To meet up or not to meet up?

“Hey Meelah, hope you’re doing well. It's Alex’s uncle, Ethan.” the text reads.

“I know that this might seem unexpected, but I've been thinking about you lately and I wanted to reach out,” he continues.

“you’re an incredible person, and I always thought you deserved better than my nephew so, would you love to grab a coffee and catch up sometime?” Melanie’s eyes widen as she reads the message from Alex’s uncle. She couldn’t believe he would reach out to her like that.

Although Ethan Sinclair’s message seems friendly and casual, but Melanie can't help but feel that it sounds slightly flirtatious.

Melanie feels a mix of emotions: surprise, discomfort, and a hint of fear and even though Ethan is being respectful by acknowledging the past relationship but he is also showing interest in getting to know Melanie, she doesn’t know how to respond or even if she wants to.

Trying to shake off the uneasy feeling, Melanie decides to focus on something else. She suddenly remembers the dating site login details that Kalinin had left her earlier.

She can’t afford to think about either Alex or his uncle so she decides to focus on meeting new people and completely moving on from her past or anything related to her past and the mix of negative emotions that she is feeling is replaced by a sense of excitement and possibility but just as she was getting to it, her phone buzzes again.

Another message from Ethan reads “Hi, you haven’t replied,” and her heart skips a beat because she is shocked and perplexed.

She doesn't want to deal with the issue at that moment so she puts her phone on DND {DO NOT DISTURB} and starts to navigate the dating site. She is determined to find a distraction from the unexpected turn of events.

As Meelah goes through the dating site, her heart races with a mix of excitement and nerves, she has never tried online dating before.

“You need to put yourself out there, Mel.”Kalinin’s words echo in her mind.

She creates touches up on the profile that Kalinin created for her, uploads a photo, and writes a brief bio. Then, she moves on to the preferences section. She hesitated for a while before selecting her criteria: his age should be within the range of 25-35 years old. His Location must be Orion and his interests has to be along the lines of art, music, hiking, and reading. Lastly, for personality traits, she selects kind, funny, adventurous, and genuine.

She clicks “search” and waits for the app to load then a few seconds later, a list of profiles appears on her screen and Melanie scrolls through, her eyes scanning the photos and the bios.

That is when she sees Caleb Wellington and she clicks on his profile picture to check if he is her spec or not and His profile picture shows a handsome young man with Amber-colored eyes.

“Artist by day, Musician by night. Always up for an adventure, looking for someone who shares my passions and sense of humor.” his bio read.

Melanie’s heart skips a beat because there is just something about Caleb’s profile that drew her in and she felt a spark of curiosity and interest in him so she clicks on his profile to learn more about him and the site shows her a full-screen photo of Caleb but the photo is quite vague and it made her wonder what it would be like to meet him in person.

As Melanie is viewing Caleb’s profile, he happens to be online and he notices that someone is currently viewing his profile and he sends a message.

“Hey, Caught you checking me out” he sends and Melanie’s heart skips a beat as she sees the message pop up on her screen, She feels a mix of surprise and excitement.

“Guilty as charged,” she replies, trying to play it cool.

“Do you want to come check out my club tonight? You seem like a cool person and I’d love to meet you in person.” He sends and Melanie scoffs.

“You don't even know if I am a ritualist but you want to meet up with me, just like that?” Melanie asks him because she is not comfortable with the idea of meeting a random stranger that she has not been in contact with for a while.

Melanie hesitates for a moment, unsure if she should meet up with someone she had just matched with online but there is just something about Caleb’s profile and the confidence that he radiates that makes her feel drawn to him.

“You look too beautiful and innocent to be a ritualist,” Caleb defends

“Do you ask all the girls that you have matched with on this app, two minutes after you chatted them up that you wanted to meet up with them?” Melanie sends to him, genuinely interested.

“No😂” he replies with a smiley emoji.

“You are the first girl that I am speaking to on this app and the only reason why I am on this dating app is because my best friend dared me, and we kinda had a bet that I was going to spend a week on this app without being able to match with someone that matches my vibe and ask her out” he explains.

“So where do I come in?” Melanie asks him.

“Your bio matches the vibe of what I am looking for in a lady and I don't like chatting, I prefer having face-to-face conversations,” he explains to Melanie.

“Wow,” she sends to him, conveying her sense of astonishment.

“So….are you down for the meetup?” he asks her again and she pauses for a long time, trying to make her decision.