“This will be the first date and episode of Experimental Love. Chloe, this is Amato,” Dierdre announces while panning the camera to Amato, who looks as if he’s constipated. “And Amato, this is Chloe, your date.”
Chloe and Dierdre stand there, expecting Amato to say something, anything in return. Anger, frustration, sadness, drowsiness—none of these emotions prompt a single word from Amato’s mouth. He stands there staring at them as if they aren’t even talking to him, as if he’s ignoring them and listening at the same time.
“H-hello, my name is Chloe,” Chloe says, fiddling with her hands nervously.
“I know,” Amato replies in a tone dry enough to wither a house plant.
“Really, how’d you know?”
“She said your name.”
“Oh.”
Chloe feels an imaginary stabbing pain in her back, piercing through her stomach. Anxiety emerges out of thin air, eating her away bit by bit like dozens of small, starving piranhas. It takes every fiber of her being to say something, only to be metaphorically slapped in the mouth. Silence engulfs the three of them, dragging Chloe into a murky lake. The deafening quiet drowns her as the famished piranhas devour her insides. Thoughts of looking ignorant or dumb rips her apart.
Breathing becomes difficult within the fifteen seconds of silence. As she remembers to breathe, she has to swallow a lump of sand stuck in her throat, causing her to have a coughing fit in front of everyone, including the camera.
“A-are you alright?” Dierdre asks, patting her back.
“Yeah, I just got a bit nervous,” Chloe says, her face flushing red with embarrassment. She couldn’t look more like a dimwit right now. “I’m sorry if I bothered you, I—” Chloe looks up to see no one at the door, but it’s still slightly open. Not only did she say something dumb, but she also gave an upsetting reaction to the short conversation. He probably ran away after seeing his humiliating date. She begins biting her freshly done French tip nails.
Not knowing what to do, she turns to Dierdre, who continues to record in silence. It reminds Chloe of the terms Dierdre made clear. Dierdre noticed Chloe's shy nature and reliance on others to make decisions for her. Dierdre said she would be invincible at all times and wouldn’t help Chloe in decision-making. Chloe would have to muster the courage to take chances and chase what she was looking for.
The only problem is that Chloe already took a chance and was quickly shut down. She’s completely done making decisions because she only seems to mess things up for herself. She plans to stand there until Amato comes back out. He returns with a cool bottle of water, indicating her plan worked.
“Some people get choked up by their own words,” Amato says, handing the water to her. “Isn’t it incredibly early to go out?”
“I’m really sorry, I didn’t know you weren’t ready. The email said that 5:30 was our date!” Chloe responds, flustered.
Amato checks his email from Dierdre on his phone. He lets out a sigh and looks at her with a smile. “I didn’t check my email yesterday. You’re right. I’ll go take a shower and get ready.”
Chloe goes downstairs to the lobby and waits for Amato, anxiety continuing to loom in the distance. She and Dierdre sit on the black leather furniture across from each other. At first, Chloe is nervous, feeling trapped by Dierdre’s eyes and the camera. However, Dierdre, being a great interviewer, begins talking to Chloe about her lifestyle and occupation. Chloe opens up, talking a lot about her teaching occupation as a sculptor. For the first time, she isn’t flustered or nervous holding a conversation.
It feels natural, without any worries clouding her mind, and the gnawing anxiety subsides. Dierdre’s relatable and quirky personality doesn’t make Chloe stand out in the least. The one hour feels like fifteen minutes, ending when Amato enters the lobby.
“Excuse me, am I interrupting?” Amato asks, looking down at his watch impatiently.
Appearing out of the blue, angst grows inside Chloe’s stomach. She dreads ever coming out of her house for a silly date experiment. Chloe looks back, expecting Dierdre to say something, but she remains silent, continuing to hold the camera as if she’s invisible. “No, not at all,” Chloe responds.
“Good, I want to get this day over with as soon as possible,” Amato states coldly. “I know a place close by where we can have breakfast.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but you’ll need to go on at least three dates before ending the day,” Dierdre interjects.
Amato’s lips form a slight frown, and his eyebrows crease. He now feels the need to read MyDiary so he doesn’t encounter any mishaps. He didn’t expect the date to happen the very next day. He also didn’t expect to have guests so early in the morning, especially a stranger. He didn’t plan or expect anything, and it irks him. “Sure thing,” Amato says with a fake smile anyone can see from a mile away. “Will you give me a moment? I need to check something in my car.”
Dierdre and Chloe watch as he walks past them and out the lobby door. Chloe can’t help but feel bad for taking up his time, and Dierdre can’t help but feel resentment because of his attitude. Amato gets in his car in a hurry and slams the door shut. Flipping open the book, he reads the final page. His eyes widen in response to the first glimpse of the book. His eyes absorb the words, and in return, the sentence absorbs the air from his lungs.
His eyes run back and forth over the same sentence repeatedly. The sentence makes his eyes feel like they’re running on a treadmill. No matter how many times he rereads the words, they go nowhere. It’s glued to the page, set in stone, and never changing. He says the words out loud as the truth finally sets in.
“Today will be the day when my death date will be set.”
"My heart pumps as a rush of heat sits in his face and heart. With every heartbeat, it feels like a clock counting every second. Then it counts every hour when she’s away. No, it feels like eternity when she is away. Sometimes I ask myself, why? Why do I feel this way when I'm around her? She can’t be that beautiful, that generous, that special, or brave. And yet I prove myself wrong every time I look into her eyes.
No matter how many times I try to push her away, I'm the one who comes back to her. No matter the problem or circumstance, she’d find me as well. I already felt complete in life. So when I realized she was the one for me, I felt more than complete. I felt accomplished, blessed, and, more importantly, loved."
Amato reads the last sentence of the diary, making his hands quiver. That is the end of the diary. Amato holds on to the book for dear life. The book has a seventy to eighty percent accuracy rate, yet it gives vague answers to the multitude of questions rampant in his head. Confusion swirls around Amato’s mind, and one big question arises from inside him: ‘Who did I fall in love with?!’ None of it made sense, especially the diary.
The book is supposed to have multiple pages at once, yet it only fills half the page. Usually, it also has the date, but the date simply says, ‘Today will be the day when my death date will be set.’ Amato repeats those words in his head, trying to make sense of them, but they don’t. Nothing in the diary makes sense. It’s as if it’s trying to keep a secret from him, hiding the future or maybe the truth. MyDiary isn’t just a simple book; it’s part of an advanced technological achievement.
The public is lucky enough to have it in their hands, yet not a single glitch or bug has been discovered. It’s simply the most perfect piece of technology man has made. Before Amato can come to a definite conclusion, his thoughts are interrupted. He looks out the window to see Chloe staring inside the car with curious eyes. Without even realizing it, his mouth and nose curl up as if he ate something disgusting. His eyes then squint realizing it’s Chloe.
She flinches and takes a step back from the car, not wanting to bother Amato any further. His contorted face breaks her heart. Chloe realizes that Amato isn’t just annoyed; he’s disgusted. She no longer has the courage to talk to Amato and waits until he gets out of the car. She stands outside for three minutes straight while Amato simply looks at her. He finally rolls down the window to see what she’s doing.
“Are you two going to get in the car?” Amato asks.
Before Chloe can open her mouth and apologize, she hears someone yell behind her.
“How are we supposed to know that, idiot?!” Dierdre finally breaks the silence. “Couldn’t you open your mouth and tell us that?!”
“So you were going to stand there all day?” Amato retorts.
Chloe picks up on Amato’s expression towards Dierdre, realizing it’s the same look he gave her earlier. Chloe now questions if he was truly looking at her or Dierdre. As the two continue to argue, Chloe's curiosity drives her to finally say something. “Were you guys lovers?”
Amato looks up in utter shock and disbelief as if Chloe slapped him with a rotten fish. He waits until Dierdre answers the question, but she remains silent and continues recording.
“Of course not!” Amato yelps sincerely. “Why are you staying quiet now? We have never dated before!”
Dierdre continues to stay silent as if the conversation isn’t about her. She simply smiles as Amato is annoyed by the mere suggestion. Chloe notices that Amato usually has a calm expression, but now his mood has changed. He didn’t flinch when unexpected things happened or when an argument started. He maintained his stoic expression until Dierdre was around, and his emotions got the best of him. She simply stares and listens as Amato explains that he and Dierdre recently met a few days ago.
“Oh really? And you guys are already this close?” Chloe asks with innocent eyes.
“No! We’re not close at all,” Amato answers. “We tend to disagree at times.”
Chloe has suspicions about Amato, but he doesn’t care about her opinion. He simply wants to explain to the viewers that he’s never dated Dierdre. He doesn’t want the public to think he supports love or to call him a hypocrite for falling in love.
“Love gets you killed, and this experiment is only to prove the morons that it’s true,” Amato explains coldly.
“I don’t believe love causes death,” Chloe responds without missing a beat.
“Could you say that to the millions of people who die at their ‘weddings’?” Amato continues to interrogate Chloe. “How could you say that when there’s tons of evidence to prove otherwise?”
“My parents didn’t die because of love,” Chloe retorts.
“Mines did.”
Silence falls, suffocating the words Chloe was going to say. “To each their own.” Those exact words were about to spill out of Chloe until she caught herself. She understands why he believes love kills, yet the proof that it doesn’t is a phone call away. Her parents are alive and in love, but sometimes she can’t help but feel like Amato is right. Only a few people are married, and the divorce rate doesn’t help the case at all. Love is hard to come by, so this is the perfect opportunity to meet her match.
Amato rolls up his car window, signaling the end of the conversation. Dierdre sits in the back seat, continuing to record in silence as Chloe and Amato sit in awkward silence in the front. Amato begins driving, and Chloe stares out the window, waiting for their destination. Dierdre promised herself not to interject or talk on their date, but it’s hard to watch. They’re supposed to talk and get to know each other, but they sit without uttering a single word.
Dierdre can’t take it anymore and has to do something to break the uncomfortable silence. “Guys, do you want to hear a joke?”
“No,” Amato answers.
Dierdre ignores Amato and still says the joke, “What was George Washington’s favorite drink?”
“Libertea,” Amato answers again, and the silence reclaims its throne for ten minutes. Until Dierdre’s high-pitched voice pierces through the tranquility.
“Wait a minute!” Dierdre pauses before saying anything else. “Why did you drive us to the police station?!”
“Somebody is trying to control my future,” Amato says while parking his car.
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