The bus was crowded today, but Sohal decided he wouldn’t let that ruin his mood. Today, he was going on a date with a wonderful woman he’d been talking to for the past few days. The conversations were dry, but at least, someone cared about his existence.

If Fated was to be trusted, this woman would be his soulmate. Ever since he was old enough to understand the concept of soulmates, he had wanted one. Everyone else in his life — especially his parents — seemed convinced it would make him happy. And who didn’t want to be happy? But it was the first date and he shouldn’t get ahead of himself.

They had made arrangements to meet at the beach. As close as Sohal lived to the ocean, he rarely found himself heading that way. Working from home meant long hours without leaving the house. To be able to leave now was a nice break from monotony.

When the bus finally reached the beach, Sohal was ready to meet his destiny face-on. Whatever would happen on this date, he would try to keep an open mind. That was the least he could do after the dry spell of the last two years he had suffered through.

The weather was colder than expected, but armed with a light jacket, Sohal didn’t feel that cold. It was still a sunny day and it was nice to be at the beach after so long.

His date described herself as a tall and slender blonde woman, which he found a bit hard to believe. How would someone like that end up with someone like him? Thankfully, there were safeguards against catfishing, but what if she was fake?

He pulled out his phone, swiping to the Fated app.

I’m here. Where are you?

A young female in a thin red dress approached him. She was holding a picnic basket under her arm. “Are you…” She glanced down at her phone, probably looking at the app they were both messaging on the past few days. “Are you Sohal?” she asked.

He nodded, and took this chance to look at her up and down. Wearing a thin red dress like this was impractical, especially for a beach date. Even though it didn’t get that cold in this part of the country, January was still known as the peak of winter for a reason.

“Did you, uh, maybe want to go somewhere else?” Sohal was trying to be nice. Having a beach date like this with her dressed like that was just asking for trouble. But if she really was his soulmate, he wanted to at least try to make this work. “Or we can—”

“No,” she interrupted. “I’m good with here. I just think it’s so romantic to walk alongside the beach with your soulmate. Our footsteps marking the sand together. Our hands touching, allowing our fingertips to get familiar with each other.”

“Are you… sure you’re Tara?” Sohal asked. They had talked briefly on the app the past few days, and the woman standing in front of him didn’t seem the same as the one he messaged. Sure, she looked the same, but she wasn’t acting like he thought she would.

Then again, they did mostly small talk on the app. Tara told him about her job as an aspiring social media influencer. Sohal told her about his job as a web designer. They found out that they both like reading books and visiting pet stores to see and secretly pet cute puppies. On the app, Tara seemed like a down-to-earth and practical girl.

She stared into his eyes, probably wondering why he looked darker than his profile picture. He blamed Fated for their choice of filter. They didn't let him change it. "Well, yeah," she finally said after a moment. "You're not the kind of guy I usually go after but a match is a match. Besides, the fun part will be in changing you into what I like!”

Sohal coughed, trying to hide how awkward he felt. “So, uh, where do you want to sit?” He gestured towards the beach, hoping that they could get past this initial stage and head into the part where it’s smooth sailing. “I see you brought food. I like food.”

Fortunately, his date didn’t notice how awkward he felt. Or if she did, she didn’t let on. Tara led the way towards a spot on the rocks by the water. She laid out a thin picnic blanket that she pulled out of her basket and sat down, gesturing for Sohal to join her. The wind blew forcefully and sand got all over the blanket instantly. It was going to be a lot more sandy than Sohal liked but he reluctantly sat down on the blanket next to her.

What felt like forever but was really just a minute of silence passed between them before Tara opened the picnic basket again. “I hope you like spaghetti. I made it myself.”

Just as she said, there was a giant plate in the middle covered with aluminum foil. Tara removed it and spaghetti was falling off of the edges of the plate. He thought the shape of the foil would uncover something like a loaf of bread, not a mountain of pasta.

Another rush of wind blew more sand towards them and Sohal shielded the food from it. That was when Sohal glanced over the set and frowned as he realized Tara had only brought one fork with her instead of two. As romantic as spaghetti was, he preferred it if he could eat it on a table and not worry about sand getting onto his plate.

“Actually… you know what, I’m not really that hungry.” Sohal shifted around in his seat, growing uneasy. This date had gone from bad to worse. Was it his fault? Did he do something wrong? “Hey, Tara, how about you tell me a bit more about yourself?”

She ignored his question and looked at him up and down as if he was a piece of meat. “Oh, but I am hungry. I just want to eat you right up. I was planning to save you for dessert, but since you’re so eager to skip the main course, why don’t I join you?”

“Excuse me?” Sohal looked over at Tara as if she had grown two heads, which would’ve been a lot better than how she was acting now. “What the fuck did you say?”

“I don’t care if this is forward but we live our whole lives, knowing we’ll die, and I just want a taste of that sweet, sweet juice.” She inched towards him, her hands just a few inches away from his thighs. “How about you and I get a baby in this oven tonight?”

And that was when Sohal decided to leave his disaster of a date behind at the beach.

He made a mental note to block Tara and make sure Fated didn’t push them together. There was no way that he’d want to meet with her again. There was something seriously wrong with Fated if they thought he would be compatible with her, of all people.

Maybe the next match would be his soulmate.