it's a match | andrew siwicki

3. Profile Set-Up

"Lexie, you've been out of the game for too long."

The twenty-four year old brunette feigned a shocked look as she looked up from her computer screen. "I don't see how my lack of a love life affects you at all."

"I just... I don't know. I want you to be in love again! It's been two years since you've had a boyfriend and you're different when you're in love.. like you glow or something like that," Lexie's friend Jen responded, a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Ok, we get it, I'm boring now..." Lexie retorted, rolling her eyes and returning back to her work.

"HEY I'm still talking to you, girly!!" Jen exclaimed, getting up from her desk and sitting on Lexie's table. "Miss Instagram model on the side, there are so many dudes thirsty for your ass, but your single ass just stays home all evening watching reruns of the Bachelor."

"Bitch and what's wrong with that?" Lexie fought back. "Our boss is gonna come out here and see how you're not doing your job and I am and he'll promote me and not you. Go back."

"This ain't over, Lex," Jen said, getting in the last word before she returned to her work.

Alexis Anderson, known as Lexie or Lex to her friends and @letstalkaboutlexbb to her 40k followers on Instagram, is just your average twenty-four year old who graduated from college and works a normal 9-5 dead-end office job. If you asked her what she dreams of doing in the future, she'd just shrug and say, "we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Her friends would tease her about her Instagram following and her follower count because for a normal girl who works a regular job, her "side-hustle" was decently successful. Decently successful meaning she would like for it to take off somehow, but the unreliability of the business deferred her from quitting her day job.

Lexie finished up her paper filing and saved all her work for the day before logging off and waiting for her co-worker friend Jen in the lobby. When her blonde friend came out, Lexie asked, "Wanna grab take-out and watch the Bachelor at my place?"

Jen rolled her eyes and groaned, "Lexxxx..."

"What?"

"As much as I'd love to hang, Kevin's asked me to come over. Says he's got a surprise for me," she exclaimed excitedly. "See, if you had a boyfriend, maybe..."

"Ok, Jen, I get it," Lexie cut her off with a small smile. She'd be lying if she said the lack of romance in her life didn't bother her. She was just scared of the commitment and getting hurt again. "Text me how it goes!"

The girls said their goodbyes and Lexie made her way to the local Chinese take-out place and ordered her dinner for one before driving back to her studio apartment to watch reruns of the Bachelor on a Friday night.

Upon reflection and pigging out on her chow mein, Lexie looked herself in the mirror and wondered what the hell she was doing with her life. She took her phone out and hesitated before searching and downloading the app her friends had been bugging her to get.

[Tinder] – 9:45 PM

Successfully installed. No viruses detected.

She didn't exactly know what she was doing, but she uploaded some of her favorite pictures of herself and added a bio.

And then that was it. She started swiping.