A Perfect Record

Chapter 1: Strong Coffee

I met my wife through online dating, although whenever I tell people that, I usually leave out one important detail until the end.

It was a wet Thursday evening when I created the account. Rain tapped against my apartment window, the television muttered to an empty room, and a half-eaten takeaway sat cooling on the table.

For several months, my friends had been encouraging me to try online dating.

“You need to meet someone,” my friend Daniel had said.

“I meet people every day.”

“The cashier at the supermarket doesn’t count.”

“She knows which bread I buy.”

“That is not romance.”

I had always resisted. The idea of advertising myself to strangers felt unnatural. How was I supposed to summarize an entire personality in a few sentences?

I liked strong coffee, old films, quiet Sundays, and books I often bought faster than I could read them. None of that seemed especially impressive. I did not climb mountains, rescue abandoned animals, or spend my weekends sailing across mysterious oceans.