Title comes from Quiet nights of quiet stars (Corcovado) by Tom Jobim. One of the most beautiful songs I ever heard in my life.
Quiet nights of quiet stars
01. first timer
Finn is sitting around his apartment and checking his phone to see if he can find any interesting women with this "easy sex app", as Ethan so delicately calls it, he installed a few days ago. He's not exactly looking for only sex, which is not his personality at all, but it's something to do when you're not really doing much on a rainy Saturday afternoon, so he figures, why not.
He sets up his profile and after some serious overthinking, he goes with the basics.
F. 22. History major, kind of a major dork. Um, hi? :D
He's more into actual relationships. Long and loving relationships. He likes making a woman feel special and he absolutely loves to dedicate time to each other to have nice moments and make each other happy. He's honestly a hopeless romantic, and he likes it that way. He only had one steady girlfriend in his life, but it didn't took him long to know he enjoyed very much. Unfortunately, they had to break up because of distance. With your girlfriend accepting a regular job in Holland and you staying in Canada, there's not really much one can do. He gave himself a couple of weeks to mourn the relationship, but then decided to focus on school full time. It was his last year, after all, he wanted to make the very best of it. Grad school was just around the corner and nothing was going to stop him.
Ethan, on the other hand, believes his best friend is wasting away his best years. "College years, Finn! We could be meeting girls and getting laid every single night!" he exasperatedly says, just like every single time before. Finn just rolls his eyes and gets back to his books because, yes, he sincerely loves studying. It's one of his biggest pleasures in life. Sitting down, immersing himself in a book, making his mind work and learn new things… he truly loves it. Every single minute of it. He's very glad he found himself in life or something.
He wants to be a History teacher and nothing can take that away from him, not even his apparently sex addict best friend. Finn's more into quiet days… quiet nights of quiet stars, as the poet says… he's into a quiet life.
He wonders a lot what made him and Ethan become best friends, and he eventually figures out that perhaps it was their extremely different personalities. He likes it, though. It brings a certain element of excitement to his life. Not always a good kind of excitement, but an excitement nonetheless.
So. This app.
It's fairly amusing, all you have to do is swipe people's pictures and if they are into you in the 0.3 seconds they see your face, then you can start messaging each other. Seems pretty simple, but Finn tends to be a tad picky. Not because he's some vain asshole or anything, but he a particular taste he can't seem to shake. Brunette, tiny, long hair, nice smile. Okay, it's not that picky when he thinks about it, but he does realise it's hard to find someone like that currently… Are all tiny brunettes away from Vancouver? What's up with that? Are they on a vacation somewhere else?
He's looking at random pictures when he sees her pretty face.
"Whoa..."
R. Geography lover & major. Adores the outdoor (well, duh!) and chamomile tea. 22. (PS: Not interested in frivolous affairs)
He stops for a minute to really look at her face. My goodness, she is beautiful. Bright smile, big eyes. Brunette. He checks to see if her height is there and he's absolutely lively when he sees she's 5'3". Fucking score! He still would have liked her picture if she weren't tiny, but it's a wonderful added bonus really. He likes shorter women because they fit so amazingly against him, he loves to hold them, hug them, carry them to bed… there's really no down side to them. He goes to her profile to read more about her and he's very intrigued. She's a Geography student and he instantly imagines so many different discussions with her about their chosen courses and he smiles to himself.
No, wait a second, Hudson.
He doesn't even know her yet. But he wants to. Oh, he wants to. He makes sure to stare at her picture for a few more seconds and then carefully makes sure to swipe her picture to the right. When a mark saying LIKED appears, he smiles.
He really hopes she sees his picture and likes him, too.
~.~
When Finn wakes up the next day, he picks up his phone from the bedside table, goes to the app and checks to see if the beautiful woman from yesterday had a chance to check him out and maybe like his picture and info back.
He's kind of disappointed to see there's no notifications, no matches, no anything. Well, maybe she didn't have time yesterday to use the app or something.
He'll check again later.
~.~
On Monday, when Finn is walking towards his favourite coffee shop on campus, he checks the app again. It's the second time today and he can't believe he's this anxious for something as simple as a freaking swipe. He wants her to swipe his face to the right, though, he really does.
Holy shit, there's a notification for matches. Oh shit, he has to take a moment to collect his thoughts. He takes a deep breath and focuses back on his phone.
Given that the only woman he liked was Pretty Woman (a nickname he gave her), he can barely contain his excitement and tries to do a tiny happy dance as discreetly as possible.
Now that they are a match he has to formulate a way to start a conversation with her. He thinks about opening with "Hey, how are you?", but then decides against it because he doesn't even know her name, he has to ask her first. The app makes sure you don't have to put your full name and hers only has the letter R at the bottom of the picture.
Should he introduce himself? Use one or two different messages? He thinks the first one should be "Hey", that sounds (reads) good enough, right? Should he use a smiley face? Oh man, what if she's not into smiley faces? What if she's one of those people who never use one? Oh my god, does she not use the emojis either? But he loves those emojis! He loves texting when he's away from someone he likes and smiley faces and emojis are some of his favourite things in life. Ethan thinks it's lame (of fucking course), but he really enjoys them.
It's the simple things that make him happy, really.
Whilst freaking out over fucking smiley faces and emojis, his phone vibrates with a new message on the app.
Hi :)
Yes! She likes smiley faces. Another score! He smiles a huge smile to himself, momentarily forgetting about texting her back and focusing on her smiley face usage. It sounds ridiculous, but he really thinks it says a lot about someone if they use smiley faces and emojis or not.
Okay, he's really starting to feel weird now.
Ugh, focus! You need to text her back.
He thinks about what to write back, and comes up with a simple message.
Hey there :)
His heart is beating so fast and hard as he waits for an answer so he sits down on a random bench and waits for her to say something else.
My name is Rachel. What's yours?
Name's Finn. Nice to meet you, Rachel :)
Nice to meet you, too, Finn. :) I see you're a History major?
Why yes, I am. And you're a Geography major?
Indeed. I foresee us having many interesting conversations…
Oh my god, oh my god, she's thought about it, too.
He's really freaking out. He lets out a quiet laugh and shakes his head sheepishly. He knew he wasn't the only one who could picture future encounters with people after only looking at them and exchanging a few words.
Oh really? Honestly, I do, too. It's always nice to meet someone of a similar, but not exactly, area.
When he decided on his major, and because of Ethan's influence in his life, he always thought he would end up dating women from different areas, line engineers or something. In a way that he thought would complement him, they would share things he didn't know and he would do the same for them. But, and as insane as that sounds, taking to Rachel, he can imagine having many conversations about things that matter to both of them and sharing similar experiences in a way that would make him grow. He can't believe he's having these thoughts already. He honestly just met her, what the fuck?
I think so, too! :) It's so fun! Many of my friends are either in the History or Geography area. Which school do you go to? Or are you finished already?
Not finished yet, will graduate at the end of the semester. I go to UBC, how about you?
Gosh, no way! I go to UBC, too. And I'm also finishing this semester. Feels like it took forever to get to this, and now I'm sad it's ending :(
He can't believe this woman has been around him for years and he never met her before. He's glad they're both graduating, though, it means they can sort of have the same thoughts on staying in Vancouver and going to grad school.
Hopefully.
I feel the same, I'm going to miss my classes. Are you staying in Vancouver or going someplace else after you're done?
Goodness, I would never dream of leaving this town! It's the most beautiful town I have ever seen in my life, and I used to travel a lot when I was younger, for my dad's work. I plan on staying right here on this paradise and going to grad school. Are you also staying? :)
Yep, this is definitely it. Even though he just met her, she is goddamn amazing and he has got to know her more. Is inviting her for coffee too soon?
How do people use this app even?
I am definitely staying :) I wouldn't trade this city for anything other in the entire world either. This is my favourite place on Earth.
I know what you mean. Finn, look, I got to get to class. We'll talk more later, okay? :)
Her usage of smiley faces really surpass all of his erm… crazy expectations. He knows it's weird, but… she uses them just like he does, and he can't help but feel she's something special.
Yes, over smiley faces.
He can't help it, though, he really feels it says a lot about someone.
Sure. I'll talk to you later, Rachel. Have a good class :)
Thank you :) Have a wonderful afternoon!
Finn leans against the bench and smiles. His life just got a little bit more interesting.
Thank you for reading. Let me know what you think. :)