#93

A few weeks ago, I went on a strange first date (he asked if I was an artist, if I considered myself a hipster, and if I’d ever run away from home). That more or less finalized my decision to deactivate my Hinge account, and I am now officially off all dating apps, with no plans to sign back up. It feels great!! Leading up to this, all I had been doing was sporadically talking to a few guys that I wasn’t even excited about. In fact, when one of the odder ones suggested we meet up, I unmatched from him rather than agree to a date I knew would be miserable.

Little did I know I’d run into him at a bar while out with my friends this weekend! LOL. We had literally just arrived when I squeezed into an open spot at the bar to fetch us all drinks. The guy on the adjacent stool started talking to me (he said my “sorry” didn’t sound very genuine, and I told him he was right), but I was trying to make eye contact with one of the bartenders and order. I could feel him staring at me, so I made a bit of conversation while I waited for our drinks, and then moved away from the crowded bar as soon as I got them. Back with my friends, I told them I was pretty sure I had matched, chatted, and unmatched with the guy at the bar. We chalked it up to a kooky coincidence and allowed ourselves to be approached by the many other male bar patrons. A little while later, the same guy from the bar/Hinge approached me, said I looked familiar, and asked if we knew each other from somewhere. I told him we had matched on Hinge; he remembered me, and how I unmatched him (lol). I told him I actually deleted my entire profile, skirting the fact that I had first deleted our match. As usual, my instincts were right! After politely conversing for a few minutes, he could not pick up on the hint that my friends and I wanted to hang out without him, and he proceeded to awkwardly linger and STARE AT ME, neither attempting to make conversation nor leaving us alone. As he fiiiinally finished his beer, my friend asked if I wanted to join her at the bar to order more drinks, and I agreed, fully ignoring and leaving him behind. The move was a lie, and my friend confirmed he left the establishment as soon as we walked away, leaving us all relieved to be free of the dually dull and creepy cockblock. Hooray!