Inktober 2025 - 6 - Pierce

Their eyes barely met across the room for a few seconds before he decided to come talk to her.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he asked politely.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to decide whether or not she should give him a chance.

"How old are you?"

"I'm 24. Why?"

He was smiling, and she started to wonder if maybe she could not hold her liquor anymore. She had only had one glass but suddenly she felt a bit warm.

"Well… I sort of have this idea in my head that my soulmate is supposed to be five years younger than me."

She really should not be telling him this, but again, she was feeling open, all of a sudden.

"That's… oddly specific."

"I know, right?"

"And where, may I ask, do you get that idea from?"

"Don't laugh, but: the psychic from the last bachelorette party I was at."

"Aren't psychics usually notoriously vague in their predictions?"

"Oh, but she did not predict anything. That lady took one look at me, and she told me I had one of Cupid's arrows stuck in my heart."

"Aouch."

"Right? And she told me that it was the reason I had never had a boyfriend or even been in love."

"Harsh."

"Nah, she was actually dead-on about that."

"I find that hard to believe."

She rolled her eyes at how charming he was.

"Anyway, I played along, and questioned her logic. I mean, if I'd been hit by one of Cupid's arrows, shouldn't I be in love, rather than an ice queen?"

"Makes sense to me."

"It made sense to me, too! But then she went on to explain that Cupid's arrows are not supposed to get stuck in anyone; they're supposed to go through soulmates right before they meet for the very first time. And the only way for an arrow to be stopped in its tracks, is if its target dies before it reaches them."

"Well, this story took a dark turn."

"You have no idea. Because the thing is, when I was five years old, I was in a school bus accident. It was November, the bus skid on a patch of black ice, there was nothing the driver could have done. He died in the crash, and so did a few of my classmates."

"That's horrible!"

"I barely remembered it until that lady asked me whether I'd been anywhere near someone as they died."

"So, you're thinking your soulmate died on that bus."

"And, if he's still around, he's got to have been reincarnated around that time, which would make him five years younger than me."

He pondered what she was saying for a little while, nodding silently.

"You don't want to buy me that drink anymore, do you?" she guessed.

"Actually, I was doing the math. My birthday is in August. I think I just figured out what that pinch I felt in my chest when I noticed you across the bar was. So, I'm guessing I should think about buying you a ring, at some point."