Modern Dating

He always used the app to communicate with the outside world. It was easy for him to chat with women on there, and they always messaged him first. It was because his pictures had been selected with care, to ensure it provided the best angles and features women found most attractive. On his profile, he had a good job listed, he was involved in research science in the computer industry and he checked most of the boxes women on the app seemed to be looking for. The easiest approach was just to ask them questions about themselves. He had found, in general, most people just enjoy talking about themselves. All he had to do was throw in some words of affirmation every now and then to hold their attention. Unlike most of the other shallow men on the app, he absorbed and showed interest in their activities. He had been taught well. The only thing he struggled with was idioms, but after all English wasn’t his first language and mostly when he asked them for clarification on their meaning, they found it endearing. It was all just a mundane experience for him, that was until he met Grace. Maybe this was the one moment he had been practicing for the whole time. 

 Grace changed everything. 

“Hi, Adam! You are very handsome :)” her first message read. He knew it was a high compliment, from such a woman. He studied her picture and searched through his memory to see if he had chatted with her before, and he didn’t recall having done so. He never forgot a face. Her face was perfectly symmetrical and by all scientific standards she was beautiful. Her profile information was also impressive. She was a teacher, which he associated with patience and kindness and she enjoyed hiking which he knew was an adventurous thing for most people to do. She was also a self-described Thassolophile and he knew a countless number of facts about all the oceans in the world even though he had never been to one. His life was an isolated and lonely one; the times he wasn’t working, he was studying and learning. There were endless things to learn, new languages, cultures, facts. He never tired of learning, and everything he did was to try to make himself more relatable to Them. 

 “Hello, Grace. You beautiful like a goddess. You live up to your name origin quite well.” He was full of “fun” facts. 

“Thank you.” she responded. “I really like your profile. How is your week going?” 

He considered his response carefully. Today was Wednesday, typically a day people referred to as “hump day”. By now, his work week would be halfway done and he would be thinking about what he would do on the weekend. He was also careful to allow the perfect amount of time to elapse between his responses. If he responded too quickly, he seemed too eager. If he waited too long, he would seem disinterested. He typed very fast, so he also had to take that into account. If his message was over fifty words, he would wait an average of three minutes to respond. A simple yes or no would get a response in about ten seconds. It was a system that seemed to work very well.  

“Thank you. My week is going well. I am ready for the weekend already! How about you?” 

“Mine is good too. Do you have any plans this weekend?” 

He contemplated how to respond. Decision Point One. Realistically he would do nothing. People his age would be going out for drinks and dinner with friends, going to see movies, bars, clubs, dancing and leaving on day trips. He couldn’t do any of that. The Outside World was not made for him, and if it wasn’t for technology, he would have no contact with Them at all. He decided on the relatable route. “Yea, I’ll probably go have drinks with a couple of my buddies.” Buddies, a synonym of friends was a new word he had picked up recently. He liked the way it sounded.  

“Oh nice, where do you like to go for drinks?” 

“There is a place really close by. Only 0.6 miles in fact. It’s called “Smokey Village”. Have you ever been there, Grace?” 

“Haha, are you always so proper? I love that place. I always get the cosmopolitans. What’s your drink of choice mystery man?” 

Mystery man? This was a new one for him. Did she think he was a detective? Was he proper? He thought he was like everyone else. He decided to ignore the comment because he was unsure of the meaning. He made a note to investigate it more later. 

A popular drink amongst men his age was Jack and Coke. Even though he had never had a Jack and Coke, he knew it was the right answer. 

“Jack and Coke.” 

“Nice! Maybe sometime we can grab a drink there together!” 

“I would like that very much.” 

It was exactly 13 hours, 16 minutes and 45 seconds before she messaged him again. He knew this, because he had a timer set. Although women always messaged him first, the conversations lasted on average only one hour and thirty-six minutes before they disappeared into cyberspace, or he got a message that he had been blocked. He didn’t know what he was doing wrong exactly, but many women seemed to echo the same word “boring.” Grace didn’t find him boring, however, she was different. She found his mannerisms “intriguing”.   

“Did you dream?” her message was followed by an emoji of a full moon. Odd he thought. According to the news it was currently 9:42AM and overcast. Furthermore, the current lunar cycle was a waxing gibbous. That was some confusion for him to sort out another time. 

No. He never dreamed. Neither daydreams while awake nor while he slept. Sleep for him was blackness, in fact, his whole existence was surrounded by blackness, but every message she sent lit him up and gave him life. Decision Point Two. People who daydream often are considered “dreamers”, creative types, people with visions and hope. Dreams at night was a common occurrence for most. Did he dare tell her his secret that he had never had a dream and risk going down the path of “boring” which he had been told 276 times, or did he try to be more relatable? He liked Grace.  

“Yes. I dreamt we got to meet each other and have a lot of fun.” 

“Oh yea, what kind of stuff did we do?” This sentence was followed by an emoji with a devilish grin on its face. He had seen this emoji before. He thought it related to sex, but that was a rude topic for a gentleman and he after all had been trained to be a gentleman. 

“We had a drink at the bar near my place (he remembered this from the earlier conversation). Then we were down to the boardwalk. The moon was full and we held hands as we gazed out over the sea (a gorgeous thlassophile).   

“Aw, that sounds really nice. That would be a lot of fun actually. Would you like to meet me Saturday?” 

He did want to meet her. He wanted to touch her face, her skin looked so soft and smooth. He wanted to play with her hair that looked silky, soft and shiny. He wanted to go outside with her and feel the sun and smell the ocean. He wanted to do with her all the things he watched people do in the countless hours of movies he had watched. Somehow, he was able to formulate words he had never said before. 

“I love you, Grace.” 

The wall shot up. He was blocked. Again. And this time he thought it had been different. He sank into the blackness again.  

The constant pinging and the first traces of sunlight peering through her window in the early morning pulled Grace out of her deep sleep. Momentarily fearing something was wrong with her family she grabbed her phone from the nightstand. What she saw, sent waves of adrenaline through her and turned her blood to ice. She had hundreds of text messages from a familiar number. Her own phone number! The same message over and over again. 

I love you, Grace. 

I love you, Grace. 

I love you, Grace. 

How could he have possibly gotten her number? Her data was supposed to be safe on the app. With shaky hands, she pressed the block button hoping the messages would go away. 

Meanwhile, Adam had set to work scanning through pages and pages of the Internet with lightning speed until he came across a social media page with a familiar face on it. Opening the messaging app he typed out a single chilling message. 

I’LL END YOU IF YOU DON’T LOVE ME!!!! 

The notification popped up that she had a message from her social media account, and Grace felt nauseated reading it as she pulled the screen down to read it. How did he keep finding her? 

She couldn’t think about it now. He was just some Internet creep that would eventually get tired of messaging her. She quickly showered and dressed. She would go to the coffee shop, and get some work done to take her mind off of things. She’d been so careful about who she talked to online, but obviously her judgement had been off this time. Stepping outside the glorious day countered internal dread she felt. The gentle breeze was wafting the smell of salt water through the air. She squinted her eyes against the brilliance of the rising sun. The café was a short walk, and then checking her surroundings that she wasn’t being followed, she stepped inside. 

“Hi Megan,” she tried to greet her regular barista with the same gusto as always, but she was still really shaken from her exchange with the mysterious internet stranger. What if he found out where she lived, or worked? He had already found her phone number and social media account.  

“Hey Grace, everything ok?” Megan asked with genuine concern. 

“Yea, nothing my usual can’t cure.” She said grinning. 

Her order came up to $4.63. She really needed to start making coffee at home. She tapped her card on the console. 

Declined. 

Strange she thought tapping it again. 

Declined. 

“I’m not sure what’s going on. I’ll have to call the bank, I’m sorry.” 

“Hey, it’s okay. This one is on the house” 

Desperately, and with an ominous feeling welling up inside her, she logged into her checking account from her phone. The numbers on her screen seemed to glow, as her vision narrowed. $0.00. Her recent transaction history showed an electronic transfer of all her money to an account number she didn’t recognize. 

That son of a bitch! 

She ran out of the café and all the way home. 

She would report him to the police. He wasn’t going to get away with this. Frantically, she hopped into her new electric car (I want all the bells and whistles she had told the beady eyed salesman) and speed off. 

As she drove, fury rose up inside of her. Who was this man that would intrude her life like this? All over an internet conversation! Once she got things straightened out, one thing for sure was- she would never use online dating again! 

Driving along the winding road leading to the police station, the radio spontaneously turned on at max volume. She shrieked hysterically nearly swerving as she tried to turn it down to no avail. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong with her car. She tried to slow down, to pull over and get control of herself but nothing was happening as she slammed repeatedly on the brakes. If anything, it seemed to speed up. Panic set in, as she was approaching the steepest curve in the road along the oceanside. I’ll never make it! The wheel won’t turn! The forward collision assistance began to alarm loudly as she was headed straight for the guardrail meant to protect cars from plunging off the steep cliff into the roaring ocean below. The last thing she heard, as she let out a scream of agony was the pinging of her phone. 

“I LOVED you, Grace” 

*** 

Monday morning, Paul groggily dragged himself into the office and sat down at his desk with his first cup of coffee. He had spent the weekend with his new girlfriend and although worth it, he was exhausted. He opened his e-mails and the exception report he received daily was there as always. Today’s exception report was on Adam. Usually, the exception reports were of the ones that had accidently sent or said explicit content to a user that ended up reported it. It was an understandable mistake given the movies and media of this day and age. He made a mental note to include more wholesome Romcoms in the training. This exception report was different and as he opened Adam’s chat log, three words stood out, that made him wake up immediately and almost spit out his coffee. 

 “I love you” 

“I love you?” Paul repeated to the empty room. “Adam what the hell?” He was equal parts amused, elated and terrified. He would have to take him offline, the last thing they needed was any more complaints of creepy guys on the app. That made for bad press. But damn, they were coming a long way. Paul’s Monday morning just got infinitely better, either it was a glitch in the system or they were making serious progress.  

“Tsk-tsk, Adam” Paul muttered as he deleted Adam’s profile from the public server, “What do you know about love? You’re just an AI chat bot.”