Prosopagnosia

You check the time. Perfect. As intended, you've arrived fashionably late. You see him seated with his phone, his back towards you. He was in a printed black and white floral suit- an extremely unattractive one at that. You scrunch your nose up in distaste. You already know that this blind date will be going South even before you meet him. You think of an excuse to say in order to leave early, like you've always done every Friday for the past few months with different men you've been forced to see. Some of your old excuses pass by your mind in a flash as you thoughtfully rule them out.

You go through a moment of horror, when you recall that one time when your date drove you to the nearest hospital when you feigned breathlessness, despite you saying you were totally fine. The worst part comes next when it turns out to be the hospital you're working at as a senior resident, you were almost carried in a stretcher when you insisted to walk in by yourself because your date was having a panic attack out of worry. You don't even want to talk about what happened inside the emergency ward, not to mention your juniors doing their shifts had something to gossip about for weeks. 

You were too busy to date during medical college and suddenly it wasn't legal anymore to date scientists from your medical text books, in your head. Then you're pushed into the dating world to finally fish out the leftovers. Not fun. You've told your mother countless times that you prefer living with nine cats and maybe a dog and a squirrel, but that was the last thing your mother wanted to hear. Especially after attending all her friends' children's weddings, she wanted to host one for you, which you've guaranteed the possibility of not happening. However to rid yourself of her nagging, there you were inside a cafe contemplating whether you should just stand him up and go enjoy the sunset by yourself. 

Finally you feel bad so you just decide to sail through the date and do something about the many other blind dates which will come your way in the near future. 

You re-read one of your mother's old texts. 

'He's a son of my friend.'

That was literally the same description she used to introduce all the other people you've been set up with so far. 

'Anything else?'

You text her hoping she'd at least have something more to say. She doesn't reply to your text and you know that if the reply doesn't come immediately, it will probably come in another three to four working days only. 

You take a deep breath in before walking up to his table. 

He looks up from his phone, rather startled, but stands up to pull you a chair. That was a first. It had never happened in any of your previous dates before, that you never thought to expect it from one. 

"Thank you" you say in a low voice. 

He smiles at you politely. His raven eyes softened with the two dimples appearing on his dark cheeks. His face seems to be familiar, but you can't quite pin it down from where, or who he resembles.

 "My pleasures" He looked rather cute, you couldn't help, but think.

You shake your head immediately to get rid of the thought. You shouldn't lose to your mother. It was a vow.

He takes his seat again, the one in front of you and you suddenly don't know what to do next. You rake your brain to think of the next step after taking a seat, but your brain wasn't functioning properly. 

Usually all of your blind dates started with you arriving fashionably late and taking a seat by yourself while the man in front of you just stared at your cleavage. Then you just intimidate him as much as you like and scare him with stories from medical college, like that story about you taking the scalpel and cutting the cadaver's entire limb off- which was totally fake, and then how you thought the cadaver smelled like mushroom- the only true part, and how you put it in side someone’s handbag- which was what your dad did during his medical college days, not you. By the end of your stories usually your date either leaves to the bathroom or looses his appetite and then you just say you have to attend an emergency at the hospital or anything suitable and just walk out. It's true that you could've just mentioned the emergency and walk out saving your energy to male up stories, in the first place, but where's the fun in that? Plus the story served its job by preventing a possible second date. 

"I'm Marvin" He says breaking the awkward silence and you don't know how his name compelled you to say the next line. "Let's Marvin Gaye and -" You suddenly cover your mouth as you apologised. Oops.

He just laughed. "People often sing that song for me. I've almost gotten used to hearing it, after my name all the time. My name is kind of common after all." 

"Really? Isn't it annoying when your name is too common? Like there were three classmates with the same name as mine and people not only misspelled my name, but they often got confused whether they were talking to the right one"

"Yeah a little. Most of my classmates got confused because me and my three other friends looked alike." He hesitated before speaking again.

"Um, we are all dark skinned so I guess they can't tell us apart.... Maybe" His face suddenly turned gloomy and you mentally slapped yourself for bringing such a topic out.

You sucked when it comes to emotional moments. You were more of an extroverted introvert with a very poor ability to offer emotional support, despite being a practising doctor. 

"I guess those people have sever acquired Prosopagnosia" You suddenly say the first thing that comes to your mind.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Proropagnosia, it's a condition where one can't recognise faces. It's a real deal you know. Or maybe those classmates of yours are just pure morons."

He smiles again and you get this warm bubbly feeling along with a feeling of relief. You almost thought you screwed your date up, which was usually what you do, but for some reason you didn't want to, right now. 

"Even I low key have Prosopagnosia, the actual disease."

You've never told this to anyone except your closest friends. Mainly because you were afraid people would take advantage of it, but you knew the man in front of you wouldn't, though it was your first time meeting him.

"So what about your low key Prosopagnosia?" 

"Oh that? I can't remember a face by just seeing it once and almost all faces seem familiar. There are occasionally exceptions though. I don't know why"

"Interesting" He seems to think for a while. 

"Oh I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm Sasha Fleet" 

"I know" He says. 

"My mother must've told you or your mother" You say and he looks confused for a minute.

"No. We've met before"

"We have?" You couldn't contain you surprise. "Did you visit the hospital I'm working in?"

"Nope" He seemed to be in deep thought recalling something. His lips formed a smirk. "I don't think you'd remember" 

You don't think you'd forget a face like his, quite unique.

"Try me" you challenged him. 

"Tea or coffee?" He picked up the menu in front of him changing the subject. As if on cue the waiter came to take our order. 

"A Cappuccino" you said.

“A cappuccino for the lady and an Espresso for me please" He ordered.

"So will you forget my face once again, when this ends?"

"I don't think so. Just tell me where we met!" You were getting impatient.

"Later" He says.

You both continued to talk of other random things. He had some interesting arguments to present forward with your own facts. He spoke of anything and everything, but of where he had seen you.

For once since forever, you didn't need an excuse to leave for you were too engrossed to see how he pictured the world through his eyes as an engineer. He talked of why he wanted to be who he is now, while you told him how determined you were to reach your position as a doctor and the endless road ahead of you.

In between your phone beeps with a text from your mother. 

"How dare you?"

That was it. You rake your brain to think of what you did most recently to anger her. Was this text about you leaving that half eaten toast on top of her bed today morning or was this about you breaking one of her favourite vases on your way out? There were so many possibilities. 

"What do you think of the ending?" Marvin takes a sip from his espresso.

"Very poorly constructed" You say distastefully.

You transiently forget your mother's text as you were once again pulled into one of Marvin's theories about a book he loves and you hate.

Your date was interrupted for good, when a man came and patted Marvin’s shoulder. “Sorry I'm late buddy” 

He looks at you and then at Marvin, his face a visible question mark. 

“Oh this is my new friend Sasha. Sasha this is Kai”  

You and Kai both greet each other, but you could tell that something isn't right. Then it hits you.

“Oh god, weren't you here for a blind date with me?” You couldn't believe that you were this slow to realise.

“I'll give you guys some time to sort this out” Kai smirks and walks away leaving a thick atmosphere behind.

Marvin doesn't answer for awhile as he kept looking at your face, which was now probably flushed in a dark shade of red. You have been talking nicely with a random guy for two hours straight thinking he was your date. How embarrassing was that? Very.

You get up immediately to dash out.

“Please wait. Let me explain” You hear him say.

It was clearly you at fault. You didn't pay that much attention when your mother mentioned the venue. You bet you were at the wrong place.

“I'm sorry for wasting your time. Oh god this is embarrassing. You probably didn't tell me so I'd feel bad” You walk past the him who was now standing as well.

“No. I didn't tell you out of my pure selfishness.”

You stop in your tracks. 

“I was afraid you'd leave if I told you and I didn't want you to...um.... leave. I didn't do the aftermath of my actions like I normally do. I'm sorry” 

You turn to look at him, wide eyed. 

“Was that a confession?”

You mentally slap yourself again. Sometimes your tongue betrays your brain and you thought it did so only during viva exams, but surprise! It was doing so now. You try to cover up for yourself. “No what I meant was-“

“I'm afraid it was indeed a confession.” His eyes seem to be searching for something in your own hazels. “You have all the right to decline” He holds his hands up in defence.

“What makes you think I'll decline?”

“A lot of things” He says as he awkwardly rubs his hands together. A gesture he seems to do when he's nervous you figured.

You take a few steps back and sit in your chair again, him still standing with a mortified expression. “Let's hear those reasons then, but before that you've got to tell me how you know me, if it isn't because of my mother and yours are friends.” 

He smiled lightly before taking his seat again.

"I thought I was dreaming when you came and sat here. I had to pinch myself a couple of times to confirm, but turns out you were really here sitting with a guy like me chatting about life. The first time I saw you was last year and I couldn't forget you ever since"

You feel your cheeks turning red all of a sudden. Redder than before.

"Ohooo so this is her? Whoa." Kai jumps in from somewhere near by. "He didn't want to date anyone else after meeting you" Marvin looks at Kai with a glare and Kai lifts his hands up in defence. "Yup I'm leaving. You both enjoy" He laughs. "Nice to finally meet you Sister-in-law" He waves at you once again before stepping out of the cafe humming something to himself.

"Where did you see me ?" You weren't someone who had time to walk about clubs or shopping malls or theme parks or at any park in fact. You simply order stuff online or just live and eat at your mothers'. 

He clasped his fingers in excitement, clearly having a funny story to narrate. You've never been so eager to hear something in your entire life. His eyes sparkled every time he talked of something he likes, and you couldn't help, but notice them sparkle as he described meeting you for the first time as seatmates on an airplane and to think that he was the one you spilled spaghetti on just brought a lot more embarrassing memories back. Why would he even like you after that? You couldn't help, but think.

You couldn't believe that you actually forgot his face after such a massive accident. Now that you look at him clearly, his floral printed suit did indeed compliment his looks. So much for judging a book by it's cover.

Maybe the sentence, 'You have to meet the right person at the right time for the things to work out' was indeed true.

Looks like you might not die with nine cats, one dog and a squirrel after all and you didn't lose to your mother either, for you found your soulmate by yourself with the help of a little bit of fate and a big portion of your carelessness. It's a win-wi for both you and your mother.

Marvin was someone you would have never expected to meet, at least not in this life.

You like cappuccino and he likes espresso. 

You're a doctor and he's an engineer. 

You like jazz and he likes classical music.

You hate the books he love.

You love to cook and he loves food.

You talk politics and he talks art.

You are a pessimist while he's an optimist.

You are white and he's black.

However opposites do attract. That was a fact.