Fate Entwined | ONC 2020

One | Fate Has A Cruel Sense of Humor

With one glance into Adam's eyes, Tara told herself, "This is going to hurt when it's over."

It was over ten years since Tara laid eyes on Adam, and it was just like her recent string of bad luck to be set up on a blind date with her ex who'd bailed on her and their plans to move in together. Instead, Adam ran away. He hadn't run away to a different apartment. Hell, not even a different city or state. No, Adam ran away to another fucking country entirely.

"Um, wow! Tara, is that you?" Adam asked as he stood to greet her.

Mild shock coursed through them both. Who would have guessed when they downloaded a new app that claimed to connect you with your soulmate, that it would match them? With over seven billion people on the planet, what were the damn odds?

The app called GameSetMatch aimed to connect people based on more than physical attraction. Therefore, unlike typical dating apps, they didn't allow photos and all matches were blind. All the information they gave to participants were age, gender, some basic likes, dislikes, hobbies, and other personality-based tid-bits. They permitted no physical descriptions.

Each member filled out an extensive questionnaire when they joined, and they matched members based on what the app called their revolutionary, state-of-the-art, algorithm for compatibility. When there was a ping between members, they sent them an alert, and the matches could meet for an in-person date. Plus, all first dates were facilitated and planned by the app's dating service.

"What brings you here?" Adam continued, still unaware that his not-so-blind-date was with Tara.

"Hi," Tara replied with hesitation. "I think I'm your blind date."

"What?" Adam asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, the app's rep told me my date's name was Adam, but I didn't expect him to be you. I thought you were in London?" Tara replied. She hesitated before she took a seat across from Adam in the booth at the café whete they had unknowingly agreed to meet.

Tara was tempted to walk right back out the moment she laid eyes on Adam, but something beyond her control propelled her forward-A curiosity. Even if Tara had convinced herself Adam was the last person on Earth she'd ever want to see again, she couldn't pass up the opportunity. Tara loathed Adam, or so she told herself. But the surprise of coming face to face with him had Tara reacting in a way unlike anything she'd daydreamed.

In her fantasies, Tara imagined punching Adam square in the jaw and spitting in his face. Instead, she sat there with a false air of calm composure and slight indifference.

"I was, yeah. I came back about two years ago. I've been here in the city since then." Adam scanned Tara critically.

Just like Tara, he imagined there was no way in Hell that his blind date with a woman named Tara he matched with on GameSetMatch, would be his college sweetheart and the woman he'd planned to spend his life with.

Tara had changed in the ten years since they'd been apart. She'd lost the twenty pounds she put on as a college freshman, her hair was back to its natural chestnut color, and it was much longer than the asymmetrical, chin-length bob she wore throughout college.

On the contrary, Adam looked much the same. He'd put on more muscle on his once lanky frame, but his light green eyes sparkled in the same way they always had. His dirty blond hair was still cut close on the sides and longer on top.

If Adam and Tara were being honest with themselves, they would have agreed that they both looked better than ever. But as it where, there were too many things left unsaid and unresolved to admit that there was still, at the least, a strong residual physical attraction.