My stomach had twisted itself into so many knots that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to untangle it before he arrived. He was actually Jake: thirty-two, Leo. Profuse surfer, full time plumber and occasional trouble, or so his profile claimed. There was no picture to confirm that he did in fact, look like trouble, because it was a blind dating app, the premise being that love was a matter of connection, rather than aesthetics. But honestly, I didn’t have a clue what love was.

When I was a teenager, I thought it was butterflies and flirty messages. As I got older, I thought it might be found in someone who held your hand and made you smile. But now as Sarah: thirty-three, Aries, profuse dreamer, full time nurse and occasionally depressed, I knew love only to be the vacancy in my chest that no one could fill. And it didn’t help that I was ageing out of the game, so much so that if I didn’t fall in love and have babies in the next two years, my pregnancies would be considered geriatric. Geriatric!

Which left me precisely here, sitting at a small candlelit table, fiddling with the napkin the waitress had splayed across my lap, as my heart galloped beneath my ribcage like a racehorse. Waiting for Jake.

He obviously wasn’t as over the top time conscious as I was, or maybe it was that he wasn’t anxious that he wouldn’t find a carpark or hit traffic on the way in. I had taken both of those factors into account plus a handful of others: an unexpected storm, a debilitating injury, aliens descending to start an intergalactic war. Nothing would surprise me where dating was concerned. But if he wasn’t here in the next forty seconds, he would be officially late. Never a good sign.

And then, as if the astrological gods had heard my silent pleas, an attractive and kind looking man – who could well be a Leo with the crop of golden hair atop his head – greeted the waitress by the door.

“Hi, I’m here for dinner. The booking is under Sarah.”

My chest suddenly swelled with hope. A man on time! Maybe this date would be different.

I shuffled in my seat, straightening my slouched posture while clearing my throat. My hand skewered the air as I plastered on a normal – and not at all manic – smile of relief as I waved to him.

He smiled back, mumbling something to the waitress before he strode over to our table. He was well-dressed, his collared shirt crisp and tucked into his dark trousers, his belt buckle glinting in the candlelight. As he got closer, I noticed smaller details. His cheeks were flushed, like he had rushed to get here, or was riddled with nerves. Though the proud lines of his shoulders and confident spark illuminating his dark eyes, suggested the opposite.

“Sarah?” He asked, and I stood to greet him.

“Yes, lovely to meet you,” I answered.

He leaned in for a quick embrace, his arm banding around my shoulder. It was warm, just like the rest of his body that pressed gently into mine, perfumed with the heady scent of linen and cologne. It stayed with me as he pulled away and settled into his seat.

“It’s nice to put a face to the name.”

“It is,” I agreed, omitting how relieved I was to find myself across from a man who seemed absolutely normal despite declaring questionable information in his dating profile.

“And I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier. An emergency at work kept me longer than I had hoped.”

“No, not at all. Is everything ok?” I asked, trying to mask the grin that wanted to sprout from my lips at his manners.

“Yeah,” he exhaled, raking a hand through his golden mane. Hair. “It was touch and go there for a while, but they pulled through.”

Touch and go? Had someone fallen into an extremely large pipe and needed Jake to rescue them? No, that was surely a job for a fire fighter, not a plumber.

I didn’t get time to dwell on any other possibility, as he leaned across the table, dark eyes glistening as they bore into my soul. “Thank you for asking. But enough about me, how was your day?”

So polite. Where in this wretched city had this man been hiding? Never in my drawn out, emotionally crippling dating career, had a date ever diverted the conversation away from themselves. Certainly not within the first half hour, anyway. But not Jake the Leo, who was proving to be no trouble at all.

“It was good, thanks. Actually, a long-term patient of mine was finally cleared for discharge, so it was pretty great.”

He leaned back in his chair, his cheeks swelling around his contagious, dazzling grin. “That definitely qualifies as great. Shall we celebrate with some champagne?”

“I’d love that.”

Jake leaned back in his chair, cheeks swelling around his smile as he subtly signalled for the waitress. She flittered over and he made quick work of selecting a particularly fancy sounding bottle, while I rested my elbow on the table, chin sinking into my hand as I watched the scene unfold in amazement. The damned blind dating app had worked! It had found me this marvel of a man who was worth spending time with.

Conversation flowed, wine bubbled, and my eyes moved in languid sweeps down his body, lingering at his chest where his ecru linen shirt flared around the two unfastened buttons. He was quite the picture, a flute of champagne perched in one hand, the other resting on the wooden table, revealing the golden links of his…Rolex?

I blinked. I blinked again. Definitely a Rolex. I hadn’t dated a plumber before, but I had dated tradies, and none of them got around in a watch that cost half a year’s wage. Or drink champagne now I came to think of it…

“So, how long have you been at Mercy Private Hospital?” He asked, creating another rippling wave of confusion.

“Mercy Private?” I blurted, the axis of my world tilting.

“You were just telling me about it last night?”

Last night? We hadn’t messaged last night. Had we?

“Sorry Jake, I think I’m confused. We didn’t–

“Who’s Jake?”

Dread flooded my veins, leaking into my cheeks.

“I’m Jake,” a man exclaimed as he plodded over to the table, shirt crinkled, eyes slightly bloodshot, glancing between us with a heavy crease between his brows.

And a lion’s head tattooed across his neck.

Jake: thirty-two, Leo. Profuse surfer, full time plumber and occasional trouble.