Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
10:21 am. You're 9 minutes early.
You're sat by the fountain in Washington Square Park, phone clutched in both of your hands. They'd begun to get a bit sweaty, but with good reason. If the bouncing of your foot and your heartbeat flooding your ears was any indication, you're incredibly nervous. You'd never done anything like this before but Dana, a wonderful combination of roommate and best friend, had been pushing you to do so since you moved to the city. Partially because she was worried about you...
"You need to get out more!"
"There's 8.6 million people living in New York. Me being your only friend with those kinds of statistics is really sad."
...but mostly because she wanted a bit of her own space again.
"Honestly, you've been so uptight lately. Please just go and get laid."
Which was totally fair in retrospect. She was nice enough to give you a place to settle until you found your legs, the least you could do was humor her. Which was how you found yourself curled up on your couch, a glass of wine in hand, swiping left and right until the early hours of the morning and now, waiting in the park, two days later for a "date" of sorts.
He'd been pretty charming, breaking the ice with a cheesy, yet wholesome dad joke. One so terribly bad, it was undeniably good. He hadn't been your first match but he had been your most promising, so when he suggested a coffee date, you were open to the idea.
But now, sitting here, awaiting a stranger from an app on your phone that you we're sure had no screening process reminded you of every psa from your childhood. The ones that begged young people not to meet with strangers from online for fear of sinister intentions through the mouths of fuzzy, forest creature puppets.
You breathe in deeply, trying to steady your heartbeat. You look down at your phone, 10:28 am.
2 more minutes.
You keep your eyes trained on your phone, flicking between instagram and twitter before opening up the small flame app one more time. For a brief moment, the adrenaline in your veins has made you forget everything about your date. His name, age, what he looks like, what you have in common. You click through to his profile and study it as if you were attempting to get in some last minute cramming before a huge final. You swipe between his photos, most of them photos of him on his own, some with friends, another with a beautiful blonde. His hair varies in length in more that one photo and you find yourself wondering what the current length of his hair is, and if you'd be able to spot him.
What if he didn't spot you? You hadn't told him what you'd be wearing. You look up and scan the mid morning foot traffic. Dog walkers, joggers, nannies and strollers, brisk walkers in suits on their way to the office, a guitarist attempting to find the perfect place to busk, well dressed women heading to brunch, a man sleeping on a bench. You could be anyone of these people for all he knows.
A ding chimes from your phone and a small red bubble appears beside the flame in a box.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Your finger hovers over the notification. You look at the time, 10:32 am, then scan the park from your vantage point at the fountain. You think you see him, but you're not sure. A tall, slim man is crossing the street, a mess of brown curls atop his head. He's heading in your direction but his head is down, focused on his phone, so it's hard to make out any distinguishable features. The leather jacket he's wearing does look a bit familiar though. He's so distracted that he doesn't even notice a near miss hit from a disgruntled biker.
You open the message which ends up being a declaration of his arrival and an inquiry into where you're located. You switch back to his profile and flip thorough his photos one more time for good measure.
When you hear your name in the form of a question, it takes a moment for it to register but as soon as you do, about a half a beat later, your eyes snap up to its source and you're met with the nervous, dimpled smile of the guy who, not even seconds ago, almost got wiped out by a bike courier.
You nod as you scramble to stand. He's a good head and half taller than you which was alarming.
"Harry?"
He smiles tightly.
"Uh... nice to meet you."
You hold out your hand as he steps forward with both of his arms out, low to his hips and it takes you a moment to realize what his intention was. By that time his arms are back by his side and your hand is still floating in the space between the both of you. You let out a nervous chuckle as you drop it, to which he punctuates with his own.
"Shall we?"
He motions to the entrance of the park. You nod, it's quiet.
A/N: This baby is just under 1K. It was totally random. I've had this edit sitting unfinished on my computer for about a month now and I figured I should do something with it. Loved the idea of a really awkward tinder meet up because aren't they all kinda like that at first, and so maybe there will be a second part to this, like the actual date, idk, I haven't decided yet. Let me know if you would want one or not?
Anyhow, thank you for reading! Here's the edit without all the tinder graphics! Love and Rockets, Finch x.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
