After shaking hands, Nick made his way towards the reception desk. He held his phone up to the machine scanner to pay, realising how foolish he’d been for even worrying about the possibility of being gay. This was proof, he told himself, that the DNA tests were a con.
He glanced towards the treatment room just as Alex turned his head. And suddenly, as their eyes made contact, Nick felt himself take a sharp, involuntarily gasp of breath. His heart began to beat wildly and he could feel his eyes widen. His stomach felt like it was about to turn over, and by the look of sudden bewilderment on Alex’s face, he could tell he was feeling exactly the same thing.
‘Here’s your receipt.’ The receptionist smiled, breaking Nick free from the spell. He hurried down the stairs and out of the building in a panic.
He stood on the pavement for a moment, leaning against the wall and hoping the gentle summer breeze might cool down his flushed face. What the hell was that? he asked himself.
When his sharp, shallow breaths gradually became deeper and his heartbeat began to self-regulate again, he made his way towards Sally.
‘Well? How was it?’ she asked anxiously, as he sat himself down on a stool beside her.
‘Yeah, fine, but he’s not my type.’ Nick smiled, and forced himself to laugh.
‘So I’m not about to lose my fiancé to a man?’
By the tone of her voice it sounded like she was trying to make a joke, but he could tell her question was genuine.
‘Did you honestly think that might be the case?’
‘No. Well, maybe. A little. Yes.’
‘Of course not,’ he said reassuringly, comforting her with a peck to her forehead. As she stretched her arms out and wrapped them tightly around him, Nick’s eyes glanced across the road and up three storeys to the clinic, where he knew he’d left his heart.
Chapter 25
ELLIE
There must be something wrong with him, Ellie thought to herself, as she read another of Tim’s text messages.
Barely an hour of their waking days passed without one sending the other a message. At the vibration of the phone in her pocket she would will meetings to move faster just so that she could read what he had to say next. She’d already cast aside her pay-as-you-go phone number and given him her private contact details, and while there’d been no instant physical attraction to Tim when they’d met at the pub days earlier, there was definitely something about his presence that she found endearing.
Tim had been self-deprecating about his choice of a career as a systems analyst – ‘dull as hell’ is the expression he’d used – while Ellie was more ambiguous about hers. She’d informed him she worked for a large company in the City, but when he inquired specifically what the firm did, she was deliberately vague, informing him it had something to do with economics and had left it at that. She knew if their friendship were to flourish into something more, she couldn’t lie to him forever. But for the time being, she enjoyed pretending to be a regular person and hoped he’d not ruin it by looking her up online.
It had been an age since Ellie had taken any real notice of a man, after a long line of disappointments. Her last few dates were only interested in using her as a networking opportunity or as someone to pitch potential business investments to. Others, be they on dates one, two, three or four, inevitably found a way to bring up the subject of her wealth. It was an instant turn-off when she realised their own insecurities had left them in fear of being emasculated by her, and it turned out that many men believed an independent, rich and attractive woman like herself was a threat who required controlling.
Back in her twenties, Ellie believed she could fall head over heels for someone even if she hadn’t been Matched with them. After all, it’d been happening for thousands of years before the gene had been detected. But as time marched on and she passed the threshold of her thirties, she’d lost faith that she could ever find common ground with somebody who was not genetically Matched to her. She’d experienced sparks on dates but they’d always fizzled out after she’d learned their true intentions. She found herself wondering what Tim’s angle was and now she was trying to find fault, becoming almost disappointed when there was nothing about him to criticise.
‘I’m going to be working in London on Tuesday. Do you fancy joining me for dinner before I get the last train home?’ Tim texted.
‘Yes, that’d be lovely,’ she replied and felt a rush of warmth inside.
While she had yet to experience that immediate love that 92 per cent of Matches reported experiencing within the first forty-eight hours, Ellie still felt that Tim was something special. No two couples were the same and, in some cases, all-consuming love could take weeks, so she wasn’t worried. The longer she spent in his company, the more she would feel herself thaw.
But whether he was special enough to reveal her secret to, she had yet to decide.
Chapter 26
MANDY
The front door to the modest detached house that Richard had once called home opened as soon as Mandy set foot on the driveway.
Chloe stood in the porch, a beaming smile across her face. This was a very different version of the suspicious woman Mandy had crossed paths with at the memorial service.
‘Come in, come in,’ Chloe ushered, and Mandy nervously followed her through the hallway and into an open-plan kitchen. A woman she recognised from the church was perched on a stool by the breakfast bar. There wasn’t a lot of resemblance between the siblings, or mother and son for that matter, but there was something about the way they looked at each other that somehow told Mandy she was supposed to have been a part of this family. She could feel the pull of her Match even here.
Behind the frames of the woman’s glasses were the eyes of a grieving mother who was still coming to terms with the loss of her child. Mandy held her hand out to shake hers, but instead, the woman grabbed her by the shoulders and held her in a tight embrace. ‘Thank you so much for agreeing to come,’ she whispered in her ear.
‘OK, Mum, you can let go of her now. Mandy, this is our mum, Patricia,’ Chloe said.
‘It’s lovely to meet you,’ said Mandy.
‘And you, and call me Pat,’ she replied, looking her son’s Match up and down. ‘Richard would have just adored you!’
Mandy felt herself blush.
‘Look at her, Chloe. She’s beautiful, isn’t she?’
Chloe nodded from the other side of the breakfast bar where she was preparing their cups of tea. Mandy glanced around the kitchen and dining room, looking at the family photographs which covered the top of a sideboard. Pinned to a cork noticeboard was an order of service she recognised from Richard’s memorial next to his medal for completing the London Marathon. She could feel Pat’s eyes absorbing her, but it didn’t make her uncomfortable.
‘Richard wondered what you’d look like,’ Pat said eventually. ‘When he did the test, he wondered who’d been chosen for him and where you’d live. I don’t know if Chloe told you, but he loved to travel and I think he’d have gone to the ends of the earth to be with the one he was Matched with.’
‘I’m only about two hours away, just outside Essex.’ Mandy smiled. ‘So he wouldn’t have needed to travel far. Do you know why he did the test?’
‘For the same reason everybody else does, I think. I know at twenty-five he was young, but all he ever wanted to do was settle down and have a family of his own. The test wasn’t around when Richard’s dad and I met, of course, but we were together for twenty years before he passed away and I don’t think we argued once. Richard wanted the same kind of relationship; he didn’t want to leave it to chance.’
He glanced towards the treatment room just as Alex turned his head. And suddenly, as their eyes made contact, Nick felt himself take a sharp, involuntarily gasp of breath. His heart began to beat wildly and he could feel his eyes widen. His stomach felt like it was about to turn over, and by the look of sudden bewilderment on Alex’s face, he could tell he was feeling exactly the same thing.
‘Here’s your receipt.’ The receptionist smiled, breaking Nick free from the spell. He hurried down the stairs and out of the building in a panic.
He stood on the pavement for a moment, leaning against the wall and hoping the gentle summer breeze might cool down his flushed face. What the hell was that? he asked himself.
When his sharp, shallow breaths gradually became deeper and his heartbeat began to self-regulate again, he made his way towards Sally.
‘Well? How was it?’ she asked anxiously, as he sat himself down on a stool beside her.
‘Yeah, fine, but he’s not my type.’ Nick smiled, and forced himself to laugh.
‘So I’m not about to lose my fiancé to a man?’
By the tone of her voice it sounded like she was trying to make a joke, but he could tell her question was genuine.
‘Did you honestly think that might be the case?’
‘No. Well, maybe. A little. Yes.’
‘Of course not,’ he said reassuringly, comforting her with a peck to her forehead. As she stretched her arms out and wrapped them tightly around him, Nick’s eyes glanced across the road and up three storeys to the clinic, where he knew he’d left his heart.
Chapter 25
ELLIE
There must be something wrong with him, Ellie thought to herself, as she read another of Tim’s text messages.
Barely an hour of their waking days passed without one sending the other a message. At the vibration of the phone in her pocket she would will meetings to move faster just so that she could read what he had to say next. She’d already cast aside her pay-as-you-go phone number and given him her private contact details, and while there’d been no instant physical attraction to Tim when they’d met at the pub days earlier, there was definitely something about his presence that she found endearing.
Tim had been self-deprecating about his choice of a career as a systems analyst – ‘dull as hell’ is the expression he’d used – while Ellie was more ambiguous about hers. She’d informed him she worked for a large company in the City, but when he inquired specifically what the firm did, she was deliberately vague, informing him it had something to do with economics and had left it at that. She knew if their friendship were to flourish into something more, she couldn’t lie to him forever. But for the time being, she enjoyed pretending to be a regular person and hoped he’d not ruin it by looking her up online.
It had been an age since Ellie had taken any real notice of a man, after a long line of disappointments. Her last few dates were only interested in using her as a networking opportunity or as someone to pitch potential business investments to. Others, be they on dates one, two, three or four, inevitably found a way to bring up the subject of her wealth. It was an instant turn-off when she realised their own insecurities had left them in fear of being emasculated by her, and it turned out that many men believed an independent, rich and attractive woman like herself was a threat who required controlling.
Back in her twenties, Ellie believed she could fall head over heels for someone even if she hadn’t been Matched with them. After all, it’d been happening for thousands of years before the gene had been detected. But as time marched on and she passed the threshold of her thirties, she’d lost faith that she could ever find common ground with somebody who was not genetically Matched to her. She’d experienced sparks on dates but they’d always fizzled out after she’d learned their true intentions. She found herself wondering what Tim’s angle was and now she was trying to find fault, becoming almost disappointed when there was nothing about him to criticise.
‘I’m going to be working in London on Tuesday. Do you fancy joining me for dinner before I get the last train home?’ Tim texted.
‘Yes, that’d be lovely,’ she replied and felt a rush of warmth inside.
While she had yet to experience that immediate love that 92 per cent of Matches reported experiencing within the first forty-eight hours, Ellie still felt that Tim was something special. No two couples were the same and, in some cases, all-consuming love could take weeks, so she wasn’t worried. The longer she spent in his company, the more she would feel herself thaw.
But whether he was special enough to reveal her secret to, she had yet to decide.
Chapter 26
MANDY
The front door to the modest detached house that Richard had once called home opened as soon as Mandy set foot on the driveway.
Chloe stood in the porch, a beaming smile across her face. This was a very different version of the suspicious woman Mandy had crossed paths with at the memorial service.
‘Come in, come in,’ Chloe ushered, and Mandy nervously followed her through the hallway and into an open-plan kitchen. A woman she recognised from the church was perched on a stool by the breakfast bar. There wasn’t a lot of resemblance between the siblings, or mother and son for that matter, but there was something about the way they looked at each other that somehow told Mandy she was supposed to have been a part of this family. She could feel the pull of her Match even here.
Behind the frames of the woman’s glasses were the eyes of a grieving mother who was still coming to terms with the loss of her child. Mandy held her hand out to shake hers, but instead, the woman grabbed her by the shoulders and held her in a tight embrace. ‘Thank you so much for agreeing to come,’ she whispered in her ear.
‘OK, Mum, you can let go of her now. Mandy, this is our mum, Patricia,’ Chloe said.
‘It’s lovely to meet you,’ said Mandy.
‘And you, and call me Pat,’ she replied, looking her son’s Match up and down. ‘Richard would have just adored you!’
Mandy felt herself blush.
‘Look at her, Chloe. She’s beautiful, isn’t she?’
Chloe nodded from the other side of the breakfast bar where she was preparing their cups of tea. Mandy glanced around the kitchen and dining room, looking at the family photographs which covered the top of a sideboard. Pinned to a cork noticeboard was an order of service she recognised from Richard’s memorial next to his medal for completing the London Marathon. She could feel Pat’s eyes absorbing her, but it didn’t make her uncomfortable.
‘Richard wondered what you’d look like,’ Pat said eventually. ‘When he did the test, he wondered who’d been chosen for him and where you’d live. I don’t know if Chloe told you, but he loved to travel and I think he’d have gone to the ends of the earth to be with the one he was Matched with.’
‘I’m only about two hours away, just outside Essex.’ Mandy smiled. ‘So he wouldn’t have needed to travel far. Do you know why he did the test?’
‘For the same reason everybody else does, I think. I know at twenty-five he was young, but all he ever wanted to do was settle down and have a family of his own. The test wasn’t around when Richard’s dad and I met, of course, but we were together for twenty years before he passed away and I don’t think we argued once. Richard wanted the same kind of relationship; he didn’t want to leave it to chance.’
