Chapter Three – Dating Apps Were Never Meant for This

Getting so close to his target had never been in the cards before. He hadn’t done it because, frankly, it scared the bejesus out of him to get caught. He couldn’t fight, he could barely hold his own in an argument, and the moment he tried more, he knew others looked at him like he was some kind of freak. So, making an exception in this case felt like a serious risk.

The pressure was mounting, with this year being the last of college and all that. If he couldn’t leave this place with a bang – even if the part of remaining anonymous felt bittersweet – then he wouldn’t be able to prove himself. And he’d end up caught in some crappy job, putting in the hours for the same linear life where nothing happened, instead of joining the upper echelon of people with something to say and people to listen.

He fiddled with the camera and adjusted it for the umpteenth time.

“Sorry, but you’re my meal ticket, man,” he said as he began to snap picture after picture from a safe distance.

Jamie Vayne. He was such a looker. No wonder he left broken hearts scattered behind him left and right. Of course, he didn’t think of himself like that. He called himself a mender of hearts. A good guy.

But good guys weren’t liars, usually, right?

***

The survey results were clear. Crystal clear and shocking, too. Jamie couldn’t wrap his head around them, because he had never seen them before. He hadn’t even had an inkling that his hookups were thinking of him as some sort of heartbreaker. Another aspect that kept on bugging him was his reaction to the whole thing. He was into hooking up because he liked sex and liked having it with people who took pleasure from it just as much as he did. He also did it because he loved making others feel good. And it wasn’t just sexual, dammit. He had made all those boys realize that they had value, that it didn’t matter that some schmuck had chosen to abandon them instead of working toward a relationship with them.

That sort of gratitude, which he had read in others’ eyes so many times before, had given him the validation he was after. Sure, undressing for his followers and letting them throw their tokens at him worked for that, too, but it wasn’t the same. Jamie loved being appreciated for his soul, not only for his body and what he knew to do with it.

That fucking Xpress really liked throwing shade at him. Jamie had ignored it at first, then got annoyed, and now he was full-blown pissed. He needed to find the guy behind Xpress and make him swallow his words.

How the hell did he know it was a guy? He didn’t. If the evil mastermind behind that gossip rag that served no purpose but daily entertainment for the people living on campus proved to be a girl, Jamie would find himself at a loss. He wouldn’t be able to kick her ass, and that would be a huge bummer.

Even with a guy, he wouldn’t get so physical. Why was Xpress so obsessed with him, anyway? Ah, Jamie thought and felt his lips stretching into a large smile. What if it was a guy and one who actually drooled over Jamie in secret? That level of obsession couldn’t be explained otherwise. Sure, in the past, Xpress had meddled extensively in the business of various couples and individuals, but the extent of what was happening now verged on the ridiculous.

It had to be a guy. It had to be a gay guy. Could it be one of his former hookups? There had been so many that Jamie didn’t dare start his research there. That would justify Xpress’s wish to destroy his public image and prevent him from hooking up again.

But if that were the case, why would Xpress start cornering him now of all times? It didn’t make any sense, and Jamie couldn’t remember a single guy he had parted ways with while they were having bad feelings about each other. Even from his little survey, he had understood that the college boys that had jumped in bed with him had known very well what they were getting themselves into. At best, they might have been a little vexed with his ‘lack of emotional availability’, but that was all. And his lack of emotional availability only referred to his not wanting to be in a relationship. Otherwise, he had been the most accommodating guy anyone could hook up with in the history of hookups.

Where would a gay guy with a small yet currently developing obsession with Jamie lurk? He had to be a college boy, because there was no way Xpress was an outsider. He knew too much, he was up in everyone’s business, and despite its usual stupidity, it felt as if he was everywhere.

Most likely, Jamie carried on with his little mental investigation of the topic, this guy was trying to hook up, too. Maybe he had tried in the past and now felt jilted over being overlooked. A lot of guys wanted a piece of Jamie, but as charitable as he was, he needed to pace himself. A man only had so many hours in the day and they had to be used accordingly.

Grabbing his dumbbells from under the bed, he began pumping iron, throwing a look at himself in the tall mirror on the wall across from him, to check his form and send a kiss to himself once in a while. What sort of guy was behind Xpress?

He had to be a loser.

Which meant that Jamie needed to lower his standards when it came to selecting his possible hookups.

The guy also had to be a little freaky. If he was the guy in the deerstalker hat from that night, he had to like dressing up.

“Let’s see,” Jamie murmured under his breath.

Short, skinny. Lacking confidence in his looks. Talking like a character from two or more centuries ago. A guy like that had to stick out like a sore thumb, no matter where he went.

***