Chapter Three
Destiny had six messages waiting for her when she logged on. One, she immediately deleted. The guy wasn’t very attractive and his message was awful. Though she was by no means a grammar snob, she had her limits, and this guy crossed them with, “i climb, riding, and shooting guns. I have bike, degree, house. i was hoping we could be good friends. maybe i take you for ride sometime.” The message barely made sense and she wondered exactly what sort of degree didn’t require someone to use proper punctuation.
The next one was better. He could at least use the English language well and while he wasn’t a knockout, he was cute enough. He said, “Hey there! Looks like we have some things in common. Would you be interested in chatting and seeing where it takes us?” Simple and to the point. She read his profile. He had listed motorcycles and knife throwing with his hobbies. The idea of throwing knives both intrigued and scared her. Perfect.
She wrote back, “Knife throwing, huh? Sounds dangerous. I like it ;)” She read her response a few times. Was it long enough? She hit send with an uneasy feeling. This was all new to her. What was the protocol for these sorts of things? Were there “rules” like there were in the dating world? Like not sleeping with someone until the third date. Did you not give out your number until the third message? How did any of this work?
With a sigh, she went onto the next message. Whoa. This guy was hot. She held her breath and clicked to open his message, but quickly breathed a sigh of relief. Even if his username was a bit cheesy, makeUpurrr left a good message: “Hiya. Love your pics and profile. I’d love to take you for a ride on my bike sometime. What kind of weapons are you into?” He’d asked her a question, obviously read her profile and wasn’t creepy. This could be her perfect man.
She responded back eagerly. “Love your profile, too, cutey! A motorcycle ride sounds perfect. I don’t own any weapons yet, but I’d love to learn more about guns and knives. Do you shoot?”
She felt good about this one. He was smoking hot. His thick muscles and deep brown hair cut short were the perfect backdrop for his glowing green eyes and chiseled jaw. One of his profile photos showed him on his bike and the image alone turned her on. Maybe this online thing would work out after all.
She was thinking that maybe she shouldn’t even bother with the other messages since makeUpurrr sounded so good, but then she saw a glimpse of the photo of another man who messaged her. He was just as yummy as makeUpurrr. She clicked on his message: “Hiya. First messages are always so awkward, so I’ll just say hey. If you look at my profile and like what you see, message me back and we can get to know each other.” She smiled at the simple message and clicked on his profile.
Every one of wildman28’s photos showed him smiling. He looked so happy, she wondered if he had any bad boy in him. Maybe he ended up on this site by accident. His hobbies included fighting and painting. The painting made sense. He seemed peaceful enough to stand in front of an easel for hours making art. But fighting? Obviously, she couldn’t tell by the photos alone, but he looked too much like a pacifist to be a serious fighter. But his message had been nice and he was so cute, she couldn’t pass up the chance to at least message him once or twice.
As she was typing a response, a message popped up in the instant chat window. She didn’t even know what it was at first, but then she saw that rider9843 had said to her: “Hey, I sent you a message.”
Destiny hadn’t gotten to read it yet. “Thanks!”
“Is that all you have to say?”
She frowned. What was the deal with this guy? “Well, I haven’t read your message yet.”
“Why not?”
She took in a sharp breath and clenched her teeth. “Because I’m answering other messages.”
“Oh, I see. I’m not good enough for you or what?”
Okay, this was enough. “With that attitude, nope. Goodbye!”
She deleted his waiting message without reading it and clicked to close the chat window. But before she could even get to the next message, the window popped back up.
Rider9843 had said simply, “Bitch.”
Then, under his username, it said: “This user has blocked you.”
She blinked at the screen in shock. What in the world? She scrolled back up to read through the chat. What had she done to deserve that? He was rude from the start. She wasn’t going to let him get away with that. Well, good riddance to him. Guess if you want to play with bad boys, there’s always the chance they actually are the jerk they often pretend to be.
She read the next message, but she was so distracted, she couldn’t focus. She closed her computer and went into the kitchen to wash the one dish sitting in the sink. It wasn’t enough. She went into the bathroom and started scrubbing the floor, trying not to replay that awful chat in her mind.
Did this sort of thing happen all the time with online dating sites? If that was the case, she didn’t need it. Better to stay single than to deal with this sort of ridiculous, uncalled for belligerence. Her phone buzzed a few times with notifications from the site, but she ignored them.
When the bathroom was clean, she dressed for bed and brushed her teeth in her shining bathroom. Then she climbed into bed to read after putting her phone on “Do not disturb.” Maybe tomorrow she’d just delete her profile and be done with it.