Tinder Stories

This story is in no way, shape or form to ridicule anyone. It’s just my point of view.

After the long journey of dating people that I’ve met in real life, I decided to finally give Tinder a huge chance in 2017. Once I signed up, I was open to various people. Also, I was traveling a lot during that time. My location was set in my hometown of Los Angeles, CA, to be exact. I swiped left so many times it was ridiculous, so I deleted the app a week after, then reinstalled it in hopes of finding something that intrigued me.

Finally, I swiped right on an athletically built woman who was originally from Atlanta, and we began a chatting immediately. She was something different than my usual type, but I was open to trying new things.

We spent a week or so talking on tinder about mindless things: “What’s ur favorite color?” “How long have you’ve been in LA?” “Do you like Los Angeles so far?” “What’s the last book you’ve read?” ”What’s your zodiac sign?” etc., so I decided to send her my number to take this conversation further (something I do rarely).

She called me on a Thursday morning to set up a date. At this time I was on my way to visit a design studio in New York for a week. So we decided to meet up once I got back in town.

New York gave me this intense energy that made me feel like I was drinking Red Bull; it was a euphoric feeling. A week passes by and I’m finally back home, and as soon as I got off the plane, I called her to set up a date the same day. She confirmed our plans for 7 PM, so I reserved a patio table at my one of my favorite restaurants that I frequent called BAMBOO. In my opinion, they have the best caipirinhas in Los Angeles. She got to the restaurant before me while I was in my Uber stuck in the wonderful LA traffic, and when I finally arrived, she wasn’t sitting in my reserved table, she was in the corner table with her sunglasses on. Lucky I had on my sunglasses as well! I greeted her and asked her politely to gather her items and sit at my table, then she said, “ONLY IF YOU GIVE ME A HUG”... I was startled by the response, so I acted as if I didn’t hear it and proceeded to walk to the table.

ME

HER

The waiter handed her a menu, our drinks, chips, salsa and two glasses of water for us. We both still had on our sunglasses and we didn’t speak for about five minutes.

I was confused by the change of energy from over the phone versus in person. I seriously thought she wanted to fight me, but I continued to just stare at her while sipping my drink.

So I started the conversation...

ME: HOW WAS YOUR DRIVE OVER HERE?

HER: I DON’T KNOW YOU TELL ME?

ME: ARE THE PEACHES IN ATLANTA GOOD?

HER: I DON’T KNOW YOU SHOULD GO THERE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!

I was taken back by her responses, in which I should’ve just left the date and called it a day, but my curiosity told me to stay and see how the night played out.

She excused herself to go to the restroom, 15 minutes later she came back and sat down. She started to talk a mile a minute and show me pictures of her near 40-year-old ex that left her for another woman all because they had an argument about top ramen versus cup o' noodles (I’m pretty sure that story was deeper than that but I was listening to the lies).

To make her feel comfortable, I started to tell to tell her about a situation (but it was just just a situation not an actual relationship) I was in that sounded similar to hers.

HER: I SEE THE PASSION IN YOUR EYES WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT HER! WOW YOU STILL HAVE FEELINGS FOR THIS PERSON! WHY’D YOU WASTE MY TIME WITH THIS DATE.

ME: I was definitely just trying to find a common ground by opening up to you instead of just sitting here with nothing to say.

(Side note: I’ve finally figured out that sometimes when someone wants to vent, allow them to... don’t share similar stories.)

HER: Oh okay, that makes complete sense.

Within the next few minutes, blood started to run down her nose; she felt it and tried to wipe it away quickly. I asked if she was okay, and she nodded. I soon found out the real reason why she went to the bathroom for so long.

ME

I asked the waiter for the check and offered to pay for her meal and drinks.

HER: I feel like we should split the check, because I know you still have feelings for that person you told me about earlier plus I do not know what you do for money so I feel totally uncomfortable.

ME: (blank stare) Okay that’s fine. No problem.

HER: So what do you do for money, and can you make it quick because I have to pick up a friend within the next hour.

I started to laugh and disregarded her question. I definitely felt like I was being pranked, like was this girl really serious right now!

The check was split and she went to the bathroom again. I thought the date was over, so I said my goodbyes and I went to the bar to get me two more caipirinhas and to pretend like I was watching a basketball game, you know basically minding my business. I had enough of this rollercoaster; it wasn’t a fun one.

She came and approached me at the bar and asked me what was I doing for the rest of the night. Of course I didn’t respond back, I was tired of these random acts of aggression.

(Side note: I later found out that it’s kind of rude to not respond to this kind of person because they will definitely bug the shit out of you until you answer them.)

She proceeded to tap me on the shoulder until she got her response and I started to play the crazy game back. I told her that I had know clue who she was and I really would like it if she would stop talking to me. I really was fed up by this point.

She walked away for a second, then came back and asked me if I wanted some drugs (I don’t do drugs, I’m a square)... At this point I said to myself “pls... let me get out of this situation and I will never date again.”

ME: No, thank you that’s not my style!

She called her Uber and left the restaurant finally.

One month later she blew my phone up and left voicemails asking why didn’t I call her back to hang out. This was a person I should’ve blocked with no hesitation, but you know what, we live and we learn.