At this point in my dating adventure, I was ready to throw in the towel. I was over the creepy messages and pointless conversations. But then, I met Mike.
A self-proclaimed sneakerhead and geek, Mike popped up on my Bumble account with blurry, goofy photos. And since I was still on deadline, I didn’t even read his profile. I just swiped right, matched, and got down to business.
He talked about how he spent the day looking at apartments in my neighborhood; I explained how I was at the gym most of the day. I cut to the chase and asked him to hang out and gave him my number.
He was nice, funny, and suggested we go bowling on a Monday night. I was surprised that he didn’t just want to go to a bar or something. I said yes.
So Monday evening, I made my way over to the bowling alley. Honestly, because our convo was so short, I was almost nervous that he wouldn’t show up. Or that he would be a serial killer. I texted him as soon as I got there and as I waited inside by the bar, a brown haired, bearded guy came in wearing a hoodie and hat. He was sweet upon arrival, giving me a hug and apologizing for the fact that I had to pay an $8 cover. He was also a lot more good-looking in person than his photos.. There was no way he could’ve been a serial killer.
Overall, the date was fun, and I learned that I suck at bowling.
The only downside was that we had nothing in common. He was more introverted, a homebody, while I love any excuse to be out with my friends. He didn’t travel much and doesn’t have much motivation to do it more in the future. The only thing we did have in common was our love for Stranger Things and the fact that we’re both from Brooklyn.
But when he asked me out again at the end of the night, I said yes. After all, you can’t know everything about a guy on the first date. Maybe when we go out again, we’ll find more common ground. And even though we didn’t have a ton in common, we had a lot of fun.
And even if nothing works out with the bowling guy, I would have missed the chance to do something completely new and fun all because he had terrible profile photos. It seems silly.