Page 7 of Confessions of a Virgin on a Dating App
I was sold.
We’d stayed up until midnight texting each other. It was all superficial – we listed our favorite video games, movies, and TV shows, feeling each other out for compatibility.
His name was Tristan. He was a big Nintendo fan, since those were the only consoles his parents would allow him to own until he was a teen. His all-time favorites were Pokémon and Zelda, and he claimed to have played every game in both series. In addition to video games, he spent most of his college years as an MMA fighter until too many backaches forced him to quit.But he’s clearly still stayed in shape,I noticed, scrolling back to the picture of him on the beach.
When I asked aboutCreatures & Crypts TCG, he said he’d played a few times but would love to get more into it. He’d just never had anyone to go to a game shop with.
Maybe that could be me,I blushed, not daring to actually type those thoughts.
Maybe we could…
Ow!
I stumbled backward, realizing that I’d been completely lost in thought and not looking where I was going. I’d bumped into a man with shaggy jet-black hair and a similarly colored sweatshirt who was carrying several boxes full of inventory.
He turned around and smirked at me, and I frowned.
It was just Devin, the owner of Critical Games.
And I knew he was about to start teasing me.
“Hey, watch where you’re going, Avie,” he chuckled as he set the boxes on the counter next to the cash register. He rolled up the sleeves of his sweatshirt, revealing a silver chain-link bracelet and the intricate dragon tattoo that trailed up his entire arm.
I scowled. “Stop calling me that.”
He had started calling me Avie a few months ago, after discovering it was my parents’ pet name for me when I was a kid. I knew he meant no harm, but that nickname still stung five years later.
Because the only person who ever called me that, besides my parents, was Tyler.
“Why not? Nicknames are fun,” Devin shrugged, prying open the boxes and placing stacks of packagedCreatures & Crypts TCGcards on the counter. “You can call me Dev if you want.”
“That’s not equivalent. Avie is too childish. That would be like me calling you Devy.”
“You can call me that too.”
I huffed. “You’re a pain, you know that?”
“Same as always.”
When I first moved to Florida and met Devin, I found him insufferable. He was everything my parents had taught me to avoid – a pierced, heavily tattooed goth guy a decade older than me who was known for pressing people’s buttons. He teased me for years, but I eventually realized I was being too uptight and started playing along. Now he was more like an older brother – endearing and annoying at the same time.
But the worst part was that, upon catching a glimpse of my phone screen a few weeks ago, he had learned of my online dating adventures. And like any obnoxious older brother, he was eager to insert his opinion on thematter.
“Who’re you talking to this week?” he asked, leaning forward to see my phone screen. My shoulders stiffened—his face was annoyingly close to mine. He always seemed to have total disregard for my personal space.
“It’s—ugh, here, I’ll show you. Just don’t be creepy.”
I flipped the screen to Tristan’s profile and handed Devin my phone. He pursed his lips as he scrolled through the photos, eventually giving me a subtle nod.
“Not bad. Nice tattoo.”
I chuckled, “What do you have now, like, twenty?”
“Sixteen,” Devin grinned, pulling down the collar of his sweatshirt. A comet with a d20 for its nucleus sat in the center of his chest, just below his neck. I recognized it as part of Critical Games’ logo. “Got this one last week. Anyway, you signing up forCreatures TCGtonight?”
“Yup.”
Devin ushered me over to the register, where he charged me the $5 fee and stamped a point on my rewards card. And while he did so, my brain drifted elsewhere. Something about seeing Devin’s bare chest made me feel…weird. He was very pale, which fit his goth aesthetic, but he looked like he had some muscle under those baggy clothes. He was clearly fit, but since he lived in sweatshirts even in the hottest months, it was hard to tell.
