Page 4 of Love Not Qualified

It was no secret that wandering on the streets at night wasn’t the smartest idea, but I wasn’t in the mood to handle hearing Merielle ramble again or the deadly silence in an Uber.

What I needed was some time alone with my thoughts and no one to bother me.

I pressed the app’s icon when it appeared on my screen, then created a profile. The fields required my name, age, city, gender, job, and a photo.

For David’s sake, I hoped this was safe and wasn’t actually selling my information.

Five matches popped up on my phone and I hit start, my hands sweating when a conversation window opened.

What do I say now?It didn’t even show me their name, just a white icon where their photo should be.

I took a deep breath, taking my eyes off of the screen to turn onto the next street, then returned to the empty chat.

Just say something.

Me

hi!

That’s a great start,right? It’s polite, not too invasive or desperate, and it’s the normal way people start a conversation.

There wasn’t much you could say to a stranger, anyway.

When three circles jumped on my screen, I held my breath until my mouth filled with air.

Why the hell was I so nervous about this?

The air whooshed out of my mouth with a disappointed sigh when I read his text.

Unknown

Looking for a hook-up?

I rolled my eyes and didn’t waste another second before hitting the X button, closing the conversation.

What a douchebag.

Did people only hook up on this kind of app? Was the story of ‘I met your father on a dating app’ even real?

The app instantly redirected me to another chat, and this time I didn’t try to look for the perfect way to start a conversation.

Me

hi!

If this guy tried to hit on me the same way the last one did, having Merielle giving me shit about being single wasn’t as bad as spending another minute on this app.

I placed the phone in my back pocket and entered the old building I was living in. The door creaked when I pushed it open, the bottom scratching the ground. As always, it remained halfway open, guiding the wind inside.

My feet followed the steps to the first floor where I crammed my hand inside the hole in my door, untangling the wire keeping it closed.

As soon as I got inside, I put the wire back and threw myself on the couch in the middle of the small studio. At the head of the sofa, my childhood bear was watching me with his big dark eyes.

It was a gift from my father on one of his rare sober nights. Dad came into my room, holding a Christmas package even though it was summer, and said the plush toy was meant to protect me from all the bad things in this world. Little did he know, the only evil in my life was him.

I don’t even know why I kept it after all these years.

My fingers gripped his red collar as I turned him around, then took my phone out to let Merielle know I got home.

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