APRIL
It had been my roommate's idea to download the stupid dating app. I don't know if she genuinely cared or just wanted to get me out of the apartment for the night so that she and Callie could have some time with just the two of them, but either way, she'd managed to twist my arm into it. She'd help me set up my profile, forced me, to be honest. It seemed genuine enough.
Arizona had also forced me to dress myself up a little more contemporary and less school teacher-like, in her words. Tight black jeans and a blouse that I'd gotten her to settle on, floral print and pinched at the ribs before flaring out slightly. She'd said it was okay before apparently, it made my tits look – quote, 'banging'. That had almost been enough to get me to head right back to my closet and changed out of it. The heels were her idea, but I hadn't put up a fuss. Being short is crowded places very quickly became exhausting.
Rock music blared across the bar and I slipped my phone out of my jeans, tapping it open. It took only a brief moment to load up, scanning the people around me.
Burn down the disco.
Hang the blessed DJ.
The app was popular enough that at a crowded place like this, it did take a few minutes to assess the profiles of the other men frequenting the club. Chewing at my lip, I watched and waited. It was notorious for giving supposedly accurate compatibility matches. Honestly, it reminded me of those kid websites where you typed in your crushes name and it threw out a random number that would either affirm how you felt or crush you.
I didn't really know if I even wanted to fall in love, to be honest.
I was successful. My medical career was doing well, I had finally finished paying off the burden of student loans that college and medical school had left me with, and things were smoothly fluctuating from day to day. Messing with that balance nearly seemed like it was asking for trouble.
But there's something enamoring about the idea of spending the rest of your life with someone. I'd always wanted a husband and a family, the white picket fence life. I'd put school and work on the forefront of my mind for such a long time that learning how to turn it off was hard but I still wanted it to happen, one way or another. I'd thought for awhile that love would stumble upon me on its own, but maybe it really was about time that I went actively seeking it out.
Because the music
That they constantly play
It says nothing to me about my life
After a few seconds, the picture of a male popped up on my screen. Handsome, the kind of green eyes that could either melt your soul or go straight to your… Really, really handsome. A winning smile. The name Jackson appeared beneath his profile picture. I tapped once more, opening up the assessment that the program had made for the two of us.
99.8%.
Wow. Definitely unexpected for the first time, but I supposed that this was why the app had become so popular so quickly. People liked that kind of reassurance when it came to relationships and opening up to other people. It was hard to say that it wasn't a nice thought, the idea of knowing that this was the person that you were meant to be with. A little hard to just throw inherit trust into given that it was, well, a computer program. But it probably wouldn't have become quite as popular as it had if there wasn't some kind of secret to success inside of it.
Hang the blessed DJ.
Glancing around the bar, I try to find him among the crowd of chattering and dancing men and women. A few moments pass before my eyes land on him, staring down at his own phone. He was wearing a jean button down and ashy jeans, both of which fit him quite well. Glasses that hadn't been in the profile picture but only made him that much more attractive.
Because the music that they constantly play
On the Leeds side-streets
That you slip down.
After a few moments of staring at him, the presence of my gaze appeared to get his attention. He looks up and it only takes another moment for him to be able to find my gaze.
We make eye contact for a long moment and a wide smile cracked across my glossed lips, unable to help the fact that I'm already beaming. Maybe I'm a little more of a hopeless romantic than I ever wanted to admit to myself or Arizona. But he gave me the exact same smile, nearly a mirror expression, and it only made me feel that much better about the situation. If it was goofy, then he was just as into all of it and the idea of falling in love with a soulmate as I was. For a few long moments, we both just stay exactly like that, many feet apart from each other at the club and smiling like dazed teenagers in love.
The provincial towns you jog 'round.
Hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ.
His eyebrows raise at me and I take that as the signal to make my move. Maneuvering among the crowd as best as someone like me could, it doesn't take that long to finally get to him. I don't know if I should offer him my hand or a hug or what, but instead, I maintain my distance and a smile.
"So you're April?" He asked me. I nodded my head. "Jackson."
"It's nice to meet you, Jackson." I offered up sincerely.
"You look beautiful." He complimented me.
A blush ignited my cheeks more than any shade of makeup could have ever hoped, glancing away and chewing at my lower lip for a brief moment. I'd always been shy, taught to be humble as a child, but the dating advice that I had received over the years told me that being shy was only enamoring for so long. If this was meant to work out so well, then maybe I didn't have a reason to be shy.
"If you think that laying it on thick is going to get you anywhere…" I decided to offer up, a coy smile curling upward on the corner of my lips as I looked back up at him, teeth still catching the skin of my lower lip. This time it's a little more sensual than nervous.
"Then I'm right?" Jackson suggested, amusement sparkling in his green eyes.
"Yeah, you might be." Laughter slipped between my lips and he joined me.
Jackson turned away for only a moment so that he could wave over the bartender and I slip onto the barstool next to him, crossing my legs. For a moment, I admire him further. He was incredibly handsome on all surface levels, of course, But I knew that there had to be something more. I didn't consider myself to be exceptionally beautiful: average enough, but normally, it was my brain that set me apart from other people. That was something that I'd always relied on. I didn't think I'd have a lot of compatibility with someone who was just looks, there had to be something more behind him.
"So, 99.8%, huh?" He prompted with another smile as he turned back toward me.
"Yeah, 99.8%."
