The Woman Before You: An intense, addictive love story with an unexpected twist.... Carrie Blake

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СКАЧАТЬ talked about his hometown of West Orange; about what he studied in college, and his favorite TV shows. But when he started to ask me about my life a funny thing happened. I told him I grew up in Ohio, had two brothers, and two parents who were crazy in love. My dad was a historian and my mom was a lawyer. Dad was a total romantic and my mom was a real-life superhero. I had a grandmother I was really close to (actually my great-aunt, but I called her Nana—‘a long story,’ I told him), who passed away last year. The best Christmas present I ever got was my Labrador-mix named Juno, when I was nine. I met my best friend when we were in kindergarten, and I lived with her now.

      I watched his eyes light up as I pulled out the props for my character. I could feel how excited he was to know me—this girl with so much potential who knew where she had come from and where she was going. I had written a different script for myself. I became the girl he would want to see again, someone who would meet his dog, his mom, his best friends from home.

      After a chaste kiss at the corner, I walked home alone. I deleted our conversation from the app on my phone. I didn’t want a second date. I wanted to preserve that moment. The look on his face when he thought he recognized me, when I became the perfect girl. It was almost like acting except better. I wasn’t just memorizing lines, I was writing them, too. And in real time for an audience of one.

      I wanted to feel that way again. To meet someone, figure out who they were and what they wanted, and become the person they needed, then watch them fall in love. Now I was the one not giving callbacks. I’ll admit, it felt good to finally have some power. When Tinder started to feel stale and flooded with perverts, I made profiles on Bumble, Thrinder (even more of a challenge), OkCupid, Coffee Meets Bagel—and each with a slightly different character. On Bumble, I was Riley from Portland, Maine. On Thrinder, I was Lorrie from the Bay Area. On OkCupid I was Amanda from Manhattan. All I had to do was make a new email, and a new Facebook profile (back when Facebook made it easy to do such a thing). I never went on more than a first date—and never took more than a sweet goodnight kiss on the cheek. I was still a good Midwestern girl, after all, and one date wasn’t enough time for anyone to get hurt. I thought of it as more of an ever-evolving character study game. I loved keeping all the scripts in my head at once, remembering which app I met so-and-so on, which backstory to pull out.

      That day, I was going on a coffee date with a Mr Matthew from Bumble. I pulled up Bumble and scrolled through his pictures. From what I could see, he was tall with broad shoulders, and dark hair. There were no puppy pictures. There was Matthew on the beach in a tank top and American flag shorts, all square chest and tight, tan quads, Matthew sitting at the center of a group of guys, his thick shoulders wrapped around the two closest to him. But the one I kept swiping back to was a picture of Matthew standing on a pier, the sunset behind him framing his face. His head was thrown up to the sky and his eyes were closed, like he was in the middle of the greatest laugh. He had the best jawline I’d ever seen.

      I grabbed my stuff and prepared to leave for my lunch break date. Steve told me to ‘have fun’ as I walked out the door. As I was walking to the coffee shop to meet Matthew, I kept thinking about that laugh, that jawline. I didn’t know why, but something about this date made me want to ride the line—maybe show him a little more of the ‘real’ Isabel. A new character challenge, or so I thought.

      When I walked into the coffee shop, I spotted him immediately. Our eyes locked and we both grinned, mirroring each other’s delight as we moved closer to each other. When I got to his table, he stood up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He smelled expensive—all sandalwood and vetiver—and my knees buckled as I tried to remember what he thought my name was.

      ‘Excited to meet you, Riley,’ he said, watching me as I sat down.

      I laughed and said something about the pleasure being all mine. This was a new role for me—the fumbling girl who couldn’t get the words out of her mouth in the right order. I blushed every time I looked at his smile, and had to look away.

      He glanced at his watch and said something about having to be back to the office for a meeting later in the afternoon, then asked me what I did. I opened my mouth to start talking about my uncle’s lobster boat on the coast, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I had this strange feeling that telling Matthew who I really was would make him like me even more.

      ‘Okay, so here’s the deal,’ I said. ‘My name isn’t Riley, and I’m not from Maine.’

      He smiled but didn’t say anything. And so I did. I told him about growing up in Iowa and about moving to New York to be an actress and about failing at being an actress and about my ‘acting game’ with the dating apps and finally my sad life working for creepy Steve at Doctor Sleep, just down the street.

      I laughed as I finished my confessional monologue, and leaned back in my chair, waiting for him to react.

      He was quiet for a beat but his eyes were bright and working fast to take me in.

      ‘So that’s it? Any recent ex-boyfriend killing sprees? Any fetishes you want to confess?’

      I laughed. ‘No. No. That can wait for our second date.’

      ‘Well then,’ he said, smiling as he leaned in closer to me. ‘I’m excited to meet you, Isabel.’

      It was liberating to let someone in on my secret game. I had gotten the feeling that he would be okay with the story, but I was still surprised to realize that he was not only okay with it, he was thrilled by it. I was working hard to look cool and unfazed, but the way he said my name made it hard to stay composed.

      ‘Now your turn.’ I said. ‘Is your name really Matthew?’

      ‘No, no,’ he said. ‘That can wait for our second date.’

      We both laughed.

      He looked at his watch. I looked at my phone. My lunch hour was up and I had to be back at Doctor Sleep in a few minutes.

      Before I had a chance to say anything, Matthew said, ‘Hey, I have a crazy question.’

      ‘Go for it,’ I said.

      ‘I’m sure you’re about to tell me you have to go back to work. But I feel like I’ve only just met you, Isabel-formerly-known-as-Riley. And the truth is, I don’t want to stop being with you just yet.’

      I was floating. I definitely didn’t want to leave him either. ‘So what do you suggest we do?’

      ‘Well, I don’t feel it’s fair to deprive the poor mattress shoppers of their favorite Sleep Doctor, so what if I came back to the store with you and pretended to be your customer? I’ll wait for a minute to come in so your boss won’t suspect a thing.’

      I smiled and shrugged. ‘Sure. Why not?’ I knew Steve would be going on break when I got back from mine, anyway. It was probably the first time I had ever been excited to race back to the store from lunch.

      When I walked back my whole body was buzzing. I was kind of okay with the idea of slipping on my uniform today.

      I walked into the store and Steve said, ‘I’m going on break.’ The timing was too perfect. I wondered what Steve did when he left. I didn’t ask and I didn’t complain even though his breaks were getting longer and more frequent.

      ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Take your time.’ The truth was, I usually hated being alone in there in plain view of every passing maniac who might think, Hey! Look! A young woman all by herself with a cash register and a lot of mattresses! But today, I was excited СКАЧАТЬ