Zora paid a matchmaking agency after deciding she no longer had patience for messages from unfamiliar men. The woman conducting her interview neatly recorded the answers: she liked cats, did not ski, did not want to relocate, and visited her sister on Saturdays. Zora was fifty-six and expected no miracle. She expected someone to listen carefully before suggesting a partner.
Three weeks later, a recommendation arrived. Emil supposedly shared her love of animals, desire for a quiet life, and interest in old films. The matchmaker emphasized how rarely such compatibility could be found. Zora bought a new blouse, then left it on the bed and wore the one in which she felt like herself.
At the restaurant, Emil looked equally nervous. For the first ten minutes they discussed the weather. Then he offered to show her skiing photographs and asked how long she had been an instructor. Zora laughed, thinking he was joking. He took out the matchmaker's message. In it, Zora was an athletic woman considering life abroad who adored dogs.
They looked at the two recommendations, then at each other. Emil was preparing to move near his daughter and actually wanted a woman comfortable spending part of the year abroad. He disliked old films because they reminded him of days spent ill. Zora told him she was afraid of dogs. The waiter arrived to take their order just as both began laughing loudly at their own perfect compatibility.
The next day, the matchmaker blamed an unfortunate technical error. Zora asked why exactly the answers that would have immediately separated them had been changed. The woman said people thought too much about differences and sometimes needed a little help. Zora requested a refund. She did not intend to finance someone's notion that her clearly expressed wishes were merely an obstacle to bypass.
Nevertheless, Emil called again. He wanted to know whether she liked fried dough or the agency had invented that too. She did. They went for lunch and talked about her sister, his daughter, and the city neither could leave as simply as they had suggested at their first meeting. They did not begin a relationship. They became friends who occasionally checked in, without a paid guarantee and without a perfect reason to be fond of each other.