2 Savannah
Savannah felt like a bomb had just exploded. She was in shock, and there was still a little ringing in her ears. She stared
at her sister, trying to make sense of what just happened. “You’re what?”
“I’m getting married!” Bianca seemed to sparkle, completely oblivious to the reaction around her. “We’re still working out
all the details. You know, it’s a little hard to plan a wedding there when I’m here.” She waved her arms around in a cheerful,
animated gesture, as if this were some delightful conversation that made total sense.
It wasn’t.
“It’s a little hard to plan a wedding when you don’t have a groom,” Cora said.
Exactly. Savannah would’ve said the same thing if the explosion hadn’t blocked her brain from thinking.
Bianca rolled her eyes. “Ha-ha.”
Savannah could feel panic setting in, like danger was prowling around the corner. “No, but seriously. Who are you marrying?”
Her pulse quickened, and she took a deep breath to try to slow it down. “I didn’t even know you were dating anyone.”
Yes, she was aware that she wasn’t her sister’s keeper, but ever since the day Bianca had been born, it was Savannah’s job
to keep an eye on her. “Savannah, watch the baby. Savannah, you’re in charge. Savannah, yes, you and Cora can go, but you have to let Bianca tag along.”
She couldn’t help it. Since the day baby Bianca came home from the hospital when Savannah was eight years old, it had been her job to make sure her baby sister didn’t get into trouble. And when their mom died, that responsibility seemed to double.
“Oh my gosh. Seriously, you never listen to me, do you?” Bianca flopped back on the couch, looking defeated. “I’ve literally
talked about him nonstop since we met.”
A slow, creeping awareness started to come back to Savannah. “Wait? Are you talking about that guy from the dating app? Not-a-gym-rat
gym rat?” At the moment that was all she could remember about the guy her sister mentioned she’d met online.
Cora chuckled from her side of the couch and twirled spaghetti around her fork. “Oh, this is going to be good.”
Bianca shot her an annoyed glance before returning her argument to Savannah. “It’s not a dating app. It’s a matchmaking site.
And he’s not a gym rat. He’s just really into fitness.”
“Which is exactly what Savannah said,” Cora said, which earned her another glare from Bianca.
“How long have you known him?” Even as she uttered the question, Savannah searched her memory for every mention of this guy.
Bianca lived fifteen minutes away from her in Atlanta. Although life was busy, they saw each other frequently enough that
Savannah kept up with what was happening in Bianca’s life. Normally.
And yes, Savannah knew she’d been distracted lately. With all the developments she’d been dealing with, her mind had been on other things. But she hadn’t been so preoccupied with her own stuff that she’d
missed her baby sister being in the middle of a love affair.
Had she?
“Time is irrelevant.” Bianca gave an airy wave of her hand to dismiss the thought. “Zander and I connect at a deeper level,
so it feels like I’ve known him forever.”
“What does that even mean?” Savannah didn’t even try to hide the judgment in her voice.
Also, had the temperature just jumped ten degrees?
Bianca settled into the cushions with a love-swept look. “I think Jane Austen summed it up when she said, ‘Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.’”
Savannah’s mouth fell open. Was Bianca even serious right now?
“Yeah, but just for funsies, if you had to circle a date on the calendar when you met, how many of those little boxes are
between that day and today?” Cora flicked her fork in the air as if she were using it to count the imaginary calendar boxes.
Bianca huffed, the absurdity of the questions clearly too much for her. “If you must put a number on it, five weeks. We were
introduced five weeks ago.”
Savannah was starting to feel sick. “Five weeks?” She didn’t care what Jane Austen had said. Five weeks was not long enough
for someone to meet another person and to move across the country for them. Especially when that someone was her baby sister.
“Have you ever met him in real life?” There was a crease between her eyes now. She could feel it. It was probably the kind
that would leave a permanent line.
“We FaceTime literally all day every day, which is better than real life. I’ve been everywhere with him.” She settled back
into the couch cushions and let out a contented sigh, as if she could picture the conversations. “I’m there when he makes
dinner, I ride along with him on his way to work. He’s the last person I talk to before I fall asleep. I know everything about
him.”
“Except what he looks like in 3-D,” Cora said.
Bianca shot her a look. “Are you still talking?”
Cora waggled her eyebrows and shoveled a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth.
Savannah let out a heavy sigh and sank into the chair. She was well aware she sounded like a mom, but she couldn’t help it.
Her sister was behaving like a child. “I have to agree with Cora on this one. How much can you really know about a man you’ve
only known for a month and have never met in person?”
“You’re so caught up on this construct of time that it’s blocking you from seeing the bigger picture,” Bianca said.
“Which is?”
“He’s my soulmate.” Bianca’s eyes fluttered in a look of love. “It was like magic from the very first time we talked.”
Cora let out a burst of laughter, and Savannah might have too if she weren’t panicking about her baby sister marrying someone
she met a month ago. On the internet.
It was like the start of some Dateline special.
“Honestly?” Savannah crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave Bianca her best mom-look. “That’s the biggest load of
bologna I’ve ever heard.”
Bianca looked hurt. “I thought you of all people would understand. Don’t you believe in love at first sight?”
“No,” Cora said from her side of the couch with zero hesitation in her voice.
Bianca’s look of disappointment caused Savannah to soften, and she dropped her hands to her sides. “Look, I’m not saying it
can’t happen. But with someone you happened to swipe right on? Who you’ve never actually met in person?”
“First of all, we didn’t swipe right . We were matched through SoulMatch. It’s a new matchmaking app that uses AI to bring soulmates together. It’s so effective
that almost seventy percent of their matches lead to marriage or lifelong commitments.”
Savannah still wasn’t buying it. “Aren’t there at least ten different dating sites that claim to find your perfect match based
on their proprietary method?”
Bianca shook her head. “Not like this. Not to the same level SoulMatch does. It uses the same philosophy as a matchmaker who
is only interested in deep, lasting connections. There’s no list to swipe right on. You only get one match. You chat and go on dates for as long as you need to see if that’s your person. If the match doesn’t
work, you go back into the system to be matched again. This time with new questions about what didn’t work to help find a
better connection.”
“So, you better hope your soulmate decides to try out the dating app the same time you do,” Cora said.
“Isn’t love always a game of serendipity?
” Bianca argued. “You wouldn’t question a couple who met because they happened to be at the coffee shop at the same time or went to a mutual friend’s birthday party.
” She turned to Savannah. “You’d probably eat it up if we had accidentally gotten each other’s dry cleaning.
This is the same thing, with the added benefit of a background check first.”
“All those other scenarios have something in common. You live in the same area or like the same kinds of people or are interested
in the same things,” Savannah countered. Could you feel your blood pressure rise? Because she was pretty sure that’s what
she was feeling.
“What’s your problem with modern technology? Everything else has evolved, so why can’t how we meet our soulmates?”
“Because even though the entire world is digitized, human interaction isn’t. A computer program can’t tell you who to fall
in love with.”
“This one can!” Bianca stood up, her face turning red and the anger rising in her voice. “It’s so good, it could even match
Cora with someone she’d fall head over heels for!” She jabbed her finger in the direction of where Cora was sitting.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”
Bianca glared at her. “If the shoe fits.”
“Don’t drag me into your little fight,” Cora said, unconcerned. “If you want to run off and marry some man you’ve never met
because a computer told you to, that’s your business. I’m just here for the spaghetti.”
Bianca crossed her arms and huffed. “Zander isn’t some man . We belong together. Everything about him makes me better, and I want to spend all of time—my forever—with him.” She turned
to face Cora directly. “It’s something you know nothing about, because you’re allergic to relationships of any kind. Do you
want to die alone?”
It was harsh and uncalled for, but it wasn’t untrue. And for the first time since Bianca dropped the news, Savannah’s panic
shifted to another stress-inducing subject: Cora.
“You’re being ridiculous.” Cora shook her head and went back to her spaghetti.
Savannah agreed, but Bianca’s comment sparked an idea, and the wheels in Savannah’s mind started to turn.
What if...
Bianca kept Savannah up at night because she was reckless. Her baby sister was impulsive, going all in on whatever idea sounded
fun at the time, no matter how half-baked the idea was. But Cora was the opposite.
She’d always been the one to do her own thing. She was independent and determined, but she was also skeptical, especially
of trusting people. More recently, it seemed that skepticism had grown. Instead of facing her past hurts and dealing with