, slightly matted on his face. He looked so peaceful.

He had written Elliot a note barely pausing to read the words back, and without another look he left.

He instructed the team at Matched to arrange Elliot to meet Ella. Harvey tried to protest but he insisted. He knew Elliot would be furious, but he didn't see the point in waiting. She could take away his pain and hurt, he would realise he didn't really love Damien, and would be happy and safe, able to live his life. Why let him wallow for weeks, when there was a perfect solution. He didn't have that luxury but he could give it to Elliot. Besides, if Elliot hated him maybe that would make it all the easier to forget him.

He on the other hand would be stuck in his misery. Haunted by a memory of what could have been.

The news reports on him were exhausting, and the company mood was low. At the end of a day of complaints, queries and paparazzi, Harvey invited him back to his home for a drink. He accepted, unwilling to go back to his flat or his estate, both of which had Elliot's presence waiting to torment him. He had had confirmation from the restaurant that Elliot had turned up to meet Ella, he was pleased and also saddened by this news. He wondered if he was falling in love with her at this very moment. Good, he thought. I hope he is, he deserves to be happy.

When they arrived, Stephanie greeted them at the door. She gave Damien a sugar sweet smile and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hi sweetie, how are you doing?" She asked pouting like Damien was a little boy who had grazed his knee. He recoiled, god she was awful.

"Im alright, thanks."

"Stephanie, leave Damien alone," he said frustratedly and she glared at him.

"I was only asking! You're such a-" she seemed to struggle for a good enough insult before making a huffing noise and walking away into another room, slamming the door. He looked at Harvey suspiciously but he was clearly avoiding his gaze and he didn't think it appropriate to ask.

Harvey led him into a cosy lounge, and poured him a whiskey.

"So...what a day."

Damien made a noise of agreement.

"Not one I want to think about too much no."

"I am so sorry Damien, you trusted me with this company, gave us all that money. I will get better security so this never happens again."

"It's fine Harvey, you created a global phenomenon. You made me money in return, I can't complain when things go south. Plus you're my friend, I support you."

Harvey sighed, "but what if the app is flawed. What if we are doing to many hetero matches? What if... it's wrong?"

"The app works Harvey you know that."

"Do I know that?" He said, rubbing his forehead and sighing. "I don't know if I do. Look at me and Stephanie," he muttered the last sentence and looked down at his glass.

"You're unhappy," Damien stated and Harvey nodded.

"We both are, and have been for some time. I began to doubt the app's algorithms, and then I saw you and Elliot and I thought 'No it does work!' And now...how can you not be a match and me and Stephanie..."

Damien looked intently at Harvey, but he was thinking through the apps process. Match people who show innate similar desires and attitudes, skill matching, physical attraction, a whole array of tests. And there were so many success stories, but perhaps 100% wasn't the case after all.

Harvey's phone rang and he answered, Damien could hear the voice clearly through the phone.

"Sorry to disturb you sir but you asked me to call with any new information about the seventy three mismatches."

"Go on," Harvey said.

"Well one of the mismatches by the name of Elliot Green met up with his intended match Ella Newton this evening."

Harvey's eyes flicked to Damien who stiffened at the sound of Elliot's name. He leaned forward, apprehensive, nodding for Harvey to continue.

"And?"

"Miss Newton has just called to register a complaint as her match does not have any feelings towards her and states that he still cares for his previous match. She wants a rematch. How would you like me to proceed?"

Damien's soul seemed to roar with victory, his insides lit up with hope, fire and adoration for Elliot. He didn't want her, even now. Elliot had chosen him.

"A rematch?" Harvey asked. "God, this is going to get complicated. Tell her we understand and we will get back in contact with her. Explain that we are dealing with something new here, but make sure she feels heard and valued."

"Yes sir," the woman said and the call ended.

Harvey stares at Damien in disbelief, "you've broken my app."

*3 Days Later*

It was Friday. Damien had spent the last three days in solid meetings and they were still not getting anywhere. He felt guilty every time he dodged one of Elliot's calls, and glumly scrolled through the texts which had started full of hope and how were angry and hurt all over again.

'Why are you ignoring me? Do you not want this anymore?' The most recent one said. He wanted to reply, to say 'of course, I love you, I want to be with you' but like always he couldn't type the words. Words were easy for him, he was well spoken, but when it came to feelings he found it hard. He had never even said the words 'I love you', not even to his parents.

Plus he knew he owed it to Harvey to help sort out the mess that Matched was in. If he spoke to Elliot, he'd want to see him, and it would only be another slap in the face for Harvey if the paparazzi spotted them together. In a moment of madness he had sent Elliot a bouquet of flowers, in the hope to show he was not angry nor had he forgotten him. But that only seemed to make Elliot angrier.

'You find the time to send flowers but you can't reply to a single text? ANSWER ME GODDAMIT!!'

He wasn't good at this, he knew that. He learned what love was supposed to be from movies, not from his family. His mother and father had a marriage of convenience, not of love. In movies you send flowers, give gifts. And he knew that Elliot was fine as he had people keeping an eye on him and updating him on his whereabouts.

Damien sat in the meeting, looking at his most recent update under the table. It had been from his driver Hector who had warned Damien that Elliot had returned to the hotel with a large bag of spirits. Damien was worried that he might get himself seriously inebriated again in an attempt to get Damien over, so he had arranged the housekeeping to water down the vodka whilst she was cleaning his room.

He was trying to care for him, from afar. To keep focused on the tasks at hand. He still felt guilty.

But it clearly wasn't enough.

Chapter Five - Matched 2.0

Elliot

He was fed up. Fed up of being ignored. Fed up of waiting like a good little boy. Fed up of all of it. So when he spotted Hector lurking in his car outside the hotel, he lost it.

He stormed up to the glass and knocked insistently. Hector rolled down the window, he looked a little sheepish.

"Has Damien had you watching me?" He asked and Hector shook his head.

"I don't know what you mean," he spluttered.

"You know exactly what I mean, come on Hector. Is he asking you to tail me?"

"Well... yes, he is. But only because he's so worried about you!"

"Worried about me?" Elliot cried, people around stopped and stared, a couple seemed to recognise him from the tv and whispered to their friends.

"If he's so worried about me, why doesn't he answer me?! Or call me?! Or give me any sense of giving a shit?!"

"Calm down Mr Green," Hector said, his face turning red, he looked at the crowd forming around them. "Get in the car!"

Elliot wanted to say no, but he was conscious that some had lifted their phones and started recording him.

He opened the door and jumped in the back of the car.

"Take me to Damien. Please, I need to see him."

"I don't think that's a good -"

"If you don't take me, I'll walk and you have to follow me anyway so surely it makes much more sense."

Hector hesitated and then sighed, "if I lose my job..." he muttered, but he began driving.

Soon he was back at the doors of Matched HQ. He hadn't thought through what he was going to do but he jumped out, fuelled by anger and adrenaline.

He leaped up the steps two at a time and walked into the reception. He approached the large desk in the centre of the room.

"I need to see Damien Parker," he said to the woman at the desk.

"I'm afraid Mr Parker is in a meeting upstairs and-"

"Where?" Elliot interrupted.

"I can't tell you, you will have to wait here until - hey, stop!"

Elliot ignored her. He'd have to find the room himself then. He ran past doorway after doorway, glancing in at the occupants inside. Thank god this place loved its glass doors, he could see into every room without even needing to stop. He had checked two whole floors before he heard the security guards running after him. He sped up, heading for the top floor, hoping this would throw them off. He ran down the long corridor until he saw him. He had his back to the door but even from behind he was unmistakable, sat up straight with his broad shoulders and dark hair. He turned his head slightly to the right to look at someone who was talking and Elliot saw his sharp profile, his pale skin, his dark eyes strong and calming.

He skidded past the door, moving too quickly to stop. He saw eyes glance up at him, someone stood, their mouth opening as he threw opened the door. Damien turned and stared at him, his face unreadable of any emotion bar shock.

He panted, out of breath and seemingly out of words. He hadn't really planned what he was going to say, and now he had a dozen people all staring at him in silence.

Damien stood slowly. "Elliot, what are you doing here?"

"I- I came to see you," he said lamely, he felt embarrassed all of a sudden. He had barged into a high level meeting without any warning and seemingly for no reason. Nice one.

No, a voice in his head thought. There was a reason. He was here to yell at Damien, to call him some foul names and say that he wished he'd never met him. But now he was here, the anger was gone, replaced by shame, longing and sadness.

The guards came running up behind him and grabbed his shoulders roughly, it hurt and he grunted in pain. He saw Damien's eyes flash in anger and his fist clench, he looked like he was about to punch the guard when a smaller man who Elliot recognised but couldn't place spoke up.

"That's enough Paul, let him go. He can stay."

The guard let Elliot go, but not without a small shove of annoyance. Elliot rubbed his shoulder and glared at him, then looked back at the man who had spoken. He recognised him now, it was Harvey, Stephanie's husband, Damien's friend from the party all those weeks ago.

"Elliot," Harvey said, his voice calm and kind. "What can we do for you?"

Elliot thought, he had come to see Damien. But now he was here, in front of the entire senior team of Matched, was there something more he could do? He felt small and childish, like Harvey was humouring him. But his expression didn't read that way, he looked genuinely interested in what he had to say.

"I had some ideas on how you could fix things," Elliot said quietly, it was true, he had had many ideas. But he cringed in embarrassment, why would they want to hear his ideas? He didn't work for Matched, he knew nothing about how the app worked.

But Harvey seemed pleased and gestured at an empty chair beside Damien, who still was stood staring at him silently. Elliot wished he could hear what he was thinking.

"Please sit down, and tell us your ideas."

Elliot sat awkwardly, and Damien sat too, finally breaking the one sided staring competition he had been having and looking down at the table, but Elliot could see he was listening carefully.

"So, um, yeah. I had some ideas but I dunno if you've already tried them obviously," he started. Two of the women at the end of the table shared a glance, as if thinking 'who let this idiot speak?' It fed the defiance in him again, gave him confidence. He felt incredibly aware of Damien sat beside him, like when you are sat near an open flame and the heat begins to prickle your skin.

"Well as you know, or well I guess some of you might not. I was mismatched. With Damien," he glanced at him but Damien continued to stare resolutely at the table.

"But we... we felt like we were matched. I had all the feelings that you're meant to have, everything was great. Then all this happened and I was rematched with this girl Ella. When I was with her I could tell that the old me would have liked her, maybe even enough that I would have stayed with her. But not anymore, the whole time I was with her I could only think about Damien."

"What are you trying to say Elliot?" Harvey asked.

"I'm saying that people change. Your tastes can change. And that love isn't always an instant thing, which you guys seem to think it is."

Many of the faces around the table were frowning but a young guy with glasses and an iPad perked up.

"He's right," he said, looking down at the iPad and sifting through data.

"What do you mean Jacob?" An Indian woman sat beside Harvey asked.

"Well, we base our algorithms on instant results. What you might call 'love at first sight'. But we don't take into account a building attraction, people who don't always share the same interests but have the ability to grow and adapt together."

"Exactly! I have changed since being with Damien, and... he has changed too," he said looking at Damien who glanced at him for the first time, reading his face. Elliot smiled at him and then turned back to Harvey.

"You're his friend, you must have noticed. He became more relaxed, more open. He changed and I changed and in that middle ground it worked."

Harvey looked at Damien and Elliot could see that he had convinced him, he had seen the change.

"But that goes against everything we promise in the app's algorithms," Harvey frowned.

"You're saying that you think there can be more than one True Love?" The woman asked.

"Yes. And if people are unhappy they should be able to retry, they could have changed, the algorithms won't fit together anymore."

Jacob was tapping away frantically on his app, and Harvey exchanged a glance with Damien and sighed.

"What you're saying is that Matched doesn't work."

"As it is now, no. You can change it, change the quiz to include couples with the potential to grow together, change the 'one match and that's it'. You still will have crazy high success rates, and the app will become more popular than ever."

"Step ahead of you," Jacob said, continuing to tap away. "I am adapting the quiz to test for growth potential, openness to change, adaptability in adversity, things like that. Elliot and Damien, would you agree to be our guinea pigs?"

Damien raised an eyebrow at the word guinea pigs but nodded.

"If it helps improve the app, of course," he said his voice stoney.

Jacob handed Damien an iPad, and handed Elliot a spare. On it was the same series of questions that he had answered months ago, with some new ones tacked on the end. They were in the wrong font and hadn't been coded entirely correctly so it was clear that they were the ones Jacob were trialling.

Elliot breathed out and began to fill in the questions. The whole room waited in silence as Damien and Elliot completed their quizzes.

*Damien*

Elliot looked so confident in his plan. From the moment he had stormed into the room Damien had been lost for words. He was pink in the cheeks from running and his eyes alive from adrenaline and excitement, his lips parted as he breathed heavily. It was enough to make Damien want to crumple at the knees. He had missed him so much, he wanted to take him and run far away from this place. But he stayed calm and professional, hiding his emotions the way his father had taught him.

"A man does not get emotional! Can't have my son crying like a pathetic little girl, I won't have it!" He had yelled as Damien had cried, he had hit him again and again until he had managed to control his tears, the first bricks in the wall of his facade had been cemented in, a wall that even now he cowered behind.

But when the guard grabbed him by the shoulder his desperate desire was replaced by fury. No one hurt Elliot in front of him. But Harvey had intervened before he raised his balled fist and the guard had left.

He sat and listened as Elliot spoke. He was not the best speaker, but his passion was infectious. He saw Harvey and Janette get drawn in by him. See, he thought, see how great this boy is?

He clenched his fists under the table the whole time Elliot spoke about his feelings, trying to keep himself calm, to stay in his seat. When he spoke about his need for him, Damien's desire to reach for Elliot's hand was overpowering, but he didn't want to throw him off.

Then something changed, Jacob agreed with him, there was an excitement around the room and Damien realised in disbelief that Elliot had actually begun to convince them of a tangible idea. He felt hopeful, it seemed to fill him, filling even his mouth like cotton wool. He was unable to speak, if he opened his mouth his emotions would come tumbling out. The icy sheet was paper thin now, and the unbridled ocean was roaring in his ears. He could only listen and pray.

"Elliot and Damien, would you agree to be our guinea pigs?"

Guinea pigs? Jesus. How old was this kid? He managed to swallow the cotton wool and tried with all his might to keep his voice from waivering. He kept a tight hold of his emotions and said the only thing he could think of that wouldn't open the flood gates.

"If it helps improve the app, of course."

He thought he saw a little disappointment in Elliot's eyes, but he didn't say anything. He couldn't, or he would explode. They each took an iPad in silence and began the quiz.