A Real Story

I’d had Hinge for maybe three weeks and my prompts were embarrassing. For ‘Two truths and a lie’ I wrote: I’ve killed four basil plants this year, I once cried at a Chipotle commercial, and I can parallel park a 15-foot U-Haul. Nothing clever, just true. Danielle commented on the basil one specifically, asking if I’d considered that maybe the problem was me and not the plants, which felt aggressive for a stranger on the internet but also correct.

We met at a coffee shop near Logan Square on a Tuesday morning because neither of us wanted the pressure of a dinner date. She showed up with a real live basil plant in a paper bag, said it was a loaner, and that she wanted updates. I sent her three photos over the next two months documenting the plant’s slow, dramatic decline. She never once let me forget it.

What actually got me was that she didn’t do the thing everyone warns you about on these apps, where the profile is a highlight reel and the person shows up smaller in real life. She was exactly as sharp in person, maybe sharper, and she asked follow-up questions about the U-Haul thing three dates in, which meant she’d actually read my profile instead of just swiping.

The basil died in week five, obviously. She’s currently pretending to be annoyed about buying me a second one, six months in.