Destiny Is Overrated

If there is anything that Sidney loves more than her parents and life itself, it’s vanilla ice cream. Plain and simple. Whether it’s from a five-star restaurant or a street vendor, a scoop of vanilla ice cream never fails to bring smile on her face, and it was just what she needed after a long shift at work.

So there she was, in front of an ice cream truck that stopped at the intersection in front of her work place, currently waiting in line to get a cone.

When it was finally her turn, she took no time to step forward and place her order. The ice cream man quickly nodded and disappeared to prepare it on the other side of the truck.

He then returned with a grin, handing Sidney her cone, and waited patiently for her to pay. “Hold on,” she said after she had her first lick, digging inside her bag for some cash.

Sidney smiled uncomfortably at the seller, and soon realised that she was holding the line, so she took a few steps backwards. Before she could pull anything out of her purse, she felt a tap on her shoulder that was followed by a voice, “That’s okay, I’ll get it.”

“No, you don’t have to!” Sidney said to its source, who was then already in front of her, facing the truck window.

“Her scoop is on me,” the boy said to the man in front of him, “And I’ll get whatever she’s having.”

Sidney poked on his shoulder. “You really don’t have to. I just found some coins in my bag,” she assured, somewhat embarrased that she was taking too long to look for money that a stranger was impatient enough to pay for her cone.

She saw the boy grabbing his own cone from the man, so she figured that it would be better to walk away from the truck a little bit, not wanting to hold the line any longer. She then headed towards the inner part of the sidewalk, the part that was closer to the buildings than the street.

The dark-haired boy turned around with his head down, slipping the change he just got from the ice cream man into his wallet. “It’s alright, I don’t mind,” he said simply.

Sidney stopped walking to find him standing directly behind her. It was when he finally pulled his head up and took his sunglasses off that the watch on her wrist alerted. It was her TiMER.

Beep beep.

The sound was then echoed by the boy’s watch, which drew both of their attentions.

Sidney’s tongue stopped licking her ice cream as she felt her whole body went numb. Her eyes then met his dark brown ones for the second time, yet she didn’t say anything. Neither of them did. Soon, though, the boy beamed in satisfaction.

“Your TiMER beeped,” he pointed out after a moment of silence.

His comment snapped her back to reality, and she had to shake her head a few times before her brain could return to function.

“It did,” she responded. Sidney wanted to say more, but she failed to arrange words into a proper sentence. “Yours too.”

“That’s right,” the boy said with a shy smile.

Sidney briefly closed her eyes and blinked once or twice.

She knew what this meant; her TiMER going off. It meant that whom she had in front of her was supposed to be her soulmate. Her perfect match.

Sidney remembered a few things about it from Ashton when he first gave it to her. Everything Ashton had told her was true; the counter on the watch would zero out the night before she met her supposed soulmate in person, and the alert was triggered by an eye-contact. She didn’t even realise that her TiMER had zeroed out, though. Not until that second.

Ashton was the one who had insisted that she’d wear it, much to her dismay. She actually didn’t want to. She never believed in the scientific calculation of finding true love. She never believed in the product. It was just because Ashton was the one best friend she’d never want to let down, plus the fact that it was costly, that Sidney agreed to wear it daily.

“Does this mean you’re my—“ Sidney continued.

“Yes.”

“And I’m your—“

“Yep. I think,” he said with an eyebrow raised.

Sidney didn’t reply. She was still feeling overwhelmed by the fact that the device actually works and that she met her “perfect match” in the most ridiculous way possible. There was no way that this stranger, who just paid for her vanilla ice cream, could be her “one.”

“Am I really that bad?” he asked.

She turned her head back to look at him in curiousity. “What?”

“Were you expecting someone better to be your match?”

“What? No! No no, that’s not it,” she assured, “I just wasn’t expecting… this.”

“Your TiMER didn’t zero out last night?”

“It did, I suppose. I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention.”

The boy tilted his head while sighing a breath of air. “Huh.”

“I’m Calum, by the way,” he said as he straightened himself back up. It was just when he mentioned his name that Sidney remembered to regard him as a person. The whole thing was happening so quickly that she never took the moment to actually look at him as a human being. The boy was wearing a plain black tanktop, with a few tattoos peeking over its collar, a matching pair of black jeans and Converse on his feet. Still, his smile never left his face as if it was plastered there permanently.

“Sidney. I’m Sidney,” she replied after a few seconds.

“Like the city?”

“With an I,” she corrected.

Her answer somehow made him chuckle, making him look even more like the happiest person on earth. “Well, hi, Sidney with an I.”

“Hi,” she tried to return the smile.

Calum could see how fast Sidney’s face turned pale, but she didn’t realise it. “You okay?”

“Hmm? Yeah, sure. Why wouldn’t I be?” she responded rather quickly.

He leaned closer to her to try and look her in the eyes, grabbing her a little bit by the elbow. “Just a little freaked out?” another curve formed on his mouth, more like a smirk than a smile this time.

“I guess, yeah,” she nodded with a nervous laugh.

“Then, what do you say I buy you another ice cream some time?” Sidney noticed that his tone wasn’t at all flirty or creepy, he was simply asking her a question. That put her a little bit at ease.

However, Calum being so straightforward still caught her a little off guard. “Oh, wow, we’re actually doing this?”

“Why not?” he asked sincerely. His frown told her that he was actually looking for an answer, that the question wasn’t rhetorical.

“I, uhh.. I’m not a big believer of this kinda… procedure, to be honest,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “Thank you, though. For the offer, and for this,” she continued as she raised her almost-finished cone.

“You don’t believe in the TiMER?” Calum asked in doubt; it was written all over his face.

Sidney shrugged her shoulders in response. “No, not really. I’m not really into letting a machine tell me who to love. I, umm… I think the TiMER’s rather… invalid,” she answered slowly, not intending to offend the person in front of her.

She knew that the majority of people out there were devoted to the idea of the TiMER. It was the next iPhone, a must-have. Lately even, it was the non-wearers that were the ones considered to be out of place.

“Then why did you wear it?”

“It was kinda a favor. To a friend.”

He did another tilt of his head, just like the one before. “Quite an odd one, you are,” he paused before continuing, “And by the way, the TiMER’s not telling you who to love, it’s telling you—“ he suddenly stopped.

“Hmm, you know what, this is all the more reason why you should go on a date with me.”

“What? How so?” she replied, rather intrigued by his logic.

“I’m gonna prove you wrong,” Calum said in his most confident tone, “It doesn’t have to be a sit down dinner, let’s just grab a donut or something. You can also explain to me how wearing a TiMER can possibly be considered as a favor.”

“I don’t know… I’m not usually…”

“Come on. One date. It doesn’t hurt, I promise,” he braved himself to touch her arm, forcing an eye contact.

Something about the way his eyes reflected the sunlight and the way his smile was subtly inviting made it really impossible for Sidney to say no. She had never done anything like this, though. She wasn’t even sure about the whole concept in the first place.

But despite her inner struggle to form the two-letter word, all she could say to Calum was, “Okay, one date.”