Author : Bhavin Siri
After an hour, Jason realized that he did not like his “perfect match” very much.
Everything was supposed to be in order. He had turned eighteen, and he was meeting his chosen partner for the first time through “Match Made in Heaven”, a service that you entered as soon as you were born.
Emma was still jabbering away, while he listened and tried to act interested. The Heaven service did really well in the appearances department. Emma’s long brown hair, slightly curved face, round cute eyes, they were gorgeous. She was not too skinny, just like the way he preferred, and the evening dress accented her curves.
All of this was possible through the services provided by Heaven. If you register in their database (and who doesn’t), they will monitor you for your preferences and pick out your perfect match. No more looking around, then getting dumped, then looking for more fish in the sea. Get it right the first time.
On the surface, Emma was the perfect match, but after listening to her for a while, Jason was beginning to doubt. The way she spoke got on his nerves. She was into heavy rock music, which the classical pianist in him hated. She loved trivial gossips about her friends, none of which were even remotely interesting. They just didn’t click.
“I don’t feel well tonight. Would you mind if I left early?” Jason said, cutting into one of her monologues.
“Sure. So when shall we meet again? I can’t wait to discuss the wedding plans with you,” Emma said with a smile.
“I’ll contact you later.”
He paid, and left without even a wave. Emma blew him a kiss on his way out.
Jason flopped down on his bed when he got back. Was this kind of thing supposed to happen? Everyone he knew just simply met their match and got married. If not Emma, then how was he going to find another partner? He gripped his phone until his hands were sweaty. He wanted to call her, but he didn’t know what to say.
Emma picked up the phone at the first ring.
“Jason?” He could tell that she was trying to keep her voice steady.
Then she broke down, and he tried to piece the story together between her sobbing.
For her, Jason was the perfect match. But she could tell that something was wrong, and his silence and inattention were too obvious.
Her crying felt like knives in his chest. “Let me make it up to you. If you could go there now, right this minute, where do you want to go?”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to visit Japan, …”
“I’ve never been to Japan either. Pack your stuff and I’ll arrange the trip.”
On the flight, Jason shared Emma’s earphones and found a few pieces of rock music that he enjoyed, to his surprise. He also got used to her unique way of speaking, and noticed that Emma talked about people around her because she really cared about them. They both gave a squeal of delight when they found that they shared the same favorite author, and then they couldn’t stop trading their favorite quotes from the books. Jason was holding her hand when they got off, and he wished he never had to let go.
Two weeks later, at their wedding ceremony, Jason looked into Emma’s eyes and knew that he had found his perfect match. And the Heaven database had another successful data point for its algorithms.
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