When Andrew Dawn was finally able to look into Jade’s eyes, she froze. Suspended without motion he examined her flawless face. A face that would possibly be found somewhat imperfect by anyone else, but all Andrew could see was pure beauty. Every influence and experience he had felt led up to the appreciation of every aspect of the girl before him. Like learning to love and appreciate jazz, song for song, his life had been albums of images that he melodically fell in love with. Each feature of her face had a place in his life. It was only luck that he had found the one girl with this perfect construction of qualities.
Andrew Dawn did not believe in soul mates. He was an engineer, he thought in numbers and percentages when it came to people. The odds of people actually having and finding soul mates in such an overpopulated world seemed completely improbable to him. The odds were far too silly; he would need to give up on love if he expected to marry a soul mate. Although, Jade seemed perfect enough to marry tomorrow.
Andrew was a strange man; he did not fall in love with girls. He just saw them and was already in love. It was a sudden feeling he could get without having to question it. He was in love and instead of loving a girl more and more; he usually just fell out of love. He was quick to find things that put the flame out on his desire. He was more likely to love a girl the most in the first minute he met her than he ever would again. Some called him a woman hater, but he simply knew exactly what he wanted.
He had met Jade in the most simple and unintended sense and was of course in love with her, or at least the idea of her, instantly. All of his preconceived notions of love had poured into him with Jade as the subject of his imagination. It was Jade and him sitting on an Oriental rug drinking wine by the fire in the middle of winter. Reading to her in bed. Silently holding hands at large parties. She was the perfect wife in every aspect of his mind. He contemplated not talking to her thinking maybe that way he could love her forever. Afraid she might be someone he would hate, it would be smartest to just walk away and live in peace with what could have been. But she had spoken first and her voice was perfect. She asked him what his story was and he happily gloated about his successful life. She seemed very pleasant and slightly uninterested, full of mystery and gentle femininity. The small talk went on seamlessly and he was more in love with her when she walked away as he had been when he saw her. A feeling Andrew thought he would never have.
Caught up in Jades perfect complexity he had left with just a name. An amateur move but he had been perplexed. Awestruck as he was, Andrew desperately searched the internet for her. His heart beat hard as he typed her name into the Facebook search engine. She came up instantly with no tricky spelling in the name, Jade Sandrin.
Frozen on the screen he stared at her face completely in awe. It took minutes before he broke eye contact with her and hesitantly decided he needed to read about her. The minimal personal information drove his desire. Female, 33, Lives in Brooklyn. He scrolled down with lingering curiosity. He read, “In a relationship” about fifteen times trying to figure out how it could possibly be a mistake. She was taken by Jake Chlor and Andrew felt sicker than ever. Like he hadn’t drank water in days and just swallowed a bar of soap. He clicked on the opposing profile with envious hate. There were several sensual pictures of the two lovers on Jake’s front page. Andrew clicked out of the stupid website with prodigal force.
He left home looking for nothing but a drink. If forgetting this girl was possible it had to be done. He would later look into his half-drunk glass of whisky thinking it was no longer half full, but perpetually half empty. He finished his drink quickly thinking it might as well be completely empty after realizing Jade must have actually been his soul mate. If soul mates were actually real, the odds of finding two in a life time were more ridiculous than just having to find one. Having met Jade he would never find another soul mate again. And Andrew gave up on love.
D.R.
A Liars Reality 