“It was okay. I’m glad it’s the last one without Grayson. And it was nice having Matt with us.”
“Yeah, he never got into the whole thing with his parents, and why he doesn’t go home anymore, did he? He’s a mystery, I tell ya. Oh. Speaking of mysteries, have you met anyone on the pictureless app yet? Braden asked me yesterday if you did,” she says nonchalantly, tossing that bomb out like it’s no big deal.
“Wait, how does he even know about it, and why is he asking?”
“He said Warren was interested in trying it out and wanted to know if it was working for you.”
I harrumph. “That’s weird. Warren seems like the least likely person to sign up for a dating app.”
Is that really why he asked, or does he want to know if I’m sleeping with anyone else? No, I’m sure he doesn’t care. This is where women go wrong: thinking every man is obsessed with them and reading too much into things.
“I know, right? So, tell me how it’s going.”
“Well, I finally went on last night—”
“Wait, for the first time since you signed up?”
“Yes.” I groan. “I’ve been too busy. Then I’m always tired after work and end up reading myself to sleep. So I—”
“Hang on. I just sent some pictures.Look.”
This girl’s killing me. Laughing, I pull the phone from my ear and put it on speaker. “Oh my God, she’s adorable. She’s so smiley. I wish I could visit more.”
“Like my mom once said, you can do real estate anywhere.”
“It’s tempting, but Grayson will finally be home. That would be sad if he got here and I left.”
“Or… it would be perfect. Your parents would have a replacement.”
“Rude. But back to my story… I finally started scrolling through profiles last night, and after about ten, I came across one I swear was meant for me. He checked all my boxes, and something about him… just stuck out.”
“Even without knowing if he has missing teeth or three eyeballs?” she jests.
“Shut up, that’s not possible. Anyway… I liked his profile, and bam, we were an instant match. Within seconds, I shit you not, he messaged me, and we ended up talking the rest of the night.”
“Oooh. This is so exciting.” I can hear her clapping in the background while I picture her bouncing up and down. “What did you talk about?”
“We played Truth or Dare, which—”
She cuts me off. “Uh… how exactly did you do that through a chat window?”
I explain how well it worked and tell her some of the questions we asked. Then I drop the bombshell about bringing Braden into the mix.
“I can’t believe you really did it. You could’ve said you texted him without actually doing it.”
“Lying isn’t the way to begin a relationship.”
“Seriously? What relationship? It was the first five minutes of a non-date. Did you end up exchanging pictures?”
“No! That’s not how it works. You need so many interactions before you’re even allowed to send a photo. Anyway, I couldn’t liebecause what if he ends up being the one, and he found out? He’d lose any respect for me.”
“Fine. You’re right. So what did Braden say after you texted something so crazy?”
“Well…”
I recount the entire situation, then finally get to why I called in the first place.
“So now I’m talking to two guys at once, and I’m not sure if that’s okay.”
