Love at First Swipe

Swipe.

Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. Suzi ran her forefinger over the touch screen again and again.

Jail bait. Too young. Pass.

This guy looks like he's kissing his dog. Is that an open mouth? Passssss.

Black and white headshot. Clearly 20 years older than he says he is. Pass.

Her finger began to get hot as she swiped past the emo loner, the aspiring mega-preacher, and the one who compared himself to Ted Bundy (wtf?) she landed on a page that seemed... decent. Cade, 24. It didn't hurt that his profile quote was funny:

"My friends say I need to get over myself and consider dating online. So here I am bashing at this keyboard 2 beers in. They are standing over me watching me bash the keyboard 2 beers in. Help me make them stop."

A laugh came out of her as she began to swipe the cute boy away, but then ... she stopped. There was something about the photo that seemed genuine. He truly seemed like a nice person being hounded by his friends to meet people. Suzi could relate. For more than a year well-meaning friends and loved ones had been hounding her to 'date a nice boy.' Her mom wanted nothing more than to marry her off to some boring valley guy. She read the profile again before looking closer at the photo. This Cade character did seem to be in a sucker position, with a beer clad arm of a second man over Cade's right shoulder, and a friendly-looking girl photobombing him on his left with a Post-it that read, 'Total catch ladies!'

"What the heck," Suzi thought. She swiped right and to her amazement discovered she had a match. The next thing she knew, they were meeting at a South Bay beach beer dive where Cade and his friends hung out after a day of sand volleyball.

Scanning the crowd of tanned beach bodies, she suddenly felt overdressed. Most of the guys had no shirt on. Most of the girls were blonde with big boobs. Just as she turned to walk out, the friendly-looking girl from the photo approached her.

"Hey! Are you Suzi? From the dating site?"

She looked down, "That's me! Guess I didn't get the memo to dress casually."

"Screw that," the girl said. "I'm Pam. I'm Cade's friend. Well, actually, my boyfriend Curt is Cade's best friend. The guys are just washing up. You know- it's hot on the beach. They'll be here in a sec. C'mon!"

Suzi followed Pam through the crowd of impossibly beautiful beach people. The sweet smell of Coconut, blended with the sour stench of beer, and salt air.

"You want a drink?" She asked.

"Sure."

The two women were making small talk when a man walked up to Pam and kissed her. Suzi recognized the tattooed bicep from the background of Cade's profile picture.

"Hey, babe!" Said Pam. "This is Suzi. As in Cade's Suzi," she winked. "I'm sorrIt'sIts just that there are never decent normal girls on that site, and these jack-holes don't know how to judge a nice normal girl, so I chose a couple for Cade, and look at that," she said punching her boyfriend, "She's awesome. I did great, right?"

Suzi practically spat out her beer while laughing.

"To be honest," Suzi recovered. "I was only on there for like a day. My friends kind of did the same thing. Well, my sister actually. She said I needed to get out and meet people, or our mom will just keep trying to set me up. And no one wants that."

Curt looked down the bar, "And here he comes now."

====

Suzi took a deep breath and turned around. The handsome man in front of her was easily ten times better looking in person than the off-kilter desktop camera would have him seem."