Better Late than Never

Better late than never.

A decade ago, she wrote the four words as an open sesame to a job interview opportunity. A decade later, she still felt it was an epithet of her work, life and even relationship.

She was a slow person, indecisive and thus lagged behind her peers. She was almost thirty when making the decision to study abroad and to change her life orbit but had no idea what awaited her in the space of uncertainty. Would she really feel better and forget the sorrows in a new country? Would the decision really lead to a job of more freedom, excitement and fulfillment? She didn't know. But she did know what she disliked. So after a sleepless night on the train, she decided to go.

When she was about to quit her second full-time job, she didn't know what was in front of her, either. Would it be wise to start to work for herself? Could she survive? Could she make ends meet and earn more after covering all the costs of business operation? She didn't know. But she did know she felt uncomfortable in a working environment that went against her picture of the right one. So she left.

So, with support of friends, she started the tiny business in her early 30s. The number 30 per se was not early at all if you know she was single and she was a SHE. But she said to herself (she really did). "Ok. I'm slow. Probably I'm five years slower than people my age. Accept it and then forget it." However, occasionally, when she walked around the neighbourhood just to unwind, she wondered: how could people knowing her or caring about her forget her age? Maybe she was an out-and-out freak. A weirdo.

In this weirdo's past years, she was also struggling against her fantastic understanding of love and relationship. She was melancholic, weepy, sensitive, pessimistic and paradoxically alert--trying hard not to fall into the emotional trap frequently.  She hoped to meet the right man but was sceptical about whether luck would be on her side, so most of time she chose to focus on work and hobby and leave this whim of Mr. Right up to fate.

Then fate brought him to her, in a dramatic way.

For her, she had just got back to herself from a bad but not very bad mood because, in retrospect, she had bounced back from too many blows, heavy or even destructive. Gently propelled by her mother, she agreed to meet the man since she didn't want to upset her parents. This was her very first blind date.

For him, he later confessed to her that when his mother gave him a slip of paper with her phone number on it, he threw it away because he was tired and tired of such things. The next day, his mother pushed him to call her, he sighed and gave her a call.  He and she agreed to meet somewhere. This was one of his many blind dates.

Neither she or he had the least expectations for the story to unfold, not strange if you know what blind-dating-arranged-by-parents normally means to people with a romantic heart. At the dinner table, they had a polite talk. She noticed he had a cold face, seldom smiling, but his table mannerism was quite gentlemanly and she was looked after very well. In two hours' talk, she spotted one coincidence: the only sport he played was exactly her family sport.

After dinner, he suggested he walk her home, a forty minutes' walk. She forgot what they talked about except two things. She had a tendency to walk on his left and he kept reminding her to walk on his right to avoid passing vehicles. When they got to her place, in dim street light, he asked for her full name, then the corners of his mouth curved upward with a hint of smile. "Our names sound so close. The second character is the same."

Gradually, more coincidences revealed themselves.

His Western and Chinese zodiac signs corresponded to her families'.

His phone number ended in her birthday.

She lived and worked in the neighbourhood where he first arrived in this city.

He graduated from the university where her best male friend graduated.

They both were into old cartoons and dramas, and they could talk and talk about them, endlessly.

They both had a love for reading, well, different genres though.

More importantly, they had the same food preference.

And most importantly, they were honest, caring, respectful but not nosy about the other's past. Both of them were good listeners to each other, first and foremost.

They had been ready to live the whole life alone, but then they met.

"What do you like of me?" she asked.

"Your character," he said.

"Why do you like me?" he asked in reply.

"Your character, the way you make me feel when I am with you," she replied.

标注：文章为作者原创。