The farthest Dylan could go was the lobby, where he sat on a couch by the reception desk for most of the night. There were no new arrivals that night, and the room was staffed with one other person who ignored Dylan’s presence. They muttered profanities under their breath that Dylan didn’t care to listen in on.

Desperate, Dylan pulled his phone from his pocket and began searching for results, something that could stop his Glow; some information that could give him solace, or suggest ideas from lighting up whenever Bryce was close. But the results were similar to what he found when he ventured out to change his Glow Colour, or the Glow itself. The specific solutions were all the same –

Glows diminish between two Soulmates in either of two instances:

1. Either Soulmate passes away suddenly (In which case, the Glow will switch to the Secondary Soulmate)
2. A mutual acceptance of circumstances and attempting to forge ahead with a potential relationship

While there is no other way of preventing Glows from occurring around the presence of your specific Soulmate, the Soulmate System recommends that continued exposure can, in fact, lessen the visual presence of it.

Dylan threw his phone across a coffee table, it bouncing onto one of the cushions on the opposite couch. Leaning back, Dylan exhaled. ‘What do I do now?’ he thought, his eyes growing heavy.

Running his fingers through his hair, Dylan contemplated the circumstances for a moment.

Less than a minute later, Dylan was seething in an upset rage. If he had to have a Soulmate, he didn’t want it to be the flighty playboy that was Bryce Houghton.

Three floors above and several meters away, Bryce was staring at the two numbers that he had received earlier that evening from the two Potentials he’d met. He folded them carefully between his fingers and mused what outcome could come from this. Bryce’s idea of “unconditional love” from his Soulmate slipped away faster than sand between his fingers.

Bryce leaned back in the desk chair, having never really given any thought to who Dylan was. He closed his eyes and considered him.

About a minute later, Bryce, too, was seething. His Soulmate was a crabby, sleepless nobody. An antisocial hermit. ‘Someone so hurt by the ‘System’ that he’s given up trying to find his Soulmate.’ But Bryce ignored the thought and knew his fantasies of who his Soulmate was going to be shattered. He didn’t know what to do. Hands trembling, fury took the place of concern and heartbreak.

He was Soulmates to a whiny, sleepless nerd that was Dylan Matthews.

The feeling of betrayal was mutual.