iMate

Even though there were a dozen things in the tour bus for Eden to place her attention on, she couldn’t focus on any of them. There was the alcoholic that the boys were carelessly drinking. There were the few girls Harry had brought on the bus to occupy them. There was even the tour accountant tapping away at her phone while she monitored the boys’ reckless behavior. None of those things could capture Eden’s mind.

Since the moment she’d touched Harry and felt that pulse go off, her thoughts had not been her own. She couldn’t concentrate or think about anything rational.

None of it made any sense.

Harry couldn’t possibly be her soulmate. There was no logical explanation for why her best friend would be the person she was meant to be with forever. She and Harry had never kissed – not once in all their years of friendship – and they never planned to. Eden had no romantic feelings for Harry at all. She’d sent him on countless dates with her friends. She’d been his wing woman more times than she could count. In all those times of seeing him with girls, she never got jealous, not even a little.

Eden had never cared who Harry slept with, because she didn’t want to sleep with him herself. The pulse didn’t make any sense because if you were supposed to be with someone, you had to want to sleep with them, right?

“E, you gonna play?”

Niall had just begun reshuffling his deck of cards, which were wet and sticky with beer. Harry had one arm wrapped around a small blonde girl, while the other held a bottle. His eyes were on her, as he waited for her answer.

She gave a quick shake of her head, signaling for Niall to pass out the cards without her. Even if they were just playing a simple game of blackjack, Eden knew she wouldn’t be able to pay attention to it.
Collectively, her thoughts were a mess and she needed a breath of fresh air to sort them out.

Looking towards the boys, she excused herself, before stepping out of the bus and out in the cold England air. The chill helped to settle her mind, if only for a moment.

It was only that chilly air that allowed her thoughts to lead to the only direction they hadn’t been yet. She was thankful, because she had finally made sense of it all. She wondered why she hadn’t seen it before.

Apple had made a faulty product. Her iMate was broken. She was sure of it. That was the only way it could have given her such a terribly wrong reading.

Reaching into her pocket, Eden pulled out her phone and quickly tapped through her contact list, before landing on the number Apple had given her to use if she need anything.

In just seconds the phone was ringing and Eden was readying herself for the conversation that was to follow. She didn’t want to yell at the company. It wasn’t their fault that they’d made such a bad device. All she wanted was the thing taken out of her, so she could forget about the whole ordeal.

When the phone picked up on the other end, she was met immediately with the voice of Phillip J. Clark, the very man who’d created the iMate. After he introduced himself, Eden took a deep breath before speaking.

“Hello Mr. Clark.” Her voice was much more shaky than she’d planned, but she’d have to pull through. “My name is Eden Clark. I got one of your things a few days ago.”

Eden could hear the sound of typing on the other end, before the man spoke.

“Yes,” he said, his voice sounding somewhat annoyed. “I’ve got your file right here. Do you have a problem?”

She nodded her head, even though he couldn’t see it. “I think mine’s broken.”

A laugh sounded on the other end, nearly startling her. The laugh was loud and wild, voicing the opinion of someone who didn’t have a care in the world.

“Not the person you thought he’d be, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Ms. Clark, I can assure you that your devices calculations are correct. That poor sap you’re so disgusted by is your soulmate. There’s no doubt about that.”

Eden paused, entirely unsure of what to say. The man was rude and it only irritated her more. If he was going to crush all of her dreams and cause her world to grow crumbling, the least he could do was be a little nice about it.

His deep breath blew through the end of the line, hitting Eden’s ear. In a moment of weakness, he spoke again.

“Listen, Eden. I’m sure you’re a nice girl, and you probably had this picture perfect image in your mind, but sometimes things aren’t what we thought they were. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball and you just have to swing. I know this isn’t what you had in mind, but I can promise you that the device is right.” He took a deep breath. “I know you may not want to believe me, but if you trust me and trust what the device is telling you, that boy will make you happier than you’ve ever been.”

Eden’s teeth nipped at her lip, biting it until it turned red. She paused for several moments and he allowed it. She needed his words to sink in. Once he thought he’d given her ample time, he spoke one last string of words before clicking off the phone.

“Just give it time, Eden, and you’ll see that you’ve fallen in love.”