Meet Up
The Date Before the Date
It had been 8 months since his 7 year relationship had ended and he decided to enter the dating scene. At this point in his life most of his friends were family men so he really didn't have anyone to go out with. He decided to try his luck online.
The first task was to create a profile. He needed to pick username, nothing like the ones on that Dateline show with Chris Hansen. Next was the bio part. He hated talking about himself and everyone seemed to write the same crap. With that part complete, he decided to peruse this hybrid of Amazon and used car ads. You ordered online like Amazon but everyone made themselves look better, like second hand cars that are for sale. Low miles, only driven on weekends, classic, like new, runs well, one owner.
The photos were an entirely different issue. He hated when the profile picture was a group one. This to him indicated that she was not the best looking one in the group and was using her friends as bait. There was also the question of how old the picture was. Was it recent? Was it 10 years and 30 pounds ago? You couldn't really ask that, without looking like a complete asshole.
As he scrolled through the plethora of pictures he began to question if he hadn't fought hard enough for his relationship. It was May and girls still had pictures of themselves in Halloween costumes. To him that just screamed attention. He provided that attention for about 2 minutes. Then he saw a picture of a girl in a shower. Not naked, not sexy, but just standing in the shower fully clothed. It looked like she was going to hurt herself. He passed her over and categorized her under mentally unstable. Then there was the extremely hot girl that was interested in men from 18-100. That was obviously a fake profile. He clicked on it anyway to look at the pictures.
The afternoon had come for his first online date. She didn't want to go to dinner or get picked up. They just were having afternoon coffee as a meet up. There was no meet up when he dated Julia. In defense of his online date, he was a complete stranger and could be a crazy creep.
When he approached her outside the coffee shop she seemed a little older than her picture, but improved. She seemed pleased with him. They ordered their coffee and sat down. They talked for about 45 minutes straight. He wasn't attracted to her, but the conversation wasn't painful. Then she came at him with an interview question, “What three personal goals do you see yourself completing in the next five years?” He was surprised by the question and was hoping his face wasn't reflecting it. He made something up about finding the right one, but he didn't know if that was entirely true because his time with the right one might have just expired. Then he said something about travel and taking up rock climbing. He made no mention of children. He could tell this was something she wanted to hear.
After a bit of silence he asked her the same question. He didn't ask because he cared to know. He just wanted to put her in the same predicament. Of course since she posed the question, she had her answer. She wanted to be married, have a baby, and have a house. Apparently, he hadn't given the right response. He wasn't ready to give the response. He was just there to see if there was chemistry. She was there to weed him out. This was the new dating: meet up, interview questions, and done.
The cubicle jockey job is only a cover. Writer of poems, observations, and short stories.
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