On 2/22/22 I went on Hinge and looked over my latest matches. Not to brag, but there was never a shortage. There was one guy, Matt, that stood out to me because he didn’t like or comment on one of my pictures but instead on one of my comments. The prompt was: something you should know about me is…my response was, “I quote movies and tv shows all the time.” He had commented on that and asked me what my favorite movie quote was. I said, “in your best Scottish accent…’head, pants, now!” And he responded with another line from the movie. I could not believe that he knew the movie! If I’m being honest, it was kind of a test. I went back to his profile and gave it a closer look. I found him to be attractive and I also really liked his answers. There was one answer in particular that I really liked. The prompt was, My ideal date from home: His response was, Grill outside. If it’s summer, have drinks in the pool. If it isn’t pool weather yet, binge a show or movie, this includes snuggling and foot rubs. That was it…I was sold. We started chatting that night and had a really great conversation. He had asked me what I had learned doing online dating. I told him that if a dude doesn’t ask me out within the first few conversations then I know he won’t ever. His next message was, “wanna go out on Saturday night? He was a quick study! We continued chatting the following day and again had a great conversation. The third day he was driving from Salt Lake City to Phoenix so we couldn’t chat much. Throughout the day I found myself having this weird feeling of missing him, which I found very strange because I had only been chatting with him for a few days and we had never actually met in person. But for some reason I felt like I had known him for longer and that I was missing having him to talk to. When he got home he texted me to tell me he got home safe and told me that it was so strange because he felt like he missed me when he couldn’t chat with me and I told him I felt the same way. On the fourth day, Friday he asked if we could facetime. I told Mavity that I thought that was weird. And she said, “mom, it’s actually great because then you can see if he is really who he says he is.” Leave it to my daughter to be more online savvy than me. So on Friday night we facetimed with each other. I was so nervous! But the conversation went great and it was nice to see that he was a real person.

We had planned to meet up that Saturday night and I was so nervous about meeting him. I’m usually pretty nervous on a first date but this felt extra for some reason. I think because it had been going so well that I was afraid it wouldn’t be as good in person. I pulled up to the bar and could hardly bring myself to walk in. I finally got up the courage and walked in, I saw him wave to me and I walked over. Matt says that when I walked into the bar his thoughts were, oh shit, I’m in trouble. She is gorgeous, I need this woman in my life. He says there was just something about me that made him think that I was something special. For me, well, I don’t even remember how I greeted him, let alone what I was thinking. I sat down at the bar and the bartender asked me what I wanted to drink. I ordered water. I know now that when I ordered a water Matt’s thought was, “well, she isn’t interested.”

I brought up the fact that he knew the obscure movie that I quoted when we first started chatting and that I was impressed. We started talking about movies we like and then he asked me what my favorite tv show was growing up. Up until this point it really just felt like he was saying all the right things. I thought maybe he was a liar and just was saying he liked things that I liked. So when I answered his question I did it a bit differently to test him. My response to his question was, “what came on after McGyver?” His jaw dropped and said, “Quantum Leap!” He was right. I told him that was my favorite tv show by far. He said it was his too. Then he joked and said, “if this works out, when people ask me when I knew you were the one, I will say that I knew at Quantum Leap.” The rest of the night was amazing. We ended up dancing the night away in my kitchen. I could feel that he was special but I also totally thought I was crazy.

A few days went by and we continued to talk and text constantly. I could feel sparks flying every time I thought about him. He says he felt the same way. He was leaving to go out of town that coming Sunday and he said he really wanted to see me before he left. He came over on Saturday, March 5th, 1 week after our first date. I was really nervous for him to come over because this was my first time seeing him since our first date and again I was worried that this was just good over text and that in person it wouldn’t be as good. He texted me when he got there so I could unlock the gate. I walked outside and saw him and all my nerves just disappeared. It just felt so right! I ran to him and hugged him. We sat, snuggled up, on my couch and just talked and stared into each other's eyes. I could get lost in his beautiful blue eyes. For some reason I was telling him how much I love my feet, I think they are so pretty and that they are my favorite part of my body. I said, “I guess I’m just a weirdo.” Then he said, “do you want to be my weirdo?” I about melted! Did he just ask me to be his girlfriend?! I said yes, of course. Then we danced in my kitchen to one of my favorite songs, “You Should Probably Leave” by Chris Stapleton. And suddenly all of the love songs were about him.

Over the next several weeks we continued to talk everyday. Most nights until 2am. Since we both have kids we were only getting to see each other 2 days a week, if that. I could feel myself falling for him more and more as the days went on. It was crazy to me how quickly and strongly my feelings grew for him. I had NEVER felt this way before in my entire life. I started to feel like I was falling in love with him. But how could that be, it had only been 7 weeks. I started to freak out thinking that maybe he didn’t feel the same way as me. It felt like he did but what if he didn’t? One night we were listening to a song about telling someone you love them for the very first time. I wanted so badly to tell him how I felt, but didn’t want to say it first, so the song was my hint. To which he replied, I feel so damaged from my previous relationship, I don’t know if I’ll ever tell anyone that I love them again. I turned the song off and thought, “well I guess I read that wrong.”

Easter was coming up and both of us were kid free so we decided to spend the day together. I bought stuff for Bloody Mary’s and appetizers. We were sitting on the couch enjoying our bloody mary’s and snacks. I looked at him and said, “damn we do Sundays good. I don’t think it can get any better than this.” He looked at me and said, “I love you.” I screamed with shock. I couldn’t believe it, he did feel the same way as me! Then he said, “did I make the day better?” I was beaming from ear to ear. I asked him to say it again. So he did and then I responded, “I love YOU!” Was this real life? Did I really meet the love of my life on a dating app? Did we really fall in love in 7 weeks? How was this possible?

On Matt’s dating profile he answered the prompt: Change my mind about…to which he said “Dating apps. I feel like you don’t really know what you may be missing just swiping through. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only option now.” So I guess you could say that I really did change his mind about dating apps.