Nikki had chosen to return to ARTAI, but not as a student but with a research grant.

Her project: “Different worlds: what happens when a beauty crosses paths with a nerd in a tight collaboration?” She could already say that she liked what she saw a lot and that what she herself had gone through was not unique.

Thank goodness.

Souls who never meet could meet and find each other if they were given the right conditions.

PlaynDate had been her prerequisite.

No.

It had been Joachim.

PlaynDate was released on Valentine’s Day, February 14th of the following year, and thanks to intensive marketing, the app reached 3,000 members in one day.

The following month, they had 30,000 members and the revenue was already starting to flow in.

They had tried the idea of using fake profiles and it had worked, but with the capital, the app was launched faster.

Joachim had bought an apartment, and Nikki was now living in it but not on the couch.

They hadn’t promised each other anything but they tried, and they tried because they both wanted to.

It wasn’t easy after what they had been through but at the same time they had a strong bond between them.

Just like the PlaynDate app was supposed to give before offering the opportunity to chat.

A bond.

A first contact.

A consciousness between them.

They had settled down in the place they had first met.

The cafeteria.

And this time they would also be interrupted by the phone.

In just a few seconds.

Joachim took a sip of his coffee and thought about their first meeting right here.

” Game game” game.

Isn’t that what you said?”

“When?”

“When we first met and you were so tired of guys?”

“Yes,” she said.

“I said so.”

“I probably didn’t understand you then, but I understand you now.”

She laughed.

“You know?” she said.

What I’m sure of now is that I’m done playing.” He was about to answer when her phone suddenly beeped, and she picked it up and stared at the screen.

He had a horrible flashback to the last time they’d sat here, and the phone had changed their lives.

“What is it?” he said in a slightly irritated voice.

She smiled.

“It’s from Q Inc.

You’ll never believe this but something amazing has happened…”

Minutes later, they were scrolling on her phone.

Not on Dating Line or PlaynDate, but on dream trips for staggering sums.

Linda de Geer, who had just finished the call at the other end, smiled broadly.

She had been hooked on the story from the very beginning, but that wasn’t what made her invest more money than Nikki and Joachim could have dreamed of in a larger partnership.

Instead, it was that she had loved them both and their story from the very beginning.

She read the opening words of chapter one on their blog once more.

The words that had caught her attention after she googled the one thing she was missing in her life.

Love.

Then she read the opening words of the story again:

” Nikki, oh Nikki… How many dates are there now?

How many occasions?

How many wishes that this time, yes this time?

And at the same time: the lump in your stomach, a constantly gnawing little hearth of worry that must not be there, must not be seen or heard because it destroys, you understand Nikki, it destroys!

It cuts apart your digital aura that has become you.

It destroys all that you never had but that you run around in circles like a scalded rat to achieve.

Your persona.

So empty Nikki.

So human.

So real.

So you.”

That was exactly what Linda thought and sat back, confident in what she had just offered the young couple who were now facing several big journeys, both privately and in their careers.

She was convinced that both journeys would end well.

Far away from there, Nikki gave a cry of genuine happiness from everything that now flowed through her body more often and more intensely than in a very long time, far away from closed rooms and betrayal.

Now instead in a light and with new trust in him and perhaps even more importantly in herself.

She was there.

Nikki pointed to a picture that radiated an oasis of calm in the holiday paradise.

“Joachim.

THAT.

THAT’S where we’re going!”

Joachim smiled quietly to his former friend.

Yes, Nikki o Nikki.

That’s where we’re going.

Not every connection should begin with a swipe. The PlayNDate experience.