They met on a dating site.. 'met', you don't meet, that's the problem isn't it? They chatted they'd seen one another's profile pictures. Eventually they met for coffee.
Coffee, for a further assessment, a second interview, all in the cold light of day without wine or lager or half a bottle of vodka...
She peered at him appraisingly through dark glasses, He saw two black mirrors in which he watched himself trying to be witty, charming, sexy, appealing. She watched him back, still, as he writhed enticingly before her. With feline poise she licked a tiny fleck of chocolate powder from her lips.
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The message later that day.
'I don't think there's a spark but you're a lovely guy, really good luck, I hope you find someone' she texted, without, he felt, a great deal of conviction. Then,
'I had a good time with you though'
Ah the friend zone. They met again a couple of weeks later, maybe if he... perhaps with the heat of the moment off, he might improve his performance, do better, change her mind. He was clear, he wanted her, wanted the gym honed body artfully displayed on her tinder page, her leg high on the kitchen unit stretching, in the long shot through the mediterranean apartment, her dancing at a club sweating and excited yet still keeping something back, some mystery, catching the eye of the camera, one brow raised. That headline "seeking good connections" He persuaded her, she was "really busy" but found the time for him "where does it all go? lol"
They were good friends. It turned out, now 'the question' was off the table there was a chemistry, she threw her head back and laughed at his stories. They had fun. She'd stipulated 'deal breaker, must be able to make me laugh' A box to tick, a bar to vault, which he had vaulted, like some sort of circus animal. Maybe there might yet be 'a spark'
They still chatted regularly on the app.
'It's a shame we weren't compatible, you're fun and I really get on with you. I'm still looking for the right guy. God, Tinder, yeah?'
'What is your right guy?
He replied, miserable now and now, with a kind of twisted self-harming fascination. An urge to walk down the shadowy tunnel of disappointment in which he found himself peering further into the gloom for that elusive spark
'Well tall, strong, able to take charge of me, take me in hand. That was more what I was looking for when I clicked on your BDSM profile. That's my type, a big dominant guy, old school. Six foot two, tail commanding.
'Ah ok.'
'But you seemed interesting.'
Just not big and dominant enough. He got that.
They met for coffee again.
"what do you think of him?"
She leaned in, waving a profile at him. He leaned towards her, inhaled her perfume and the slight smell of her skin and body underneath that. He revelled in it, became slightly hard.