Abstract Omission

Chapter One

"Listen, Sam, life doesn't just wait for you to make a move. You've gotta get out there while you still can, for christ's sake."

Lilly and I had been sitting around at the bar for a couple hours now, which was a pretty typical Friday for us. She was probably getting close to reaching her black hole of an alcohol limit, now, while I was still on my second jack and coke. Again, pretty normal for her.

"Yeah, well dating sucks, so relax." I replied.

I hadn't been in a relationship since Russell back in 2008, and to be completely honest, I didn't think I was ready to find anyone else, yet. Even if it had been ten years, I didn't really understand why that was so hard for Lilly to comprehend. It wasn't my fault that I couldn't trust very well.

Instead of replying, she took a sip of her beer and placed it back on the bar counter, then whipped out her phone from her pocket.

"I'm signing you up for Tinder."

"Lilly I swear to god-"

"You don't have to use it if you don't want to," she said, rolling her eyes, "It's just to give you some... options."

I sighed in anger, and finished off my drink. She was honestly just wasting her time, and was probably too drunk to remember it in the morning, anyway. Even so, Lilly kind of pissed me off sometimes.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, 'Just let it pass.'

Unfortunately, Lilly did remember it in the morning, and sent me the login information almost immediately after she recovered from her hangover. Of course, initially I thought that there was no way I was ever participating in something so blatantly naive, but clearly I'm bad at predicting things, because I was now setting up my profile. I wasn't good at this, like at all, but I snapped a photo, wrote a short bio, and now I was in the "matching" process. God, what was I doing?

I tossed my phone back on the bed. There was no point in putting my trust in some useless dating app. You can't find love based on an algorithm.

Honestly, I knew Lilly was just trying to help. We had known each other ever since I moved to Chicago; she had seen every up and down over these past six years, and I couldn't blame her for wanting to make things a little bit better. Then again, this was also something I felt I needed to do on my own, when I was ready. I never moved fast when it came to love. I had already learned my lesson with that.

I forced the thoughts out of my mind as I got ready for work. Nothing special, just a t-shirt and some unripped jeans. The co-op here wasn't exactly fancy; it just contained the usual hipsters, vegans, and trendsetters that you'd expect to buy kombucha on tap and organic tofu in bulk. It was nice, and I definitely couldn't complain. I would rather spend an entire day answering questions about coddled eggs than spend even a minute dealing with a rushed parent in a retail store.

"Sam, just in time!"

I hung up my coat as I strolled into the staff lounge.

"Sup Mark," I greeted, "In time for what?"

Mark was a cool guy, the type of person you'd expect to see starting his own business, or running for a position in government, or something- not managing a small, local grocery store. Regardless, he was a pretty incredible boss.

"Well," he called from the back, "you'll definitely love it."

I raised an eyebrow as he walked out of the storage room with a serving plate full of our vegan cookies and set them down on the staff table.