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I laughed. “Never. Later, man.”
He threw up the deuces. “Later.”
And with that, he disappeared into the crowd.
I looked down at my plate, suddenly losing my appetite. I wished I could turn back time and actually talk to my mom, maybe convince her tonotput in a fucking marriage clause and completely screw me over.
Don’t worry, baby; you always make it in the end,I could hear her saying. She always had the utmost confidence in me, even when I didn’t have it in myself.
Unfortunately, though, I didn’t know if I could make this one work.
ChapterThree
CIARA
Per Brooklyn’s request, I downloaded the dating app and created my profile. And in no time, I ran through almost all the matches.
At least, all of the good matches. The other ones were a slew of cheesy come-ons and photos of men’s…unmentionables.
“Maybe I should go on a more…traditional dating app,” I said to Brooklyn on the phone that day. It was Monday afternoon, two full weeks after I had downloaded the app. I had just deleted another round of inappropriate photos, and I was tired from the effort.
“For what reason?” Brooklyn demanded. “I’m walkin’ here!” she shouted at someone on her end of the line. I heard a long car horn honk in response as if someone was leaning on the horn.
“Well, maybe a traditional dating app would have more people to choose from?” I said. I didn’t know why I made that into a question, but it felt necessary to quell Brooklyn’s impending ire. I could feel my own anxiety in my throat, burning all the way down to my esophagus as if I had swallowed jalapeños.
“You’ll still have this issue with traditional dating apps,” she countered. “It might be even worse, depending on the app. At least with this one, you’re supporting a Black-woman-owned company. And all the potential guys have to live in the Metrowest area. Give it another week or two, and if it’s really not working out, you can trash the dating app idea altogether. What’s the harm in that?”
“No harm, I guess.” I sighed. “Okay, I’ll stay on the app. For now.”
“Wonderful.” Brooklyn’s voice was far away as if she moved her face away from the speaker for a second, and then she came back. “Look, Cici, I have to go. We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Okay.” I smiled; Brooklyn was always rushing from one place to the next—usually from one bookstore to the next—and though I missed my best friend, I loved these snippets of time I got with her.Hopefully, soon, I’ll be able to hang out with her in person,I thought.
“Talk to you later; don’t get hit by a car, please,” I added. “Love you.”
“Love you too. Bye.”
I hung up the phone just as my fifteen-minute timer went off. I sighed, lifting myself from the bench and mentally steeling myself to go back to work.
“Soon,” I promised myself. “Soon, I’ll be able to leave this job.”
The rest of the day went by quickly, with me flitting between the backroom and the register pretty frequently. We were at the beginning of March Madness season, and apparently, Hemingway College’s basketball team was doing unexpectedly well. Both my phone and my sketchpad stayed in my locker for the rest of my shift, so I wasn’t able to see the notifications from the dating app until I was ready to go home.
Even though I dragged my feet on downloading the app, and I didn’t enjoy some aspects of online dating, I actually enjoyed being on the platform. It was cheekily called The Happily Ever After app, and it was based on the premise that through the platform, many people found their one true love. The developer—Ava Humphrey, a Metrowest area native—believed that often, you find true love in people you have known and seen your whole life. She based the app on this premise, along with mutual trust and interests.
Ava and her team built in an anonymous feature, which meant that people could either have their photos hidden, have the photos only revealed to people who matched you at eighty percent or more, or have the photos be completely visible. This gave users the option to be judged by their matches based on personality and conversation alone, if they so choose.
I chose to be anonymous, to see if people would be attracted to my personality alone. The whole dating app idea was strange to me in general, so I figured I should lean into the weird. I wasn’t expecting much, and until that day, I got exactly what I was expecting.
But when I looked at my phone after my shift, I was surprised to find several notifications on my screen. Someone had viewed my profile—and from the looks of it, they had viewed it thoroughly.
My bio was pretty sparse, but apparently, a new user—Charming123—had viewed it. They also went through my profile add-ons—things I said I liked and disliked, my partner preferences, the quiz questions—of which I had only answered five—and my location. And then, the person had sent me a message.
Charming123:Hey.
That was it. Just…hey.
I frowned, my initial excitement fading. “What kinda weirdo is this?” I muttered. Admittedly, since I had encountered a lot of pick-up lines and photos of men’s penises, I was a bit wary. Still, as I walked off campus and toward my apartment, I answered the message.
