Valerie is a 29-year-old executive manager in e-commerce. Her interests include people-watching in the park, hot yoga, and social media. Valerie describes herself as “driven” and “a free spirit,” and is looking for someone who is “hip and open to new experiences.” She signed up for OkCupid after reading about it in The Grid’s “Dating Diaries” issue back in February and met Trevor.
I’d been in a dating slump for a while, so when I signed up for OkCupid, I was instantly, like, “Where have you been my whole life?” There were such rad guys on there—musicians and artists who had tattoos and could hold actual conversations. I never really found them on Plenty of Fish.
I went on a lot of one-hour coffee dates, some second dates—nothing too serious or intense, just a lot of good-quality interaction. There was this one guy I was casually chatting with. I didn’t know his real name yet, but we had exchanged some intriguing messages.
One random Thursday night, my friends and I decided to go to a dive bar to sing karaoke. After some drinking and singing, I went outside for a cigarette, and someone dropped a penny in front of me. When a guy walked by, I said, “Look, it’s a lucky penny. Take it!” He said, “No, it’s yours,” and handed it back to me.
Back inside, I checked OkCupid, and had a new message from the guy I had been chatting with. He wrote, “It’s the funniest thing: I think you just walked into my bar.” I was dying to know who he was, so I looked around like a stalker. Of course, he was the rock star singing like a pro on stage. I sent him a message back, and when he got off the stage, he made his way over. He introduced himself as Trevor, bought us drinks, and we talked. He was hot, and had great tattooed sleeves. It was like serendipity. Eventually he had to go back to bartending, but we texted and flirted for hours while he was there.
Eventually, my friends left, and I went over to the bar and rocked out with Trevor until last call. He had to clean up, but he paid a lot of attention to me, and I could tell he thought I was sexy. We went back to his place. I guess it was just so random and totally in the moment that nothing else, like reason or being classy, mattered. It was amazing: Trevor has a rooftop view of the city, so we chilled out and talked, and lazed around in the hammock. I asked him if I could take a nap, which I suppose was my subtle way of bringing it to the bedroom. The rooftop would have been nice, but it was still really cold out. Shenanigans ensued, and then we both passed out.
We set the alarm to get up to watch the sunrise, but that didn’t happen. I woke up late and had to rush to work. Instead of waking him up, I sent a text message when I left to do my walk of shame. I noticed he had extra toothbrushes in the bathroom, which tipped me off to his “dating style.” I never saw Trevor again. We had attraction, not connection, but I was still very glad I picked up that lucky penny.
Valerie rates her date (out of 10): 10
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