Chapter 1: THE MATCH
October 26, 2025
It was an ordinary day.
Nothing about it felt special. No strange feeling, no sign that something was about to change. Just another day in Blaire's life.
She was still doing her internship at the time, away from home and trying to keep herself busy with the usual routine. But underneath all of that, there was something she hadn't quite managed to leave behind.
Her heart was still a little broken.
She had loved someone before—someone she knew she couldn't have. And even though she was trying to move on, some feelings didn't disappear just because you wanted them to.
That night, like any other night when she had nothing better to do, Blaire opened the dating app.
She wasn't looking for love.
Not really.
Maybe she just wanted someone to talk to. Maybe she wanted a distraction. Maybe she was simply curious about who was out there.
Within a little while, she had a few matches.
Two.
Three.
She started chatting with them casually, the way people do when they're strangers trying to figure out whether they have anything in common.
Nothing serious.
Nothing that made her think twice.
Then another profile appeared.
Audrey.
Blaire looked at it for a moment before starting the conversation.
There was nothing remarkable about that first message.
No dramatic opening line.
No instant connection.
Just two strangers saying hello.
They exchanged the usual questions.
How are you?
What do you do?
Where are you from?
And eventually, the question that usually came sooner or later on a dating app:
What are you looking for?
Blaire didn't have a perfect answer.
She was fine with something casual.
She was also open to something serious.
It depended on the person. On the connection. On what happened naturally between two people.
So she said exactly that.
Audrey, however, already knew what she wanted.
Something serious.
Blaire noticed the difference, but she didn't think too much about it.
Not then.
They were still just two girls who had matched on an app.
Two people from different cities and different states, separated by only a few hours of travel.
They didn't know each other.
They didn't know what the other person was like beyond a few messages on a screen.
They didn't even know whether they'd still be talking a week later.
But somewhere between those ordinary questions, the conversation continued.
Eventually, they decided to connect on Instagram.
It felt easier there.
More personal somehow.
So they followed each other, and their conversation moved from a dating app to Instagram.
Still casual.
Still simple.
Still nothing that Blaire would have called important.
She certainly didn't know it yet.
But October 26, 2025, would eventually become a date she remembered.
Not because anything extraordinary happened that night.
But because someone she had never met had quietly entered her life.
Someone who, at that moment, was nothing more than a new Instagram notification.
Audrey.
And Blaire had no idea what would come next.
