Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

K iera’s phone pinged. She rolled her eyes, suspecting it would be her tenants again, but when she opened the phone she saw she had a notification from the dating app, letting her know she had ‘likes’ waiting for her. Before she could talk herself out of it, she opened it up for the first time in ages and started to scroll through. There were the inevitable animal filters and pictures of women alongside a large group of friends. She had no idea how she was supposed to know which was the one looking for a girlfriend. However, she had a sneaking sensation it wouldn’t be the most attractive one in the picture. She was being uncharitable and shallow, and she knew it.

The swiping left commenced, on each of the women with children in their picture. Why did they do this? She understood why people with children flagged they were a parent, but surely a picture of a child in your dating profile was unnecessary. She swiped left on at least seven profiles of women who were scowling at the camera in an apparent attempt at ‘being cool’, although she had a sneaking suspicion that using the word ‘cool’ was, in itself, uncool. Then there came the profile of a man with a pot belly holding a large fish that he had presumably just caught, as he was wearing waders. She wasn’t sure how he’d landed up in her suggestions.

Mr Chips was sitting beside her on the sofa, peering at her phone. Kiera posed the question to him. “Do you really think any straight women would find a picture of a man with a fish alluring?” Mr Chips looked away in disdain. “Exactly,” said Kiera, swiping left.

A smiley-looking woman beamed from the app. She was a bit younger than Kiera, but not by too many years. Her description of herself was fairly sane – so many profiles contained lists of all the things the person didn’t want, rather than what they did want. Kiera was tickled by the requests for ‘no baggage’ and ‘no drama’. She wasn’t sure anyone could get past the age of twenty-five with no baggage whatsoever; it was the human condition. And as for drama, well, she didn’t think she brought any, but she did appear to have had a very dramatic wife, before her vanishing act.

The smiley woman’s name was Abi. Kiera took a breath in and swiped right. Almost immediately a notification came up to say that they were a match. Kiera was surprised, and a little bit thrilled. It was always good to be wanted, even in a superficial way, on the basis of a photo and a few words.

She decided to be brave, and messaged Abi – just a message saying ‘hello’ and that she was pleased they had matched. She put her phone back on the table and busied herself with the washing up and a few chores. The flat had to be hoovered, and it was a good day for the job. By the time she was done, she found a message from Abi waiting for her .

“Hi there, Kiera, love the name. Fab to match too. I was beginning to lose hope. What are you doing this fine Sunday?”

“Hi, well I’m doing very exciting things like hoovering and shopping today, but later on I’ll be settling down with a book and a pot of tea. As you can see, I am very rock and roll,” typed Kiera. The truth was as good an answer as any.

Three dots appeared. “Nice. What are you reading? I’m currently working my way through the George R R Martin books. #heavy.”

“You’re braver than me. I’m reading Murder at the Vicarage – it’s the first Miss Marple book. I realised recently I’ve never read any Agatha Christie, and all I know about her I learnt mostly from an episode of Dr Who a few years ago. #MustDoBetter.”

“Love a bit of Agatha. I’ve not read the Marple books, but have read a few of her others. She was something of a mystery herself, wasn’t she?”

“So I gather,” wrote Kiera.

“Right, I need to go. TTFN. Talk later? X”

“Have a good one. Talk soon. X” Typed Kiera, hoping she had struck the right balance. Having a conversation about books definitely felt like a good sign.

She opened up her book and began to read. Today was a good day, washing machine notwithstanding.