text: After dozens of swipes, multiple conversations that just evaporate, someone has said yes. The uphill battle to align schedules and convince yourself that you actually want to leave the house and spend money will be worth it. You think to yourself, maybe this will be the one, she seems cool. At the very least it’s always good practice to put yourself out there. You settle on drinks at a nearby bar that you’re familiar with. You’ve already talked about what she does for work and know she’s big into hiking just by looking at her photos. You might be a bit worried because it took 2 photos to scroll through to decipher which one she is. Luckily she filled out her profile thoroughly and you are aligned on politics, religion, and both went to big schools. Knowing this is nice, but always feel like it’s jumping the gun and you just have less to find out about the person later. However, you’re not complaining because you rather know now then $35 dollars of drinks later that she’s a religious conservative. Waking up knowing you have something to do after work always makes the day go by slower. You make sure to send a confirmation text in the morning to make sure you aren’t looking forward to something the whole day only to be let down later. She says she’s still on and “looking forward to it”. You hope she is being sincere. You decide to work from home, this will make you avoid any potential obstacles for when it gets closer. In-between meetings you’re still scrolling through the app and swiping on people. It makes you feel dirty, if your parents had a date scheduled they weren’t actively at the bar trying to pick up someone different before the date that night. You close the app and get back to work, or the appearance of work. Lunch finally comes around and you decide to start looking in your closet to feel out what you will wear. You check the weather to see what type of outfit you should wear. You get sweaty for a date when you get nervous, plus it's going to be really humid. Probably going to wear something dark, it will make you look thinner anyways. At least that's what you’ve been told. You don’t want to be too casual, but it is just drinks. You end up picking a navy blue collared shirt that you know hides your pit stains and some 7 in gray shorts to show off those legs. You know you’re going to wear your Allbirds and will have some sort of patterned socks that you can figure out later. Having your clothes laid out feels like one less thing you have to worry about. Your friend texts you asking to hang out after work. Sometimes you feel like telling friends about a future date, sometimes it’s easier to just lie so if there is no second date you don’t have to explain it to someone else. This time you tell them, this girl seems cool and your hopes have slowly been getting higher as the day goes on and gets closer to the date. It’s 6:15 and there's 45 minutes until the date starts. Even though the drive is only 5 minutes away you are already dressed and are now staring at yourself in the mirror. Wet your hair to make it so it doesn’t look so poofy, brush your teeth, and spray on some cologne. You’re feeling ready. You feel confident and psych yourself up thinking who wouldn’t want to go out with you. You say bye to your roommate and leave your apartment 20 minutes early. You want to make sure you find parking and get a good table. You don’t want to let her know you got there that early though, so you sit in your car and only get out 10 minutes before the date starts. The host asks for how many, you proudly say two. You sit so you can face the door to see them walk in. You hope that they look like their pictures and don’t have a weird voice. It’s 6:58 and you’re scrolling Twitter after checking her profile again. You see the door open and she walks in. You wave her over.