Page 19 of Dating Mr. Right A Collection
“Well, maybe don’t be too rough with her,” I tease.
She arches a brow. “I’m going to kick her butt. And I don’t mean at poker.”
“You’re really mad?”
She takes a deep sigh, heads to a bench at the end of the street, and plops down. I join her. “Think about it,” she says. “My grandma was ThinkingMan, the guy I was chatting with. What does that make me? Some weird, strange freak who liked flirting with her . . .”
I reach for her hand, clasp it. “No, it doesn’t make you anything bad at all. I suppose it simply makes her . . . clever.”
She glances down at our hands. I’m holding her palm. Our fingers aren’t threaded together. But still . . . she doesn’t let go. She squeezes back lightly. “She really sounded like . . .”
“What did she sound like?” I try to mask my disappointment. I was honestly hoping she’d liked talking to me, not that other dude.
“She sounded like a guy who liked the same things as me. Who said all these things about opposites not attracting.”
A lightbulb goes off. “Whoa. Wait a second. What did you just say?”
She drops my hand, grabs her phone, and clicks over to the conversation. “This is insanely embarrassing, but whatever. She had this whole thing about opposites not attracting.”
Kristen shows me the start of the chat.
Dear Telescoper,
As you may have surmised, I’m not a big believer in the “opposites attract” theory. But I do love theories, and from your profile, I can see you do too. While I won’t pretend to be someone I’m not, and I can’t claim to be conversant in all things mathematical, I do love theories, debating them, dissecting them, and deconstructing them.
Also, stargazing rules. Did you know that the Andromeda Galaxy is going to crash into the Milky Way in 4.5 billion years? Of course you do. But what do you think that collision will look like?
Best,
ThinkingMan
“Damn, she’s good,” I say in appreciation.
“I know.”
I tap the screen. “You do realize what she did here? She used my voice. She made it sound just like me.”
She tilts her head, studying me. “What do you mean?”
“At the auction, she was telling me you were single and had started online dating. I was telling her I’m not a fan of online dating because it removed chemistry and connection. And then I said I don’t believe opposites attract, that I love debating all kinds of interesting topics, and that I love theories and philosophies and talking about meaningful issues. In this note, she basically parroted all the things I said.”
Her jaw falls open. “Do you know what she did, then?”
“She mimicked me?”
“And she also created a perfect online persona of what I want and what I’m looking for.”
And is it crazy that I want that online persona to be mine? That I want Jeanne to have stolen my traits to romance Kristen, Cyrano de Bergerac–style? “Is that so?”
She adjusts her glasses. “I don’t believe opposites attract. I think they repel.”
I tap my chest. “Choir. Preach it to me.”
She laughs again, and if this were a real date, I’d chalk up another point. But I’m not sure what this is at all now. She brushes her hand lightly against my chest. “And she had you talking about all the things I like to talk about.”
“Then she asked you to play her in poker against me. And when she realized we were getting along well, she set us up,” I say, continuing to slide the pieces together.
Kristen scoots closer, drops her voice like we’re detectives passing out clues. “That’s why I don’t think it was a prank, Cameron. I mean, it was. But I think she was playing matchmaker all along. She knew I only wanted to meet guys online, so she put the guy she wanted me to date online.”
“And she knew I wasn’t into online dating. But she wanted me to meet you. So she engineered a way for us to meet, each thinking it was exactly what we wanted—real life for me, and online for you.”
Kristen scratches her head. “But she had to know we’d find out.”
“Maybe she thought we wouldn’t care.”
“Because she figured we’d like each other and it wouldn’t matter.”
And I do like her. But it seems it does matter how we met. And how we didn’t meet. “That must have been her grand plan.”
Kristen scoffs. “That’s crazy.”
“Is it?”
She stares at me through her glasses. “You’re fun and great and smart, and I don’t know which side is up.”
“I hear ya.” I swallow roughly. I was hoping she’d be into me for me. And yeah, I shouldn’t be bummed. I hardly know her. This is only one date.
One fun, amusing, bizarre date. One highly entertaining online chat. One moment bursting with possibilities and potential.
And that moment seems to be fizzling.
