Hinge & Shitty Pontiacs

On September 16th, 2023, the narrator goes on a first date with someone they met on a dating app. The narrator arrives early and waits in their car, calling their friend for support. The date arrives, both are nervous but impressed with each other's appearance. They go to Dave and Buster's, have drinks at the bar, and play arcade basketball. The narrator loses every time but tries to play it cool. Afterward, they discover they both have "shitty" Pontiac cars, which they find amusing. The date ends with the narrator receiving flowers and feeling positive about the future. They call their friend to share their excitement. Despite the date being late, they decide to give it a chance, and it leads to them hanging out every day since. The matching cars were a sign and everything worked out. The day. September 16th, 2023. A Saturday. It was cold that evening. I remember forgetting my jacket and regretting it. It was raining just enough to ruin the hair that I spent an hour doing. The time? Around 7 p.m. The place? Dave and Buster's. A great location for a first date told from two different perspectives. Let me set the scene for you. I pull up. Early as always, at our desired meeting time, in my little shitty Pontiac, to whom I have loved since I was 18. As I am waiting for a text or some type of acknowledgment, I call my best friend. I showed up to the date about 20 minutes early, maybe 15 just to be safe. I remember having difficulty finding parking at first. We set the date, I believe, around 8.30, 9 o'clock or something like that. And I just remember the parking lot being absolutely full. It was, I believe it was a Thursday, actually. So a lot of people probably were drinking. As I sit, waiting in my car, about 15 minutes goes by. I call my friend back from the initial call, to which she immediately hung up because I was being too, you know. She answered this time, to which responding, did this motherfucker not show up yet? To which I respond, I should just leave, shouldn't I? Then, I see a car pull up. It was him. And I remember seeing Nina come down the stretch of road right before the parking lot I was parked in. And she was like looking over the wheel, like I could just tell like, she was running a little late, she was nervous. And I just looked at her. I was like, wow, I can't believe that's what she looked like. Like I wasn't being catfished, first of all, to be fair. You thought I was a catfish? That's my story. Yeah, I know. Go on. And as soon as I saw her, I'm like, just like, wow, like I was genuinely just taken aback of how great she looked. And so I didn't want to make it as awkward as possible, but I ended up walking towards her car before she got out. And like, I was thinking in my head, what's the first thing I'm going to say without sounding like a complete creep? And it was just something that came, it was just like hi or hello or something, nothing too extreme. And I could tell her like she was a little stressed too because of running late and kind of like the same thing where I was coming from. Like, what am I going to expect here on this first date? After seeing him come in to the parking lot that we were in, I waited in my car for a little bit and then told him where I was so he could come and get me. He walked over to my car, we talked a little bit, then we went into Dave and Buster's. Yeah, it was like a little catch up. We hugged each other, I believe, and we ended up going into Dave and Buster's. And I remember sitting down with her at the bar at first and ordering in old fashion. And she wasn't sure what an old fashion was, so I was trying to describe what it is. And at the same time, hearing the waitress basically double down and ask, are you sure you want this drink? With me responding something along the lines of, yes, I'm an accounting major. And no more questions were asked after that. As we stepped into Dave and Buster's, we take a seat at the bar. He asked me what I wanted, to which I responded, a vodka crème, a typical girl answer. He wanted something called an old fashion. I'd never heard of that before. As the bartender handed him his drink, I took a little sip of it. For those who aren't familiar with old fashions, the closest thing that I could compare it to is what I imagined gasoline to taste like. Gross. Now, initially, off of the Hinge site, she actually put in a MyDM, essentially. She matched with me and she wrote the first message, something to the effect of she beat me at, what's the game called? Basketball? Arcade basketball. And that was not ever going to happen. But I played it up a little bit, and I gotta be humble. And we ended up finally making our way over there, and she got destroyed every time, and she was such a good sport about it. After having a couple of drinks and a couple conversations, we made our way over to the arcade basketball station. On the dating app we met on, we both reminisced about how we could beat each other. It was one of the prompts on his profile. I wanted to show him up. We made our way over there, and I lost every time. I tried to play it cool, though. You have to in these types of situations. One of the other things that really stood out to me, which was kind of funny and ironic, was by the time we were leaving David Buster's, it would have been going on 11, 11.30, and the parking lot really started clearing out, and we were two of the only couple cars left. Ironically, I remember telling her how bad and crappy my car was, and I was trying to describe it with the intent of just how bad it is. I just remember, as soon as I said what the make of the car was, being a Pontiac, she kind of just jumped right in the middle of me finishing my spiel with my car. She was like, hold my beer. I also have a shitty Pontiac. She said, guess the name of the Pontiac. At that point, I understood she was a Yankees fan. I didn't know to what degree, but at the time she said, take a wild guess. I was naming a couple various Yankees names, and the name of her car is DD, to match former Yankees shortstop, DD Gregorius. So I had the Legend, which was super cool, and just another notch or belt of the things I liked about her from the first date, and I knew that things were looking great from that point on. As the night starts to wind down a little bit, we leave Dave and Buster's and head towards the parking lot. Mike goes on a tangent about how his car is super shitty, but I have to see it because he's brought something for me. The night has winded down a little bit, and there's not that many cars left in the parking lot. I'm trying to narrow out which one is his. He exclaims that it's that one, and points to a little shitty Pontiac that looks just like mine. When he points, I yell, you have a shitty Pontiac too? In a loving way, of course. I go on a tangent about how my car is named DD, after New York Yankees shortstop legend, DD Gregorius. He thinks that it's cool. We walk over to his car. He hands me some flowers. I really liked him. We said our goodbyes, and I got into my car, he got into his. As I'm leaving, I immediately call my best friend back. From the beginning, if you recall, she thinks he's a motherfucker. I recollect on the date, tell her about how great he was and that I'm going to marry him, and she very haphazardly says, don't get too over your head. Best friends always have to ground you like that. It works out, though. I think we hung out every day the rest of that week, and we really haven't stopped hanging out since. I think the thing that put the nail in the coffin was our little matching shitty Pontiacs. Life has a funny way of throwing signs at you. And it all works out. This is me coming back in in the edit. As you can see, there's no music. Just wanted to go in and say that this motherfucker was not early. Okay? This dude was late. This dude was like 20 minutes late. Okay? That's a long time to be late. I should have left his ass. But, you know, I didn't, and it worked out, and sometimes you gotta see it through. And that's where I'm gonna end it. Sometimes you gotta see it through. Okay? Peace.