Stephanie had moved into her new house, and was trying to get everything in order as fast as she possibly could. She hadn't gotten more than 6 hours of sleep in a night since she moved in, and she was restless. She and Mark had taken an entire evening to separate their belongings. It was a painful process for both of them, but completed with minimal arguments. He would ship some of the furniture out to Vancouver, including the bed, but she got the living room furniture and a lot of the kitchen supplies and appliances. With his work schedule, she usually did more of the cooking anyways.
She cleaned out most of the pantry to stock her own, but left him the fresh food. He didn't cook much, and he wouldn't spend much time at the condo before his move, but at least he would have something he could eat, or juice. Plus, Stephanie thought that moving kale was a pretty big waste of energy. He had listed the condo and would stay in a hotel if it sold, but he was planning to be full time in Vancouver by the end of the month. She helped him pack most of the stuff he was keeping for shipping, and said good bye to the doorman, Pete. She had already arranged for mail forwarding to her new address, but told him to call her if anything got past and ended up at the condo.
Her new place, however, was a disaster zone. She had started by spackling all the holes and sanding them down, and then primed all the walls, but hadn't gotten much further than that without Denise's help. They decided that the weekend would be dedicated to home improvement; an entire 48 hours for the cause. They had to sleep at Denise's house to avoid the paint fumes, but they finally finished painting everything, and had assembled the new furniture.
By dinner on Sunday, the bedroom was a painted blue with a mix of teak and white furniture, the living room was white with the black furniture from the condo, the office was a bright and cheery purple with grey furniture and white accents. The bathroom was a dark blue, and the kitchen didn't change, all the cabinets were grey and black, but she got some dramatic red chairs to spice it up. It was a blast of colour, and Stephanie was happy.
She settled into her new routine, riding the subway every day to the office, and always walking the six flights of stairs. She only took the elevator when her coworkers did. She told them all the story of getting stuck, and they assured her that was the only time it had happened in the six years the company had worked in the building. She didn't feel like tempting fate again though.
Her routine was disrupted the morning her eReader was dead. Annoyed, she alternated between people-watching and looking out the subway window. She saw a guy she thought she recognized, but had no idea why. He wasn't overly tall, he wore a black raincoat, and had sandy brown hair. He was reading a book and had ear phones in, which seemed to be the ultimate way to tell people to stay away.
She hadn't realized she was staring at him while thinking this, and averted her eyes as quick as she could when he caught her staring. She felt the heat rise up her cheeks, and she spent the rest of the ride staring out the window. He was looking at her again when she stood up to get off, and she hurried off the train as fast as she could. It wasn't until she was in her office that she realized she blushed not because she was caught staring, but because he was attractive. Normally, that wouldn't make her blush, but she was single for the first time in years. But where have I seen him before?
It bothered her for the rest of the morning, but when she went out for lunch she finally remembered. He was at the bar on Thursday when she was out with the girls from work. Her co-worker Charlotte had thought he was pretty cute. Stephanie didn't remember much else from that night, as she had been overwhelmed when they talked about dating in the digital age. So many apps and services to choose from.
Stephanie had no idea how to meet guys; she met Mark at a party held by a mutual acquaintance, and they had gotten along great. They started dating a week later, and she thought the rest would be history. That was six years ago, which seemed like an awful long time between first dates. Her only other boyfriends had been in high school, and hadn't been serious or lasted long. Charlotte suggested she use the app 'MatchedUp' to meet some new guys and get back out there.
The thought made Stephanie slightly queasy. She didn't think she even knew how to flirt anymore. Damn you Mark. I wasn't supposed to start over. You were it for me.
Resigned, and realizing she had very few single male friends anyways, Stephanie created a profile on MatchedUp, and then closed the app. She would worry about using it later. First, she had a meeting with her boss to figure out what big project to put her on. There were two possibilities, one was the national bridal fair, and the other was for the Comic and Entertainment Exhibition. Both would be held at the convention centre, and both were bigger than any event she had ever worked on before. She was really hoping for the Com-Expo for two reasons. The first, so that she could get in for free; and the second, so she could avoid the bridal fair in light of recent events.
By the end of the day, she had gotten her wish. She was feeling good and invited Denise over for drinks. Then she opened up the dating app.
She had already gotten a lot of matches. She scrolled through them, and noticed a lot of them reminded her very strongly of Mark. Not a great start. She hadn't quite figured out yet if this was more of a hook-up app or a legitimate dating app, so she decided to send a message to one guy to start. His photo was very handsome, he was tall and muscular with dark hair, and he appeared to be hiking. His name was Brian. She had no idea what to say.
Considering her normal bravado, Denise was surprisingly little help. "I dunno. I've never done this. Just say hi or something?"
"I feel like there should be more to it than that. What if I like, ask a question or something? Something that's not one of the questions on here. If I like his answer we can keep talking; if not, I can move on. I don't want this to be a hook up, I want to actually date someone."
Denise laughed at her, "Okay, so what type of question doesn't make you look like a crazy person, but still tells you something important in your life partner. Let's not waste time on people you know you can never get along with. Oh! Ask if they smoke! If they say 'yes' then it's an immediate hard pass."
"Isn't that a bit weird for an introduction though? No, I'll ask what their favourite book is! Books are important."
"You are such a nerd."
"Absolutely I am. That's why I am pretty much the only person in the office able to geek out about Com-Expo."
She asked Brian about his favourite book, and waited for a response. An hour later, she got a reply, but unfortunately, Brian didn't read much, saying 'he's more into podcasts than books.' She asked what the last book he read was, and couldn't come up with anything since high school.
"Okay, this guy never reads, that is not going to work at all."
"Damn," Denise agreed. "Why couldn't he have been a hot bookworm?"
Not wanting to completely strike out on finding someone to chat with, she picked another one of the matches and sent the same question. Tyler, aged 26, was wearing a Phoenix Suns hat, so Stephanie figured maybe he was into sports.
This time, the response was more promising. He did have a favourite book. It was an autobiography of a comedian though, and apparently, he isn't a huge fan of fiction. He wants to believe the stories are real life. No deep space or magic or time travel or made-up worlds. Well, that was a bit of a problem for Stephanie, who believed the best books to be capable of incorporating at least two of them in a storyline.
Stephanie reached out to one last guy, and was a bit disconcerted by his immediate response. Not because he answered with 'The Hobbit', but in the fact it came so quickly. Was he just staring at his app waiting for messages? Naturally, Stephanie asked what he thought of the movie adaptations, and the next message took much longer to arrive. It was a fully detailed analysis of all three films, including where the secondary storylines came from.
Stephanie read through the whole thing, and unable to figure out whether he loved the movies, or hated the movies, asked him directly. Supposedly, it was both. Just to stir the pot, she also asked how he felt about the most recent of the Star Wars films, knowing it was a very divisive film for fans. He shut her down immediately, saying he doesn't do Star Wars, or Star Trek, and could care less about the differences between them.
Well, Stephanie was unaccustomed to talking to anyone with such strong opinions, but felt it could be entertaining. She wanted to set up a date, just to see how it goes. Denise on the other hand, disagreed.
"This Todd guy seems weird. He's like, very opinionated, but also doesn't know what his opinion is."
"But we would probably have interesting conversation."
"Find out if he smokes. You don't want to be stuck on a date with a guy who smokes."
"That's true. But I refuse to make it my first question to a guy!"
Todd assured her he was not a smoker, and they arranged to meet for coffee on Saturday morning.