Page 31 of Fling

‘Oh please, you’re practically giddy. Come on, spill the tea!’

‘OK, you’re right! I got a match last night. But not just any match. A one hundred per cent match!’

‘OMG, who is he? What’s his name?’ she asked, dying for the gossip.

‘His name is Jack. He’s thirty-six and he lives right here in Dublin!’ Tara said, unable to hide her excitement.

‘And is he hot?’ Emily said, expecting to see some kind of photo.

‘He’s more than just hot. He’s sensual, understanding and so easy to talk to. He’s definitely an Aries, I can tell,’ Tara said.

‘Good, that means you’re getting rammed.’

‘Emily, behave!’

‘Come on, show me his photo already!’

‘Well . . . I don’t have one . . . I don’t actually know what he looks like.’

‘You just said he was hot!’

‘Well, I could feel his heat through the phone,’ Tara said, thinking back to their steamy conversation.

‘I suppose it’s a glass-half-full situation. He could be a supermodel or he could be a goblin. Depends if you’re an optimist or a pessimist,’ Emily said.

‘There’s no way he’s ugly based on his texting. Or should I say . . . sexting!’

‘Shut up! You two sexted? I’m so proud. I love being a bad influence on you. Show me the texts!’

‘Some things are best left to the imagination, don’t you think? Let’s just say he left me feeling very . . . flattered. But something strange happened when we matched. Emily, in your psychology course, did you ever study something called synchronicity?’ Tara asked.

‘We skimmed over it, why?’

‘Well, right when I matched with Jack on Fling, I got my gut feeling.’

‘Ugh, I have IBS too. There’s a probiotic in my bag if you want one?’ Emily said.

‘No, I mean my intuition feeling. The same feeling I got when I met Colin. I felt a synchronicity with Jack, the strongest one I’ve ever felt.’

‘Hmm, from what I can remember, Carl Jung said synchronicity was the connecting principle and that all coincidences have meaning. But it’s considered a pseudoscience because you can’t technically prove it’s real. How would you describe the feeling?’

Tara took a breath and collected her thoughts. It was such a peculiar thing to explain, and people often looked at her like she had ten heads whenever she brought it up. She hoped Emily would keep an open mind.

‘It’s like a sudden moment of clarity. What’s that word? Epiphany! Like a little wink from the universe telling me I’m in the right place at the right time. It feels like women’s intuition mixed with déjà vu. I get goosebumps all over and this tingle down the back of my neck. And I can feel a kind of vibration running through me, followed by a release,’ Tara explained, struggling to find the words.

Silence. Emily was looking her up and down.

‘Tara . . . are you sure you didn’t just have an orgasm?’ Emily asked, smirking.

‘Oh for God’s sake, not everything is about sex, Emily,’ Tara said, throwing her eyes up to heaven.

‘Maybe I’ve read too much Freud and not enough Jung,’ Emily laughed. ‘Either way, this means that your one hundred per cent match with Jack might not be random. There must be something to it.’

Tara felt incredibly relieved. Colin always made fun of her for believing in such things. It was nice to explain it to someone with an open mind.

‘But we have a problem, Emily. Jack wants me to send him a body pic tonight. And I don’t know what to do!’ Tara said, pacing across her office.

‘Don’t worry, I’m an expert at taking nudes,’ Emily bragged.

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