Page 90 of The Happiness Blueprint
Reply: Once wished I could edit the past. Now I want to schedule the future.
Alice is there when I get in, casually holding out a shiny black dress for me.
“I know black means business, and today you may well seal the deal.”
I think I must have missed something. Perhaps there is a Bygg-Nilsson Zoom before dinner later?
“Thanks. You’re thebest—no protest.”
I try the dress on, and of course it’s perfect, although I decide a scarf may be needed over my cleavage for the work-meeting part. My hair is loose and wavy and my ears bare.
Just as I finish the walk from the Tube and arrive at the restaurant, my phone pings, and another notification pops up. In fact, tens of them appear. I open up our shared calendar and freeze, not able to take another step.
•NEW EVENT:Engagement-ring shopping; Location: London Wedding Ring Company
Oh.
As if the entries are time-limited and about to expire on me, I rush to scroll forward, they reach all the way until next year.
• NEW EVENT:Engagement party; Location: A surprise (the good kind, don’t worry)
• NEW TASK:Try on wedding dress
• NEW EVENT:Spa day with Saga and Alice; Location: To be determined
• NEW TASK:Cake-tasting
Then Ifeelhim. I tear myself away from the screen for a moment, and there he is, on the opposite side of the road, next to a bus stop. He’s been there, waiting for me, the whole time.
Oh, Alex.I stare straight at him, and I swear I can feel from across the street how his heart is beating, as I pull up the last and final scheduled event, in February next year.
• NEW EVENT:Klara and Alex’s wedding; Location: Sweden
Who gets married in February?Alex and Klarais the answer. The month we met, dreary and muddy, an unusual date for an unusually perfect couple. I RSVPyes, yes, yesand watch Alex’s smile break, his shoulders relaxing, his perfect person taking a sigh of relief.There is nothing to edit and nothing to delete, because he’s mapped out a future the same way I would have. I run toward him, out of breath with my bum bag slapping against my hip. Then I’m next to him, in a large embrace, and the world order is restored. Background noise gone. Just like that.
And I think, couples are a bit like shoes in the lost and found. There is no point rummaging and looking, wasting time trying them all on and ending up with blisters. You have to wait until your match turns up, and you will know it when it does, then you brush the dust off and walk off into the sunset.
