Striking the Match

A/N: Hello! This is a spin off story from my popular three part series "Matched". You do not need to read Matched first but it would give you more detail about how the app works, plus be able to appreciate little nods to the previous series. It has played out in my head for months so I am really pleased to have finally got it written down to share with you. I hope you enjoy it!

*Please note: This story will feature both straight and gay sexual relationships and a character overcoming his own sexuality*

STRIKING THE MATCH

Charlie slumped onto the sofa in relief. He felt his muscles loosen as he let go the pent up tensions of the day. He ran a hand through his sweaty dark brown hair and sighed.

Work had been long and intense, and he had returned to the flat to cook and clean before Lydia returned from her dance class. She would always come in exclaiming how exhausted she was despite having had the day off and having done little in the way of housework.

He had once tried to suggest she did something useful on her day off, like empty the washing machine or give the bathroom a once over, but he had been met with such a fury about women's rights and feminism that he decided it wasn't worth the arguing and he would sort it all whilst she was out.

He leaned back into the sofa cushions and closed his eyes, tuning out the loud tinned laughter on Lydia's American sitcom, and her continued excited chatter as she talked at him.

She rarely talked to him, only at him. He had long since learned that with the occasional "absolutely" or "oh really?" Or even sometimes as little as a "mmhmm" could keep her occupied for hours.

That sounds harsh. He loved Lydia. She was stunningly beautiful, and Charlie although attractive felt like he was punching well above his weight. When they had first got together he thought he was the luckiest guy in the world, and that he would never ever want to be away from her and her beaming smile. But in reality when you've been with the same person for five years conversation wares thin and the same stories start to come around again and again. However much you love them, things can start to go stale. It's up to the couple to find ways of keeping things interesting, but Charlie felt like this was becoming harder and harder as the months drew on.

He still loved her smile, the way she brushed her long blonde hair from her blue eyes, her sense of humour and the way her eyes would shine when she thought he had done something amusing. He loved her family, her stern but caring father and her overbearing fiercely loyal mother. He loved their life together, it was practical, functional and comforting. And yet... he was tired.

"Wedding.."

Charlie's brain heard the word and clicked back into attention. Lydia had been saying that word a lot recently. Not one for subtlety, she had been dropping hints all over the place, and every time she did Charlie felt his stomach squirm.

"Sorry what did you say?" He asked, opening his eyes and blinking at her. She glared at him briefly for interrupting her flow before sighing and repeating herself.

"I said," she intoned in a teasing tone "Isn't this the most gorgeous wedding?"

She held up the magazine she had been perusing, presenting a double page spread scattered with various photographs. Charlie had to admit it did look beautiful, simple but with a sophisticated elegance. A vaguely familiar male couple was pictured in several photos, a tall man with jet black hair and cool smile in a velvet bottle green suit, and a shorter man with brownish hair and a broad but slightly sheepish grin. Both had a glint in their eyes that only hinted at their happiness.

"Who are they again?"

"The IT couple! Damien Parker and Elliot Green, although it seems to be Damien Green now. You know that Matched couple that was everywhere?"

Of course, Charlie thought. Lydia was on form tonight, brining up weddings and Matched in one conversation. Although she was right, he did remember them. Their story had headlined gossip mags and even some semi respectable newspapers for several weeks. Then they had been the figurehead of the Matched rebranding post hacking scandal and had taken the company to new levels of fame.

"You thought any more about my idea?" Lydia said casually, not looking up from her magazine. Charlie rolled his eyes at her, feeling his frustration begin to bubble inside him.

"No because I recall saying something along the lines of 'no bloody way in a million years'."

She pouted at him, in a way that used to melt him into doing what she wanted, but now only annoyed hum.

"But pweaaaaase?" She said in a baby voice, kicking him gently with a bare slender foot. His hand balled tightly out of sight, the frustration in his gut travelling up now, his jaw locking.

Lydia wanted them to take the Matched test. She wanted them to prove that they were soulmates and then get married. But Charlie was hesitant, no more than that, adamant that he would not take the test. He was almost certain that Lydia was not his true match. But he loved her and life was good, he did not want to deal with the mess of a bad break up. But how could he tell that to Lydia without breaking her heart? They were happy, for the most part anyway.

It made sense that she wanted to do the test. Lydia was one of those people who loved to do online quizzes that tell you what character you are in some specific movie, she believed fully in the zodiac traits and checked her horoscope daily. She liked being told what sort of person she is, what her relationship is.

"Why can't it be enough that I tell you I love you?" He said trying to soften his locked jaw, but it came out sterner than intended.

She bristled, "you think we won't match don't you?"

"It's a possibility isn't it? We've seen it happen!"

They went quiet, thinking of Alice and Ben, one of our closest couple friends until they took the test and were torn apart. Alice was happy with her new man, Ben could be found most nights several drinks down at the local pub.

"But it also could go the other way. It could make us so happy. We will know for sure that we are meant to be. Don't you want that?"

"Of course I want-"

"Then let's do it! Right now!" She began to reach for her phone.

"Lydia. No." I spoke in a short angry tone that stopped Lydia in her tracks. Her eyes filled with angry tears. "Lydia," I said softer.

"It's fine," she snapped, ending the conversation.

They had sex that night, but both of them didn't seem to have the heart for it. The next day Lydia was quiet, she announced she was going to a friends house after work and when she came back she was so drunk Charlie put her straight to bed. Watching the tv quietly in the living room alone, listening to her snuffling snores from the bedroom.

When he went to bed, He gently stroked her hair and smiled at her sleeping face. She was so beautiful, he hated fighting with her. He decided to make an effort to cheer her up tomorrow.

He woke Lydia with breakfast in bed, comprising of tea, scrambled egg on toast, orange juice and 2 paracetamol. She took the pain killers gratefully and smiled thinly.

"Thanks sweetie," she said in a hoarse voice.

He left her to eat, tidying the kitchen and gave her a kiss on her hair before heading to work, she left a little after he did so was preoccupied trying to cover up the hangover bags under her eyes as he left.

Work was dull, behind on paperwork he ate lunch at his desk. He clocked out and rode the stifling tube at rush hour back to his little flat. He walked in to find Lydia already back from her work, on the sofa, her laptop in hand. She looked casually sexy, wearing one of his hoodies and big fluffy socks. Her hair was in a messy bun and she smiled at him, her eyes looking genuinely happy.

"Hey," she smiled.

"Hi."

He leaned down and kissed her as he walked past to the kitchen, shouldering off his coat.

She had lit a candle and it smelled good. "I've ordered pizza," she called and he sighed in relief.

"Ah ace, thanks Lyds. What are you doing?" He asked.

"Quizzes," she said and he saw the buzzfeed website on her laptop which she usually browsed. He opened the fridge and pulled out a cool beer, taking it to the sofa and sitting opposite her, drinking and watching her concentrated face looking down at her laptop. He felt in a surprisingly good mood. Lydia was happy, and looking sexy, they weren't arguing, pizza was on the way and he was drinking beer on the sofa.

"Go on, hit me up with one of the quizzes then. Make it a good one," he said, taking a sip of beer.

Lydia looked at him and then bit her lip, "okay... hang on, I'll find a couple of good ones."

She pulled out various quizzes, hiding her screen so he could not see the answers and telling him the options. First they did one on "Which animal would you be reincarnated as?" Then they did "What Friends character are you?" Then "What is your love language?" And "How good of a partner are you out of 100?"

"What did I get?" I asked after the last one. "30," she teased. I frowned!

"30?! I definitely should have got more than 30!"

She laughed, but seemed to be transfixed by her laptop, typing quickly.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Just bringing up the next quiz," it was something in the way she said it that made him feel cold. He voice sounded a little too high.

"Lydia, what are you doing?" He asked again.

"Nothing!" She laughed. Lydia always laughed when she lied.

He frowned at her, the way her hands shook slightly, the concentration on the laptop, the results she had given for each of the quizzes, the way she would not look at him...

He grabbed the laptop from her in one quick movement and she gasped.

"No, wait!"

The Matched website was on her screen as plain as anything. In the middle of the purple background was a short message.

"Thank you Charlie Thompson for answering our questionnaire. We will be in touch when we find your match."

He felt sick, anger was rising in him like a tidal wave. She had tricked him. She had betrayed him.

"Undo it."

"You can't, once it's submitted it's-"

"UNDO IT!" He yelled.

"I-" Lydia gazed at him in surprise and a little bit of fear. He had never raised her voice at her, but now he was shaking with anger and hatred for her. How dare she? How dare she betray his trust? He had been clear he wanted nothing to do with Matched but she had gone and done it anyway.

He threw the laptop on the ground, not caring when it made a snapping sound, and stormed to the bedroom. He grabbed a suitcase and began packing things into it roughly.

"Wait! Charlie, where are you going?!"

"I'm leaving, what does it look like?" He growled.

Lydia had tears streaming down her face now as she stood in the doorway of the bedroom, watching as he grabbed the essentials.

"I'll come back in a few days to get the rest of my things, once I've worked out somewhere else to live."

"Somewhere... else," Lydia squeaked. "Charlie please, we're soul mates! The test will prove it!"

"All this test has done is prove to me you only care about yourself Lydia."

"Charlie," she begged, tears streaming down her cheeks, blocking the doorway as I zipped up the bag and faced the door to leave. He didn't know whether it was the anger, or whether he had finally fallen out of love for her, but his only thought was how pathetic she looked, snivelling before him.

He pushed past her in silence, opened the door and let it slam behind him. He heard her wail of anguish, but he didn't stop. He walked out of the corridor, out of the building, off the street and it was only when the flat was well out of view that he stopped, breathing heavily. He had no idea where he was even supposed to go now. How quickly his life had been turned upside down. This is why he had wanted nothing to do with the bloody thing. How many couples had that company torn apart?

He had a brainwave of where to go. He walked briskly down the streets, his feet thumping along the pavement in time with the blood in his ears, in search of the place. Eventually, he stopped outside The Queens Head pub. Ducking to get under the doorframe, he looked around.

As he had predicted Ben was sat at a table in the corner of the pub nursing a pint with a doleful expression, his dark hair falling a little long over his face, his beard a little too unkempt, but once he caught sight of Charlie his eyes lit up. He sat up and beckoned him over.

"Charlie! My man! What brings you here?" He said grinning, at the sight of Charlie's exhausted expression his grin faltered. "Ah man, what's happened?"

"I've walked out on Lydia."

Ben's jaw dropped, "no way! But you and Lydia were a cert! How?!"

"She signed me up to Matched, despite me insisting that I was extremely against it. She tricked me into it."

"Wow that's shady. Well you can join the Matched haters club, we meet at this table daily."

"Does this club have sofa surfer privileges?"

He asked.

Ben thought for a moment and said, "it does, although if you want to be a premium

Member all you have to do is buy me a beer and you get the spare bedroom package."

Charlie laughed, it sounded thick as if pushing against the wall of anger and hurt inside him.

"Sure thing," he replied.

*

It was only a couple of weeks later that he got the text. He had taken a day off work and got his things whilst Lydia was out of the flat, posting the key back through the letterbox. He had moved into Ben's who turned out to be a decent flat mate. Lydia had tried to call him twice but he didn't pick up and she didn't leave a message. Things were going ok. Until the text.

He had been on his way home from work when he got the text from Ben. 'Yo man, just went for a run and saw L with some guy. Followed them and they went 2 that new restaurant on annes street, thought u should know.'

He felt icy cold, numb. So she had found her match. He sat mulling that over for a minute. He had walked out on her, she was fully within her rights to meet someone else. But he would have liked to have been told at least. He felt guilty for not picking up the phone when she had rang but was at the same time, grateful. What an awkward conversation that would have been.

He knew he should drop it. That he should go back to the flat. And yet, betraying the instructions from his brain, his feet began heading in the direction of Anne's Street. He had no idea what his intention was in going there, maybe just to see for himself who Lydia's true match was. To see if the rumours were true, the palpable energy given off by the pair. Maybe to say a last fuck you to Lydia, although he didn't think that last one was likely.

He walked on, unable to stop himself. As if there were some inexorable force pulling him forward, erasing all reason from his mind. He was out of breath when he eventually reached Anne's Street, and his eyes searched for the awning of the new trendy restaurant.

It was black with neat white writing, and as he got closer he could hear the gentle pulse of music and chatter from inside. He pushed through the door searching, and then saw, right at the back, Lydia.

She was sat across from a tall broad man, the back of his head was all he could see. He felt the pang inside him at her beautiful face, made up in just the way he liked it, her hair curled effortlessly. She looked like a supermodel, and his heart ached. Had he made a mistake? But then he saw her expression. She was gazing at the man opposite her, her expression a mixture of intrigue and excitement and perhaps a little sadness. He felt relived at least that she was not so quick to get over him. And yet despite this, his feet kept moving. His brain screamed at his body to stop but before he knew it he was right at their table, behind the honey brown head of her match.

Lydia saw him at last and her eyes grew.

"Charlie," she gasped and the man finally turned around with a look of surprise.

He was handsome, his hair a mix of honey tones over a tanned face, light, almost silver eyes framed by dark lashes. Under them were a sprinkle of freckles and a broad mouth that broke into a wide smile, his eyes seeming to shine. He even had dimples. Who over the age of eleven had dimples?! Charlie felt himself redden, of course her match was a fucking god. Brilliant ego boost that.

"Hi," the man said "name's Noah."

"Charlie," Charlie said bluntly, trying to ignore his flaming cheeks but something in Noah's expression suggested it had not been missed.

Noah had extended a hand to shake but he ignored it, forcing a look of disgust instead and turning to Lydia.

"He your match then?" He asked abruptly and although it annoyed him he had to admit they'd make a good couple, both of them were incredibly attractive in that natural way that no makeup or surgery could achieve.

Noah raised an eyebrow at Lydia, smirking and she sighed, running her hand through her hair.

"Charlie it's not what you think," she started. "If you let me explain-"

"Right, so you're not from Matched?" He interrupted turning to Noah, who gave him an odd look, scanning up his body slowly to his face, his eyes glinting slightly as he smirked again.

"I am."

The way he was looking at him made Charlie angry. He seemed cocky and arrogant, the exact sort of person Charlie avoided. How could Lydia like this sort of guy? Charlie narrowed his eyes at him but this only seemed to amuse Noah more. His face broke into a dazzling grin, as if Charlie was missing out on some hilarious joke.

"But he's not my match!" Lydia exclaimed, she looked exhausted but Charlie wasn't letting her off that easy.

"Right! Then who's is he?" He retorted.

"I'm yours mate," Noah said in a low soft voice, leaning back in his chair casually, watching Charlie's face as it drained of all colour. "Surprise."

*

Charlie sat, his legs suddenly too weak to stand, his mouth still too shocked to speak. Lydia, knowing him well, had quickly grabbed a free chair from a nearby table and forced him to sit down. His face chalky white, he looked from her to Noah like it was some sort of joke. Lydia began talking very fast, and he was only able to catch half of what she said through the ringing in his ears.

"...you left it was a while until I heard anything... phone buzzed and it was a match for you, obviously it came to my phone as that's the one I had linked initially... tried to call you but then he turned up at the flat... was going to tell you, I promise but I had to work out how and, oh Charlie...are you alright?"

He nodded mutely and took a long sip of his water that Lydia had pressed into his hand. He chanced a glance again at Noah who was just staring at him, still with that amused smirk as he swung back slightly on the restaurant chair.

"Is this a joke?" Charlie croaked and Lydia gushed about how it was all the truth, but he ignored her looking only at the man at the table, his supposed match.

"Your ex told me you're straight, or at least always thought you were. These things happen quite often on the app you know. I'm bisexual so it's less of a shock for me than it is you. But," he pulled out his phone and showed the screen that confirmed their match.

Charlie gazed at the phone screen and then shook his head in disbelief.

"But I like girls," he said weakly.

"Maybe not just girls," Noah murmured, the amused light in his eyes mocked him.

"I have to go," Charlie blurted out, lurching to his feet. It was too much, in this tiny restaurant between his ex and his match who happened to also be a guy. Not only that an arrogant super model of a guy. What. Was. Happening.

"Are you okay?" Lydia said reaching for his hand but he pulled it away like she had shocked him.