Making Love

Chapter One

I wasn’t even sure why I was here, other than this being a new experience and in a vague sense, something I might be able to make use of in the future.

My friend, Katie, is doing a study for her psychology PhD, asking, ‘can you manufacture love?’. Her work is based on the work of Arthur Aron, who was able to make two total strangers fall in love.

I was curious, especially since I’d read a couple of other articles on the work, but I wasn’t exactly hopeful. Besides, I was about to meet a stranger, I didn’t really want to just fall in love with some random dude, did I? What if he picked his nose? Or didn’t like dogs? Or waxed his chest?

Eugh!

But I was here and I would give it everything I could. Katie wasn’t exactly a best friend but I didn’t want to sabotage her study, so I was keeping my mind open. And worst case scenario, if I fell in love with a chest waxer, I’d just have to emigrate.

I had already filled in a comprehensive personality questionnaire, and one about me and my life, which Katie assured me wasn’t to match me up with ‘good matches’, the pairings would be randomly selected, but rather was so that the results of the study could later be compared to traditional matching theories. That way she could tell if it was ones the who looked good together on paper who had fallen in love, or only the ones with similar personality types, that kind of thing.

“Ellie?”

I looked up to see Katie poking her head out of an office door. We were on her university’s campus but to help participants feel relaxed, the interviews were taking place in informal environments.

“Take a seat,” Katie said as I stepped in. The room looked like a small sitting room, with a sofa, or a small table and chairs that we could choose to sit at. I chose the table. I didn’t want some Lothario trying to touch me if he fell in love with me, and the table would provide a barrier. And besides, there were drinks on the table.

I noticed there was a second door, other than the one I had entered through and while I looked around, Katie poked her head out of it.

“You can come in now.”

In walked one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen! I could have sworn my heart skipped a beat, although that sluttering feeling is supposedly an additional heartbeat, not a skipped one.

“Elle, this is Tom, Tom, this is Ellie,” she said.

Of course I knew who he was, everyone knew who he was. He was Tom Hiddleston, Marvel movie star and MTVs sexiest Avenger (although he didn’t even play an Avenger).

But that was beside the point and right now he was stretching his hand out towards me.

Right, I have to act like a normal human being. Oh god!

“Hi,” he flashed me a warm smile. Jesus Christ, not falling in love with this man was going to be my problem, I didn’t need any questions to accomplish that.

“Hi.” I managed to grasp his hand and smile back, although it might have been more of a grimace.

“Do you prefer Elle or Ellie?” he asked as he sat opposite.

“Either,” I admitted. He could call me Princess Guppy for all I cared.

“Okay,” Katie said, distracting me from the very pretty man sitting across from me. “Here is a copy of the questions for you both.” She handed us four sheets, stapled together in one corner. “I want you to take turns, asking each question but you must both answer all questions. We have a maximum of 90 minutes but there’s only 36 questions, so I’m sure it’ll be plenty of time, and don’t worry if you finish early. There’s a few questions that have a four minute time limit, which is that clock is for. Just press the button and it will give a small beep after four minutes. Please try to be as honest as you can with your answers.”