A spark of curiosity

“Hey Meelah, hope you’re doing well. It's Alex’s uncle, Ethan. I know this might seem unexpected, but I've been thinking about you lately and I wanted to reach out, you’re an incredible person, and I always thought you deserved better than my nephew. would you love to grab a coffee and catch up sometime?”

Melanie’s eyes widen as she reads the message from Alex’s uncle. She couldn’t believe he would reach out to her like that.

Although Ethan’s message is friendly and casual, yet slightly flirtatious. Melanie feels a mix of emotions: surprise, discomfort, and a hint of fear even though Ethan is being respectful by acknowledging the past relationship but also showing interest in getting to know Melanie, she doesn’t know how to respond or even if she wants to.

Trying to shake off the uneasy feeling, Melanie decides to focus on something else. She suddenly remembers the dating site login details that Kalinin had left her earlier, She can’t afford to think about either Alex or his uncle she decides to focus on meeting new people and completely moving from her past or anything related to her past and the mix of negative emotions that she is feeling is replaced by a sense of excitement and possibility but just as she was getting to it, her phone buzzed again.

Another message from Ethan reads “Hi, you haven’t replied,” and her heart skips a beat.

She didn’t want to deal with the issue at that moment so she put her phone on DND {DO NOT DISTURB} and continued to browse the dating site, determined to find a distraction from the unexpected turn of events.

As Meelah downloads the dating app, her heart races with a mix of excitement and nerves, she had never tried online dating before, but Kalinin’s words echo in her mind: “You need to put yourself out there, Mel.”

She creates a profile, uploads a photo, and writes a brief bio. Then, she moves on to the preferences section. She hesitated for a while before selecting her criteria: his age should be within the range of 25-35 years old. His Location must be Orion {her current city} and his interests have to be along the lines of art, music, hiking, and reading lastly for personality traits, she selects kind, funny, adventurous, and genuine.

She clicks “search” and waits for the app to load. A few seconds later, a list of profiles appears on her screen. Melanie scrolls through, her eyes scanning the photos and the bios.

That’s when she sees him-Caleb Wellington and she clicks on his profile picture to check if he is her spec or not, His profile picture shows a handsome young man with piercing blue eyes, and his bio read:

“Artist by day, Musician by night. Always up for an adventure, looking for someone who shares my passions and sense of humor.”

Melanie’s heart skips a beat. There was just something about Caleb’s profile that drew her in and she felt a spark of curiosity and interest in him so she clicked on his profile to learn more the app showed her a full-screen photo of Caleb and he was even more attractive than she had initially thought that she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to meet him in person.

As Melanie is viewing Caleb’s profile, he happens to be online and he notices that someone is currently viewing his profile and he sends a message.

“He, Caught you checking ne out”

Melanie’s heart skips a beat as she sees the message pop up on her screen. She felt a mix of surprise and excitement.

“Guilty as charged,” she replies, trying to play it cool.

“so, want to come check out my club tonight? You seem like a cool person and I’d love to meet you in person.”

Melanie hesitates for a moment, unsure if she should meet up with someone she had just matched with online but there is just something about Caleb’s profile and their brief conversation that makes her feel drawn to him.

“Do you ask all the girls that you have matched with on this app for almost five minutes after you chatted with them that you wanted to meet up with them?”

“NO,” he replies with a smiley emoji.

“You are the first girl that I am speaking to on this app and the only reason why I am on a dating app is because my best friend dared me, and we kinda had a bet that I was going to spend a week on this app without being able to match with someone that matches my vibe

“Wow,” she sends to him, conveying her sense of astonishment.

“So….are you down for the meetup?” he asks her again.

“Okay, sure. What time and where?” she asks him, her heart racing with anticipation because agreeing to meet up with someone that she just started talking to is way out of character for her.

“10 pm at ‘The Beat’ club. I’ll leave your name at the door,” Caleb replies.

Melanie nods to herself, even though she knows that he can’t see her. She is feeling a thrill of excitement at the prospect of meeting Caleb later in the day so she quickly gets up from her bed and rushes to Kalinin’s matrimonial room with excitement radiating from her face.

“Kali, Kali! You won’t believe what just happened!” Melanie exclaims, barely containing her enthusiasm and forgetting to acknowledge Kali’s husband’s presence.

“I will just excuse myself,” Martins takes the initiative and excuses him from the room without making the situation awkward.

“What’s going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Kalinin looks up from her book curious

“I matched with someone on the dating app, and we are meeting up tonight at his club! I need your help Kali; I have no idea what to wear and how to get to the club.” Melanie speaks up after taking a deep breath and Kali’s eyes widen in surprise, then a huge grin spreads across her face

“Is this a joke?” Kal asks, refusing to believe her ears.

“Nooo,” Mel answers

“I know that I used our mom to threaten you and I gave you an ultimatum but everything that I said was because I wanted you to take the dating app seriously and you understood the assignment,”

“Oh my God, Mel!”

“This is amazing! Tell me everything” she urges.

“His name is Caleb, and I suspect that he is a musician because of his bio he invited me to his club ‘The Beat’ tonight at 10 pm but I have no idea what to wear or how to get there. Can you help me?” Melanie sits down on Kalinin’s matrimonial bed as she narrates

“Of course, sis! I will get you looking like a snack and make sure that you get to the club like a pro,” Kalinin nods, already mentally planning Melanie’s outfit and route to the club.

Come on, let’s go back to your room and find you something amazing to wear,” Kalinin jumps from her bed and grabs Melanie’s hand.

Melanie follows Kalinin to her room, where Kalinin begins to rummage through the open boxes from Pearl Coast.

“We need to find something that will make you shine tonight!”

“This is it! This will look perfect on you.” Kalinin holds up a stunning black dress after a few minutes of searching.

“Wow, I had completely forgotten about this dress” Melanie’s eyes widen as she takes the dress from Kalinin

Kalinin starts helping Melanie get ready three-year-old Kionna wanders into the room, Curiosity sparkling in her eyes.

“Aunty Mel, where are you going?” Kionna asks, tugging on Melanie’s dress.

“Auntie’s just going out for a little bit, sweetie. She will be back soon,” Melanie hesitates, unsure of how much to reveal to a three-year-old.

“Auntie’s up to something!” she exclaims as if she knew a secret.

“Kionna you are too smart for your good!” Kalinin chuckles.

“Auntie is just going to meet some friends, okay?” Melanie laughs, trying to deflect Kionna’s curiosity.

“I want to come too,” Kionna nods but her eyes still spark with suspicion.

“Not tonight, baby. Aunty needs some grown-up time but I can promise you that we will have our fun soon, okay?” Kalinin says as she scoops up Kionna.

As Kalinin distracts Kionna, Melanie finishes getting ready, feeling a mix of excitement and nerves. She knows Kionna is way too young to understand what is going on, but she couldn’t help but wonder what the night ahead held.

“I want to go with Aunty Mel! I don’t want to stay here” Kionna crosses her arms, pouting and before Kalinin could react, she jumps down from her arms and starts throwing a tantrum.

“Kionna, auntie needs some grown-up time and it is not suitable for you to go with her because she will go out by 10 pm and be back really late, more so it is way past your bedtime as it is,” Kalinin tries to reason with her daughter.

“I want to go! Wahhhhh!” Kionna insists.

Kalinin sighs, trying to calm her down but Kionna is not having any of it.

“I’m going to call Daddy!”

“Kionna, wait!” Kionna runs out of the room, with Kalinin chasing after her.

Melanie gives her sister a knowing look but she waves it with the look that assures her not to worry about it and Kalinin helps Melanie touch up her really simple but elegant makeup.

A few minutes later, Kionna’s father and Kalinin’s husband, Marcus, appear in the doorway.

“What’s going on here?” he inquires and after Kalinin explains the situation to him, he raises an eyebrow.

“Twenty-four hours ago, you didn’t have any friends in Orion. What is going on Mel?” he asks Melanie, picking an impatient Kionna from the ground and cradling her in his arms.

“I just met someone online, and we are meeting up tonight.” Melanie shifts uncomfortably as she explains the situation.

“You finally told her about the dating site?” Marcus asks as he looks at Kalinin.

“I didn’t just tell her about it, I even helped her get ready” Melanie nods as she answers.

“I’ll talk to you about this later. Kionna, come here and say goodbye to Auntie Mel.” He shakes his head as he raises Kionna’s little arms and waves goodbye to Aunty Mel.

“Mommy said she is leaving by 10,” Kionna argues.

“Since Auntie Mel is done getting ready, she will be on her way now,” Kalinin says as she pulls Melanie out of the room

“I need to say goodbye to my favorite girl,” she says as she quickly retracts her hand from Kalinin’s hands and rushes towards both Marcus and Kionna.

“I still want to go with you Auntie,” Kionna hugs Mel as soon as Mel gets to her.

“We will have fun together my darling but you need to have fun with mommy and daddy tonight” Melanie smiles and hugs Kionna back as she proceeds to leave the room with her sister.

As Melanie and Kalinin exited the room, Mel could feel the father and daughter's eyes on her, probably wondering what she was getting herself into.

On getting out of the house, Kalinin books Melanie an Uber after which she explains how she is going to navigate her way around the city with the aid of Orion’s city map as Melanie steps into the Uber, she can’t help but wonder if she was making the right decision by leaving her house at 9 pm for a meet up that is scheduled for 8 pm. and she can only hope and pray that she doesn’t regret it.