Online love

Chapter 7. The app

It had only been a few days since Elena deleted the app and these had been fairly normal, following her usual routine, wake up, work, go to bed.

She made time for her family and friends. For the project she had in mind and which she was convinced she was doing well, but which deep down she was struggling to move forward.
Her mind was overwhelmed at certain moments thinking about what she had done at the beginning of the week. As if a hurricane had suddenly swept through her usual calm in a few hours and as quickly as it came, it was gone, leaving her with her mind a mess.

So far this week, she had posted pictures of herself - something that still seemed absurd and unthinkable to her even though she had done it herself - met someone, been ignored and unsubscribed from the app. Was she supposed to learn a lesson from this story? What was the moral of it all? She already knew that uploading photos of herself to the Internet is never a good idea,  she also knew that talking to strangers is not a good idea either and still nothing had stopped her.
A part of her knew that the lesson was not yet learned, moreover, if at some point she has to learn a lesson, it was going to come later, as this story was not yet finished.

For her, it was so frustrating not knowing what was going on through his mind. She felt disappointed about how he had left without a word.  

She thought a lot about the conversations they had had and, because of that damned habit she had of analyzing everything, she ended up installing the application again. The excuse that

She thought a lot about the conversations they had and, because of that damn mania she has for analyzing everything, she ended up installing the application again. The excuse she used to justify herself was that she was only doing it to re-read the conversation one last time. And then the account would be deleted and she would act as if nothing had happened here.

Determined and with a strong resolve that this would be the last time she used that application, she logged in again.

When she did it and logged in, she let out a silent scream of astonishment, and her heart stopped for a moment before starting to beat rapidly. On the main page, only one chat appeared, as he was the only person she had spoken to. On the left, in the profile picture circle, there was a blond guy, holding his phone in front of his face, with his muscular bare chest prominently displayed, and what seemed to be the gym restroom in the background.

Guiding her gaze to the right of the profile picture, there was another yellow circle indicating a notification, which meant she had a message from him. The message was from that same day, just a few hours before the current time.  It left her quite taken aback. She had uninstalled the app several days ago, and yet, there she was – the same day she re-installed it, with a message from him from just a few hours before.

To be honest, her honest idea wasn't made with the intetion of talking to him again, not after he had ignored her just a few days after they met. That idea wasn't something expected inside her brain. Her plan was to re-read their conversation and then delete her account, but now she couldn't do that since the old conversations were gone, and only the message he sent that same day remained. She had lost her original purpose but gained the opportunity to restart the conversation with him again

Hi! I'm so sorry I didn't get in touch with you these days, my life gets crazy from time to time. How's everything?

She stared at the text several times.

First, in disbelief, had that stranger really written to her again on the same day she had reinstalled the app? Was it all just a silly coincidence?

Then, with suspicion, if he had ignored her once and she kept responding, would she want to be ignored by him again in a future? And finally, with empathy, 'we all have moments when we lack the desire or time to invest in being sociable' she thought..

She didn't really know the reasons why he disappeared, let alone understand why he returned, but he had taken the time to write a small apology and get back in touch with her. Her mind was racing back and forth, wondering what to say to him now, and whether she truly wanted to answer him. Perhaps it was true that his life was busy enough to not prioritize responding to a stranger, Elena thought.