She checked the official Match Your DNA website: ‘The emotions felt between two Matches can vary from couple to couple,’ it read. ‘For some, it happens in an instant; for others, it can take several meetings or several days before the connection is made. This can sometimes be due to the mental capacity of a couple or an individual, or an illness, which can affect the production of pheromones and receptors. A change in a Match’s body clock can also affect the way they process their emotions.’
Jade began to feel a little better about herself knowing her predicament wasn’t uncommon. She’d begun to worry it was Kevin’s condition and how little he resembled the photos that were delaying her feelings, and the fact that she was a shallow, superficial cow. Now armed with new knowledge, she felt much more relieved. It would happen, she just had to wait for it. Although in the long run, she acknowledged that it would be hard being head over heels in love with a man who wouldn’t see out the summer.
Suddenly there came a gentle knocking on her door. ‘Come in,’ she replied and propped herself up on her elbows. The door slowly opened and Kevin’s smiling face appeared.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘I saw your light was still on. Do you want to come and see something?’
‘Sure,’ she said. The clock on the wall read 3.56am.
‘I’ll meet you by your car in fifteen minutes. Bring a jumper. Early mornings are cold as ice out here. Oh, and your keys, of course.’
Kevin was already standing by the car and leaning against his walking frame when Jade appeared. ‘Let’s go,’ he said chirpily.
He directed them as she drove along the dirt track driveway and back onto the highway. They travelled for around ten minutes until they reached a flat region by the side of the road.
‘You can’t come to Australia without seeing the sun rise,’ Kevin said. ‘It’s like nothing on earth.’
They sat together, listening to a playlist of soul classics as the darkness gradually lifted and was replaced by a purple and orange hew.
‘How often do you come out here?’ she asked.
‘Quite a lot when I was first diagnosed,’ he said. ‘Then I went into a dark place for a while. I was angry at everything, especially thinking that everyone else would have a lifetime of sunrises and sunsets, while mine were limited. Then I began to understand that being here to see any sunrise was a major accomplishment. It means I’ve lived for one more day.’
Jade instinctively placed her head on Kevin’s shoulder, where it remained until the sun rose and he’d long drifted off to sleep. His hand was cold, his skin parchment-like and she wondered how he might have felt to the touch before cancer started eating away at him.
While the intense Match Your DNA love was still undoubtedly missing, there was no doubt that she felt relaxed around him. They’d shared so many intense conversations by phone that she’d come to see him as a best friend as well as her Match. Maybe that was more important than anything else, she thought. Maybe when you took it back to basics, that’s what love really was: just being there for someone when the sun rises and sets.
Jade arrived back at the farm with her sleeping partner and was greeted by his brother who opened the passenger door and unclipped Kevin’s seatbelt. He scooped him into his arms and carried him back into the house as Jade looked on, suddenly feeling the first pangs of something that she couldn’t identify.
Chapter 39
NICK
Nick nursed the steaming polystyrene cup of hot chocolate he’d bought from the kiosk a safe distance away from the grass pitches. He’d contemplated buying himself a burger too until he spotted the filthy fingernails of the man serving behind the counter.
It was the first rugby game he’d ever attended – his school had been keener to teach hockey than rugby – and it was as cold as hell outside. He pulled the grey cashmere scarf Sally had bought for his birthday tightly around his neck and his hoodie up over his head to keep his ears warm.
What am I doing here? he wondered, having no clue what the game’s rules were or what the state of play was on the pitch. All he knew was that he could barely keep his eyes off the one player in front of him.
Nick’s eyes moved from Alex’s calves to his thick, tree trunk thighs and then his solid torso. He almost willed himself to be turned on by Alex’s physical appearance so their Match might start making sense. If they had been pre-determined to be together, surely he’d feel at least a mild sexual arousal? But there was nothing.
On a whim, Nick had decided to spend his morning watching the game. He’d recalled the framed photo of the team on the wall of Alex’s office and had searched online for their fixtures list to see when they were playing next. The location was a community rugby pitch in Birmingham’s suburbs but, aware of how creepy it might appear if he suddenly turned up unannounced, Nick stood a distance away from the other supporters to watch Alex from afar.
A week had passed since they’d met at the bar, where they’d stayed for much of the evening, becoming acquainted with one another. They’d both grown steadily drunk, gradually discovering more things they had in common, from artists to architecture, from travel to rock music. The only subject both were reticent to go into any detail about was their relationships with their partners. And as the conversation flowed, neither of them brought up their Match again, although it wasn’t far from their thoughts.
Their time together had only been cut short when Alex’s girlfriend Mary called asking when to expect him home. For the briefest of moments, Nick felt jealous.
They had parted with a polite but lingering handshake, each secretly fearing that this touch might be their last. Neither suggested meeting again, nor keeping in contact; however, it seemed to be enough, for now, to know the other was out there, albeit leading their lives independently of one another.
In the meantime, Sally had arranged for her and Nick to take a surprise trip to Bruges. The first Nick knew of it was when on a Friday afternoon, she turned up at his office with two suitcases, Eurostar tickets and print-out confirmation of a hotel she’d booked. There’d been a distance in their relationship recently and he felt that he’d let this business with Alex come between them. But the way Sally had arranged their sexy getaway made him feel as if she were trying to make up for something too. She was much more distracted than usual and he could only assume it was that she was upset he had been Matched. He tried to put the thought to the back of his mind.
In Bruges, her sexual appetite was almost insatiable and, when they weren’t sightseeing, they were in bed. Part of him wondered if she suspected he had seen Alex again and that she was trying to compete. But neither mentioned his name.
On their return to Birmingham, Nick didn’t just want to see Alex again, he needed to. It had been eight days since they had last been in each other’s company.
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a rugby ball flying through the air which smacked him square on the shoulder. ‘Shit,’ he yelled in surprise. The crowd in front of him parted and left him exposed.
‘Pass us the ball, mate?’ a stocky, shaven-headed man yelled through his gum-shield and, just as Nick threw it clumsily in the player’s direction, Alex saw him. Nick looked back apprehensively, promptly regretting his decision to crowbar his way into Alex’s private world.
But when Nick saw the smile slowly creeping across Alex’s face, his own didn’t lag far behind.