AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
Sophie
“Hey there, sweeties, it’s me! Sophie! Coming to you with another episode of SophServe. Today, we have a very special episode. Like, I’m talking, super exclusive. But you already saw it on the thumbnail, so I’m not going to tease like you don’t know. I would like to welcome everyone to the very first Earthly location of the universe’s one, and only, matchmating service – True Match!”
Sophie stepped out of frame, tilting her camera up until it was facing the sign on the square, modern style building before her. True was written in solid, simple white font, while Match was in purple cursive, the ‘M’ invoking the shape of a heart without actually being one.
Sophie brought the camera back down, stepping into frame, and gestured to the wide, tinted glass doors with an excited smile. “Let’s go inside!”
In her head, Sophie was already laying out her editing plans. Here’s where she’d triple speed the footage of her coming into the brightly lit lobby – more comfortable, modern designs all done up in white and silver with just a pop of pale, regal purple. She walked her camera to the front desk where her friend, Jeanie, was already sitting at the computer, waiting and smiling. Right where Sophie had instructed.
“And cut,” Sophie beamed, pausing the recording. She smiled at her redheaded friend. “You did great. That’s exactly what I wanted. So, right after that, I’m going to put in some B-roll of the lobby, the desk, the welcome sign. Just to set the vibe, you know? And then, after that, it’s going to cut to us for our first interview where you get to explain what’s up, and then we’ll move onto the scanning process. Cool?”
Jeanie nodded. “I’m so nervous.”
“What? Why? It’s basically just a big ad. Those are, like, your specialty.”
“There’s a difference between planning an ad campaign and actually doing the advertising. I don’t really know how to act.”
“That’s fine,” Sophie shrugged. She held up her camera, which was attached to a stick that she could hold out, giving the production a very casual, handheld vibe. “In fact, it’s better. No matter how polished or professional influencers become, we always act like its super casual. It’s part of the aesthetic. So, just act natural, be calm, and if you feel awkward, be awkward. Trust me, people love watching that. It’s real, and that’s what’s important. Influencers are supposed to feel like friends, and friends act casual around each other. Don’t worry about it.”
“Right.” Jeanie nodded, getting to her feet. “I’m ready. I think it would be best if we did the interview there, in front of the logo, to make it our backdrop.”
“Love that idea. Let me get the tripod set up so I can stand beside you. I’ll do all the B-roll before I leave, so we can just get to the good stuff for now.”
“Okay.” Jeanie came around, straightening her simple, velvet, blue dress. It looked fantastic with her red hair and would really pop on camera.
Sophie nodded in approval as she went to set up the tripod.
At this point in her career, she had a lot of subscribers, but she wouldn’t call herself one of the top influencers. In fact, she was pretty mid. She made enough to devote herself completely to the job, but not enough to, say, buy an expensive car on a whim. She was really hoping that this exclusive interview and walk through of True Match was going to change that.
True Match was a matchmaking service, but not in the traditional sense – hence why they called themselves a matchmating service. There were no forms, no swiping, nothing like that. However, using their proprietary methods, True Match promised to deliver you a single, perfect match. Your soulmate. It was the kind of thing people would dream about.
Even though there was a chance your soulmate wasn’t even human.
True Match was conceived by an alien. Jeanie was mated to that alien. The business was a way to get humans matched to aliens – if an alien was their soulmate. But matchmating was different to what everyone would expect from a dating service, hence why Sophie had been asked to do a whole episode on her channel about it. She would even be getting scanned herself today – for free.
Sophie wasn’t sure how much she believed in this thing. It sounded like woo-woo nonsense, but the pay was good, and Jeanie was an old friend from undergrad. Sophie was willing to do her buddy a favor, and being the only person in the media allowed to get an interior tour like this meant her views were going to skyrocket when this video posted.
She was never going to say a bad thing about nepotism again.
“Alright.” Sophie stepped back from the recording camera and moved to Jeanie’s side. The two of them took their places right in front of the True Match logo on the wall of the waiting room. “So, remember: be natural. I’m going to ask questions, you answer them. Don’t overthink it. If you need to start over, that’s fine. Anything weird, don’t worry about it, I can fix it in post.”
“Got it.” Jeanie nodded firmly, twisting her hands nervously behind her back.
Sophie smiled facing the camera. “Alright, here we go. Three, two, one… Hey, sweeties! I’m here today with Jeanie. She’s an old friend of mine from school, and she’s one of the owners and cofounders of True Match. Hey, Jeanie. Great to see you again. Thanks for inviting me!”
“Thanks for coming,” Jeanie smiled, slightly stiff.
Sophie pressed on, used to interviewing people who weren’t as comfortable on camera as her. “So, tell me about True Match.”
“Well,” Jeanie’s eyes flicked to the camera before turning back to Sophie. No doubt, she was more comfortable speaking to her instead of the lens. “True Match is a matching service unlike anything you’ll be familiar with. We’re not a dating service. We’re not a matchmaking service. We’re a matchmating service. We promise that, if you match with us, the person you’re matched with is guaranteed to be your soulmate.”
“Wow. So, like, no awkward first dates. No, ‘let’s see where this goes’ nonsense. Just straight to happily ever after.”
“Exactly. Matchmating isn’t about hook-ups, it’s not about trying things out. We’re here to get you to your mate. No bull. No time wasted.”
“That sounds amazing, I can’t lie. And this really works?”
