Swipe Right

After the whole party slash blind date with Chris was a dismal fail, Carly dropped me off at mine. She had asked to borrow one of my shoes, I am not big on swapping clothes like that. My mom was very against it, so I got into that habit. I offered to lend her one pair, she perused through my closet and asked for one of my favorite boots. She has a similar pair in tan, I guess, she thought she's grab her a pair in Black too. I refused. I didn't want her to use wear any of my shoes, now I gotta give her my favorite pair? NO! When we got at mine, she hugged me and was ready to head off. I didn't intend to see her again, so  I asked for my shoes back. She had conveniently forgotten all about them. I let her keep the socks. She was trying to return them anyway, she just took off the shoes and drove off. Whatever, bye Felicia! 

It was the wee hours of the morning already by then. I headed to bed. That morning, I decided to join the dating site Carly's friend recommended. I did so to prove Carly wrong. I told myself, I was going to join in for 24 hours, see what happens, which I already knew what was going to happen. I was going to meet a bunch of dickbags, and then delete my profile. I just wanted to prove her wrong. Even if it was just going to be in my head. That morning, I swiped right whenever I saw really cute guys. Guys who would probably not even date me. What did I care? I was only on there for 24 hours. My feelings weren't going to get hurt! 

After swiping to the right as much as possible and getting a few emails from guys I was not interested in, talking about, "Hey Sexy!" I headed to Malibu. It was the 4th of July. I had never been to Malibu, I decided to spend the day over there. I took the bus because I didn't want to deal with the nightmare of trying to find parking by the beach on the 4th of July weekend. I was on the bus for an hour or so, It was a nice commute along the Pacific Coast Highway. We passed Santa Monica beach, beautiful views on both sides of the road, you don't even know where to look! 

I had my tablet with me but there was no time to read, just sight seeing. I had also taken my headphones and iPod with me,so I listened to music. I saw something endearing on the bus that day, two teenage boys were sitting in the opposite row. An elderly person got on the bus, they got up, offered their seat to the elderly person and helped the person down and up when it was time to get off. It was the nicest thing.  Not even clean cut teenagers you would expect that from. Skater type boys. I loved it! 

I had a nice time in Malibu. I walked around, took pictures of everything. Asked people to take pictures of me, offered unwarranted advice to random strangers about getting the best out natural light: Face the sun, don't let it be behind you. Especially, if you're black, otherwise all people will see are teeth. 

I walked along the sand and wrote random stuff on the sand with rocks. It was past midnight in South Africa,making it the 5th already. My sister and my nephew's birthday. I wrote them a Happy Birthday wish on the sand and took a picture of it. It was a great time. At some point, I sat on the rocks and read a little. Day well spent for sure! 

I had something to eat that evening and took the bus back home. 

When we got to Santa Monica/Venice beach, a tall guy with green eyes and a bicycle got on.  His name was Calvin. He sat in front of me and started a conversation with me. He told me that he had been at work for 24 hours of so, he slept in the office blah blah blah. He's an accountant for a tour company in Santa Monica and lives in Culver City, which is about ten minutes from Beverly Hills. We chatted the entire time and just before he got off, he gave me his phone and asked for my number. That never happens to me, I was flattered! I gave him my number, he shook my hand, told me it was nice to meet me and headed off. 

I did that thing that I would sometimes do, to attract my ideal guy into my life when I got off the bus and sent a text to my old email address as if to send it to my man at home and said I was ten minutes away. Fireworks had already begun. That time last year, I was in Vegas. I remember accidentally locking myself out while out to watch the fireworks. 

That night, I was woken up by my phone ringing. It was midnight. I missed the call but realised the person had sent me a text as well. It was Calvin. He asked what I was up to. I told him I was asleep. He asked if he could come over. Yhm, what? No! We exchanged a few texts, then he called again. I picked up. He told me that he didn't have much time to text back and forth but wanted to find out if he could come hang out with me. I told him that I was asleep, wtf? Then his manager showed up, apparently he had been wanting a meeting with the manager for a while, he didn't want to miss that chance. This is at midnight on a Saturday, what kind of a meeting are we talking about here with your apartment manager? Anyway, he asked what I was doing the following day. I told him I wasn't sure yet. I returned the question, he told me that he was going to be having sex with me. I hung up and texted him to lose my number. He texted back that I lead him on, his feelings were hurt, how could I treat him like that blah blah blah. omg, I couldn't believe it! I told him to get some sleep, he clearly needed it!

It had been a nice and relaxed day, I love being by the ocean, it's so soothing. I sleep very well after being by the beach. I went to bed and checked my emails and stuff on the dating site and found lots of 'so and so would like to meet you's'. I would show interest as well but nothing would come of it. I didn't care, I wasn't invested. 

The following morning, as soon as I logged on, I got a notification, so and so sent you a message. I love messages! They are so much better than someone swiping right on my picture. It was this guy who looked Mexican but he said he was white, he had what looked like dark eyes, but his profile said he has blue. Basically, on paper, he may have been what I go for but in real life, who knows? His first email was a compliment about how unique I am. I thought that was a unique compliment. I didn't want to lead him more but I had to be polite, he didn't come across as a jerk. I think I had mentioned on my profile that I'm Just a girl from Africa. He asked me about South African food looks like, what are the staples etc. I replied. It was a different kind of conversation than any other I have had on a dating site. I wanted to log off but he kept asking questions. He seemed like a nice guy! 

The guy asked me what my interests are, I mentioned travel and exploring, and that I had spent the previous day in Malibu the previous day, it was my first time and that a week prior I was in San Fran. He told me that he loves the beach too, He goes surfing to Malibu a lot. I thought to myself, whoa, surfing! He might me more my kind of guy than I thought. I looked at his profile again, he had listed surfing, camping, bonsai-ing as some of his hobbies. I was like, this guy is interesting! We messaged back and forth for an hour before I really had to go because  I was meeting a friend that afternoon and I needed to go grocery shopping first. I thanked him for the nice chat, asked him what his name was and told him I had to go. His name was Calvin. What? Two Calvins in a space of 12 hours? It must be a sign! I told him mine, his response was, "Like a river, it suits your free flowing personality" UUhhhh! Nicest thing anyone has ever said about my name! I had to take a snapshot of that and send it to my fam's whatsapp group. They liked it to. Brook is my family name after all! 

I headed out, grocery shopping, dropped the car off, took the bus to my meet my friend at The Grove. It's right up the street, I didn't feel like paying for parking. It was nice to see my friend, we had been talking but I hadn't seen her in a very long time. We bought some junk food at KMArt then headed to the mall near my house with bargains, we window shopped there, I think she bought a top/blouse. I talked to her about the two Calvins I had had encountered in the past 24 hours. She is always rooting for me to find love or date her cousin, whichever comes first haha. I showed her pictures of the latest Calvin and was like, isn't this guy Latino, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against any race, I just like white boys, that's all. She told me that he looked white to her. She was like, 'keep an open mind, some people look better in person' Which is true, I believe that too. The guy seemed nice, I was open to talking to him again.

My friend and I headed back to my place, we hung out there and bonded while she was waiting for her husband, who is also a friend, to pick her up after work. He came by, we all hung out. It was nice. Until, we all heard a loud nice as the husband was getting comfortable on the couch. He was like, 'oops!' My friend and I looked at each other. I was hoping he was going to investigate what had happened because it sure sounded like he broke the couch to me. That didn't happen. After they left, I noticed that the couch was slanted. He broke it. I wish that situation had been treated differently. I thought of telling them about it but I didn't have the energy. They are my good friends. I love them, he didn't break the couch intentionally. I just wished he had tried to see what that was because I think if he had, he would have done something about it. He's not a useless guy at all. He probably would have fixed the couch himself. 

That night, I remembered that the dating profile was still there. Before I deleted it, I checked to see if Calvin was online. He wasn't. I messaged him that I was about to delete my profile. He messaged back, asking why. I told him that I wasn't trying to be on a dating site, I just did it to test something for 24 hours that's all. He asked if I was going to give him my number. I told him I would think about it if he asked for it. He then asked for it and I gave it to him. 

Q: Are you sure you want to permanently delete your profile?

A: Yes!