As Kristin stared, he tilted his jaw and took a deep sniff of the air. And then he looked right at her. Her breath caught in her throat. "He can't see you, he can't see you," she told herself over and over. He smiled, revealing flashing white teeth. Then he shook his head, turned and walked back into the apartment building.
Kristin waited until he'd gone. And she waited another five minutes, and then she started up the car and drove back home. As she got out of the car and went inside, she discovered that she was trembling. What's the matter with me? She thought. She walked into her apartment and shut the door, and a message alert on her phone pinged. It was from the app. It said:
I was going to comply with your wishes to leave you alone. But now that I know your delicious scent, it's going to be next to impossible. I hope you realize that.
Kristin quivered all over, her legs turning to jello. He smelled me. From that distance. And all the car's windows and doors were shut. One thought hit her after another: he knew I was hiding from him, so he probably thinks I'm a freak. And he's my neighbor. Oh god, he's so unbelievably hot. But none of that matters, because I'm not going to meet him, and get all into him, and let myself get rejected.
She stormed into the kitchen and began to prepare her breakfast – scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and spinach on rye toast. She whisked the eggs up angrily. Why does he think he has the right to message me, after I've told him to leave me alone, just because we happen to be neighbors? It was too much having him living right on the same street as her. Damn Shiftr and its stupid 'proximity locator'! And damn that arrogant prick!
Her anger mounting, Kristin wiped her hands on a towel, picked up her phone, and, before she could think twice, she tapped on the tiger's profile, and swiped right. He was gone.
"That's that," she announced to her empty apartment, and returned to cooking.
Before her eggs were done, she was having second thoughts. But it was too late.
Lauren called as Kristin was on her way to her basketball game.
"Great to see you last night, Lauren!" Kristin said, speaking into her hands-free microphone as she drove. "I'm trying to make the most of having you to myself before the little critter comes." Lauren laughed.
"You too, hun! And there's a few months yet. Hard to believe though, since I feel so big already! So, what's going on in the Shiftr world this morning?"
"You're calling to find out if I messaged the wolf-guy, right?" Kristin demanded.
"Yes, I am, I admit. But it's because we really care about you. And we've shown you this app because we know there are so many great guys on there. The last thing we want is for you to root out a bad one and have a disastrous relationship with him."
"How do you know he's a bad one anyway?"
"Please. He's the only one wearing a jacket, and did you see that conceited expression on his face?"
"Maybe you're right. I don't know," Kristin said. "Anyway, speaking of conceited, you're not going to believe this – the tiger lives right on my street." Lauren's gasp almost deafened her.
"What? That's amazing news! But how did you figure it out?"
Kristin related the incident, while Lauren giggled helplessly.
"So, he's arrogant enough to think he can come and sniff me out," she finished.
"Umm, weren't you the one who drove right up to his apartment, giving him the opportunity to scent you?"
"I was just checking whether the app was genuinely registering proximity, or if it was some marketing crap they were doing to make you think that your perfect man is right on your doorstep."
"Uh huh. And he is, honey."
"Stop! He's even hotter in the flesh than in his photo, if that's possible."
"Kristin, please stop doing yourself down! You're absolutely good enough for this guy. And I know for a fact that if he saw you, he wouldn't be able to keep his hands off you. So what did you reply to his message?"
"I didn't. I right-swiped him," Kristin said. There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. "You still there?"
"Yes, hun. I'm just quietly reeling in shock. And wondering if one of my closest friends is a masochist."
"No, you've got it all wrong. I'm just saving myself pain in the long run." Kristin was quiet for a moment, as she negotiated her way through a busy intersection. "So, will he be able to figure out where I live now?"
"Most likely," Lauren replied. "Shifters have the full faculties of their animal, even when they're in human form. I don't know much about tigers specifically, but I'll be surprised if they don't have a pretty amazing sense of smell."
"So he could catch onto my smell if I was out walking in the neighborhood, right?"
"Girl, to a shifter, the entire street is probably full of your scent. He's probably inhaling it from the comfort of his armchair right now."
"Ooh, that's freaky," Kristin said, unconsciously taking a quick sniff of her armpit. Lauren cackled.
"Hey! I can hear you sniffing your underarms, you know?" she yelled.
"I so wasn't," Kristin muttered, her cheeks warming.
"It's not like that. It's like they find your scent totally irresistible. Isn't that kind of sexy?"
"I guess it is. But, seriously, what do I do if he turns up on my doorstep?"
"Let him in. Into your bedroom, of course!" Lauren said, and let out a gale of laughter. "Ok, I've gotta go now, chica, but I'll call you tomorrow, and hopefully you'll have something new to tell me about this sexy guy. Grrr!"
Kristin hit 'end', smirking to herself. Lauren was always so much fun to talk to. She sighed. And she was known for giving great advice. She also had to admit that the thought that her scent had infiltrated the entire street, and that the tiger might be picking it up and following it was actually as sexy as hell. She imagined herself as a sexy, fertile animal, being hunted down by a potential mate and that tell-tale tingle hit her between her thighs again. She pressed them together, but it only made things worse. She hadn't had sex for a long time, and she missed it badly. She yearned to be taken roughly, to be fucked for days on end, until she was completely sated and worn out. She wanted to be possessed, her body covered in the marks of her lover. Dina and Lauren said that shifters made great lovers, because they were so connected with their animal side. The thought of making love with a tiger, beautiful and fierce and dangerous, turned her insides to mush. She realized that she'd been muttering a line from something: "Tiger, tiger, burning bright, in the forests of the night … " What was that? A song? No, a poem. She'd studied it at high school. It was about the incredible beauty and power of opposing forces in nature. It had been her favorite poem for so long. She'd even written it out in calligraphy, and pinned it on her bedroom wall. When she used to recite it, she'd get shivers down her spine. Is that what it would be like to mate with a tiger? To come face-to-face with an unstoppable force of nature, and to absorb that force into your body? She kind of liked that idea.
During the basketball game, Kristin played particularly energetically, taking the team to an impressive win against their long-time rivals. While taller than the average girl, she was actually a little undersized for a basketball player, with some girls in the team a good three or four inches taller than her. Consequently, she'd learned to play aggressively to make up for it, and was one of the best at sinking hoops.
After they'd showered and got ready, the girls went out for their regular dinner and drinks session. The only time that Kristin really enjoyed eating was after strenuous exercise, and she always tucked into her post-game dinner with no guilt. They ate at a steak and burger place, then went on to a bar for beers. On the way, Kristin checked her phone. She'd promised herself that she'd stay off Shiftr for the rest of the evening, in case she made a drunken mistake she'd regret the next day. But there was a message from the company in her regular email inbox, with the subject line 'Congratulations!' followed by three red balloons. Intrigued, she tapped on it. It said:
Hi there, fellow curvy goddess!
The team here at Shiftr are writing to congratulate you on your incredible 100% match with one of the shifters on the app!! We get so few of these that we receive an alert whenever two of our members are 100% compatible. We don't have access to your messages, of course ;) but we can see that you've already been swapping scents with your match – and what a deliciously sexy tiger he is! Grrr!