Katie Telcontar

You've Matched

You’ve Matched Piran was fidgeting as he waited for his date to arrive. It was his first date since his separation and he feared he’d slapped on too much cologne, or too little. He breathed into his hand to smell his own breath- he’d had egg salad for lunch. He wasn’t anticipating being kissed, but you never know. He watched the women come and go, waiting for Deborah, the woman he’d ‘matched’ with online. She too, was separated and new to online dating which ‘wasn’t around last time that they were single’. Piran found himself feeling aged, sagging into the red pleather couches at a hip bar, painfully aware of the light bouncing off his thinning hair and shining head. He wasn’t even that old really, just old enough to feel self-conscious in the hip bar he’d suggested for their first meeting. It was the kind of place where the bar staff all had torn jeans and asymmetrical hair cuts and everything on the menu was so laced in idiom that it was impossible for the lay person to decode. Piran wasn’t sure why he’d chosen it, except that it was dimly lit and served a Sophonisba Pinot Noir that he’d read was on trend. He wanted to impress Deborah with his knowledge of wine, though most of it was garnered from reading, not tasting.