The Matchmaker Meets Her Match

NINE

The bustling noise of the city early in the morning, the honking of cars down the street and the constant chattering of people within the cafe made it extremely difficult for me to retreat into the shell that was my mind to consult my thoughts. The small object, the diamond ring, suddenly felt heavy in my hand. It was so small yet it weighed down on my palm. I couldn't ignore its existence as I desperately wanted to.

The best I could do was to get rid of it, so I placed it down on the table and slid it to the other side where Ambrose was seated. I did the same with the photographs that were by my side before I grabbed my purse and stood up.

"It was nice to meet you, Ambrose," I began as he took a sip from his mug. He was carefree with a devil may care attitude. He did not register the seriousness of the situation or of what he said. He simply blurted out those words to me, a stranger he hardly knew and had never met before. I had heard enough for that day and I my work with him was already completed. I had no reason to stay at the cafe. I had to see my other clients as well and I didn't want to deal with the mentally straining situation he tried to out me through.

"I thought your job was to bring happiness to people," Ambrose said as I was about to leave. Indeed, my life's goal was to bring happiness to people who desired it by helping them find true love. However, it was an entirely different story when it involved me.

"What of it?" I asked, questioning why I was still at the cafe. He had expressed stalker behavior and had proposed to me despite just having met me. I had had enough and wanted to leave, however, something compelled me to stay. I remained standing with the purse clutched in my hand.

"Give me happiness, Beatrice. It's written in the stars, isn't it? We're meant to be together," he said, causing me to grit my teeth behind my lips. I couldn't understand why he was so smug and arrogant. Certainly, he was rich but that didn't give him the right to behave that way in front of anyone. He sat back in his seat, a smirk on his face that only managed to infuriate me, and ran his hand through his hair.

"While I won't deny that there's some compatability between us, I don't think I want to be anywhere near you or to see you again," I said, finally making up my mind to leave. I had reached a new point in my newly discovered career and it put me in a tough position. I had only one desire in life which didn't involve any man whatsoever, let alone an engaged one. I had to focus on my job and didn't need any distractions.

"If you walk out without talking to me, that would make you a hypocrite." Ambrose's next words forced me to stop moving and to immediately turn around to show him the scowl on my face.

"Call me whatever you want. You'll have to learn that you can't get everything you want," I said in a lowered voice to avoid drawing any unwanted attention. I finally began to understand the reason my other clients grew angry with my predictions. They already had someone they gave their heart to and finding out that they had to abandon them for someone they were 'compatible' with must have caused too much mental and physical strain.

Ambrose was proposing to me because he believed I would make him happy, but I wasn't interested in bringing joy to anyone by involving myself in that manner. This wasn't my love story, it was my life story. A mission I had to fulfill for a reason I completely forgot about. My ability wasn't to be used for my benefit but rather for everyone else.

"All I want is one thing, and that is you-"

"You have a fiancée who is plenty happy with you. Why can't you be content with that?" I said, moving back to the table as I noticed some eyes were on me. What I had to constantly do was to remind my clients that my job was merely to give them advice. They didn't have to take it to heart, however, knowing that they wouldn't be fully happy with their current partner, that they would face hardships in the near future, made them want to seek perfection and avoid the avoidable pain.

"She's happy to be with me, but I'm not with her," Ambrose said, sitting up properly when I sat back down. He was eager to keep me next to him and used whatever means to prevent me from leaving without a conclusion to our conversation.

"I don't reckon you're breaking up with her because of me?" I asked, suspicious that he really might have been about to cause someone else pain for his selfish reasons.

"Actually, I am. I wasn't too certain when I came here but knowing that you're the one for me makes me want to devout myself to you," he said as I looked straight into his sandy eyes. I couldn't read him; couldn't tell if he was being sincere or faking his emotions so that I could agree to be with him.

"You realize that I would be a hypocrite if I allowed you to do that, right?" Indeed, if I caused someone else pain on my mission to bring joy, I would be a hypocrite and that would be going against my job. That's why I was keen on the idea of rejecting married clients so as to not be the one who tears apart their relationship on my journey to bring happiness.

I couldn't take Ambrose away from someone else, not that I was interested in him. I would never think of being with a man who already had someone else. Would never think to have him leave his significant other for me. That would have been immoral and would have turned me into a terrible person. There were so many factors that pointed out that Ambrose wasn't the person I wanted to be with, but we were compatible together and that alone was enough to cause mind wrecking contemplations about my life.

"Keep your fiancée happy, Ambrose," I started, standing up again, "... you and I being compatible with each other doesn't mean that we should be together." He sat back in his seat with a sigh. Getting through to me would be a very difficult task. My mind was already set and nothing could get me to change it.

"You know, if you don't take your own predictions seriously, how do you expect your other clients to do the same? Won't that make everything pointless?" He called out to me once I had walked a few feet away. I stopped moving but didn't turn around to face me.

"It's up to them whether it's pointless or not. They're the ones who make the final decision," and I said, finally walking out of the cafe. I pulled out my phone and sent a message to Tatum so that he could pick me up and he was there in a minute. I threw my purse in the back seat and sighed heavily as I sat down and closed the door. Tatum raised his eyebrow, curious as to what could have been bothering me.

"Tough client?" He asked and I nodded. I did not wake up thinking that I would be placed into such a tough position. I was only twenty years old, having moved to the city from the countryside in less than a month. I was already involved in too many stressful situations without a man I hardly knew proposing to me out of the blue. It made me wonder if I had made some sort of a mistake because I could some regret seep into my form.

I didn't want to be placed in the position of my clients by reading my own face, nor did I want to be forced into a loveless relationship simply because we were compatible with each other. I still had no idea of the basis of how it was determined that someone was compatible with someone else. Was it because of the things they had in common? Shared interests? Shared hopes and dreams for the future? I couldn't figure it out on my own. All I could do was to relay the message onto people and have them figure out how they will continue their lives with the knowledge I bestowed onto them.

"I hope the next one doesn't give me problems either. I would just like to have a peaceful day for once," I muttered just loud enough for Tatum to hear. With three clients a day, it was never guaranteed that I would return to my apartment content about having down my job. One of the three people who consulted me would leave angry, but not without cursing at me or expressing their anger towards me.

They didn't react physically other than by slamming their hands on the table and such, which I was grateful for, but the verbal assault hurt as much as it would have physically. I was new at that job and still very naive. I had no idea if I was doing anything right or wrong. I was along with no one else to give me advice. Tatum tried to be there for me but ultimately he didn't completely understand what I was going through.

"Do you want me to go in with you? I don't have to sit at your table," Tatum suggested, an idea that I was not so keen towards but realized that it would help me calm down. I wouldn't feel so nervous if I knew that Tatum was with me and he would be far enough that he wouldn't hear my discussions with the client. Ambrose didn't throw a fit, meaning that one of the next two clients will and I wanted Tatum to be in the same room when that happened.

Just because someone hasn't reacted physically didn't mean that they wouldn't in the future. It was better to be safe and well prepared to avoid getting hurt.

"What do you know about the next client?" Tatum asked. My next client was a woman in her late forties who had never been married before. She had lived a very busy life running her own business. She did have children, though, but with the wrong people. She loved her children but they would soon grow up and move away, leaving her alone in the house. She was near the age of retirement, meaning that if she didn't find a husband soon, she wouldn't be able to later and would live the rest of her life alone without even a job to keep her distracted.

She had tried to help herself by setting herself up with online dates and such, but most them didn't work out. It was those types of people I took pleasure in helping; the ones who had no one and couldn't find anyone on their own. I didn't mean to compare my clients with each other, but it bothered me that Ambrose already someone, and a few other matches as well, while a lonely lady couldn't get even a single man to commit to her. He had a fiancée he could be happy with, but he was too picky.

"I don't think such a lady would give you any problems. I can still go in with you if you want," Tatum said as he parked in front of a tall building. It was an office building but there was a dining area on the first floor lobby where I assumed I would have my discussion with her. Tatum was right. I didn't think the lady would give me a problem. All I had to do was be gentle with her and express some feeling during our discussion. So, I told Tatum that he could go do something else in the meantime, to which he agreed to, leaving me at the sidewalk before I walked into the building.