As You Wish

Curiosity

Greetings...

That one word subject line popped up on my notifications from the app and captured my attention immediately.

No one who's contacted me so far in just the short amount of time I've had the dating profile has messaged me so cordially. So... politely. Instantly, I was intrigued. I opened the app, located the messages button and pressed it, waiting for my phone to update quickly.

Just glancing at the paragraph of the message gave me a feeling of a genuine person sent it.

Greetings,
My name is Luka. You are Hozierdaddy? Or is that a cover? It's pretty clever and I like it. I live and am from Russia but I have visited the states quite a few times before, but never New York. Maybe next time I am in the states, I will have to come see. Please, tell me about yourself? I'd like very much to be friends.
Yours, Luka.

I was so startled from the start of a real question, no dick pics, no lewd jokes about sex or my body. But what also startled me, he's from Russia? How could I meet someone from another country?

I exited the app quickly, pulling up my text messages and went to my last conversation with Liz.

Hey, how can someone send me messages from another country?

I waited for her response, the little blue bubble of her iPhone quickly typing out a response for me.

Huh?

I respond back just as fast.

I just got a message from a guy who's from Russia. How is that possible?

More waiting as she types out her text back.

Go to your settings, you might have your distance set to worldwide or some shit. You can change it to people in the city or even anywhere in the states. 

I read her answer and then went back to the dating app, finding the settings and saw what she meant. Somehow when I set up this profile, I failed to pay attention to the parameter of potential matches. And there it was, right in my face; distance from me, and I put anywhere.

My finger hovered over the change button, ready to shorten the distance of people I'm willing to talk to but something made me pause.

I thought about Luka's message again. How polite and serious he seemed. Not at all like the horny, sex hungry man-babies  that I'm more used to here in the states. I don't owe this stranger anything but yet, I felt like it couldn't possibly hurt to respond. He's thousands of miles away, oceans from me, continents stand between us.

What's the worst that can happen? It's not like he could just show up if I get bored and block him.

Ignoring the setting I was just about to change, I went back to my messages, opening up Luka's and spending the next few minutes trying to figure out how to respond.

Finally, I just typed out the first thing to come to mind.

Hi, Luka. It's nice to meet you. Sorry to disappoint, Hozierdaddy is just kinda a joke name I came up with so people don't know my real name. Is Luka your real name? I like it as well. ☺️ Russia huh? I've actually never left the states but if I could afford to travel, I think Russia would be one place I might like to visit 🙂 If you live practically your whole life in New York like me, you tend to see everything so there's nothing really left to surprise you. But, you wanna know me and be friends? Please, ask me anything and I'd like to ask you the same. 😁Btw, thank you for not coming off as a creep. Can't tell you how much I appreciate the genuine start of a conversation.
Hopefully your new friend, Hozierdaddy 😉