Four Years Part One

Yesterday was a special day in my heart. Yesterday marked the day of my four year relationship with Justin. It was my longest relationship, my healthiest relationship and my happiest relationship. And a cute little birdy told it was the same for him. I will be the first person to say that online dating does work. It’s worked for several of my friends on a range of apps- Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid. 

But around four years ago I was having trouble meeting guys so I tried out some apps looking for an actual relationship. Tinder was very harsh. Many guys swiped right on me only to come out of the gate with some question about a threeway or a boob comment or a spiteful comment about my weight. After a while I lost hope on Tinder. Luckily when I was in college my friend Emily had had some success on Bumble and she was still singing its praises. So I made a Bumble account. I don’t know how it is now but at the time girls had to message first and then the guy had 24 hours to respond. I guess Justin was interested because he responded to my (okay, slightly unoriginal) question “What’s your favorite horror movie?” I had sent that because Justin had said he was very into movies. 

Naturally, our first date was dinner and a movie. We did the movie first because we got the time wrong and didn’t have time for dinner. We had our first dinner at B.J.’s Brewhouse. There I learned about his family (younger brother, two parents who were insurance agents although his father had previously been a chef) and the fact he didn’t like peanut butter (but was not allergic). I felt this  light happy feeling no man had made me feel in quite a while. I felt like someone wanted me for a reason other than sex. I felt like someone wasn’t going to be scared by all my trauma. I felt like if I played my cards right, this man might be….welll, he might be it. Justin walked me to the door and gave me a chaste kiss after asking for a second date. I didn’t take the stairs the rest of the night. I just soared up them in a haze.