The Blind Date Rerun

The school's winter formal matchmaking quiz had matched Layla with someone at ninety-four percent compatibility, a number the app displayed in celebratory confetti font. It was as though ninety-four percent were a grade rather than an algorithm's best guess based on forty questions about pizza toppings and preferred communication styles. She'd agreed to the blind-date setup mostly because her friends had filled out the quiz on her behalf and refused to disclose the identity of her match until the actual night. In retrospect, that felt like a decision she should have fought harder against.

学校的冬季舞会配对测验，把蕾拉配给了一个契合度百分之九十四的人，这个数字在应用里用庆祝彩纸的字体显示出来。就好像百分之九十四是一个分数，而不是算法根据四十道关于披萨配料和偏好的沟通方式的题目做出的最佳猜测。她同意这次盲约安排，主要是因为朋友们替她填了测验，并且拒绝在真正到场之前透露她的配对对象是谁。回想起来，那是一个她本该更用力抵制的决定。

Rarely had a confetti animation felt less reassuring. The identity of her match turned out to be Asher, which she discovered only when he arrived at the designated meeting spot outside the gym and they both, simultaneously, said "oh no."

很少有彩纸动画让人觉得这样毫不安心。她的配对对象原来是阿舍，她是在他来到体育馆外约好的碰面地点、两个人同时说出“哦，不”的时候才发现的。

"You have got to be kidding me," Layla said.

“你一定是在开玩笑，”蕾拉说。

"Ninety-four percent," Asher said, checking his phone as if the number might have changed. "The algorithm thinks we're ninety-four percent compatible."

“百分之九十四，”阿舍说，查看着手机，好像那个数字可能变了似的，“算法认为我们有百分之九十四的契合度。”

"The algorithm has clearly never watched the canoe incident."

“算法显然没看过那次独木舟事件。”

Six summers earlier, at a camp neither of them had mentioned to a single mutual friend since, Layla and Asher had spent three consecutive weeks engaged in an increasingly unhinged rivalry. It began over a canoe race neither of them technically won — a disputed finish involving a capsized boat and a furious appeal to a sixteen-year-old counselor with no authority to rule on anything. By week three, the grudge had expanded to include the talent show and the dining hall trivia night. It even produced an entirely fabricated feud about whose cabin had the better view of the lake. What neither of them had admitted, then or since, was how much of that summer they'd spent thinking about the other outside of camp entirely.

六年前，在一个两人此后都没对任何一个共同朋友提起过的夏令营里，蕾拉和阿舍连续三周陷入一场越来越失控的较量。起因是一场两人严格说来都没赢的独木舟比赛——终点有争议，涉及一条翻了的船，以及向一位毫无权力裁定任何事的十六岁辅导员发出的愤怒申诉。到第三周，这份怨气已经扩大到了才艺表演和食堂问答之夜。它甚至还催生了一场完全凭空捏造的争执，争的是哪间木屋的湖景更好。他们两个，无论当时还是此后，都没有承认过的是，那个夏天里，营地之外的时间，有多少是花在想着对方上的。

"You cheated in that race," Asher said now, with the immediate, practiced outrage of someone who had clearly never once let it go. "You grabbed my paddle."

“那场比赛你作弊了，”阿舍现在说，带着一个显然从未放下过的人那种立刻而熟练的愤慨，“你抓了我的桨。”

"I did not grab your paddle. Your paddle fell in the water because you were showing off."

“我没有抓你的桨。是你在炫耀，你的桨才掉进水里的。”

"I was not showing off."

“我才没有炫耀。”

"You stood up. In a canoe. To wave at a girl from the other cabin."

“你站起来了。在独木舟里。为了向另一间木屋的一个女孩挥手。”

Had either of them actually disliked the other back then, six summers of not mentioning it to anyone would have made considerably more sense than what she was starting to suspect instead. "Okay," she said slowly, "why do I remember every single detail of a rivalry from when I was twelve?"

要是他们两个当年真的讨厌对方，那么六个夏天里从没向任何人提起过，会比她此刻开始怀疑的事要说得通得多。“好吧，”她慢慢地说，“为什么我记得十二岁时那场较量的每一个细节？”

"Because," Asher said, equally slowly, arriving at the same realization roughly one second behind her, "it maybe wasn't actually a rivalry."

“因为，”阿舍同样慢慢地说，比她慢了大约一秒钟才意识到同一件事，“那也许根本不是什么较量。”

"The algorithm might not be entirely wrong."

“算法也许并没有完全说错。”

"I genuinely hate that for both of us."

“我真的替我们俩都讨厌这一点。”

They stood there a moment, recalibrating six years of a story they'd both apparently gotten wrong, before Layla finally held out her hand, palm up. "Truce. Also, you're buying the punch, since you clearly owe me for the paddle."

他们站在那里片刻，重新校准着他们显然都弄错了的、长达六年的故事，然后蕾拉终于伸出手，掌心向上。“休战。另外，你请客买果汁，因为你显然欠我一个桨。”

"I don't owe you anything for the paddle."

“我才不欠你什么桨。”

"Ninety-four percent compatible," she said, "and we're already arguing. This checks out completely."

“契合度百分之九十四，”她说，“我们已经在吵架了。这完全说得通。”