8:15pm, Wednesday
Juliet's mind went blank and haywire at the same time.
"Hi, I'm Fiona. My pronouns are she/her." She said with a smile.
She was... stunning...
It took Juliet a second to realise that she hadn't responded. She managed to collect her thoughts enough to give a coherent response.
"Hi..." She said nervously, "I'm Juliet, I also go... use she/her."
Juliet's mind was a complete blank as 'Fiona' smiled at her.
"So..." Fiona said after what felt like minutes, "How do you spend your days?"
"Ummm..." Juliet said, going back to what felt like an automated response by now. "I work at a print room; its kinda boring."
"Ok..." Fiona asked back, "Well, what do you do that isn't 'kinda boring'?"
"Well, I play video games and I try to write sci-fi." Juliet answered, as she always did when she was trying to downplay how much of a nerdy shut-in she was.
"Try?" Came a quizzical reply from across the table.
Juliet realised she had been looking down at the table for the last few sentences. She always struggled with eye contact, especially with strangers.
She lifted her gaze back up... and struggled to avoid staring at her chest...
Especially with very attractive strangers...
"I have to... be in the mood to write, and my brain doesn't always cooperate, you know..."
Juliet cringed slightly as she gave her explanation while trying to avoid giving this girl a whole infodump on her history of concentration issues.
She knew the stereotype that queer first dates were just the two parties trauma-dumping at each other for hours, and she wanted to avoid being 'that girl'.
"Yeah, that makes sense." Fiona replied warmly.
The response took Juliet off guard a little, and she felt her mind settle just slightly.
"So..." She said, remembering her 'script', "What do you do?"
"Sorry, I haven't figured out a way to ask that that doesn't sound demanding..." Juliet apologised.
Fiona's chuckle in response really took her off guard.
"Don't worry, its fine," She said, "I work at an architecture firm."
"Wait..." Juliet asked, confused, "are you an architect?"
"Not yet." Fiona explained. "Like, my degree's in architecture, and I've been working in the field for... 3 years? But I'm not actually technically an 'architect' yet."
"Oh, that's interesting." Juliet replied, genuinely intrigued.
"And outside of work, I'm also a gamer, and then my main thing is diving."
"Cool..." Juliet answered involuntarily.
"What games do you play?" Fiona asked, looking genuinely interested.
"Well... Lately it's mostly been Halo and The Division." Juliet answered, skilfully avoiding explaining how she seemed to pinball between different games every few months.
"Oh, which Halo?" Fiona enquired.
"1 through 4. There's sort of a collection of most of them." Juliet said, somewhat sheepishly.
"Yeah, MCC." Fiona said, "What do you play on?"
"Computer." Juliet replied, stunned that this beautiful, seemingly well-adjusted young woman somehow knew what the 'Master Chief Collection' was.
"Sweet, me too."
Juliet sat in stunned silence for a few seconds. Fiona eventually seemed to realise she should take the initiative.
"Yeah, unfortunately I haven't played on my pc that much lately. I guess I've been busy with other stuff."
"What else did you say you did?" Juliet asked, dredging up the last minute of conversation.
"I'm a scuba diver." Fiona answered, and Juliet was instantly impressed.
"How..." Juliet started a question, before the infuriating DING-ing noise of the 'switch dates' bell rang out and stopped her in her tracks.
How the fuck did 5 minutes pass that quickly?
"Dammit..." Fiona said disappointedly.
People around started to shift chairs, and Juliet felt a twinge of regret.
She got up to move.
"It was lovely to meet you, Juliet." Fiona said with a smile.
"You too." Juliet replied.
As the two of them both moved, their eyes met for barely half a second, and yet it felt like 10 times as long.
For the rest of the night, Juliet struggled harder than usual to keep her mind straight.
The final two dates were uneventful, with two people she didn't really vibe with.
That didn't help her stop thinking about Fiona.
It wasn't just that she was unbearably attractive.
She... seemed nice.
The way she seemed enthralled by what Juliet had said, regardless of how dumb and boring it seemed.
Her warm yet seductive smile...
As the final date ended, and the event came to a close, she pondered with herself.
For the first time attending a speed dating night, Juliet considered staying around after it was over.
People were still mingling around talking, including Fiona...
Fiona was over the other side of the room with a small group of people, seemingly people she already knew.
Juliet found herself looking longingly across the room. She nervously looked at her phone and saw that the next train was 5 minutes away. It was late on a weeknight, if she missed that one, she'd be sitting around for almost half an hour. She had work tomorrow, it was late, and she was tired.
So, Juliet left the bar.
As she stood on the platform and waited for her train home, her mind raced.
From here the process was simple. Her date card would be added to a big pile with all the others, and then somehow be converted into some sort of list (presumably) of couples that had both ticked 'yes' on each other. They'd receive emails with the phone numbers and social media handles of each other, and would be left to take it from there.
Of the 20 people she dated that night, Juliet had ticked 'yes' on 12 of them.
Of course, Fiona was one of the 12.
It had seemed to go well, but Juliet pulled herself back to earth. This had happened before, where she'd gotten all excited about matching with someone that she really liked, daydreaming about them for days, and then hitting an emotional brick wall when the 'you got no matches' email inevitably came through a few days later.
She had to be patient and try not to get her hopes up.
Still...
She still thought about Fiona all the way home.
She thought about her as she brushed her teeth.
She thought about her as she lay in bed trying to sleep.
Despite her best efforts, and her best intentions, she still thought about Fiona...
And hoped.
YOU ARE READING
Depth Perception
RomanceJuliet doesn't know when the spark in her faded. She doesn't hate her life. She knows she has a lot to be thankful for. She's got friends, she's got hobbies she enjoys, she's got a job that she doesn't completely despise, and miraculously her re...
