Sinuous Short Stories

2. Cloud 9

Clouds. Ever since I can remember, I have been obsessed with clouds. They have been my guiding force in life. The clear, calm center in my storms. My one true love.

I was enchanted by the way they moved so gracefully across the horizon. Untouchable beings, forever floating regally in the sky.

One of the main reasons I loved traveling by air, was so that I could be close to them. I could stare at their grandeur for an eternity.

I sighed as I sat on the bus and stared up at the sky. Today was a rainy day and my beloved clouds were nowhere to be seen. Another sigh left my lips.

My apartment was silent. My heavy metal neighbor was not home, and although the loud music usually bothered me, I missed it today. I felt lonely.

Before the melancholy got any worse, I flipped open my laptop to listen to some music on Spotify. I had a special playlist dedicated to my obsession.

A notification from Outlook on the side of my screen alerted me that I had received a new e-mail from a dating site I had signed up with a few weeks ago. I had not used the site much. I did not even have the app on my phone.

1 new message. Click on the link below to read your love message.

When I looked at the interface of the e-mail, I cringed. It looked like Cupid had thrown up all over it. I hit the delete button. It was probably spam or some crazy person trying to hook up. I had already received a few messages like that. That was the reason I had given up on the website.

Online dating was not for me because the last thing I was looking for was a hookup or a one-night stand. I could never share such an intimate part of my body with a stranger.

I considered myself a renewed virgin. I had only had sex once in my life and that was five years ago. The sex had been bad, to say the least. My finger did a better job than he did, but I did not blame him. We had different views on sex and intimacy, so we ended the short-lived relationship with mutual respect.

After him, I had not wanted another relationship for years. Until recently, when I started to feel lonely. Maybe I had read too many romance novels or seen too many happy couples around me. I had always wanted to share my life with that special someone, but often I thought clouds were my true soulmates. At least they never disappointed me.

"Oh, what the heck," I sighed and went to the deleted items in my inbox and retrieved the e-mail. It popped back up in my inbox. I tapped on the link. A new tab opened in my browser. It immediately took me to the chat feature of the dating site.

Enon666: Hello, Cloud 9, why are you so innocent?

I frowned when I read this message. Why would he think I was innocent? My profile was blank. I had not bothered to write a profile because I did not take the site seriously. I had only one profile picture and that was a photo a colleague had taken last year during a business trip to London. It looked more professional than innocent. But his message piqued my curiosity. Perhaps it was the lack of clouds today that made me respond.

Cloud9: Hello, Enon666. How did you come to this conclusion?

The sudden ping on the website almost made me jump.

Enon666: What made you reply to my message?

Cloud9: You did not answer my question.

I noticed that I had not even clicked on his profile, so I did. His main profile picture showed a blue sky with cumulus clouds and the second picture was of a male model. Both pictures were from the internet. How original. It was one of those creeps looking for easy sex or probably cheating on their wife.