Forthright

Forthright

‘T HAT SHIRT IS

incredible,’ Bella says as I come to sit beside her on the bench. The silk shines in the sunlight, making the cheetahs look even more majestic. They are spectacular. I have never felt so emboldened by a piece of clothing.

‘I thought I’d need to improve my wardrobe if I’m to go a-courting.’

‘Probably best not to call it a-courting

.’

She opens a multipack of crisps and offers me my selection. I go for salt and vinegar.

‘I replied to Val,’ I tell her.

‘Good for you,’ she says.

‘We have exchanged seven messages now.’

‘Sounds promising,’ Bella says. ‘And what’s she like?’

‘What’s she like? Gosh, I don’t know. Forthright, I think would be the word.’

Bella spits out her crisp, laughing.

‘What? Being forthright is a good quality,’ I say in Val’s defence.

‘In a first love?’

As Bella returns to her cheese-and-onion crisps and resumes crunching, I assess her question as though it is a spider that has just crawled into my view and I am determining if I ought to fear it or befriend it. If it can be captured, or if I should let it scuttle free and see what sinister things it does next. What have I learned about Val? Val is eighty-seven, she likes cross-stitch, classical music, her dog is named Trudie and she has one adult son. Though I am gathering information about her and I have her photograph from her dating profile – cropped white hair, violet earrings that look handmade, sensible scarf, only the hint of a smile – I find it hard to assemble all these pieces into a person. Perhaps people enjoy this about internet dating, the jigsaw assembly of a stranger into someone you love. I wonder if on meeting her I might discover I assembled the pieces incorrectly. That I put her heart where her mind is, or the reverse.

It is hard to convey any of the important things through these messages with Val, I realize – things like charm or a sense of humour or a frisson of a spark. I am being very careful with myself, as I’m not sure how jokes come across in the large font of the Platinum Singles chat box. The messages are long, with each of us being careful to answer all the questions we have been asked by the other. In my latest reply, I relayed to her that I have no siblings, that my favourite colour is blue and that I have worked in the charity shop for nearly twelve years.

I pull out my phone and navigate to the app. Though my most recent message hasn’t been marked as ‘seen’, I write another. Beautiful day! Hope you are enjoying the sunshine,

Eddie

, and I put a kiss. I believe we must blame the cheetahs for this fit of digital chutzpah.

To this, Val replies instantly, It is beautiful here too. Trudie is running on the beach as we speak!

And after this, she has put an x, too. Gathering the butterflies in my stomach, I sit for a moment. I have received my first digital kiss. That must be progress.