4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Charlotte

"It sent me eight options, Carmen. Statistically, that means the app cannot possibly be as successful as it claims." I scratch behind Ginger's ear and try not to freak out about the date I just confirmed with a complete stranger. A completely hot stranger. Over the internet.

"So they gave you some options. Maybe you are a highly compatible person." She crunches her cereal in my ear while her child goes crazy in the background. "How did you end up choosing?"

"I literally picked the first guy on the list, and ironically, he messaged me first. I was just about to tap to request a chat, and his request came through."

"See, it's possible the algorithm ranked the guys in order of most likely to match you. Who knows, but at least you know the guy is really interested. What does it say about him?"

"He's handsome going by his picture, and by the way, why did you submit that picture of me? I look like a dork." I try not to cringe over the image this man saw. Either I was his only option, or the others rejected him, because there is no way I was his first choice with that horrible representation.

"I used it because I wanted men to see how fun you are. If a guy can look at that picture and not judge, it means he's also fun and not worried about perfection." Carmen fusses at her child and something crashes in the background before she adds, "What is the plan from here? Are you meeting for a date?"

"Not yet. We agreed to get to know one another through the app messenger first. He seems nice enough, but I'm still not sure this is a good idea."

"You promised you'd give it a chance. If he picked you, he must be intelligent."

I don't bother reminding her that my cheating ex chose me too. It will only spiral into a pity party that I won't be able to escape for a week, followed by me swearing off men all over again. This Andrew guy is probably nothing like Rory, and if he is, all I can do is hope I discover that through the app as we message one another.

"And I am. I'm merely saying it seems like a shot in the dark, is all. Anyway, I still have some papers to grade and work to do, but I'll keep you posted about the chats."

"Enjoy that. I have to go separate my child and my husband before one of them ends up in the pool against his will." She yells something to her husband who is clearly outnumbered with one son, then hangs up without saying anything more. Their house is always chaotic. It's filled with love, but the destruction her small family leaves in its path is impressive.

"Well, Gigi, I guess we better get some work done before this chat date tonight. What do you think?" My dog responds by groaning and rolling onto her back. She lets her head hang off the sofa and her lips flop open, showing her teeth. I pat her belly and head to my office and try to ignore the growing anxiety that threatens to consume me all day.

At seven on the dot, I sit on my sofa with a glass of iced tea and my phone, contemplating my life. How did I go from spending evenings with Ginger, happily ignoring the outside world to chat dating a man I know almost nothing about? Okay, I don't know anything about him but the basics. He's nice to look at, likes dogs, is flirty, and is also on the app thanks to a friend's persuasion.

Taking a second to scroll through his details, I note we do have a lot in common. I probably should have read his stats first. Still, there are no red flags I can see, assuming his profile information is true.

I initiate the chat and find he's already queued and waiting for me. I learned early that the app does have impressive safeguards like message moderation levels, including authorizing a third party to ghost watch the chat. Everything about that seems weird, so I decline the babysitting and enter the chat.

Good evening! How was your day?

This message is waiting for me when I enter and has a time stamp of five minutes ago. He was a bit early, which is at least a good sign he's interested and punctual.

I was buried under dozens of statistics quizzes but overall, it could have been worse. How was your day?

I have no idea when we pass the formalities and get deeper into our chat, mostly because I'm more than three years out of the dating pool. Rory and I were together for a long time, and even though months have passed since our break up, I'm still not used to this.

I didn't do much. Took another walk with my dog, paid the bills, organized a junk drawer. You know, standard Saturday activities for the old and boring.

Stop, you are not old. If you are, then so am I, and I refuse to allow myself to fall into a wheelchair any time soon.

Hey, don't underestimate the fun of a wheelchair. We could have races. Terrorize kids on bikes. Get enough of us together, and we can take over a small town.

Wow, that went dark fast. What town would we take over?

I hear Fort Lauderdale is where all the older folks go these days.

Ah, but it's probably already too full. We should pick a less populated town and save ourselves a lot of work here. How about? I don't know, something with four nice seasons, low taxes, and slow living?

That sounds appealing now, actually. Do we have to wait until we're wheelchair bound?

Eh, depends. Remember you have that one strike.

Oh, man, I'm never going to live that down, am I? Any chance we can reset?

Well, let's see. How about I ask you a bunch of questions and just get right to the point of this?

She's to the point. I like it. Shoot.

Are you or have you ever been married?

Neither. I'd have to be some kind of jerk to be married and on this app. Some might say I'm married to my job, but I'd be willing to adjust for the right woman (insert winky emoji)

It's totally unfair that we can't use emojis on this app, but did you know those things are copyrighted?

I did not. Good to know. Still…winky face.

Are we going to describe our emojis now? Next question. What are your thoughts on marriage?

Emoji descriptions, yes. Marriage, yes. The only reason I agreed to this app is because it seems designed for success and not…you know.

Yeah, seems that way. I'm glad you not here for…you know.

I promise, I'm not. What about you? Thoughts on marriage and kids?

I want a lot of kids, which can be a turn off for some men. I am Christian and so I'll leave the actual number up to God. I only know I'd love a whole bunch of them.

I'm Christian as well. I don't know a number either, but I'm not opposed to a big bunch. I'm open to only one as well. Like you said, it's up to God.

Looks like the app is on the right track so far. It says you're local. Are you in Savannah or rural?

I'm just outside of it, but not rural. Not that I'm opposed to rural. I'm pretty laid back about most of those things. What about you? Tell me about you.

I agree about being laid back about that stuff. I've also never been married. I've got an older sister who lives in Jacksonville. She's married and has two kids, and I wish I saw them more but her husband's job isn't flexible. My parents are local, but travel a ton. Mom actually loves Fort Lauderdale, so you might be on to something there.

I'm telling you, it's a hoppin' place for the older folks.

Hoppin'? You sure you're not already like sixty? Seventy?

Sometimes I feel that old, but no, I'm only thirty-two. Is hoppin' not what the kids are saying these days?

Okay, insert TONS of rolling on the floor laughing emojis here. I don't even understand half of what my students say. It's a whole other language, so as far as I'm concerned, hoppin' is where it's at.

Are you flirting with me now? It's hard to tell. Seems like flirting to me, Charlotte.

What? Me flirt? No. I'm terrible at that. It's merely a statement of fact. Hoppin' is happenin'.

This devolved into something I was not expecting.

What were you expecting?

Honest answer? First dates are sort of hard, right? I kind of assumed it would be even harder talking this way. I'm pleasantly surprised. You're making me smile.

Smile? Well, I aim to please. Maybe a little too much. My friends say I'm a people pleaser, but really I simply can't stand to see people upset or down.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's good to want to make people smile and laugh. Question though…who makes you smile?

I pause and think. When was the last time someone went out of their way to make me smile? My friends, obviously, because they set me up on this app. They want me to be happy, but when was the last time someone joked around with me, had fun, and acted silly just to elicit happiness from me? Someone like…a man.

I don't know. My friends try, hence being on this app, but truthfully, I guess I haven't had anyone whose goal was to make me smile.

There's a long pause. I dropped the biggest downer imaginable, which is probably not what he was looking for in a response. People say they want the truth, but when they get it and it's not what they expect, it sours things. I'm just about to give up when I get another message, but it's not from Andrew. It's from the app.

Andrew sent you a call request.

He wants to talk…over the phone. Technically, I already approved that when I accepted the chat, but I suppose it's an added safeguard. I hesitate for a moment, then figure what harm can it do? I tap accept and wait.