The Mysterious Tinder Girl

Lockdown

It was a warm day in Caracas, Manuel had just made a fresh brew of his favorite coffee as he picked up his phone to check the news and browse his favorite apps before returning to his desk. He worked from home; he was one of the lucky ones whose job wasn't affected by the Corona Virus pandemic.

He worked on finance, and in spite of the current economic ups and downs of the country, he could manage a decent life. Like many of his age, Manuel was spending most of his time on social media, meeting new people, and making new friends.

Since the pandemic began, the majority of people had to recluse to their homes; strict mandatory curfews and quarantines were placed in order to avoid further contamination and infections brought by Covid-19, and Manuel was no exception.

As his labors of the day were coming to an end, he was looking forward to a night of exercising, watching movies, and having an all-relaxed night in with no plans. For many, this sounds like a lonesome way of life, but for a majority of people, it wasn't any other choice due to the curfews and the growing fear of the virus.

For weeks, months, people were getting used to having the virus in their lives and learning to coexist with it either by social distancing, masks, and basic sanitary procedures either at home or on the go. The local government had started to implement 7x7 quarantine rules, which meant that some businesses and shops could open for a small period of time and then going into lockdown once again.

For Manuel this represented a bit of freedom, he could go out and see his friends and family once again, all while being safe and cautious. He wasn't as paranoid as many in his circle but he had respect for the current situation of the country and the world we're living in currently.

One day, Manuel attended a small gathering with his friends. It was pretty cozy, 5 people making food and drinking beer at an apartment of a friend of his that was relatively close to where he lived, so he went walking.

At the gathering, one of his friends was retelling his experience with a popular dating app. Intrigued, Manuel had the utmost curiosity in what his friend was saying and how it was easy for him, an average-looking individual as he pointed out could date beautiful women. His interest only gained more notion, as he hasn't dated or being romantically involved for a long time, even before the pandemic. His last relationship lasted for a couple of years before it abruptly ended. They went their separate ways on good terms, but since then he hasn't tried dating seriously and it started to emotionally and mentally weigh in on him.

That same evening, on his return home, Manuel walked to his building thinking about what his friend said and how it was a great alternative to regular dating. As he opened his apartment door and prepped for the night, he left the app downloading before shutting his eyes.

The next morning, while he was at his daily routine; he settled his profile as best he could but he was more preoccupied with his responsibilities of the day. The day went on as it usually goes for Manuel, nothing out of the ordinary to make his activities any different from the day before.

At night, while he was having dinner and watching a popular Netflix show, Manuel received a message from one of his friends. The very excited acquaintance sent a voice chat to Manuel detailing how he just came back from a very lustrous date with a stranger he met on the app and how he planned to see her again. Manuel then opens a picture of the woman his friend was dating and to his surprise, the woman was a beautiful brunette with characteristics that were "out of his league" as his friend placed it.

As the conversation then turned into mundane and basic topics between the two, Manuel's curiosity got the better of him, as he changed apps to see if his friend's luck could be bestowed upon him. As he started to get the hang of the app's mechanics, he started to swipe a number of potential women he found attractive but with no hope of actually getting into a date with one, scoffing at the idea that he wouldn't take it very seriously.

Though he was paying no mind to the app, he got somewhat frustrated he couldn't get any messages or matches with any of the women he swiped; finding it too childish of him; he simply placed a mindset not to give it any thought and carry on with his life as usual.

The weeks have gone by, the climate was getting colder. It was that time of the year where the country was plagued by random rainstorms and high winds. For some of the residents in Manuel's local area, this meant lots of power outages and loss of internet connections or basic mobile networks. He was no exception to this norm; most of his nights or even during the daytime were interrupted either by a transforming blowing up or a random power line failure.

One of these nights he was sitting in darkness, waiting for the power to come back whilst he was browsing his phone and chatting with his friends who also suffered the same power outages. While changing between chats and conversations, curiosity got the better of him, and started once again dwelling on the infamous dating app. As he swiped once again on the pictures of the girls he liked he was starting to get bored rather quickly. Losing all hope he began to sway his attention to other sorts of interest.

As the hours pass, and slowly falling asleep he notices his phone started to vibrate; having nothing to do at that moment he reaches over to the counter to check the notifications. To his surprise, the app has shown him that he has made a match and someone wanted to message him.

He opened the app and to his shock, there was this beautiful brunette named Sandra who wanted to talk to him.

They quickly hit it off and the two of them were arranging to meet, and just like that Manuel has agreed to go on his first blind date. Ecstatic, he messaged his friends in excitement, of which most of them were happy for him while some were skeptical of the whole online dating and actually warning Manuel of the dangers of online dating.

Not giving into paranoia and dismissing such claims of some of his friends as overreacting, but when all is said and done, he went through with it anyways. After exchanging information and planning what they would do and how was the day going to play out, there was one detail that had him hesitate for a bit and that was that she could only be available during the night, due to her long work schedules that have most of her day occupied.

For a brief moment, this sounded like a red flag for Manuel, but as someone who spends most of his days behind a laptop he started to understand the girl's request; he knew very well what is like to have an entire day filled with work-related activities and very little time to enjoy other distractions. He finally agreed and like an overjoyed teenager, he couldn't stop smiling at the fact that he would go on a date a couple of days from now with a very attractive woman.

The days pass, and it has been obvious that both have been messaging none stop trying to make small talk to get to know each other at a basic level; Manuel while browsing Twitter during his break notices a couple of threads that speak of people disappearing under mysterious circumstances during long hours of the night in various parts of Caracas, but this type of news wasn't new at all to Manuel; making it as something that has become rather common in the country to a point that it becomes part of living in such an agitated city at this particular period in Venezuelan history.

Finally, the big day arrived...