Perfect Match

Perfect Match (3)

With help from her friends, Cari managed to get herself moved in and settled into her new apartment within the span of two weeks. She set up the second bedroom as her study, and lined the windowless walls with bookshelves. Her desk, which was a large antique piece that she had bought four years before, was set up underneath one of the windows beside her recently-purchased drawing table.

It took a few weeks after the initial move for the apartment to really feel like home, but once it did, Cari knew that she had made the right decision. Every time she saw her friends, there weren't any of the feelings of negativity that had gone along with being around them constantly. Rather, she was simply happy to see them, and their reduced number of interactions became all the more precious.

One day after work, as she was walking down the hall towards her apartment, one of the other doors opened and a tall man stepped out. His hair was brown, and she couldn't see the color of his eyes, but it was with a pleasant smile on his face that he introduced himself.

"I'm John Anderson, and you are..."

"Cari Felis," Cari said. "I live just down the hall. I've never seen you before."

"I just moved in today," John said. "It's nice to meet a neighbor. I wasn't expecting to."

"Our timing was just right, I guess," Cari said. "I've got some things to take care of, but maybe we could go for a coffee later? It's always good to know your neighbors."

"I definitely agree," he said. "Shall we say meet in the lobby at seven? That way we can go after dinner."

"That sounds great," Cari said, smiling. "I'll see you at seven then."

He nodded. She continued down the hall to her apartment as he shut the door to his. Her keys went on a hook just inside the door, and she wandered into her bedroom, where she changed out of her work t-shirt into a tank top that was better suited for the hot June weather.

After getting herself some lunch, she went into her study and got to work designing yet another book cover. She had been sent a few manuscripts the week before, and after looking over them, she selected two that she felt she could design a good cover for, and then mailed the others back to the publishing company that had sent them. As a freelance designer, she worked for more than one company, but her work was good enough that none would stop employing her.

She worked until five, at which time she went into the kitchen and made herself dinner. Another nice thing about being on her own was that nobody could complain if she was reading during her meals instead of talking to whoever was there, and it meant that she had gotten a lot more reading done. After she ate and cleaned up the dishes, she went back to work for a short while. Shortly before seven, she shouldered her small purse and went downstairs to the lobby.

John arrived a few moments after she did. He smiled at her. "Shall we?"

"Let's," she said. She let him lead the way as they left the building and started off down the sidewalk.

"So tell me something about you," John said. "I know your name, but that's hardly enough."

"Uh..." Cari bit her lip. "I'm the older of two girls, I just moved into the building a few weeks ago after moving out of an apartment that I shared with my four best friends, and I work in a bookstore part-time because my real job is freelance designing of book covers."

"Four friends?" John asked. "You're not matched then. I thought I was the only one."

Cari laughed. "Somehow I think that there are probably more guys in your situation than there are girls in mine. I'm twenty-three. You never hear of girls being unmatched at twenty-three. Even twenty-one is pushing it. That's partly why I moved out."