He hated having an OkCupide profile, but he was so fucking lonely he finally gave in. It'd been months since he'd moved out and it wasn't that he missed his ex so much as that they'd been together so long he didn't know how to be alone. And the breakup was so odd and abrupt that he lost all his friends because of it. The random hook-up situation he had going on wasn't optimal either. The situation was so foreign to him, so unlike anything he'd ever known, he didn't know if it was the best thing that had ever happened to him or scared the shit out of him. So there he sat, alone after a long day at work, sitting in his empty apartment, drinking a beer, and staring at the "Locals" feature on the OkCupid app. A bleach blond, overly tanned JPEG with perfectly bleached teeth popped up with an alert: "Anyone wanna grab drinks?" He chugged his beer, clicked on the profile, and responded.

*

His date was waiting at the bar at Avenue Tavern, wearing a red hoody as promised. "Wow," she said. "You're shorter than I thought you'd be."

He was taken totally aback. "Oh. Um... "

"Oh god! I didn't mean... see, my ex is five ten and your profile said five ten and you're shorter than him... oh god!" she said, covering her face. "Don't talk about exes on a first date. God, I'm impossible. Wait... um... .this is a date, right?"

He chuckled. "Kendall, right?"

"Wow, yeah, good memory. Can I buy you a drink? Or is that too emasculating? I don't know I don't do this a lot."

"Me neither. I haven't been on a date since college."

"Whoa," Kendall said, her eyes becoming the size of quarters.

"Yeah. Little rusty. See, I just broke up with... "

"Whoa. Stop right there. Didn't I just say we shouldn't talk about exes on a first date?"

"Well, I thought just putting it in context... "

"Great, so now I'm the rebound girl."

"Well there was someone between... "

"Oh good."

"Kinda during actually. The end anyway."

Kendall spit out her cosmo. "You're a cheater?! Great. Just great."

"Well I didn't meant to... he was just so cute and it just... "

"WHAT?! It was with a guy!"

"Yeah, it's... "

Kendall threw her drink in his face. "All that... should be in your profile." And she stormed off.

*

He thought about girls the whole cab ride. How much fuss they could be. How as soft and pretty and hot they could be, they were a huge headache at times. Guys just made sense. He wondered why he didn't see it before. Maybe he'd just been too scared to accept it all along. Maybe he was just confused. Maybe... he should just go back to the only thing that made sense in the last six months. The cab arrived to its destination. He got out and rang the buzzer. After a few minutes, the door opened.

"What are you doing here? It's late."

"I just... I wanted to tell you. I know that it's weird. But I think you and I... it could work."

"I don't know Brad. I don't know if I want to be part of your confusion anymore." Brad cut off the sentence with an abrupt kiss. They looked at each other.

"The only thing that I've been sure of all along is you. Please Tyler... give me a chance."

###

Just joining us? Catch up here:

Volume 1 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 2 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 3 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 4 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five


###