Luke, 28, Recently Dumped

Luke decided not to instantly delete the app from his phone.

Even if it seemed like obvious nonsense, his dating life since Gina dumped him had been practically non existent, so he didn't feel he was in a position to turn away any kind of help that was being offered to him. He had got precisely nowhere on the traditional dating apps, there was nobody single within his social circle who seemed like a viable romantic option, he didn't have the kind of hobbies he would be likely to meet eligible women participating in, and a relationship with a co-worker seemed out of the question since Gina still worked in his office.

Instead he simply put The Romance Mechanic to the back of his mind, carried on with his gaming evening, and headed to work like normal the next morning. En route, Luke made a stop at the coffee shop a couple of streets away from his office to pick up drinks for himself and his colleague, just like he did every working day. It was a well established element of the safe but tedious routine his life had fallen into lately.

"Good morning sir, the usual?" the pretty blonde girl behind the counter, whose name was Stefanie according to her tag, chirped at him like she always did.

"Yes please" he nodded politely.

As she went to prepare his order, Luke's phone pinged. It was a message from the RM app.

Congratulations, you've just made a connection with Stefanie! Tap here to view her on your Love List!

Luke did as suggested and could hardly believe what he saw.

The Love List now had its first entrant, the woman who was currently preparing his morning beverage. Next to her name was what appeared to be a quite recognisable pixel art version of Stefanie's face, and under that picture were five hearts. The first had a tiny slither of red in it, the other four were empty.

A helpful hint popped up on the screen.

Talking is a great way to make connections and build affection! Keep raising Stefanie's affection level to fill her hearts and expand your romantic opportunities with her!

What the fuck? This was insane! Was he being watched?

Stefanie walked back over with the coffees. Luke nodded his appreciation of her friendly and efficient service and slid a coin into the tip jar.

"Thanks!" the barista smiled.

Luke's phone buzzed again. Once he was safely out of the building, he checked it.

It looks like Stefanie loved her gift! Presents are a great way to raise someone's affection meter quickly!

Gift? The fifty pence tip? Looking at the Love List again, there was now some more red in the first of Stefanie's five hearts. This all felt like some kind of elaborate prank, and Luke had to fight the urge to search for hidden cameras.

---

Luke arrived at his desk later than usual as a result of the confusion caused by the RM app, which had distracted him way more than he knew it probably should have.

"Thank goodness, we were about to send out a search party!" Rachel smiled as he sat down and booted up his laptop.

She was Luke's closest work friend, and the only person in the office who had been unequivocally on his side during the fallout between him and Gina. Luke had always had something of a crush on Rachel, though that wasn't somewhere he felt he could ever go.

"Sorry, anyway, here is your double espresso. Better late than never, right?"

Luke's phone pinged again. While he waited for his computer to install some unspecified updates that would no doubt break more than they fixed, he gave the app a subtle glance. Now Rachel was on the Love List, just below Stefanie.

There was another message.

Looks like Rachel loved her gift! Keep up the great work to increase your romantic potential with her!

Rachel's morning coffee counted as a gift? And how was some phone app tracking his every interaction so accurately? Luke was still trying to get his head around that when Diane, his stern but sexy boss, around a decade older than him but with a level of authority he guessed might take him three times that long to achieve, walked over.

"You decided to grace us with your presence today?" she announced herself in her usual sarcastic and mildly disapproving manner.

"Sorry, I got a little held up"

"Not to worry, as long as you can get that report to me by lunch?"

"It's done already, I just need to give it a quick proof read"

"Oh, that's great. If you send it my way as soon as you can I should have time to go over it before my meeting with the Board this afternoon"

As Diane made her way back to her office, Luke found the document he had finished working on the previous day, spent ten minutes ensuring it read okay, then emailed it through to his boss. Moments later, his phone buzzed again and, sure enough, she had now made the Love List too.

Great work, you just completed a request for Diane, it looks like she's super appreciative! Fulfilling requests is one of the most effective ways to quickly raise affection!

Service tips, morning coffee runs, reports that he was literally being paid to write - it seemed anything raised affection with this app. How was that even supposed to work? Was The Romance Mechanic going to somehow control these women's minds so they started to fall for Luke when he completed arbitrary tasks as dictated by a dating app? It made no sense at all, though he was starting to become intrigued as to what might happen when he achieved his first full heart with one of his 'connections'.

The next person who walked over was someone Luke felt no app on Earth could bring him closer to now - Gina.

Things had been frosty between the pair since the split. Their relationship had been rocky for a while, but she had started to noticeably withdraw from Luke after a new colleague, Phil, had entered their workplace. He had soon begun pursuing Gina quite openly, even in front of her boyfriend, despite knowing full well they had been together for more than three years and shared an apartment.

Gina had always defended Phil whenever Luke had complained about his behaviour, insisting he was both her friend and a good guy who had done nothing inappropriate. Their arguments over him had doubtless expedited the collapse of their relationship, and it had been obvious Gina and Phil had begun an emotional affair while Luke was still fighting to hold on to her.

After the split had happened, Gina told people at their work it was because Luke was too possessive and had made repeated, false accusations about her cheating on him with other guys. It was an **** perversion of the truth, but ensured she had received most of the post break up sympathy from within the office, despite Luke feeling like he was the one who had been wronged.

"Hey, can we talk privately"

That didn't sound good. Luke and Gina had barely spoken to each other at all post break up, but if she had something to tell him he could hardly refuse her. Rachel raised her eyebrows at him as he briefly turned back to her for some semblance of moral support, before following his ex into an empty meeting room.

"So look, I wanted you to hear this from me first, so I could explain it without you freaking out" she began, still attempting to gaslight Luke into believing his previous concerns had been hysterical and unreasonable, even as she prepared to prove them correct "Phil and I are now dating"

Of course they were. That was barely even news.

"That doesn't mean anything you said about him or speculated about us while we were still together was true, we were just friends back then, but now that's developed into something more. I hope you can handle this maturely and professionally, and not bring any of our personal drama into the workplace like before. Okay?"

Luke nodded silently. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of letting her know he was annoyed, even if she had just completely vindicated everything he had ever said about her and Phil, while somehow still attempting to take the moral high ground. He figured he should be grateful to be rid of her.

Once she left the room, Luke's phone pinged. He could hardly believe what he was seeing when he logged back onto the app. His initial instinct was to laugh.

Congratulations! You have now added Gina to your Love List! Keep raising her affection level to increase your romantic opportunities with her!