Page 30 of Curvy Girl Summer

“These can’t be the men God sent down here for us to procreate with.”

“Keep that procreating energy over there, bitch!” Nina squealed, dropping her phone on the couch and covering her pelvis with her hands. “The last thing I want is to get pregnant.”

I giggled. “I know. And looking at these options, I’m questioning my future as a mother.”

As I went through my options, there were a few people I was willing to take a chance on, and then I went on a left-swipe streak. Just when I was about to swipe no on the eleventh man in a row, my finger stopped in midair.

“Oh, hello,” I murmured, taking a long look at each of his pictures.

“What do you see?”

“His name is Donte.” I showed her the picture. “He’s a thirty-three-year-old physical therapist. He has no kids. He likes to sing. And he’s looking to date and see where things go.”

She pushed her box braids over her shoulder as she leaned forward to inspect my phone. Nodding, she sat back. “That’s a good pick. Swipe on him.”

I swiped.

“It’s a match!” I exclaimed.

Nina pumped her fist in the air. “Yes!”

“This is the first match I’ve actually been excited about. The others could be cool, too. But Donte feels promising.”

She grinned. “I told you it could be fun. Sometimes it’s annoying as hell. But sometimes, it’s fun.”

“You did say that.”

“It’s funny how your best friend can try to convince you to join a dating app for the last three years, and it takes a random bartender one conversation to convince you to take the leap.”

“It wasn’t like that. It was the whole situation. Being stood up. Hearing my mom’s and uncle’s voices in my head. Being ready to find my person. Realizing that you were right about me being in my own way. Having Ahmad give me shit. It was—”

“Who is Ahmad?”

“The bartender.”

She turned her entire body and smirked. “The way you said his name makes me think that maybe there’s more to the asshole-turned-cool-bartender story.”

I scrunched my nose. “I’m saying his name the way it’s pronounced. You are reaching!”

“Am I?”

“You always read too much into things,” I told her with a laugh. “There’s no more to the story. He was being an asshole because he said I had an attitude. When I broke down and told him what was going on, he told me that I wasn’t approachable or friendly.”

“Damn! My man didn’t sugarcoat anything, did he?”

“He really didn’t. But something about his realness just struck a nerve. So…” I shrugged. “He said he would look out for me if I did the first date at Onyx, so that’s where I’m going to meet the guys I hit it off with.”

“That’s really cool of him.”

“It was. I was surprised. Because the way he kept trying to embarrass me about being stood up, I thought I was going to have to fight him.”

Nina burst out laughing. “Maybe he wasn’t taking shots at you. Maybe he was shooting his shot.”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s married, and he was definitely not shooting his shot.” I thought back to our interaction and frowned. “Ithink he might’ve felt bad for me.” I put my phone down. “Did that man pity me?”

“No.” Shaking her head, she waved her hand wildly. “Don’t even go there.”

I started to feel a weird mixture of embarrassment, indignation, and defeat. “I don’t want someone pitying me. I don’t want him or anyone else to feel like I can’t find a man.”

---