Another Door Opens

23 - How do adults meet each other these days?

- EDEN -

"How do adults meet each other these days?" I asked my friends and colleagues in the salon once we opened back up a week into the new year.

I hadn't told Luna or Nella yet of my resolve to date again, not knowing whether they would approve or think it was too soon, but it was topical to the discussion at hand. One of my colleagues, Lily, was talking about a guy she kissed at a new year's party, and we were keenly listening in all the details. Considering Lily's ex-husband was apparently a major asshole who used to control and emotionally abuse her, and this was the first man she's kissed since leaving that dick, we were making sure to celebrate this milestone with her because it's apparently taken her a long time to get to a point where she felt ready to put herself out there again. As someone contemplating doing the very same thing, I understand her hesitation, even without the other complexities of her personal circumstances.

"What do you mean, Wilkes?" Luna asked, looking at me curiously. 

"Like, if I wanted to take a leaf out of my lovely bold friend, Lily's book and make out with someone new, how exactly would I do that? Where do adults meet each other? I've been out of the game for so long I really have no idea where to start."

They were all silent a while, which had me almost completely convinced that no one thought it was a good idea, or maybe that they thought I wasn't ready to date again, but that could just be me projecting my own fears. 

"You could always try internet dating? Lots of people do that these days," Heath finally suggested, breaking the gnawing silence that was about to see me change my mind and never mention it again.

While I've never dated people online before, I'd be lying if I said that it didn't fill me with even more apprehension than I was already feeling. It's not a world I have any experience in, nor for that matter do I have much faith in its success rate, despite knowing quite a few people nowadays who have met their partners online. 

"Okay... Which app do I use?" I asked stupidly, not knowing the plethora of dating apps which exist that I was about to be swarmed with by Heath.

Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, Bumble, eHarmony, Plenty of Fish, RSVP, Grindr, though that last one seemed to be much more a Heath app, than a single, predominately heterosexual woman like myself. 

“It all depends on what you’re wanting really,” continued Heath, providing me with his inside scoop on the ‘Art of Online Dating’ as he described it. “Are you wanting to just go on a few cute dates? Just to make some new friends... with benefits? Love? A committed relationship? A baby daddy? Sugar mamma? To let some lucky person be the one to dust off those cobwebs and make you cum for the first time in years?”

The look Luna gave Heath could have pierced even the most strong and sturdy of metals, I’m sure of it. My own facial expression would have been one of shock horror that he correctly guessed just how long it’s been since I achieved an orgasm with another person, always finding it much easier to accomplish that end on my own than with Trey. Either way, I’m grateful that we only had two clients in and they were both likely unable to hear Heath’s comments over the sound of the running water on their heads given both Nella and Misako were washing their hair.

Lowering my voice so as to not be heard and embarrassed any further, I answered Heath’s questions in a roundabout way. “I don’t know what I want, Heath. This whole thing scares the shit out of me.”

“Maybe not Tinder for now then,” he said, glancing towards Luna and back a few times to check whether she was still pissed off at his last question querying my interest in effectively fucking strangers. He grabbed my phone out of my pocket and opened the app store to download a few dating apps he thought would be more suitable to my indecisiveness. “Make a profile on each of those apps.”