Souled [Editing]

Chapter 1

Numbers. They run the world. Whether it is time or how much money you make, numbers dominate everything. Including romance. Even something so unpredictable and spontaneous as love can be tracked down to the very second you meet that person. Everyone receives a Countdown. Everyone gets that perfect mate, that perfect love story. But not everyone's perfect love story works out perfectly.

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Meredith sat at her desk, just one of many on this floor. She tapped her pen mindlessly against her chin. She worked at Tucker Architecture, one of the biggest architecture firms in Atlanta. Her job was menial and supposed to be a temp job while she looked for something she loved and was qualified for. Of course, two years, going on three, have passed and she was no closer to landing a publishing job.

On her left wrist was the Countdown that everyone was required to have implanted at the age of fifteen. Her eyes glanced down at it, as they tended to recently since the numbers have gotten to single digits. The numbers gave her butterflies.

0003 d 5 hr 10 min 30 s.

At twenty-four she was later than most of her friends. She seemed to be surrounded by happily married couples while she had nothing better to do than wait. There was no point of dating to pass the time, because a break up would do nothing more than hurt her at this point.

However, she clung on to the hope that whoever her perfect match was would be just as late as her. She was not too keen on the idea of dating someone who was younger than her.

The laptop in her cubicle made a beep. Her gaze dragged to the screen. She had a brand-new email. It was from her best friend Eleanor. She met her at this job and they became quick friends.

The email consisted of Ella making plans for this upcoming Saturday. Only a couple other of their friends were included in the email, but she knew what they were really up to.

Each girl was careful to not say anything, but Meredith was not stupid. They were making plans for Meredith to be out and dressed to the nines to meet her Soul Mate.

They were not good at being subtle.

The butterflies returned in her stomach as she thought about what was really going to happen this weekend. Get together or not.

She questioned her friends many times and researched it dozens more about what it feels like when you meet the One. Everywhere had the same answer. It was a pull that you felt. You couldn't fight it, but it just felt right. You will know who it is by the feeling. At least that is the only small piece of advice her mother gave her a long, long time ago.

Meredith typed a short reply and clicked Send. The reply from Ella was instantaneous. Everything was mapped out. The whole night. Well, everything up until her Countdown hit zero. Then it was all going to be left up to fate. Or Meredith's nerves.

She rolled her eyes at how meticulous the planning was. Even though the plans really started nine years ago on her fifteenth birthday.

A chorus of Happy Birthday surrounded Meredith as her mother walked in the kitchen with a cake carefully balanced in her hands. All candles were lit and each one was placed evenly around the circle. The cake was shaped like a clock. Appropriate, Meredith thought.

When the cake was sat down in front of her, she looked at it. In place of the twelve was a question mark and in the center it read: Happy 15th Mere!