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You never would've expected to see it on her profile. Dating apps were... an experience. You've seen it all; from overly filtered and photoshopped pictures with terribly inflated assets and bending walls, to empty profiles, to everyday Plain Janes that aren't your type, to the upper echelon of women that are everyone's type and are clearly so swamped with likes that it'd be fruitless to add yours to the bottom of the pile. So, you spend most of your time allocating your limited likes to the least plain Janes. Occassionally, they'll write a reference to your favorite show or share their playlist with an artist you listen to and you can't help but hope the next time you unlock your phone, you'll have response from her. You avoid using your phone a litte more than usual, willing the universe to reward you for your patience... only to return to no response. Slightly discouraged, you resume swiping little by little, hoping to get a response tomorrow. Then, the day after that and the day after that until you forget what you were even waiting for in the first place. And so it continues with you broadening your search filters and increasing the distance as you swipe through the same types of profiles until...

You come across her profile. She's attractive, not in a "cover of a magazine" but in a "that girl you walk past at the mall that makes you do a double-take as head to the food court". You could see her being one of your friend's type but definitely not all of theirs. Her profile is different: you don't have the same taste in music but she doesn't have her ig linked, which is unfortunate in this case because you'd actually like to see more of her. From what you can see, the pictures look natural, if not a little boring. She doesn't look like someone who you'd run into usually, not a big concert goer and her hobbies look more like a solo affair than a group activity. Not locked in the gym but she must eat well enough to sustain herself and now you're making asumptions about her so it's time to finish scrolling and decide already.

Her other additions were typical responses to the prompts on here, nothing remarkable. Aside from music and her pictures, you can't find any specifications of her interests to even /pretend/ to be into to start a conversation.

As interesting and different as she seems, you don't feel compelled to swipe right. She seems attainable and put effort in her profile so you know her intentions are past the surface-level attention-seeking or ig followers, but you can't find anything strong enough to grasp onto until you reach the bottom. Her response to the last prompt is ominous. It's rather fitting she saved it until the very end because polarizing comes to mind when your eyes fall onto it: "Looking for a man that wants to be my bitch. I'm here to take you out and fuck you. Prefer something ongoing over a hookup and could be more with the right guy. Not looking to waste either of our time".

Admittedly, you glazed over her other response to the prompt that stated, "Drinks are on me if...", to which she replied, "They're always on me".

Well, to say your curiosity was piqued would be an understatement. The mix of excitement, arousal and worry was unlike anything you felt on a dating app before. You've been on all of them and sure, you got hard or hopeful looking at a few, select profiles. At most, you thought they'd be your next girlfriend, and at least, someone you could get coffee with, hookup with after the third date, maybe a fuck buddy/situationship for a few months. None of that compared to what you felt now. You were a man though. She's just a woman, she shouldn't make you feel nervous. Maybe she just wanted to get a rise out of you and would be nothing like you're expecting. Besides, if she's getting the drinks and on this app, she must be bored and want some type of attention. You can waste an evening drinking and fluffing her ego, maybe convince her to take you to dinner too. What's the harm?

You send off your like and wait. Unlike the other times, when you knew in the back of your mind you wouldn't hear back, you sat back with a strange sense of confidence. You knew she'd respond as soon as she received the notification.