The Hating Game by Talli Roland

predictable. She’d have to come up with something that would really make men squirm.
    ‘ Next question, Mattie?’
    ‘ Bachelor Number Three ,’ Mattie said. ‘How many women have you slept with?’
    The crowd rustled and murmured.
    There was silence, then: ‘I’ve not slept with a woman yet. I’m saving myself for the perfect one.’
    The muttering from the audience swelled and Mattie’s eyebrows nearly reached her hairline. Imagine, in this day and age, saving yourself for one woman. That idiot man probably thought it was romantic. Obviously he didn’t realise women would actually run screaming, probably to the nearest airport, when they found out he was a virgin. Of course, there was the distinct possibility he resembled the missing link and finding a woman desperate enough to sleep with him was as unlikely as that tubby Nate developing a fashion sense.
    God, this was really tiresome. ‘Bachelor Number Four,’ Mattie said, without waiting for Seamus, who was now becoming overly familiar with his host’s podium. ‘When did you last cheat on your girlfriend?’ Because they all did, of course.
    The lights on Pod Four had only just started flashing when Bachelor Number Four said: ‘Actually, I’ve never cheated on a girlfriend. She thought I did, but I didn’t.’
    Mattie shifted on the stool . Yeah, right. Same old pathetic story. She plodded through another round of questions, trying her best to spice things up as Seamus got progressively droopier. The control room were shouting blue murder through the earpiece, which he still hadn’t bothered to put back in.
    Finally, when she’d questioned all the men for a second time, Seamus straightened up. ‘So, Mattie, which one will it be for tomorrow’s date?’
    M attie shrugged. Who cared? They were all equally foul sounding. ‘Number One, I guess.’ If she remembered correctly, he was the ‘giver’, probably the easiest man of the four to walk all over. She’d have no problem dealing with him.
    ‘ Bachelor Number One ? Come meet Mattie Johns . . . again!’
    Again? What did that mean, again?
    Applause and cheers from the audience swirled around her as Mattie swivelled towards Pod One.
    The pod door swung open and a wiry man with floppy hair emerged. From where she was sitting, Mattie could only see that his shoulder-length hair had highlights – a sure sign of a preening prima donna.
    He turned towards her and Mattie’s mouth dropped open.
    It wasn’t some hideous anonymous stranger Nate had pulled out from under a rock. It was hideous Charlie . The boy (now man) who’d humiliated her in front of the whole school by getting busy with Kwong at the prom. The gay man she’d outed!
    She snapped her mouth closed and arranged her face in a smile as he walked towards her. It had been ten years since sh e’d last seen him, but even encased in a designer suit he looked as juvenile as ever. Back in secondary school, he’d have fit right in with a quiff-sporting boy band, but now he just looked like an overgrown teen trying to dress like his dad. He was carrying a bizarre-looking clutch of deep-purple flowers she’d never seen before. Those were meant to impress her? They looked like weeds.
    ‘ Hello, Mattie,’ he said in his soft breathless voice, the same voice that used to drive her mental.
    She looked down at the hand he extended and took his soft palm in hers. He was even better moisturised than she was! She squeezed his hand and thumped it up and down.
    ‘ Charlie. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?’ She tried to make her voice sound normal, conscious of all the cameras around her, but it came out sounding slightly strangled.
    Bloody Nate, spr inging this on her. Then again, it did make sense. These kinds of shows always had an ex pop out at some stage, didn’t they? They certainly could have done a lot worse than Charlie. Nate was obviously missing the gaydar gene, she sniggered to herself.
    ‘ It’s been too long.’ Charlie’s thin lips