Sparks the Matchmaker (Aaron Sparks Series)

by Elkins, Russell

“Isn’t it? Tell me something, then— when did you start dating Joy?”

  “A couple weeks ago, I guess.”

  “And when did you break up?”

  “We were never really— it wasn’t like that.”

  “Did you kiss her?”

  “No.” Finally, something in the conversation that didn’t make him horrible.

  “Did you want to?”

  Ollie hesitated, and just like when he hesitated when talking to Joy, she interpreted that as his answer.

  “I don’t know that I can trust you, Ollie. You just can’t play me like that.”

  Ollie had previously thought that her smile was always present, never leaving her face, but it was nowhere to be found now. He wanted desperately to think of a way to bring it back, but it seemed too far away.

  “Joy and I were starting to date, yes, and I was interested in her,” he said. “But when she went out of town for the weekend and you and I spent the weekend together— it was just— ya know.”

  He knew he was horrible with words. The more words he used, the further he seemed to get from his goal. So he stopped talking, which was at least as bad.

  “Yes. I think I can fill in the blanks. Joy was gone for a few days and you needed something to do. That’s where I came in. Something to pass the time. But now she’s back.”

  Lynn’s eyes had been dry up to that point, but as she looked up at him, he could see the tears weren’t far from the surface. She turned away.

  “My feet are cold,” she said. “I’m going inside.”

  “I—” Ollie couldn’t find the right words. Come on, Ollie. Think. This could be your last chance to save this.

  “Please don’t call me or come by anymore.” She shut the door behind her.

  Chapter 26

  Ollie trudged his way home, sloshing through his muddy thoughts. What a mess. He could feel the layers of muck packing gradually onto the soles of his soul, which got heavier with each step. Eventually, he made it back to Tall House and lifted those heavy feet up the stairs until he reached his bedroom. He found his way to the closet, where he’d stashed away his frustration all week, and pulled out the hat. Sparks was usually through his door within a minute of him putting it on his head, but this time it took nearly ten.

  “Hey, I remember you, Bomber,” Sparks said.

  “I know. Sorry.”

  “Psh,” he scoffed. “It’s fine with me; your loss. Besides, I knew you wouldn’t come calling for a week, so I went to visit my brother.”

  “You have a brother?”

  “Of course I have a brother. Is that so weird?”

  “Aren’t you mad at me? I mean, I kinda shut you out when you were trying to help me and I went off and… yeah… you probably already know the rest.”

  “Have you ever known me to get mad, Bomber? Come on. Give me a little more credit than that.”

  “So, you’ll still help me, then?”

  “Of course. You’ve kept your side of the bargain working with Greg. Besides, the situation is still salvageable.”

  “Are you sure you’re seeing the same situation I am? I kind of really messed up your plan.”

  “I know what’s going on better than you do. Things are actually more on track than I expected them to be by now. I thought Joy would need more time. I expect everything to sort itself out tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? Why tomorrow? What’s happening then?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “And ruin the surprise? No way.”

  “You’re a jerk. You know that, right?”

  “Oh, Bomber. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you see Joy tomorrow.”

  Ollie didn’t like the sound of that. Maybe I should just kick him out of my life right now. Then again, would he actually go?

  “Now that things have started to come out into the open a little more,” Sparks said, “I bet you can see why I wouldn’t tell you why Joy was being so distant.”

  “Yeah. Then again, if you had told me before why Joy was so upset, I might not have spent the weekend with Lynn. You should have told me if you didn’t want this to happen. That’s your fault.”

  “You’re not gonna pin that on me, are you? All this time and you still don’t think anything that happens to you is because you asked for it?”

  “Whatever. So… now what?” Ollie knew what Sparks was going to say before he said it.

  “You tell me, Bomber.”

  “Come on, now,” he chuckled nervously. “You clearly don’t want me making the decisions. I’m heading off in a different direction than you want me to. Remember?”

  “Ollie, Ollie, Ollie. I know you better than you think I do. You’ll see tomorrow. This whole mess will iron itself out. All you gotta do is show up.”

  “Please tell me that means you’ll be out of my life for good after tomorrow. You’re driving me crazy, ya know?”

  “I know.”

  “So, are you? Gone? The only reason I haven’t told you to take a hike is because I need to keep you around… just in case I need to throw you a beating after all this is done.”

  “Does that sound like the type of thing I’d tell you?” Sparks laughed.

  “Not at all. It was worth a shot, though.”

  ***

  Ollie lay in his bed, kept company every few minutes by the orange glow of the room. The numbers on the clock talked to him, helping him sort things out as he pondered. He felt horrible about how he’d left things off with Lynn, and felt just as bad about how messed up things were with Joy. There was really only one thing he could shoot for, and that was to take things a step at a time. Nothing could be done until morning, when he walked her to class. She had been straightforward with him today. He should do the same for her.

  He discussed everything with the clock and they decided together what time he would get up in the morning. He’d get up in plenty of time to get her to class even though he didn’t have class until nine.

  ***

  Ollie had indeed discussed the time with the clock on the wall, but he’d forgotten to tell the clock on his desk— the one that usually beeped him awake in the morning. By pure luck though, the clock inside Ollie’s head had been eavesdropping the night before and was successful in getting through enough to wake him, although late. When his tired eyes saw what time it was, he sprang out of bed and grabbed his stuff. It was already almost eight.

  ***

  “I’m sorry,” her roommate said. “You just missed her.”

  He was angry at himself. As he slowly began to turn away from the door, he couldn’t help but ask, “How did she seem? I mean, was she upset? Happy?”

  She hesitated for a moment. “Both. I think she was in a great mood when she woke up, but she seemed kind of… stressed when she left.”

  “All right. Do me a favor? If you see her before I do, tell her I stopped by this morning to walk her to class, but I missed my alarm and that made me late and—”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll tell her.” She smiled.

  His first class wasn’t going to start for another hour, but he rushed to campus as quickly as his legs would carry him. He was hoping that the words “just missed her” meant that he’d be able to catch up to her before her little legs got her to class. He was wrong. Peeking through the small pane of glass on the classroom door, he spotted her familiar curly brown hair. It was too late. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt back up over his head and headed back out into the cold. No amount of attempted telepathy would ever get her to turn around to see him wave, and a glance at his watch told him that, even though he only needed a minute to go in and talk to her, her class had begun seven minutes before he’d had a chance.

  ***

  “You’re up early.”

  Ollie looked up, surprised to see Richie w
alking next to him. “Yeah. I got up to walk Joy to class.”

  “Kissed her yet?”

  “Figure out how to mind your own business yet?”

  “That means no. What are ya waitin’ for?”

  “Dude, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “No. You’re just making things more complicated than they need to be.”

  Ollie smiled and looked back down at the sidewalk. “You know, I envy you, Richie. How you just keep things simple. Like, ‘Yo. Girl. You want to date me, or what? How’s about a kiss?’”

  “Works for me.”

  “Except that you never get a date.”

  “Only a matter of time. I bet I’m married before you are.”

  “Oh yeah?” Ollie laughed even harder. “You might be right, the way I keep screwing everything up.”

  “Well, you can always come to me for advice.”

  He knew he could always go to Richie for a laugh, but going to him for advice was never going to happen.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Ollie saw a familiar face bounding across campus. Instinctively, he held up a hand to wave to her and was about to yell, but Lynn had made it pretty clear the night before that she didn’t want to talk to him. He frowned and slowly lowered his hand. Besides, she looks like she’s in a hurry. She’s probably late for class.

  Ollie had plenty of time before his class would start, but he made no attempt to chase Lynn down. He missed her already, but he couldn’t have her. He couldn’t walk with Lynn, and he was too late to walk with Joy. The only person he had right now was Richie. Sigh. And with the busy day of classes he had in front of him, all he could do was wait until six when Joy got off work.

  “Uh. Who was that?” Richie asked. “Who were you trying to wave to?”

  “Lynn.”

  “Okay… and who’s Lynn?”

  The most amazing girl in the world. The one I finally figured out I really like, but she hates me, and that crazy gimpy know-it-all wants me to be with someone else. “Don’t worry about it. It’s complicated,” Ollie said.

  “I’m gonna find out sooner or later. You’re not cheating on Joy, are you?”

  “How can I cheat on her if we’re not even together? We haven’t even kissed, remember?”

  “All right then. Mind if I ask her out?”

  “Which one?”

  “Joy.”

  “Yeah, I do mind.”

  “Okay, then I’ll go catch up to Lynn and ask her out.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Why not? You can’t stake a claim on all the hot girls on campus.”

  “Just don’t.”

  ***

  That the sun was sinking lower in the sky also meant that the time was inching closer and closer to when Joy was going to be walking home. Ollie left his last class and jogged his way toward the bookstore. There was no way he was going to let himself miss her twice in the same day.

  He grabbed a couple of sodas to share on their stroll home and headed toward the stairs that led to her register. As he descended to the bottom floor, he froze when he saw she wasn’t alone. There was Scott, standing next to her, flipping through pages in a magazine as she busily scanned customers’ purchases. Too far away to hear what she said, Ollie saw her mouth move, saw Scott lift his eyes from his magazine to share a laugh with her. Ollie had been a few minutes late after all, even though the clock said he still had five minutes left in her shift.

  “Aren’t you going to go down there and say hello?” The familiar voice coming from behind him was Sparks, unmistakably.

  Ollie didn’t bother to turn around, his eyes glued to what was unfolding in front of him. “You’re not exactly my favorite person right now, Sparks. And I’m not even wearing your hat. What do you want?”

  “Hey. Is that any kind of way to talk to your matchmaker? Trust me a little.”

  “Matchmaker? Trust you? You gotta be kidding me. Every time I listen to you, things just get more messed up. And I can tell by that smirk on your face that you’re enjoying every second of it. You were never really helping me, were you?”

  “Give me a little more credit than that,” Sparks said. “You’re a lot better off than you were a few weeks ago.”

  “Why? Because I get the satisfaction of helping other people hook up?”

  “Give me a little more credit than that.”

  “Answer me this, then. Be plain and honest. Joy and Scott are getting back together, right?”

  “It sure looks that way.”

  “Was that part of your plan?”

  “Pretty much the whole time, yes.”

  “I get it now.” Ollie was furious. “You needed me to help her overcome her personal stuff so that they could be together?”

  “She needed someone besides Scott to care for her; someone who would listen to her tell her story and not run away. And guess what, Ollie. You did that for her. That conversation you guys had last night was the last piece she needed to put herself back together. You ought to feel great about that. She’d been burned by some people so badly in the past that she needed to know Scott wasn’t just putting on a show when he told her he still loved her.”

  Ollie slouched. It was becoming clear. Greg was rid of his horrible staff worker, thanks to him. Joy was feeling much better about her situation, thanks to him. And Scott got his dream girl, thanks to him.

  Sparks got to have fun making it all happen.

  Ollie wasn’t getting what he wanted, but the other four did. “I feel like such a tool,” Ollie said. “You let me believe everything was going to go my way when really it was all about everybody but me.”

  “Welcome to the real world.”

  Ollie fumed. Sparks smiled broadly, which only made Ollie more upset.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Sparks said.

  “I figured you would.”

  “I’m proud of you.”

  “Then you must not know what I’m thinking.”

  “No, really. You’re trying to think of a way to keep me from meddling in other people’s lives.”

  “You’re not going to be able to manipulate anybody else the way you have me. I won’t let you.”

  “I’m proud of you. You’re thinking of someone other than yourself.”

  “Yup, I’m just like you keep saying: right where I want to be. That’s me, Mr. Caring, always looking out for everybody else, just like you wanted.”

  “You obviously still have a way to go,” Sparks said, rolling his eyes, “but you can learn by watching Lynn.”

  “Lynn? Yeah. If you hadn’t been so fixated on me helping Joy, you could have seen how good Lynn and I could have been together.”

  “What do you mean, ‘could have been?’”

  Ollie stood back up, his mouth open slightly. He took a step back in his mind and looked at all of the pieces in front of him. He started with the corners, then the edges, and finally all of the pieces of the puzzle were coming together in the middle. He began to see a picture he hadn’t expected to see.

  As his understanding dawned, his eyes met with Sparks’. He didn’t know whether to hug him or punch him in the mouth. He began the journey thinking only about himself, then he thought things were only going to work out for Joy, and not for him and Lynn. At no point before did he think everything would work out for all three of them.

  “You’re joking,” Ollie said, his mouth still half open.

  Sparks’ face said, now do you get it? “I told you to give me more credit than that.”

  “She made it pretty clear she didn’t want to talk to me again. Is she going to magically change her mind?”

  “Ya know, Joy is really sentimental. She loves to journal and keep a scrapbook, especially about big events like when she drove to Colorado to visit her daughter.”

  “Stop
changing the subject.”

  “I’m not changing the subject. Can you think of anything Joy would hold onto as a keepsake from that trip?”

  “How about if you just tell me straight up for once. Stop leading me around in circles.”

  “Okay, okay. She kept the little yellow piece of paper from the ride board. The one with Lynn’s phone number on it. After you left Lynn’s place last night, Joy was thinking about everything and—”

  “She called her? What did they talk about?”

  Sparks tapped his index finger on Ollie’s forehead a few times. “Think, Bomber. Think, think, think. Do you really think Scott would be waiting to walk Joy home if she’d called Lynn up to tell her she’d better stay away from her man?”

  “She explained everything?”

  Sparks smiled.

  “She convinced her to give me a shot?”

  “Not exactly. She’s just much better with words than you are. She explained the situation pretty well.”

  “Were you planning on me being with Lynn all along?”

  “Planning on, yes. But planning doesn’t always get the job done. Really, the only thing I did was to get you into a certain situation that you wouldn’t have gotten yourself into otherwise.” He polished his nails against his shirtfront. “You did the rest.”

  “So this was never about Joy.”

  “Of course it was about Joy! You doofus!” Sparks smacked his palm against his brow. “Like I said, it was all about helping Joy. And it was about helping Greg, and Marie, and Lynn, and D. And, yes, it was definitely about helping you. The hardest part was letting you do things on your own, because, man, you can be dense.”

  “Let me guess: it was because you knew I would resist and mess things up with Lynn if I was just trying to follow your lead.”

  “Partly. Sort of. Not really. Mostly, you just needed to know for yourself that you were chasing something you knew you wanted, not something someone else was tellin’ ya you wanted. Americans don’t respond too well to arranged marriages, even if it’s with a great person, ya know? And by the way… Joy did need you.”