post-War Courtship

post-War Courtship: a deleted scene from the Unexpected Inlander

Afterwards, she cuddled up to him, and he put his arm around her. It wasn't like them to do this--usually one of them got dressed and left almost immediately, if not after some brief chit chat. They had done this enough times that they had developed a pattern, almost like a routine. They weren't exclusive by any means, but they were "regulars" on the app, a group that was distinct and recognizable almost entirely by their age alone. Most people were married by this age, and if they were not then it was likely because they had made the decision to never marry.

This is nice, he thought, laying there with someone he knew so intimately.

Make no mistake--he had no intention of developing emotions with this woman. They had never discussed anything like that, let alone gone through genetic testing for compatibility. That was kind of the point of the app; it was for physical companionship only, with absolutely no expectation of getting into a relationship.

But this was nice, being with someone familiar.

She rolled away, then, and he got up and got dressed. As he left her apartment, he realized he felt less satisfied than he usually did. He kept putting off marriage, mainly because of his job, but this was getting old. He was getting old. At 28, he was becoming one of those "older men" on the hookup apps, and even though the younger women didn't seem to mind, he just preferred someone his own age, and their numbers were getting fewer and fewer as they decided to settle down and have kids.

It wasn't an ideal time for him to get married. He had just transferred to the Department of Anarchy Prevention, again, and it was a notoriously time-demanding department, mainly for how common it was to work overnight.

But it would be nice, to have someone at home. He would have to find someone who was okay with not having kids right away--he would want to wait until his Assignment in Anarchy Prevention was up, which would be two years. That would give them time to get to know each other, though.

He considered his options: By far the most popular and well-known matching services were geneticMatch and geneHarmony, so he would obviously look into those. There were others to consider, too, though, such as Born Coastals, Coastal Lifers, and Government Status Only.

When he got home, he looked up the services and compared them. They all provided stats for percent success, time from signing up to marriage to kids, and they all guaranteed that every match would include pre-approval for the Marriage License and the Child License.

He decided to go with geneHarmony because it had the largest number of people signed up. He could narrow down the results to fellow Coastals in his profile, and since he spent all his time with citizens who had government status he preferred for his spouse to be in a different field. He would just have to make sure she was okay with his status--and putting off having kids for two years. He put those two specifications in the "additional notes" box when booked an appointment for the following day.

-     -     -

Zaire arrived at the geneHarmony office during a short break in his work day. The in-person meeting was only partially a security measure to confirm the identity of the individual filling out the application; mostly, it was what distinguished geneHarmony as a premier matching service because each client had a personal case worker who was an expert in navigating the large database of available citizens and would ensure a perfect match that met specifications and preferences of their clients.