Covid Diaries: Love in the time of Covid

Day 16 - Morning Jog Part 2

Tanya hated online dating. She was recently divorced and had a 2 year old daughter, Emily, from her first marriage. Her friend, Linda had convinced her to create a profile and she had finally given in. It was increasingly difficult to meet people as technology had changed methods of communication. People were more likely to text than call, send countless messages before making the effort to meet in person.

"Where do people meet?", she'd ask her friend. 

 "Online!" was the usual answer from Linda.

Linda helped Tanya create a profile. How do you sum up yourself through a series of questions and a few photos? Keeping an open mind, Tanya uploaded her photos, deciding on the ones that highlighted her features best and showed her personality. She kept her daughter private from her dating life.

Most of the online matches she got were discarded pretty quickly by Tanya. She didn't' know who exactly she was looking for but she had a particular man in mind. She hadn't given up hope in meeting someone in person. She tried to attend social events in the city, according to her friend "being out there" was also critical to meeting someone. She didn't see how the guys getting drunk at sports bars would come up and chat with girls but she kept an open mind. What did she know about dating really? She left it to Linda who was in a long-term relationship and never had challenges in the dating world. She moved from guy to guy pretty quickly.

When Covid-19 quarantine restrictions were put in place, Tanya resorted to spending most of her time indoors. She decided to move in with her dad to take care of him. Emily loved spending time with her grandpa. With grandpa taking care of her daughter, this left Tanya to focus on her work during the day.

To stay sane, she went for regular walks in her new neighborhood. That Saturday morning, her daughter was distracted by a dog nearby and started to run after it. Chasing Emily down the street, she briefly lost sight of her as she turned the street corner. Running faster, she caught up and ran into a young man chatting with Emily. Gasping for breath, Tanya grabbed Emily's hand.

"Oh, Thank goodness you found her!", she exclaimed.

The young man introduced himself as Kyle. He turned out to be her dad's neighbor and invited her over for a barbecue dinner that evening. Tanya tried to hold back her excitement and thought about saying yes. She decided she needed to be cautious with Covid and politely declined but did let him know she'd accept at a later time.

As Kyle resumed his jog, she watched him run away from her. She felt butterflies in her stomach, it was a long time since she'd felt this way about a man. Kyle had a warm personality, dark eyes and black wavy hair. He was a few inches taller than her.

"The perfect height", she thought. Something told her, this was just the beginning.

"Let's go home darling", she said to her daughter and led the way home.