It was now mid September. The last cottage trip of the summer was coming up that weekend. She had just finished work and was waiting in line at the pot shop near her bus stop to stock up for the season’s last hoorah. Despite Covid and all the restrictions that came from the pandemic, she knew how fortunate she was to have gotten a good bubble going early, and to have been able to experience all that she had that summer.
As she continued to wait in line, she checked her phone and saw a notification on one of her dating apps. She was surprised to see that it was from her friend’s high school boyfriend again. As mentioned before, he had first liked her on Facebook Dating, which she had laughed off and X’d him out. Except then, a few weeks later, he had liked her on Bumble, as well. That second time was enough to spark her curiosity, so she went ahead and matched with him.
They chatted briefly the day they had matched. She asked him if he even knew who she was, which he did, and they talked about high school and what they both had been up to since then. It was a quick conversation that didn’t go very far, so you can imagine her surprise to receive that notification from him. Before diving in to this online dating story, however, it’s important to backtrack a few weeks – back to July, when she had paused all her dating apps.
As you know, she had wanted to cool it with the online dating because she knew she wasn’t really ready to meet anyone, so why waste anyone’s time? She wanted to focus on herself, which she did do. And she was able to make great strides in her life, both physically and mentally. However, what we glossed over a few chapters ago, was that the exact day she had hidden her dating profiles and had decided to commit to refocusing on herself, she had gotten a text from someone she really hadn’t expected to hear from again – Sexy Hands Guy.
In typical male fashion, Sexy Hands Guy appeared to have some kind of fucking radar that must have gone off that day – “Alert! Alert! She’s doing well and not thinking of you at all! Text her! Text her!” – The day she decides she doesn’t want to think about guys, is the exact day he messages her after weeks of no contact. His radar had also jumped in to action a few months prior when he had randomly texted after she had visited her brother out at the other end of the city. Coincidentally, her brother lived basically within walking distance of him. (How did he know she was out that way?! How do they know this stuff!?!?)
This time, however, he told her that he was thinking about her and that he had been looking at pics she had sent him when they had first started talking. He asked her again if she would be up for getting together. With restrictions lifting to Phase 3 at the time, every time a guy asked to meet up with her, she no longer had the Covid excuse. Even though they were, and still are, in the middle of a pandemic, not meeting up because of Covid seemed silly now that she was back to work and already out in the world every single day.
Even though she knew she wasn’t ready to meet up with anyone and how anxious she felt at the thought of it, the idea of hooking up with someone did still excite her. And the thing was, though, she had already met Sexy Hands Guy. The fear of the unknown wasn’t there when she thought about him. Now that he had texted her, she couldn’t stop thinking about the two of them between the sheets, just intertwined in each other, making each other feel good. So as much as she was trying to change and to grow, clearly some habits were harder to break than others…
She left him on Read for a couple hours, and replied on her way home from work. Her parents would be away the following weekend and, despite her better judgement, she felt compelled to invite him over. She ended her text with, “If you’re still interested?” To which he replied with a dick pic saying, “We’re definitely still interested!”
Annoying dick pic aside, she all of a sudden had butterflies again – despite how many times she had turned him down, he still wanted her. She felt desired, which made her disregard all his horrible qualities. (That statement could relate to literally any guy she’s ever been with) Still, this rendezvous wasn’t set until a week and a half later, so who knew if it would actually happen or not?
Along with getting a message from Sexy Hands Guy, that exact same day she had also received a message from another guy she had matched with before she had hidden her profiles. She didn’t realize that people she’d already matched with could still see her profile or contact her after she’d taken a pause – but they could.
“Hey bella”, read the message. She smirked and thought “Omg, how corny.” But she re-checked his profile and her jaw dropped. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He had a perfectly chiseled jaw line, light scruff, shaved bald head, olive skin and piercing, husky blue eyes. How had she forgotten that she matched with a super model like that?!
She found out quickly that he was half Greek, half Lebanese, which made the “hey bella” thing slightly less cheesy (only slightly). He lived in another province, a short 3-hour drive away. She was grateful for the distance. It made for a good excuse not to meet, whenever it would come time that he’d ask her. They began chatting, and the conversation turned sexual very quickly. So much for not thinking about guys…