Falling For You // Chapter Five

Zac

I didn’t expect much. How could I? I knew from reading the website that most people who have success on sites like eHarmony are usually members for months before they meet someone special. Sometimes it took even longer. So, when I found Kennedy’s profile and requested communication, I hadn’t expected her to accept, but she had. When I sent her the first step of communication, the multiple choice questions, I hadn’t expected her to respond well, but she had responded perfectly. Sure, those questions were kind of silly. Asking someone how they would behave at a party with a date can be telling, but only if a person responds with complete honesty. And as far as I knew, Kennedy could have been lying the entire time. I was sure that not everyone was truly forthright on their Questionnaires, so I had to prepare myself for the worst.

But she answered all of mine well, and I answered hers, and miraculously, she didn’t close communication after reading my answers. When it came time for the second round of questions, the ones with the long answers you had to write out yourself, I took my time deciding my two selections. I sat there and stared at the long list, wondering what two things were most important to me in finding out if this woman was someone I wanted to go on a date with. So, I wound up choosing “Besides love, what one trait have you noticed in couples that have maintained a successful relationship for many years?” and “Why did you join eHarmony?” The second seemed so simple, but could potentially provide a ton of insight into this person’s intentions. No one would probably come right out and say that they were looking to find a husband or that they were a complete and total nutjob bent on finding more people to add to their serial killer hitlist, but hopefully her answers would be good. Once we made it through this stage, if we did, then we would be to Open Communication and we would have to decide if we wanted to meet in person or not.

I decided that I wasn’t quite ready to deal with that yet and logged off of the site, ready to go make myself some breakfast. After selecting one of my favorite random playlists on my iPod and plugging the buds into my ears, I started make myself some toast and scrambled eggs. Ever since I’d made the decision to attempt to find someone, I’d felt less lazy. Matt had suggested that I might have been a bit depressed, but I didn’t want to admit that. Who would? All I knew was that I’d taken a liking to keeping my apartment clean and to making myself real meals and even cleaning up after myself once I’d finished eating. I already had one egg in the bowl, ready to be whisked with milk and a little shredded cheddar cheese, and was getting ready to crack the second on the edge of the red bowl when someone grabbed my shoulders from behind, shaking me roughly and causing me to drop the egg to the floor. I ripped the buds from my ears and turned to face my attacker, finding Taylor laughing hysterically behind me.

“What is your problem?” I demanded, bending down to confront the mess with a paper towel.

“I was just seeing what you’re up to today,” Taylor said, shrugging and leaning up against the refrigerator.

“Well I’m making breakfast. Obviously,” I said, grabbing another egg from the carton.

“Have you gone out with anyone from eHarmony yet?” he asked me, sticking his hand in the bag of shredded cheese and pulling out a handful. I snatched the bag from him and tossed it to the other side of the counter, out of his reach.

“No.”

“Why not? Are they all fugly?” he laughed, mouth mostly full of cheese. I gave him a judging look before turning back to my eggs.

“No, I’m just not to that stage in the process yet, okay? Now do you need anything else from me than to eat my food?”

“Got any orange zest?”

“Just go away, Taylor,” I sighed, so sick of his constant ulterior food-related motives I could have screamed. He shrugged and left.

I ate my breakfast without any further hitches and cleaned up the counter and the floor before heading for a shower. When I finally emerged from the steaming bathroom, I heard my phone ringing and dashed to its resting place on the coffee table, hoping to reach it before the last ring sounded. I pressed the accept button just as I saw that it was Matt calling.

“How’s it going?” I asked, plopping down on the couch and reaching for the remote.

“Oh fine. A little hungover, but not too bad today,” he explained.

“Are you coming over?” The clock on my cable box told me that it was already nearing eleven and he was usually over earlier than that on Saturdays.

“Not today. I’ve got a ton of stuff to do. I was just calling to see if you’d heard back from Kennedy yet,” he said. Apparently he and my only real eHarmony communication to date were now on a first name basis.

“Well, she didn’t reject me after reading my answers, so I sent her the next set. This is all just so weird, trying to figure out what two questions I most want to know the answer to. How the hell should I know?”

“You don’t know, not yet. That’s why you do this, to find out what works and what doesn’t. It’s not like you have to marry her if she answers your questions well,” he said.

“Yeah, I know,” I sighed.

“Well, I’m at my first destination. Let me know if you hear back from her.”

“Will do,” I said, attempting enthusiasm before hanging up and tossing the phone to the other end of the couch. I hung out by myself all day, just catching up on TV I’d missed and working on a few song ideas that had popped into my head. I also successfully ignored three phone calls from my brothers and kept the sliding lock on my door locked just in case they tried to barge in on me. Though I wasn’t exactly sure why, I knew that I wanted to be alone. Somehow, choosing to be alone felt a hell of a lot better than being forced to be alone due to circumstance.

That night, I decided to check my e-mail and found that Kennedy had already answered my questions. When responding to my first question, she said that she was constantly impressed by how easy her sister and brother-in-law’s relationship always seemed, and that she thought it was so successful because they were good companions. They liked to do the same things, they truly enjoyed spending time together, which is something that a lot of couples who focus on heat and passion alone tend to miss out on. I loved her answer, mainly because it wasn’t something I’d really thought about before. But it was certainly true. My parents had been together for almost thirty years and it wasn’t because they were still making out like teenagers and making constant moon eyes at each other. I didn’t want to think about that if it was still happening. The reason they were still together and strong was because they were true partners. They understood each other, they communicated well, and even though they didn’t have all of the same interests, they had enough in common to keep them occupied and were kind enough to embrace each other’s different activities.

The second question’s answer was considerably shorter, though she did answer it thoroughly. She said that she had been encouraged by a friend to join the site and that the nature of her work kept her from getting out in the traditional dating scene.

“Tell me about it,” I said to the screen as I read her answer. Then it came time to answer her questions. I tried as hard as possible to answer her questions well without giving anything away about my identity and while also trying not to sound hugely creepy for being kind of mysterious. I knew it was probably a little strange for her to be communicating with this guy who didn’t have a picture and who wouldn’t tell her what he did for a living, but for some reason, she was. I hoped that it was because she felt a connection from the rest of information I’d provided her with. When I was finished with that, I headed for bed, wondering what my Sunday would bring me.

The next morning, after my typical morning ritual of hitting the bathroom and making myself some breakfast, I sat down at the computer to see what was happening on CNN.com, but found that I had some new e-mails. One was from Taylor asking if I was still alive. I didn’t bother responding to that one. And there was also one from eHarmony. Kennedy wanted to go into Open Communication. For some reason, I started to feel very nervous. All this really meant was that we could now e-mail back and forth freely without their regulations. But was also the stage in which we could now exchange phone numbers and even meet if we wanted to. We had gotten this far within a week. I wished that I could know what she was thinking, because I honestly just wanted to meet her and get that part over with. I already knew that I was interested in meeting her based off of her profile and answers to my questions, and I really needed to know if she could handle who I was or not. As much as it made me feel like a big egomaniacal freak to even think something like that, it was true and it was important. So, I wrote out a message to her, knowing that it could very easily scare her away, but needing to do it nonetheless.

Kennedy-
I’m really glad that you accepted my communication request and have gone along with the process so far even though I don’t have any pictures up and won’t divulge what I do for a living. I promise you that there’s a very good reason for this, and it’s not that I’m a freak or a weirdo trying to pull the wool over your eyes. I just hope that you’ll give me the chance to explain everything in person. From this point on, I’m going to leave the ball in your court. If you just want to message back and forth for awhile, we can do that. If you want to talk on the phone, then give me a call whenever you want to talk. My number is 555-266-6267 and I’m available most of the time. I have to say, I was surprised by all of your answers to my questions and I mean that in a very good way. I think we could have a good time talking if we would get together sometime soon, but again, when and if we do that is completely up to you. I hope to hear back from you soon.
-Zac

I cleaned my apartment that morning and went to lunch with Isaac and Taylor to talk about getting back into the studio. Then, I spend the afternoon with Matt finishing up his errands he’d gotten distracted from completing the day before. We were walking through SoHo, trying to find a good Thai restaurant for dinner when my phone started to ring in my pocket. Matt had just told me a particularly funny and off-color joke and I tried my hardest not to laugh, but when I saw the unfamiliar phone number displayed on the screen of my Blackberry, my stomach tightened.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied, though I had a sneaking suspicion I knew exactly who it was.

“Maybe it’s her! Answer it!” he told me excitedly. I nodded and stopped walking so I could have the conversation without distraction.

“Hello?” I answered, unable to help but think that I had sounded unbelievably dorky.

“Hi, is this Zac?” the female voice on the other end asked. My heart rate went into hyper-drive.

“Yes, who is this?”

“This is Kennedy, from eHarmony,” she said, hesitating significantly before saying the last two words.

“Kennedy! Hi, I thought it might be you,” I said, trying to ignore Matt who was mouthing the words ‘Does she sound hot?’ to me. I waved him off and turned my back to him.

“You did?” she asked, “Well, I guess I’ll get right to the point. I’m a little weirded out by this whole process and think we should just meet. Then we’ll know if we really like each other or not and we can move on from there. What do you think?”

“I think that sounds great,” I told her honestly.

“I mean, we’re both obviously interested in getting to know more about each other, or we wouldn’t have gotten to Open Communication, so I don’t really see the point in us e-mailing for an extended period of time when we both live in New York,” she said, speaking hurriedly and sounding like she wanted to get this part of the conversation over with in a hurry. It was adorable.

“I definitely want to meet you,” I told her, and I could hear her let out a long breath.

“I want to meet you, too,” she replied and it sounded like she was smiling, “I’m nervous, but I do.”

“Well, this is no worse than a blind date, right? And at least we already know a little about each other,” I offered.

“This is so much better than the blind dates I’ve been set up on, you couldn’t possibly imagine,” she laughed.

“Well, I hope you’ll tell me,” I said, “So, when do you want to get together?”

“How about tomorrow? Weekends are pretty busy for me actually, so if you don’t mind going out on a weeknight, that’d be best for my schedule.”

“Tomorrow is perfect. Where should I pick you up?” I asked, and I could practically hear her brain working, trying to figure that out. She probably didn’t want me to pick her up at her apartment in case I wound up being a crazy person.

“How about we meet at my shop?” she asked and then gave me the directions, which I hoped I would remember, “My name is Kennedy Erikson, by the way.”

“My name is still just Zac,” I said, hoping she wouldn’t take everything back and not want to meet me.

“Like Cher or Madonna?” she laughed.

“I know I’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” I told her sincerely, “And I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”

“I look forward to it,” she replied, “Well, I guess I’ll see you at seven tomorrow.”

“I can’t wait,” I replied honestly and then we both hung up.

“You’re meeting her tomorrow?” Matt asked. I nodded and put my phone back in my pocket. “Nice. Now let’s go eat. I’m starving!” I laughed and followed him down the street, so nervous and excited about what the next night would bring that I couldn’t focus on anything else.

Chapter Six

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